Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Illicit tobacco

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:29): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that:

(a) since March 2023 there has been over 30 tobacconists firebombed in what Victoria Police Lunar Taskforce investigators believe is a result of criminal syndicates in conflict due to competition for profit derived from the illicit tobacco market;

(b) Australian Border Force deputy commissioner Tim Fitzgerald recently stated that ‘We can confidently say organised crime are involved in the illicit vape market’;

(c) in October 2021 the Minister for Regulatory Reform, the Honourable Danny Pearson MP, requested that the commissioner for better regulation conduct a review and provide advice on Victoria’s approach to illicit tobacco regulation;

(d) in March 2023 the Herald Sun reported that the government had received the report from Better Regulation Victoria, which recommended a licensing scheme for tobacco and vapes;

(2) requires the Leader of the Government, in accordance with standing order 10.01, to table in the Council, within four weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, the final report, review of Victoria’s approach to illicit tobacco regulation, produced by Better Regulation Victoria, and all relevant documents related to the production of this report, including but not limited to:

(a) consultation reports and correspondence;

(b) ministerial correspondence;

(c) briefing notes; and

(d) draft documents.

This motion refers to a report that was requested in October 2021 by the Minister for Regulatory Reform at the time, the Honourable Danny Pearson MP, a request to Better Regulation Victoria to look at Victoria’s approach to illicit tobacco and how we might better regulate that. Apparently in March last year a draft of this report was leaked to the media, and it recommended a tobacco retail licensing scheme that might have some impact on illicit sales. But since that time, we have seen an explosion in organised crime around both illicit tobacco and vaping, which this report also refers to.

I do not hold the state government responsible for a lot of this – this is purely a failure in federal policy. Both the current Labor government and the previous coalition government have been hopeless on this issue. We know what the root causes of this explosion in the tobacco and vaping crime market are, and they are two things: the federal government has kept raising and raising and raising tobacco excise to the point where they have incentivised the involvement of organised crime, and secondly, they have refused to allow a legal vaping market similar to what more sensible countries like New Zealand and the UK have done. They have simply allowed organised crime to take over, as they do in all other prohibited markets. The solution of course is for the federal government to have a legal market for adults and to look at what they are doing with tobacco excise tax.

In the meantime, we in Victoria are stuck with the consequences of this. To my mind I think that the state government should be screaming at the federal government to consider the consequences of what they have done and what Victoria is being subjected to over this, because it is only going to get worse from here. To that effect I think it is very important that we see the final report and the associated correspondence and briefings related to it. I think it is firmly in the public interest to understand what options were being put on the table and considered. That has not been released, and I urge all people to support the release of this report and associated documents.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:32): I am pleased to rise to speak on Mr Limbrick’s motion in relation to documents surrounding Better Regulation Victoria’s review of Victoria’s approach to illicit tobacco regulation. People will be aware that I have spoken in this place in the past about tobacco regulation in this state, defending Victoria’s great legacy as a world leader of tobacco regulation and tobacco control. In 1987, 35 years ago, this state passed what was then world-leading tobacco control legislation, which heralded a new era of significant change not only in this state but in this country and around the world of action taken by governments to reduce the harm from tobacco.

Why did we need to do that? Well, fundamentally tobacco cigarettes are one of the few products that are sold where the substance will kill a third of the people who properly and legally use it. The consequences of tobacco usage in our community are significant in terms of costs to individuals – illness, sickness and death – but also the broader costs that then has for all Victorians, all Australians, in the burden of tobacco-related disease on our health system. We should never forget that the consequence of the proper use of cigarettes and tobacco is to kill people, and everyone pays the price: the users and those of us who pay taxes and fund our health system.

So what can we do from a public health perspective to reduce that harm, to improve controls, to fight back against the well-funded tobacco industry, who we know for generations have lied to the community? They have lied to the community about the consequences of their products, and they have fought tooth and nail against every single piece of regulation that has been brought before parliaments here, nationally or internationally, designed to reduce harm from tobacco. Recently we saw the move that the previous federal Labor government made to introduce plain packaging, a fight the tobacco industry took all the way to the international courts – and they lost, as they should.

What Mr Limbrick is seeking today is some documents related to a report about whether there should be a tobacco licensing regime here in Victoria. That is an interesting piece of public policy that I think would make an interesting contribution to the longstanding traditions here in Victoria. One thing I want to take up from Mr Limbrick’s contribution is that he said that there should be a legal vaping market here in Australia. I think that is absolutely the wrong approach to take. What we have seen with the rise of vaping in our community – I made these remarks in my inaugural speech 12 months ago yesterday – is that vaping is a Trojan Horse to get a new generation of children addicted to nicotine and harmful substances, and what we do not know yet is what this specific application of nicotine to people’s lungs will do. We do not have the time to wait to know that it is going to do harm, because every other instance of people ingesting substances into their lungs causes them to be seriously harmed or die. People who suggest that vapes are less harmful than tobacco have been fed a lie by the tobacco industry, and we must push back against that.

The reforms that the federal government is bringing in in this country are the right approach – to ban single-use vapes, to move vaping into a therapeutic model where prescriptions will be required for therapeutic use and to stop the next generation of children being addicted to nicotine. That is exactly the kind of approach that we need to see in Victoria and around Australia. We should not follow the path of big tobacco that Mr Limbrick has been advocating for in this debate and in others.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:37): I rise to speak in support of Mr Limbrick’s documents motion. It is a very simple motion. It is calling for greater transparency. This government has been sitting on this report for over two years. This is a massive issue. The government does not even talk about the crime – the firebombings that are going on, whether at tobacco shops or ice-cream parlours. Mr Mulholland has just said to me he is having one a week in his electorate – he just showed me a picture – in Glenroy, Fawkner and Craigieburn. These are communities that are being impacted by this ongoing crime, and the government is washing its hands of it, saying nothing. This is an incredibly important report where the government has done absolutely nothing. Yesterday in the lower house the coalition moved a motion on this, and the government did not support it. Why won’t they support such a simple thing to get on top of this?

Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia without a regulatory licensing scheme for the sale of tobacco and e-cigarettes. We have been calling for proper licensing for many years, and we took it to the election last year. You have done nothing. And now we have got these crime waves occurring which are terrifying communities, causing so much disruption to business, and yet these crime gangs are getting away. Taskforce Lunar is doing what it can, but the government is sitting on its hands. Release the report.

Mr Limbrick is absolutely right, and I totally concur with him. The documents motion also includes:

… but not limited to:

(a) consultation reports and correspondence;

(b) ministerial correspondence;

(c) briefing notes; and

(d) draft documents.

The Victorian community deserves to see the lot.

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:39): I rise to speak in support of this documents motion, and in doing so I cannot help but reminisce about my question on notice on this very matter to which I received a response in December last year. I asked the health minister:

Will the Government release the Illicit Tobacco Review report commissioned by the Government in 2021 and undertaken by Better Regulation Victoria.

It was a simple yes or no question. But if you read through the government’s response, you will not see the words yes or no, you will simply see a short statement that the report is being considered by the government.

As this document motion notes, it was in March 2023 that the government received this report. Almost a year later it is still under consideration; no effort has been made to make that report public. In the meantime the illicit market thrives, and I agree with Ms Crozier’s discussion around what is happening with this illicit market and the firebombings. Tobacconists continue to be firebombed, and criminal syndicates engage in increasingly violent acts to compete for profit. Clearly there is a crisis on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, and ordinary citizens are being caught in the crossfire. We know from cannabis that prohibitive regulations send demand into the illicit market. There, instead of money going back into government pockets and being spent on harm reduction measures, it goes straight into the illicit market, fuelling further violence and illicit activities.

Legalise Cannabis Victoria believes in harm reduction and the need for true transparency and integrity in government. We will support this motion, and wherever we can we will support documents motions. It is especially important to us that we lend our support in this case. We have witnessed firsthand a failure from government to respond to this report in a timely manner and to be transparent with its recommendations. Let this report into the public domain, and let us get on with the response.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:41): I also rise to speak on the documents motion put to us by Mr Limbrick today and acknowledge the comments of my colleague Mr Batchelor as well, who spoke very forcefully as to the importance of why strong controls around tobacco and, yes, even vaping products are so important and the insidious nature in which this issue has been fought by big tobacco over decades and decades and decades both here and around the world. Of course Mr Batchelor referenced the international cases brought by big tobacco against the former Commonwealth government upon its very successful implementation of plain packaging laws, which we were the first nation in the world to do.

I also will briefly respond to Ms Crozier’s remarks that the government has been ignoring this issue. It simply is not the truth. As Ms Crozier well knows, this government has been investing enormous resources into Victoria Police and has brought in already tougher laws and delivered, most importantly, the extra police resources to tackle this issue. That is all as one small part of our broader $4.5 billion investment in Victoria Police under this government. Add to that the VIPER Taskforce, which has already conducted over 6300 checks and conducted 350 arrests just in that taskforce alone. This government is on the record as saying that more work is still needed and we are confronting the issue head-on, which is exactly why the government has commissioned a review into the Criminal Organisations Control Act 2012 as well. I also note, speaking of reviews, that as regards these documents these reports are still currently being used to inform new work that will also inform improvements to the Tobacco Act 1987.

This is a complex issue, this is an important issue, and it is for that reason that the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, of which you and I, Acting President McArthur, are both members, has just this week announced a self-referred inquiry into vaping and tobacco controls in Victoria. I frequently talk about the work of the PAEC in this room. As with many of our committees, it does very good work, and I am certainly looking forward to this very important inquiry. The committee will be looking right across Victoria as well as other jurisdictions across Australia at tobacco and vaping controls to see what works, what does not work and what can inform improvements as well here in the state of Victoria. It is going to be a very important thing that we are looking at, and I really do encourage anyone who has their view to share, their experience or their expertise to reach out to the inquiry, to lodge a submission or even to put their hand up to appear as a public witness. It is going to be a really interesting look at this issue, and it is really important that we do hear from the community. So I would like to say to anyone interested: please do put your hand up, let us know, and we will be all the more grateful to hear from you.

There will be four things in particular that this inquiry will be looking at. Firstly, it will be looking at the trends in vaping and tobacco use here in Victoria as well as the associated financial, health, social and environmental impacts on our broader Victorian community. It will also be looking at the causes and repercussions of the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette industry in Victoria, including impacts on our state’s justice system and effective control options. Thirdly, it will be looking at the adequacy of current state and Commonwealth legislation and regulatory and administrative frameworks to minimise tobacco and e-cigarette harm experienced in the community and how it controls illicit trade compared with other Australian and international jurisdictions. Fourth, it will also look at the effectiveness of the current public health measures to prevent and reduce the harm of tobacco use and vaping in Victoria as well as other potential reforms in that space which may be of benefit, because we all do know of course that ultimately, when it comes to issues such as tobacco consumption, it is at the end of the day a public health issue and you do not fix a legal problem that has a health base to it by ignoring the health aspect. The inquiry, of course, as will be its wont, will also look at various other matters that may come up as relevant to the inquiry.

I am very much looking forward to that, as I am sure you are too, Acting President McArthur, and it will be reporting back to this house we expect by no later than 30 November this year.

Motion agreed to.