WA news LIVE: ‘Toothless’ penalties leading to rampant illegal tobacco sales in WA: health body
Half of Perth’s corner shops sell illegal tobacco, according to the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, calling on the Australian Government to urgently reform their penalties.
ACOSH surveyed 103 retail outlets in 56 suburbs and found that illegal sales of tobacco or e-cigarettes were common in newsagents, delicatessens, tobacconists, convenience stores and gift shops.
Stores that sell nicotine e-cigarettes illegally could face larger fines under a crackdown from the state government.Credit: Brook Mitchell
“Illegal tobacco and e-cigarettes are sold in broad daylight, proudly displayed in glass cases and listed on laminated menus,” chief executive Laura Hunter said.
“There are no lies, no fear of getting caught, and the penalties applicable when caught are minimal.”
WA is the only state in Australia that has not updated its legislation in response to the increase in the illicit tobacco and vaping trade; ACOSH describes state laws as “toothless.”
Currently, a person who violates tobacco laws can be fined up to $10,000, and a first-time offender can be fined up to $40,000.
Following a series of violent attacks on tobacco shops and fears of ‘tobacco wars’ in the west, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch last month said fines were too low to deter shop owners.
He said he wanted the authority to issue a temporary closure order.
During questions yesterday, Police Minister Reece Whitby defended the pace of the state government’s reform of the law.
“Since January this year, the WA Department of Health has carried out more than 1,600 inspections in Western Australia. More than 190,000 e-cigarettes, 460,000 cigarettes and more than 85 kilograms of tobacco were seized,” he said.
“Western Australia wants to have the toughest and best laws in the country on this issue, so we are currently trying to bring those laws together.
“We’re looking at what other states are putting in place because we want to have the toughest, most effective, best illicit tobacco laws in the country.”
It comes a day after the Department of Health’s annual report showed smoking in Western Australia had reversed the trend, rising from 10 per cent of people to 12 per cent of people over the past two years.
Only nine percent of the population smoked in 2018; Cancer Council WA predicted at the time that this figure would fall to five per cent by 2028.
