State Government called on to stop tobacco wars spreading to Fremantle

Fears of the illegal tobacco war currently gripping Perth have prompted the City of Fremantle council to call for urgent action to stop it spreading to the port city. The tobacco war has been fuelled by black market cigarettes being brazenly sold by convenience stores in Perth, undercutting the legal market and lining the pockets of organised criminals. Reports of illegal tobacco sales in Fremantle prompted the council to back a proposal from Cr Ben Lawver at its August 13 meeting that the CEO call on the State Government to overhaul health and retail tenancy laws and look at what the city itself could do. This could include amending its planning rules to restrict the number of and locations that could be used by convenience stores, and tougher penalties for illegal or unauthorised activities. Police Commissioner Col Blanch last week echoed calls on the government to introduce tougher penalties for shop owners brazenly flouting the law, including shutting down shops. A city report said it had no jurisdictional powers and suspected sales of illegal goods were reported to the Health Department. The department inspected tobacconists in Fremantle late last year as part of a State-wide crackdown but Cr Lawver said the problem had only become worse. He said he had recently visited several convenience stores looking for tobacco for a friend. “And finally, after about the third or fourth one, I said ‘Can you just open your cabinet?’,” he said. “And they open it up and it was empty, but they pull out a pouch from the inside of their jacket pocket and said ‘Hey, you can have this’. “I think that it’s pretty blatant and I guess we know why that they’re there, because a pouch of tobacco there costs $25, where if you buy it legally it’s over $100.” He said there was also a store on High Street that sold machetes and serrated knives. “I just don’t feel like that’s what we want in our city centre,” Cr Lawver said. Cr Jemima Williamson-Wong said the abundance of convenience stores was hurting the Fremantle CBD and not just from associated illegal activity. “The current proliferation of these convenience stores is obviously not working for any part of our CBD, whether that is degrading the streetscape and the amenity or all of the antisocial behaviour that we know accompanies these stores,” she said. “If we had one type of store as frequently as we do anywhere in the city, whatever that store was, we would also be having an issue because … our strategy is really in place to make it a diverse mix of retail and hospitality and that’s not being achieved when one type of store is everywhere.” Cr Frank Mofflin said the city could not “plan this one away” and enforcement by both State and Federal police against the sale of illegal tobacco products was needed. “These are actually off-the-shelf products from other countries that are being imported and they end up on our docks, whichever way they’re coming into the country, and then finding their way through organised crime to stock the shelves under the counter,” he said. “We’ve seen the horrible consequences, particularly in the east coast and now proliferating in WA with firebombing and firearms incidents for people associated with this and this is something that we don’t want in our town. “We can’t accept just a lame response back from them (State Government representatives) about not doing anything in regards to this or having their hands tied. The community expects something to be done not just in Fremantle but beyond that.” Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge said the Police Commissioner and Police Minister were “taken aback” last year by a map which showed the number of convenience stores in Fremantle. She said while Health Department regulations were “woefully inadequate”, they were the only tools available and action was needed on the legal and planning fronts. “The risk associated with this is too great,” Ms Fitzhardinge said. “The risk in Fremantle (is) obviously being higher because firebombings in wooden buildings, as opposed to concrete buildings in the suburbs, is a much more serious thing. “In the short term we asked for just increased presence and increased use of the existing regulations … but I think as all the research Cr Williamson-Wong showed, there are much better ways to regulate this.” Cr Andrew Sullivan said the city needed to be careful not to conflate the spread of convenience shops with criminal activity. “Generally they are the old-fashioned corner shop just reinvented, versus the illegal activity that is currently being allowed to flourish uncontrolled in those convenience stores,” he said. “By the time we changed the planning scheme, one would hope that this uncontrolled illegal activity activity might have actually been addressed and stopped and some of the criminal elements might have been brought to justice.” A proposal from Cr Williamson-Wong that the city’s letter to the State Government be made available on its MySay website for residents to sign was lost. Cr Lawver said it could be counter-productive if no one signed, while Cr Geoff Graham said it was being sent on the community’s behalf. “My view is that we’re requesting the CEO to write a letter … which he is writing on behalf of the community of Fremantle anyway, so in essence everyone, every ratepayer in Fremantle is getting the CEO to write,” he said. Illicit tobacco consumption made up almost 40 per cent of total tobacco consumption in Australia last year, according to a report published by FTI consulting in June. According to the Australian Taxation Office, the country lost $2.7 billion in excise revenue in 2022-23 due to the sale of illegal tobacco, which they say was channelled into organised crime instead of funding essential community services. The latest figures show the Health Department inspected more than 1600 tobacconists between January 1 last year and August 13, seizing 460,000 cigarettes, 190,000 vapes and more than 85kg of loose tobacco. An individual caught selling illegal cigarettes could be hit with an on the spot fine of $1000, but could also face maximum penalties of a $10,000 fine for a first offence and $20,000 for a second breach. There are stricter penalties for companies, who can face $40,000 for a first offence while a secondary breach is $80,000. “WA Health is committed to cracking down on this illegal, harmful activity. We continue to conduct compliance checks of both licensed and unlicensed tobacconists, seize unlawful products, and enforce WA laws at every opportunity,” a spokesman said.