Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to all questions asked by coalition senators during questions without notice today.

In moving that motion, I want to start with the question that I asked, and that was in relation to the exploding industry of illegal tobacco in this country that has happened on this government's watch. It didn't just happen overnight. It's happened over the last three or more years now while this government has been on the Treasury benches, and it has had devastating impacts on the lives of many Australians. Indeed, the government itself is not immune to the impacts of the illicit tobacco trade, losing billions of dollars of revenue in excise collections every year as a result of their hands off approach when it comes to dealing with this insidious issue.

There's not an Australian—particularly in major population centres like Melbourne or Sydney, Brisbane perhaps, or even, indeed, some of the regional communities around Australia—that cannot see firsthand the impacts of the illicit tobacco trade. I understand that every day in this country these cartel operations, these crime gangs, are making a $13 million profit off illegal tobacco, and this government has sat on its hands for the last 3½ years. They talk about hundreds of millions of dollars being ploughed into enforcement initiatives. The problem is that it is not stopping the problem. It is not stemming the flow of these terrible products coming into our country, be they illegal cigarettes, loose leaf tobacco or illegal vape products. Of course, we know that these products can be laced with some of the most harmful chemicals with terrible consequences for human health with no approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Again this government and the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs say, 'Virtually nothing to see here.' This is a terrible indictment on government that should have, in its top few priorities, a desire to keep this nation secure and a desire to keep Australians safe, healthy and protected from, as I said before, the insidiousness and harms associated with the illicit tobacco trade.

I was in Melbourne, just a couple of weeks ago, and I was able to stand and do a media conference with the Victorian shadow Attorney-General, Mr James Newbury, in a vacant tenancy in the suburb of Prahran. As we know, and as we've seen night after night on television news, in places like Melbourne—and Sydney, as I mentioned before—there are countless firebombings, ram raids, theft activity and physical assaults which are all associated with the illegal tobacco trade.

The tenancy we stood in was not a large premises, but it was one that had an insurance cost, I'm told, of roughly $2,000 per annum for the landlord to pay in order to have insurance protection around that tenancy. In a 12-month period, that insurance bill went up from $2,000 per annum to $200,000 per annum because a tenant in that shop area was a legitimate tobacconist. They are someone who was actually paying their GST bills and ensuring that excise was collected on the products that they sold. They dealt in legitimate products, but, because they were doing so, they presented a risk that insurance companies weren't willing to stomach. Therefore, they saw insurance bills for that particular business go up from $2,000 to $200,000 in a one-year period. That is one of the many consequences flowing from this industry. We know of firebombings of people's houses. Representatives of crime gangs have had their homes targeted by rival crime gangs. There have been firebombings gone wrong. We know of fatalities related to that.

Again, this government seem to say: 'It's all under control. We're doing everything we can.' The fact of the matter is you are not. The impact from the number of products, and the weight of those products, coming into this country is growing. It's exploding, and there is nothing that these crime gangs are seeing this government do that will in any way deter them from doing what it is they do. The government is losing billions of dollars every year—$3.3 billion last year alone—and billions of dollars over the forward estimates. Humans' lives are at risk.

Our country's security and safety is very much under threat because of, as I say, a hands-off approach. This is a government that's happy to set up a taskforce here, a group there and a committee here, but it does nothing meaningful or tangible about this. It's an indictment on this government. It does indicate to me that their priorities are wrong. It is the kind of thing that needs urgent action in collaboration with state and territory authorities, intelligence authorities and law enforcement agencies more broadly. But it is an indictment on this government nonetheless. (Time expired)