Shop next to NSW Parliament brazenly flogging illegal tobacco
Chris Minns has declared war on illicit tobacco, but the ease in which you can buy illegal tobacco shows the Premier has a fight on his hands.
NSW
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Premier Chris Minns has waged a war on illicit tobacco - and he will only need to walk a few metres from his office for the first battle.
As a major political blame game erupted on Monday, The Daily Telegraph discovered a convenience store on Macquarie St, directly opposite state parliament, flogging illegal cigarettes and vapes in broad daylight.
The Premier is urging his federal counterparts to examine the massive excise on legal tobacco which he said has allowed a black market to flourish “on every street in every suburb in NSW.”
Mr Minns has also faced criticism from the opposition after suggesting the problem is too much for NSW Health bureaucrats to manage, and he would need to consider reassigning police working on critical issues including domestic violence and youth crime.
A 10 metre walk out the front door of state parliament and across the road saw this masthead arrive at “Foodie Convenience Store.”
On the counter was a price list of black-market tobacco products, while dozens of nicotine “pouches” were stacked up and displayed behind the counter. A customer was seen buying single-use vapes for $45 and also a packet of illegal smokes.
New data has shown illicit sales represented a whopping 39% of the country’s total tobacco market in 2024. The extensive survey by FTI Consulting, funded by the tobacco industry, claims Australian taxpayers’ are missing out on at least $6.7 billion in annual excise revenue, although that figure does not include vaping purchases.
Almost 20,000 businesses are now registered to sell tobacco in NSW. There are 40 tobacco retailers alone in the Premier’s home suburb of Kogarah.
In his strongest comments yet, Mr Minns said: “I would argue the biggest supporters of the massive excise on tobacco sales are probably organised criminals, because it has created a giant black market that they can exploit on every street in every suburb in NSW.”
The Premier flagged the upcoming state budget would require tough decisions, including the possibility of a major police operation.
“That would mean allocating police officers that are currently working on domestic violence cases, on youth crime cases, on major organised crime networks ... take them off those important inquiries and send them into tobacco regulation. And we may need to do that,” Mr Minns said.
Currently, illicit tobacco compliance is handled by the state’s health department, who have roughly 20 enforcement officers for the entire state. On Monday this masthead revealed one bureaucrat was overseeing the entire Southern NSW Health District - an area the size of Denmark. Dave Allen, the publican at the Cobargo Hotel, said there were three tobacconists in the town of Bega for roughly 6,000 people and the illicit trade had cost him $50,000 a year in cigarette sales.
Responding to Mr Minns’ suggestion of using police resources for the tobacco wars, opposition leader Mark Speakman described the situation as a “mess which has festered under Chris Minns”, accusing him of “pointing the finger at Canberra.”
Mr Speakman said NSW Health was clearly “out of its depth” to manage the crisis, however “whatever happens, you cannot take away police resources from domestic violence and youth crime to try and alleviate your own failings.”
Nationals leader Dugald Saunders added: “if you walk through any regional city or town you’ll see a number of illegal tobacconists, often linked to organised crime syndicates, that weren’t there several months ago. In regional, remote and rural areas there is often a lack of capacity to do compliance checks which means this criminal activity is often happening in plain sight.”
However, shadow police spokesperson Paul Toole insisted: “it shouldn’t be the cops picking up the slack because of the failure of the health department to deal with illegal tobacco here in the state. Unless the Government is prepared to give more funding and more resources to hiring a lot more cops, communities are going to suffer from this knee-jerk reaction.”
The federal tax on cigarettes, already charged at $1.40 per stick, is scheduled to rise by another 5% in September, with a pack of legal smokes retailing for almost $60. Since 2020 more than $40 billion in collected and forecast revenue will have been lost due to the underperforming tax.
When asked about the excise Jim Chalmers told this masthead: “more people giving up smoking is part of the reason tobacco excise is down, the other which we’ve acknowledged is the significant problem of illegal tobacco. We are working with NSW and the other states and territories when it comes to the enforcement challenge... that’s why we invested another $157 in enforcement and compliance... on top of the $188.5 million we announced last year” Dr Chalmers said.
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley backed the premier on Tuesday, saying she did not want police diverted away from serious crimes to run the crack down on illegal tobacco.
“I agree with the premier, we don’t want to be taking police away from really important criminal work that they do on our streets, like domestic violence, organised crime and youth (crime). This is a tobacco regulation issue,” she said.
“This is also not just an issue in NSW or indeed just in this city or right across this state. It’s across this country, and in fact, it’s across the world. There needs to be a proper regulation regime.”
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