Illicit tobacco shops outnumber legal retailers in Qld, Townsville tobacconist says

Illicit tobacco is rife across Queensland, as MPs are given a picture of the alleged organised crime behind the black market.

Illegal tobacco or chop chop. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Illicit tobacco traders outnumber legal retailers in Queensland and illegal stores are back in business five hours after being raided, an industry insider says.

Tobacconist Pam Wright made the remarks at a public hearing of the state parliamentary Health and Environment Committee, in Townsville on Wednesday.

The committee met to hear submitters on The Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Amendment Bill, introduced to parliament on March 14 this tear.

The bill would streamline searches of suspected illicit sellers of illicit tobacco and introduce larger fines.

A North Queensland tobacconist, Ms Wright said the state’s 300 illicit tobacconists outnumbered 280 legal retailers.

North Queensland tobacconist Pam Wright speaking to MPs on the Health and Environment Committee, in Townsville on April 12, 2023.

Ms Wright said she had been threatened by groups which she believed were linked to the sale of illicit tobacco, including the wheel nuts on her car being removed.

“I have been scared for my life,” she said.

When an illicit store was raided, they were up and running again within five hours, she said.

Ms Wright said she showed health inspectors the door when they came to inspect her stores, with a parting message to check out potentially illicit stores where she suspected illegality instead.

TSG store owner Deb Soley said a legal retailer would sell a budget-brand pack of cigarettes for $32, while an illicit shop could sell known brands like Dunhill, Marlboro or Benson & Hedges for $12-$15.

Sale of illicit tobacco was run by organised crime, Ms Wright said, and health inspectors sent to check a possible illegal retailer would be intimidated and not effective.

“The health inspectors will run,” she said.

The man in charge of the health inspectors in Townsville said most tobacco retailers, both legal and those suspected of being illicit, were uncooperative.

Dr Steven Donohue, director of the Townsville Public Health Unit. Picture: Supplied.

Director of Public Health Townsville, Steven Donohue, did not make distinctions between the two.

“My team of environmental health officers do not see goodies and baddies in the tobacco industry. They’re all in the business of death.

“We call them baddies and worseies,” Mr Donohue said.

Supermarkets were cooperative with inspectors, he said.

Inspectors going to shops were regularly met with uncooperative and even intimidating behaviour, like being locked in a store, he said.

Health inspectors were also “utterly confused” because of gaps and different definitions in the current laws, Mr Donohue said.

Former smoker and environmentalist Shannon Meade told the MPs that because cigarette butts took 15 years to degrade, at any one time there were 5,500 tonnes of butts in the Queensland environment.

Mr Meade is the founder and executive director of No More Butts.

Many people did not realise that cigarette butts were a single-use plastic, Mr Meade said.

The amendment bill was introduced by Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.

The Health and Environment Committee will make recommendations on the bill May 5.

Originally published as Illicit tobacco shops outnumber legal retailers in Qld, Townsville tobacconist says