Delays in advancing a second tranche of legislation to crack down on illicit tobacco by the Cook Government has left WA overtaken by other States on tackling the industry.
The Australian Council on Smoking and Health chief executive Laura Hunter gave the warning as her organisation released its “Illicit Tobacco Ladder”, ranking WA fourth out of the eight States and Territories on the issue.
While recognising the progress made with the first tranche of laws passed in March giving authorities more powers to shut down shops and issue larger fines, the ranking warned more was needed to be done.
The second tranche of tobacco laws was slated to be passed through parliament this year, but with just five sitting weeks of Parliament left it faces a race against time.
It’s a delay that Ms Hunter says has left WA falling behind leaders in the pack like Queensland.
“Western Australia has a really proud history of tobacco control, it was one of the first states to include retail licencing, and for many years we set the pace nationally,” she said.
“This ladder and this release today has shown that the field has moved on, other jurisdictions are progressing stronger laws, tougher licencing schemes, really effective enforcement frameworks, and WA is now really being overtaken.”
The second tranche would see more powers for landlords, further tightening of licencing, and introducing long-term closures of businesses for up to 12 months.
The report commended Queensland as the top State for its enforcement powers which has resulted in people turning back to legal tobacco products and more accessing smoking helplines.
Ms Hunter said WA needed to step up to match the top States.
“WA has made really important progress with enclosure orders, we now have the highest penalties in the country, but reform has stalled at the halfway point,” she said.
“We’re still waiting for the second tranche of legislation that’s been promised by the WA Parliament, including powers for landlords to terminate leases when tenants sell illegal tobacco, and penalties for those who turn a blind eye.
“While we’ve been waiting for this to happen in WA, the States above it have kept moving.
“I want to say that WA had we really do have the foundations to lead again, but we need to finish the job.”
Comparisons between WA and other States drew the ire of Premier Roger Cook last week, who pointed the finger at the Federal Government for allowing the tobacco into the country at all.
“If the Federal Government thinks the States should do more in this space, well, right back at you,” he said.
“We are dealing with the fact that the Federal Government has failed to stop this stuff coming into our community in the first place.”
Ms Hunter urged all jurisdictions to work together and avoid a blame game.
“Every single jurisdiction in this country needs to be prioritising tackling illegal tobacco, we need to see that happening at the border, we need to see diplomatic negotiations with countries where these products are coming in from, and we absolutely need to see it happening across all of the supply chain for tobacco in this country,” she said.
“What I will say is the WA Government has absolute jurisdiction over the retail licencing schemes that we operate, they have the jurisdiction, the Federal Parliament doesn’t have the ability to go out and shut down stores, the WA Government has that.
“What we need to see is a stopping of finger pointing and blaming and cracking on with enforcement at a State level.”