After a year of silence, where NSW has witnessed a dramatic increase in illegal tobacco shops and associated criminal violence, Chris Minns on Monday finally offered up a solitary idea to fix the problem – “make cigarettes cheaper”.
Yesterday, the Federal Treasurer shot down the Premier’s idea saying he didn’t think making cigarettes cheaper was the answer and that the focus needed to be on compliance.
Leader of the Opposition Mark Speakman said that under Chris Minns, NSW has become the Chop Chop capital of Australia.
“Illegal tobacco businesses have exploded under Chris Minns, and organised criminal gangs are raking in big money, because they know NSW has minimal enforcement and some of the weakest penalties in the country.”
“While other states have acted to drastically increase penalties and improve enforcement, Chris Minns has been missing in action. Now that the Federal Treasurer has ruled out changes to the federal excise, Chris Minns needs to tell people how he is going to tackle this issue,” said Mr Speakman.
Shadow Minister for Health Kellie Sloane said Chris Minns has only woken up to this issue after illegal tobacco shops started popping up in his own electorate.
“We’ve been telling the Minns Government for a year that this is a serious issue, but they have been dragging their feet. The Opposition have pushed for stronger illegal tobacco penalties, a fit and proper person test to stop criminals getting tobacco licences and a parliamentary inquiry into this issue,” said Ms Sloane.
Shadow Minister for Regional Health Gurmesh Singh says regional communities are bearing the brunt of the tobacco wars and Chris Minns needed to step up.
“We’ve seen fire bombings, stand over tactics, violence and legitimate small businesses put under pressure due to the rise in illegal tobacco. The lack of enforcement in regional communities means that these criminals can illegal tobacco with little fear of getting caught.”
Shadow Minister for Police Paul Toole said once again the NSW Police Force are being called in as the last line of defence to pick up the slack because of the failures of the Minns Labor Government and NSW Health to deal with illegal tobacco here in this state.
“The NSW Labor Government is treating the NSW Police Force like a dogsbody to pick up the pieces after other agencies fail to their job.
The NSW Police force is stretched paper-thin and passing the buck to the police cannot be this Government’s answer to every issue,” Mr Toole said.