Public Health (Tobacco) Amendment (Landlord Offences) Bill 2025 - Second Read Speech
Here we are again, debating another bill, the Public Health (Tobacco) Amendment (Landlord Offences) Bill 2025, that claims to crack down on the out-of-control market for illicit tobacco and vapes in New South Wales. But, once again, instead of addressing any of the root causes that have created this thriving black market, the Government has introduced another bill that targets the people at the bottom of the rung but leaves the criminal syndicates at the top untouched.
The bill will do nothing to reduce demand and nothing to really disrupt supply. We have seen this pattern time and again. Whether it is alcohol or other drugs, vaping products or tobacco, when markets are pushed further underground, governments respond with tougher penalties and broader powers, with very little recognition that it is those same prohibition-style policies that are fuelling the black market.
I must hand it to the Premier, Chris Minns. This approach plays well with the conservative media and the shock jocks, and that is perfect for a Premier who tends to govern almost exclusively in reaction to the front page of The Daily Telegraph or the story of the day on 2GB, rather than doing what will actually work. I say the same about the Federal Government on this issue, because the illicit tobacco market in this State and across the country is, of course, very real. Organised crime is deeply embedded in it. It is fuelling violence, and communities are rightly concerned.
Since the beginning of 2023, across the country there have been more than 230 firebombings of premises linked to tobacco and vapes. We are also seeing increased reports of homicides, attempted homicides, kidnappings, robberies and extortion, both of black market and legitimate retailers. It is a serious and escalating problem. This bill builds on the legislation passed last year, which introduced steep penalties for retailers who sell illicit tobacco or vapes and which gave NSW Health the power to order shops suspected of selling illicit tobacco products or vapes to shut for 90 days. The Greens did not oppose those reforms, but we did express our concerns about their impact.
We continue to have concerns with the approach put forward by the bill. The bill creates a new criminal offence for landlords who knowingly permit the sale of illicit tobacco or vaping products on their premises, with a maximum of 1,500 penalty units—$165,000—a year's imprisonment or both. But the term "knowingly permit" is not well defined at all. In his second reading speech, the Minister said:
I would encourage landlords to exercise due diligence when deciding who to lease their premises to.
What is due diligence in this context? Are landlords expected to take on a quasi-policing role in order to avoid criminal charges or imprisonment? Should they conduct background checks on prospective tenants? Will they be required to monitor their tenants' compliance with tobacco legislation throughout their tenancy or conduct inspections of or surveil the premises? It was reported by the ABC in November last year that this illicit trade has become one of the nation's most violent criminal markets, costing $4 billion in the 2023-24 financial year and helping push the total economic toll of organised crime to a record $82.3 billion.
Surely, the Government does not intend to require landlords—or anyone else who does not have the training, expertise or protections—to monitor their tenants' compliance with tobacco legislation. They could be mum-and-dad investors, ordinary citizens who have a commercial shopfront to lease. Are they expected to have the wherewithal to investigate people who could have close links to dangerous organised criminal syndicates? We also expressed our concerns at the time about NSW Health providing compliance officers. We have always said that it should be New South Wales police.
The bill provides a defence if a landlord has a reasonable excuse for permitting the person to use the premises to sell illicit goods. But what exactly constitutes a reasonable excuse? That is even more vague, but it surely needs to be defined. The bill puts the responsibility on landlords to take on a policing role if they are to avoid charges, placing people in potentially very dangerous situations. The bill also expands lease termination powers in the Public Health (Tobacco) Act, extending their application to include not just retail shops but also any premises used for relevant commercial activities. As I said in this place when we debated the previous reforms regarding this issue, The Greens have concerns about the fact that a closure order, and therefore a lease termination, can be made under the reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing—not actual or proven wrongdoing—and a person conducting a business can lose their premises, their lease and their livelihood with no recourse.
If a closure order is later found to be unsubstantiated, a tenant has no right to even appeal the termination. There is not even a requirement for NSW Health to publish a retraction of the closure order, let alone any provision for financial compensation for income lost through a termination and closure based on mere suspicion. However, one thing that Australia's foolish approach to tobacco regulation has shown us is that where there is strong demand for a drug—in this case tobacco, one of the most addictive and dangerous drugs at that—people will break the law to access it. As shopfronts are increasingly targeted, the market will increasingly move online as retail activity gets tougher. That demand is not going to go away. The demand is there, and many Australians have proven that they are willing to break the law to get cheap tobacco and vaping products.
In their submission to the illicit tobacco inquiry currently being undertaken by Portfolio Committee No. 5 - Justice and Communities, academics Dr Jegasothy, Dr Martin and Dr Markham reference a recent Roy Morgan report which estimated that, between July 2024 to June 2025, 4.8 per cent of all Australians over 18 years of age used illicit tobacco, with 12.1 per cent of adults using tobacco in the same period. That means at least 40 per cent of those who smoke purchased illicit tobacco products. I do not know about anyone else, but I reckon that number has gone up in the past 12 months. Everywhere I look, more and more people are smoking.
Roy Morgan also reported that the prevalence of vaping among adults in Australia is approximately 7.5 per cent, or 1.5 million people. That figure is consistent with the National Drug Strategy Household Survey. Yet only 57,000 notifications for the issue of vaping products from pharmacies were collected by the Therapeutic Goods Administration during the same period. The 2024-25 report by the Illicit Tobacco and E‑Cigarettes Commissioner estimates that around 95 per cent of all e-cigarette products sold are illegal. That means that millions of Australians are buying or accessing illegal tobacco products. Yet the Federal Government has today announced:
… criminal gangs cashing in on Australia's illicit tobacco boom will face tougher penalties and expanded police surveillance powers in a fresh crackdown on the black market.
Investigators will be armed:
… with tools like wire taps and stronger asset seizure powers, targeting the organised crime networks behind the multi-billion-dollar trade.
Today, customs Minister Julian Hill said the Federal Government is going to hit criminal syndicates "where it hurts" by more rapidly taking their profits, cars, cash, houses, boats and toys away. I assume that is what we have been doing for many years to stop the supply of illicit drugs. But let us take a look at recent data on drugs in this country. The latest national wastewater monitoring report by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission found that, from August 2023 to August 2024, the total estimated consumption of ice, cocaine, MDMA and heroin increased by 5.6 tonnes, or 34 per cent, in just one year.
That is despite billions and billions of dollars spent by Federal law and customs officials, such as the Australian Federal Police, throwing everything they can at stopping illegal drugs slipping through our border. For the benefit of members, I will share some quite extraordinary statistics. Last year in Australia there were 12,815 kilograms of ice or methylamphetamine consumed, which is about 14 tonnes; 6,835 kilos of cocaine; 1,430 kilos of MDMA; and 1,137 kilos of heroin. Do members honestly think the same approach is going to do anything to stop illegal tobacco use in this country, particularly with the exorbitant price of legal products and the demand that is clearly there?
The bill is not even a bandaid solution. It is almost misleading the public and the parents who are concerned about illegal tobacco and vaping products for the Government to say, "This is going to work. We'll clamp down on these poor landlords." I am sorry, but there are billions and billions of dollars to be made from illicit tobacco and other illicit drugs, and everything we have done so far has not worked. Maybe the issue is the fact that we are trying to prohibit what is clearly an addictive drug. When people are addicted to a drug, they will go to quite extraordinary lengths to access it. I hope some bills will be brought to this place that address that. The Greens will not vote against this bill. We can see what the mood is among members for this piece of legislation. But, frankly, the bill is not going to make any dent at all.