Fremantle council and anti-smoking body are campaigning to reduce sale of illegal tobacco

ABC NEWS (Australia)

What was once an attractive cafe and restaurant strip in Perth's port city is now littered with convenience stores offering illegal tobacco. The national anti-smoking council says it's a result of outdated laws in WA and with new legislation in the pipeline, the City of Fremantle can't wait.

Transcript

00:00I think I just passed one so I'm just going to pull over here and go have a look.

00:12All it took was a single question.

00:14I just asked whether they had any menthols for the shopkeeper to then pull out packets

00:19of illegal cigarettes from under the counter.

00:21It was the same story two doors down and again further along the street.

00:27In fact I was offered cheap illegal cigarettes at five convenience stores along Fremantle's

00:33famous cappuccino strip.

00:35Our community is really concerned about the number of them.

00:38One person created a map and it showed 16 different convenience type shops in our CBD alone.

00:44The Australian Council on Smoking and Health has been calling on the state government

00:48to update its tobacco laws for several years.

00:52The health department in WA are doing everything they can with the tools that they have but

00:56what we need from the WA health minister Meredith Hammett is stronger laws and a timeline for

01:02when these laws will be before parliament.

01:05When it's ready we will introduce it.

01:07This is an important issue for our government but we also recognise that we have to get this

01:11right.

01:12In almost two years the WA health department has seized nearly a million illicit cigarettes.

01:19To put that into perspective the AFP seized more than four million illegal cigarettes in a

01:25single bust involving two Perth brothers in October.

01:29The Fremantle mayor is trying to make changes at a local level.

01:33Right now a convenience shop in Fremantle is just in allowed use.

01:36They don't even come to us for approval.

01:39If we could change that to have them be a discretionary use then we'd be able to actually decide whether

01:43or not we want to see those kinds of shops open.

01:45A bid to restore the charm to this bustling port city.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended