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South Australia is turning up the heat on the illegal tobacco trade with landlords facing jail terms if they repeatedly ignore black market activity in their properties. The crackdown will also impose far longer shut-downs for businesses caught selling illegal cigarettes, increasing the closures four-fold.

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00:02A four week shutdown order. This convenience store on Rundle Street, one of hundreds, closed on suspicion of selling illegal
00:08cigarettes. Plenty have reopened straight away.
00:12The 28 day closure has really just been a holiday for some of these shopkeepers who return after 28 days
00:18and take up the trade again.
00:21The state government, which introduced the four week shutdowns last year, now beefing them up to 130 days.
00:26It's a model that's had success in Queensland, where 90 day store closures have seen a spike in legal tobacco
00:33sales.
00:34There are those who have been saying that Queensland does it much better, well I think you'll find out that
00:37South Australia is going to lead the pack after we do this.
00:40Landlords will also be able to evict their tenants if they're shut down, and could face a year in jail
00:45if they knowingly allow their property to be used for illicit tobacco sales.
00:49We want to work with them, but they have to actually do things too, can't just rely on the government
00:54to take care of the situation.
00:55Illicit tobacco dealers could also face jail terms of up to 17 years, while penalties for possessing commercial quantities of
01:03illegal smokes will increase to $21 million.
01:06The opposition wants to see the stiffer penalties backed by boots on the ground.
01:10The next step beyond actually having these laws brought forward to the parliament is, is there going to be some
01:16form of enforcement blitz?
01:17Despite all these changes, the government's not reforming everything.
01:21They've rejected a suggestion from the police commissioner to penalise consumers of illegal cigarettes.
01:26And they also won't be pushing their federal counterparts to cut the tobacco excise, something proponents argue would undercut the
01:33black market.
01:34The government gambling that it's focused on supply, rather than demand, is the right approach.
01:39It is true of what we seek for Democracy, which runs this path which is undercut simplify, so it's going
01:39to be a hot product آخر experiment.
01:40So we are putting it on the marketplace because it really fortunes like this is because it didn't fee.
01:41You

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