Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is committed to dismantling the criminal syndicates that have made illicit vapes and illicit tobacco their trade. I want to go through a little bit about what this government is doing with regard to border enforcement against these illicit vapes and illicit tobacco.

On 14 January 2024, the government committed $188.5 million to Border Force over four years to harden the border against illicit tobacco and to develop a new end-to-end enforcement model to combat that illicit tobacco. The funding is for a new model that will span three key areas: enhancing preborder intervention to stem the flow of illicit tobacco to Australia; enhancing detection, disruption and destruction both at the national border and alongside our state and territory partners for enhanced domestic enforcement—and this also includes trialling new AI-enabled technology to detect the illicit tobacco threat and complex concealments at the border; and connecting all key stakeholders across the Commonwealth, states and territories, and across health and law enforcement to improve our collective effect.

The funding outlined on 14 January of this year is in addition to the support already provided by the government in funding the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce. This taskforce forms part of a broader Border Force response to the threat of illicit tobacco and contributes to a whole-of-government effort by proactively targeting and disrupting significant and serious actors and organised crime groups that deal in this illicit trade. Our border agencies are seizing record numbers of illicit tobacco. Last financial year, Australian Border Force made over 120,000 detections of illicit tobacco, seizing over 1.77 billion cigarettes and over 867 tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco. And Border Force is on track to seize even greater quantities of tobacco this year. But what are we doing beyond border enforcement—because that alone won't eliminate the issue throughout Australia or, indeed, in the state of New South Wales, because it is a complex and it is a multifaceted issue.

This government, the Albanese Labor government, is tackling the issue head-on, working with justice and law enforcement, those in health portfolios, and state and territory governments. I want to come back to the fact that we are working to dismantle these criminal syndicates that have a significant part of their trade in the illicit vape and tobacco space.

We know that illicit tobacco and, in particular, illicit vapes can have a significant effect on a person's health. I've seen it in the emergency department. I've also seen it in my time in the intensive care unit. One of those illnesses, particularly with vapes and illicit vapes, is a condition called EVALI, which is e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury. EVALI is linked to these illegal vapes and how they heat up the vapour, which can then destroy the lung parenchyma, or the functional units of the lungs. What happens is that these electronic cigarette and vape cartridges can be refilled with illicit substances from illicit sources, and they can be contaminated with vitamin E acetate, and that is really strongly associated with this EVALI, the lung injury associated with vaping and the like. And that's not just from observational studies where patients have had imaging and pathology testing; this has actually been from bronchoalveolar lavage—fluid samples that have been obtained from infected patients. Fluid from their lungs has been taken as a sample and sent to pathology, and that's had a direct link back to this lung injury. That's one example of how illicit vapes can have an effect on patients throughout Australia. It's also been associated with the development of acute eosinophilic pneumonia—again, an inflammatory issue that affects the lungs.

Both of these have a significant impact on a patient's respiratory function and also have an effect on a patient's ability to combat infection and, if they have an infection, to clear that problem with their lungs. This is a really, really big issue that we have seen with illegal vapes.

That's why we've taken the time to ensure that there are penalties in place for those people that are breaking the law. Looking at the maximum penalty for illicit tobacco offences under the Customs Act, it's 10 years imprisonment and a monetary penalty of five times the duty evaded. The maximum penalty under the Taxation Administration Act is up to 10 years imprisonment. So there are significant penalties that are in place. This is a big issue throughout Australia, and this government is committed to ensuring that people aren't affected by illicit tobacco and vapes.

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