3 days ago
Queensland minister calls on federal government to crackdown on illegal tobacco trade
Queensland's health minister has called on the federal government to tighten laws after revelations about how largely unregulated private ATMs are helping fuel illegal tobacco sales.
An ABC investigation on Wednesday detailed how private ATMs — including those from a company whose major backer is prestigious investment bank Macquarie Group — were being installed in stores selling black-market tobacco.
Private ATM companies have even signed deals with people charged and later convicted with tobacco offences.
Some stores were prompting customers by either only accepting hard currency or offering hefty discounts for tobacco bought with cash.
AUSTRAC, the nation's money laundering watchdog, told the ABC that private ATMs were a "target for criminals" and were not regulated under anti-money laundering laws, meaning a "reduced visibility for AUSTRAC and law enforcement".
Those laws are a federal responsibility, but Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's office said it did not have "anything to add at this stage".
The shadow federal attorney-general, Julian Leeser, acknowledged AUSTRAC had flagged private ATMs as a risk for cash-intensive businesses in a 2024 money-laundering report.
He said any regulatory changes to anti-money laundering laws that impacted private ATMs would "need to be the subject of rigorous cost-benefit analysis and careful consultation with industry".
In Queensland, the health department has a role in disrupting the illicit tobacco trade, including temporarily shutting down stores in breach of tobacco laws.
"The Commonwealth government should be pulling every appropriate lever to stop this criminal trade and prevent these illicit products from getting into the country in the first place," Health Minister Tim Nicholls told the ABC.
"Reports of the lengths that these black-market operators are going to in laundering their money is disturbing. It highlights the need for swift regulatory and enforcement action to close loopholes and deprive these operators of their cash and ability to generate profits."
The illicit tobacco trade has boomed as increasing taxes and duties have been laid on cigarettes federally.
The current excise or customs duty on a 20-cigarette packet is $28.06, and GST comes on top of that. But cigarettes, without required health warnings, are being sold openly in some Queensland stores for $8 a packet.
Mr Nicholls said Queensland had taken steps to increase pressure on the trade, including by introducing the nation's "harshest" fines and consulting on laws.
That includes floating the possibility of legislation targeting landlords who knowingly lease premises to illicit tobacco sellers, with the potential penalty being a year in jail or $161,300 fine, or both.
"Queensland is effectively at the 'end of the conveyor belt' of this problem, taking enforcement action against illicit goods smuggled into the country."
The state's Crime and Corruption Commission has also launched proceeds of crime action potentially targeting more than $6 million in assets in one case against an accused illicit tobacco seller.
The private ATM company backed by Macquarie Group is called Next Payments. It said it fully cooperates with authorities to proactively flag suspicious behaviour and rejects any suggestion its machines could fuel money laundering.
