New convenience stores in Freo will need to be approved, under local efforts to curtail tobacco black market

New convenience stores in Fremantle will need planning approval to open in a bid to help protect locals and the area’s heritage streetscape from Perth’s illicit tobacco wars. Police Minister Reece Whitby on Thursday welcomed the port city council’s decision to require the stores to have formal planning approval before they can open, under amendments to the town’s planning scheme. Mr Whitby said he supported local councils, such as Fremantle, taking their own action to address the rise of illegal tobacco sales in their areas. “I’ve got no issue with councils taking initiative also to deal with this problem. They want to take that initiative, I think that’s a good thing,” he said. Convenience stores are exempt from having to apply for planning approval in the Fremantle city centre under the local government’s current planning scheme. Both the city and the WA Planning Commission have deemed the scheme to be at the end of its life and a new one is being prepared. But it was not soon enough for the council, which wanted new rules put in place sooner to deal with the growing risk of damage to lives and property linked to the illegal tobacco wars. The conflict, which has seen businesses in Perth and Bunbury firebombed this year, has been fuelled by black market cigarettes being brazenly sold by convenience stores, undercutting the legal market and lining the pockets of organised criminals. In February, Fremantle councillors accused the State Government of failing to act fast enough to effectively address the problem, with councillor Andrew Sullivan comparing it to “a giant turtle lumbering across the plain”. “I don’t want to be sitting in Fremantle and watching a heritage building in the West End get bombed or a car driven through it or people injured because we haven’t actually tackled the problem as directly as it clearly needs to be tackled,” he said. The Government tapped senior police officer Steve Post in January to head up WA Health’s tobacco compliance unit and step-up raids, alongside police taskforce Maverick that is targeting organised crime groups funding the illegal trade. Then in March, it passed amendments to the Tobacco Products Control Act through Parliament, which are due to come into effect next month, that will increase penalties and enforcement as part of a first tranche of reforms. These included Australia’s toughest penalties from selling illicit tobacco and powers to shut shops caught selling the products. The Government also vowed to introduce more legislation by the end of this year to empower landlords to evict dodgy retailers. Mr Whitby said the renewed enforcement effort had seen 60 people arrested and hundreds of charges laid. “We have had extraordinary action against illicit tobacco and vapes even before our new laws, which are among the toughest in the country, have been passed,” he said. “Please know that already we have had major seizures of illicit tobacco and vapes. We have arrested the kingpins of the trade in Western Australia, and police are kicking down doors and making arrests. “I think at last count was about 60 people who have been arrested and charges in the hundreds, even before our tough new laws come in.” Fremantle council asked city staff in February to look at how they could manage the proliferation of convenience stores in the port city’s CBD. Councillors voted unanimously at a meeting on Tuesday night to support a proposed amendment to the local planning scheme. Cr Pip Slaughter said this week the changes would limit the spread of convenience stores in Fremantle. “I am unchanged in my position from very few weeks ago when we voted to put this forward... to hopefully have this scheme amendment in place to limit where convenience stores can and cannot be,” she said. Cr Melanie Clark believed there were 18 convenience stores across the city, some of which were recently raided. “I’m looking forward to the laws being enacted so superintendent Steve Post and his team can swing into action to... start clearing them out and create some empty spaces for new businesses to move in,” she said. “It can’t come soon enough.” A council report said, at the last count, about 15 convenience stores were close to each other in the city centre, also raising concerns about a lack of retail diversity in the CBD. “However, it is understood that most of the concern regarding convenience stores stems from the fact that many of them allegedly sell tobacco products illegally or ‘under the counter’,” the report said. “It is not this report’s intention to establish whether these stores do or do not sell illicit tobacco products, though it has been reported that a number of these types of stores throughout Australia have been accused of selling black market cigarettes.” Though he welcomed the Government’s reforms when they were released, Fremantle mayor Ben Lawver said the city would still go ahead with its own plans to address the issue. “Our community has been at the coalface in dealing with this problem – currently there are more than a dozen stores operating in our CBD. I expect the store closure orders, in particular, will have a real impact in Fremantle,” he said. “Up until now, we’ve repeatedly encountered ridiculous situations where shops have reopened within hours of being raided.” Mr Lawver said the city’s amendment would make a big difference for the Fremantle community. “Adopting this amendment means as a council, we’ll be able to decide when, where, and if more of these shops are needed in our city,” he said. “Currently, convenience stores are an allowed use, but the change would see convenience stores become a discretionary use, requiring operators to lodge development applications which will need to be publicly advertised. “Importantly, convenience stores will remain a banned use in residential areas.”