Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
The illegal tobacco industry is being targeted by the Crimestoppers unit of Queensland police in conjunction with the Excise Department and State Crime Operations Branch.
The Federal Government loses about $600 million a year in revenue because of the illegal trade in tobacco.
A grower selling a 100 kilogram bale to a tobacco company earns $660, but on the illegal market thousands more can be made.
Police believe organised crime groups are processing tobacco in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and making huge profits.
Recent investigations by Queensland police resulted in 15 vehicles transporting tobacco being seized, along with 100 tonnes of tobacco valued at $1.5 million.
Jump to full article »
A Sunshine Coast bowls club has become the first club in Queensland to ban smoking.
The Maroochydore Swan Bowls Club ordered the ban from next Monday after last week's payout to a Port Kembla barmaid who developed throat cancer after years of passive smoking.
"The club was happy to make the decision," Bowls Club secretary Nev Linde said.
"It would have preferred the Government to have banned smoking."
Mr Linde says so far the reaction from people he has spoken with has been positive.
Queensland's parliament passed tough new laws to ban smoking in most public places, a day after a landmark court case found a NSW barmaid's throat cancer was caused by passive smoking at work.
Health Minister Wendy Edmond said the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act was a key plank in the Queensland Tobacco Action Plan endorsed by cabinet last year.
"The new laws will go a long way towards protecting the community from the harmful effects of passive smoking, as well as addressing youth smoking through prohibiting tobacco advertising and further reducing underage access to tobacco products," Ms Edmond said.
The new laws will be ban smoking in Queensland workplaces and public places, including shops, cinemas, the dining areas of pubs and clubs and at the gaming tables in casinos.
Queensland's tough new anti-smoking legislation will be debated in State Parliament today.
It bans smoking in most public places, including offices, restaurants, shopping centres and dining areas of pubs and clubs.
Health Minister Wendy Edmond says it is hoped the bans will protect workers and stop young people from taking up the habit.
Health Minister Wendy Edmond is hoping the bans protect workers and says it is good timing in light of yesterday's landmark passive smoking decision in New South Wales.
But Irene Monto from the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union says while the legislation is a good start it does not go far enough.
"There are certain exemptions in the proposed amendments to the tobacco smoking bill that are targeted at areas such as casinos and in pubs and clubs, where there are a lot of workers who still have to go to work and have passive smoking as a real issue for them," she said.
The long-awaited legislation will be introduced into State Parliament today, but will not come into effect for another 12 months.
The Queensland Tourism Industry Corporation chief executive Daniel Gschwind, says consumer trends suggest the laws should please a vast majority of tourists.
"I think this compromise allows for a bit of both and allows smokers to smoke in a bar area, in a non-dining area and protects diners from being exposed to smoke, so I think, yes, we will have a few possibly unhappy customers, but by and large I think customers will welcome this change," he said.
The Queensland Hotels Association's Gold Coast chairman, Tony Condon, says the new laws will give customers a clear smoking or non-smoking choice at pubs.
The tavern owner says he is pleased the laws will not extend to public bars.
Smoking will be banned in sections of bars and eating places and restrictions placed on the way tobacco products are advertised and sold under tough new laws to be introduced into Queensland parliament tomorrow.
Premier Peter Beattie said today the new legislation, to be phased in over 12 months, would ban smoking in the dining areas of bars, restaurants and cafes.
A spokesman for Mr Beattie said while smoking would still be permitted in licensed premises, it would be banned in any section of a bar where food was being served and eaten.
Queensland hotels will be given 12 months to ban smoking in bars under tough anti-tobacco legislation to go before State Parliament tomorrow.
Premier Peter Beattie said today the legislation would ban smoking in a wide range of enclosed places including hotels, restaurants and cafes.
The new laws would be phased in over 12 months to allow hotels and restaurants to make the necessary adjustments.
SMOKERS are spending up to four hours a day away from their desks on cigarette breaks.
A Queensland survey of 200 workers found the average smoking break was 5min 32sec.
But that blew out to 10 minutes when factoring in the time taken to leave and return to work stations.
With heavy smokers puffing as many as three cigarettes an hour, the amount of productive time sacrificed at work quickly added up.
The findings have angered employers.
The Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry said bosses were becoming "increasingly concerned " about dropping productivity among smokers.
"Some smokers are taking too many breaks," chamber commercial services general manager Peter Ellender said. . .
The survey was completed for the Brisbane producers of herbal quit-smoking product CigArrest.
A LABOR government would initiate a $1 million education and advertising campaign to convince young Queenslanders not to smoke, Premier Peter Beattie said today.
Mr Beattie said his government, if re-elected, would also restrict access by young people to cigarettes and dramatically increase fines for people selling tobacco products to minors. . .
The policy includes a $500,000 quitting while you're ahead anti-smoking advertising campaign targeting people in the 12 to 17 years age group and a $500,000 project to help primary school children resist taking up smoking and other drugs.
The Queensland Cancer Fund said 10,000 school children had started smoking statewide in the last three years.
A survey by Education Queensland had found 65,000 children were now classed as regular smokers, with a dramatic increase among year 11 and 12 students, QCF executive director Graeme Brien said.
Studies in the United States had found that children responded positively to smoking in movies and Mr Brien said there was evidence that Australian children reacted in a similar way.
"A major contributing factor is the glamorous portrayal of smoking in the movies," he told AAP.
"It gives the impression that it's normal and socially acceptable." . .
But the news from the 1999 survey of 2,000 Queensland school children was not all bad, with the trend in smoking uptake rates among 12 to 15 year olds steady at 17 per cent, a figure which the QCF regarded as still too high.