Pressure grows over WA tobacco shop laws in wake of Bunbury firebombing

Pressure is mounting on the WA government to push through legislation to give police powers to shut down illegal tobacco stores as fears mount that rival supplier wars are now spreading to the South West.

On Sunday morning, police were called to an incident on Spencer Street in Bunbury after a suspected firebombing gutted a convenience store and several nearby businesses.

Allure Beauty & Co owner Amy Howes told 9News Perth she believed the convenience store next door, which is believed to have sold illegal vapes and tobacco, was the intended target of the arson.

Her shop and a neighbouring dentist and pizza shop were destroyed by the fire.

“We kind of knew that we were going to be collateral damage if something did escalate because of how close we are to each other, but never in my wildest dreams did we expect it to be to this extent,” she said.

“It’s shutdown our livelihoods. The dentist has been here for 32 years, we’ve been here for three years.

“The destruction in there is just insane, and it’s not going to be salvageable, we’ll literally be starting from scratch.”

Howe said her beauty shop had been broken into through a manhole in the past, with the culprits mistaking her store for the convenience shop. She also said the convenience store had been ram-raided before, with fears the criminal activity was being fuelled by WA’s growing tobacco wars.

The state government is currently working on reforms to strengthen its tobacco laws, with the penalties for selling illicit tobacco or vapes in WA still among the weakest in the country.

Opposition police spokesman Adam Hort said the issue should be top of the political agenda.

“This firebombing in Bunbury is not random, it’s the direct result, I believe, of the Cook Labor government failing to act while this type of crime expands right across Western Australia,” he said.

“I think most people in the community will know where illegal tobacco is being sold.

“It’s right under everyone’s nose. And every other state in mainland Australia has done something about it, and our state hasn’t.

“And we shouldn’t be surprised that then as a consequence of that inaction, we’re seeing more organised crime, where the inaction has made our state a target for organised crime, and small businesses like what we’re seeing in Bunbury are ultimately paying the price.”

Half of Perth’s corner shops are selling illegal tobacco, according to a recent survey from the Australian Council of Smoking and Health.

“My hope is that by the time that Parliament resumes, the government will have had this entire time to prepare the legislation that’s required to fight the illegal tobacco industry,” Hort said.

“If it’s not delivered on day one of parliament going back, then my question is, what on earth have they been doing while organised crime continues to fester right across Western Australia?”

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