Hon Simon Ehrenfeld asks about the regulation of illicit nicotine and tobacco in WA, specifically regarding staffing, seizures of nicotine pouches, and estimated sales of illicit cigarettes. The Minister's response provides some data on seizures but declines to answer the FTE question due to safety concerns and lacks data on illicit cigarette sales.

AnsweredQoN 1191Legislative Council
Asked
3 December 2025
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

Illicit substances—Regulation
1191. Hon Simon Ehrenfeld to the parliamentary
secretary representing the Minister for Health:
I refer to the regulation
of illicit nicotine and tobacco in Western Australia.
(1) How many FTEs were in the tobacco control
compliance unit as of November 2025?
(2) What was the total quantity of illegal
nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches known as ZYN or Snus, seized in
Western Australia as of November 2025?
(3) Approximately how many illicit cigarettes in
total are estimated to have been sold in Western Australia in the past 12 months?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question. The following answer has
been provided by the Minister for Health.
(1) Release of this information could compromise
officer safety and interfere with the effectiveness of critical compliance
operations.
(2) Since 1 January 2025, the Department of Health
has seized 1,693 containers of nicotine pouches from 23 premises.
(3) The Department of Health does not have access
to this data.

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