QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator HUME (Victoria—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:40): Minister, you're right on some things. In my home state of Victoria, there have been more than 200 tobacco related arsons in the past three years alone. Organised crime is making an estimated between $4 billion and $7 billion a year from illicit tobacco.

That money has been funding the firebombings, extortions, drugs, scams and violence that we see in the news every week. Can the Prime Minister look small-business owners in the eye and commit that his government will put a stop to the organised crime behind illicit tobacco that is destroying their businesses?