100 tobacco shops ‘closed’ – here’s why it’s not working

TOBACCO Licensing Victoria (TLV), the organisation charged by the state government with cracking down on Victoria’s multi-billion dollar illicit cigarette and vape trade has trumpeted the claim that they’ve “reached the milestone” of closing 100 outlets across the state.

That number was current at October 20, 2026.

Previously, none of them were in regional Victoria, but in the past two weeks, in their only foray outside of the Melbourne-Geelong metro area, the TLV and VicPOl’s VIPER task force have also “shut down” 12 shops in Gippsland.

And according to the State Government’s ‘Tobacco shop closures’ website, the closest one to home has been the ‘Quick Stop Tobacconist’ located at 44 Ridgway Mirboo north, issued with a “short term” closure notice for 90 days, until January 9, 2027.

It has been reported that illicit tobacco was being sold or supplied at the premises; that there was illicit tobacco on at premises and that tobacco was being sold from premises without a licence.

Other Gippsland sites have been closed at Trafalgar, Morwell (2), Traralgon, Moe (3), Newborough (2), Longwarry and Yarram.

Read the full list on the government’s website HERE.

“Reaching 100 closures in just six weeks shows Tobacco Licensing Victoria and Victoria Police are making full use of their strong new powers to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade,” said a TLV spokesperson in an interview with the Herald Sun.

“We are monitoring closed premises, and we have serious penalties we can impose on those breaching closure orders,” they said.

“We encourage people concerned about suspicious activity to make a report on the Tobacco Licensing Victoria website.”

But how significant and how effective have the temporary closures been?

As of October 8, NSW Health inspectors had issued 493 short-term closure orders since their new powers came into effect in November 2025, so they’re running at about 10 closures-a-week.

Advantage Victoria – our taskforce is closing about 16 outlets-a-week.

But our government got started later, and at 16 closures-a-week, it will take between 60 and 100 weeks to issue notices to all of the 1000-16000 illicit outlets in the state.

Meanwhile, organised crime and local operators aren’t standing still.

It has been reported:

• In Bairnsdale, one illicit tobacco shop de-stocked before the flying squad arrived last week
• In Wonthaggi, an illicit tobacconist has taken to handing out a phone number for customers to call if they want home deliveries, in the event they are closed down. Nice, now organised crime knows where you live and they have your phone number).
• In Leongatha, the local illicit tobacco outlet pre-empted a visit by the TLV and the VIPER task force and closed down in the main street before relocating elsewhere in the town.
• At Mirboo North, locals are still able to source their supplies locally even after the main street outlet was shut down by the authorities last week.

Even the smokers themselves say the present strategy by the government won’t work, that a cut to the cigarette excise is the only way to regain control of the $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion that the Federal Government estimates is going into the coffers of organised crime annually.

An even more staggering cumulative amount has been lost in government revenue in the past five years.

Monash MP Mary Aldred, co-chair of the Coalition's new Illegal Tobacco Taskforce, said organised crime was running rings around the government response.

While Victorian authorities estimate there are between 1000-1600 illicit tobacco shops in Victoria, Ms Aldred is working on a number of as many as 8000 resellers statewide.

"The Victorian Labor Government’s so-called crackdown is already running out of puff. Closures started at better than three shops-a-day and have slipped to around one-and-a half or two in recent weeks,” Ms Aldred said.

“At that pace, clearing the illegal shops from Victoria’s streets would take the best part of 12 years. Worse still, shops shut down in September will reopen their doors in December, just weeks after Victorians have cast their votes,” she said.

"Shutting tens of shops statewide when there are more than 8000 of them out there is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

“The shutters might be going up temporarily on these shops but they’re still open for business online.

“It’s just taking it from bricks to clicks, while Australians hand over their credit card details and home addresses to organised crime figures running these rings.”

Ms Aldred heads back to Federal Parliament this week where the government will be looking to pass its Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026.

Ms Aldred maintains that unless government makes the tough decision to reduce tobacco excise to a point where they can take back sales of tobacco from organised crime, the trade in cigarettes and vapes will continue to run out of control, fuelling the other nefarious activities of organised crime from drug importation and distribution, to car thefts, fire-bombings, murder and, in at least one incident, funding terrorism on our own shores.