The Health and Environment Committee held a public hearing in Townsville on Wednesday about the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Amendment Bill.

Proposed amendments include a licensing scheme for the wholesale and retail sale of smoking products, creating deterrents against the unlawful supply of smoking products along with penalties and the introduction of new offences and penalties to protect children from smoking.

Dr Steven Donohue, director of Townsville’s public health unit, told the hearing ongoing legal disparities have impeded attempts by health authorities to stem the illegal sale of tobacco and vaping products in the region.

He pointed to the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act (TOPSA) and Medicines and Poisons Act (MPA), noting how the legislation works against targeting illegal operators.

“Under TOSPA, you can search and seize but you can’t get in without permission or a warrant beyond the front desk,” he told the inquiry.

“Under Medicines and Poisons, you can get in even without a warrant or permission, but you can’t seize anything.

“Under MPA it’s called reasonable suspicion, under TOSPA it’s called reasonable belief.

“Without a legal basis, they have been utterly unsuccessful in all the basic steps that you want to talk about – entry, information, search, seizure, prosecution, at every step. There are multiple impediments.”

Donohue added there are no “goodies or baddies” involved in the sale of smoking goods but “they’re all involved in the business of death”.

He said due to the emergence and ongoing prevalence of vaping products, apart from illegal “chop chop” tobacco, Australia will have a new generation of smokers that will place a burden on healthcare systems.

“A new addict is far worse for the health of the community and the individual, than an old addict,” he said.

“The additional burden on the health services, the costs and the suffering are a fraction of what will occur with the new generation of children and teenagers who are being addicted right now. This is a public health crisis.”

“Fundamentally, this amendment bill is too little, too late, too weak, way too complicated, too slow and the cost of trying to implement it is way beyond what resources we have on this.”

The committee will hear further submissions on the Gold Coast on Thursday before a final hearing in Brisbane.

Its report on the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Amendment Bill is due on May 5 and the committee is set to table its inquiry into reducing rates of e-cigarette use in Queensland on August 31.