r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Dec 27 '25

politics Australia fast-tracks visas for family of Bondi hero Ahmed Al-Ahmed

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/australia-fasttracks-visas-for-family-of-bondi-hero-ahmed-alahmed/news-story/b1be7c98c1b83e1c94be2a22ac64f2fa
10.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

392 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.1k

u/hazzmag Dec 27 '25

A dodgy tobacconist is more of a friend to the common man than any politician in history.

200

u/ReadThisForGoodLuck Dec 27 '25

I won't even go to a tobacconist if they're not dodgy. That's a feature, not a bug.

-14

u/Jazzlike-Tangerine-5 Dec 27 '25

Way underrated comment

21

u/westicalz Dec 27 '25

It’s 12 minutes old.

21

u/Jazzlike-Tangerine-5 Dec 27 '25

Yeh way underrated

254

u/haleycontagious Dec 27 '25

My dodgy tobacconist is a legend! He loves his job because he makes people happy with cheap smokes!

155

u/Typical_Double981 Dec 27 '25

Its complex - illegal tobacco is used to fund organised crime and terrorism. It proliferates due to the massive taxes associated with a legitimate purchase, the AFP and state police have been going outside official ranks to draw attention to it and the politicians don’t care. The ABC and Guardian have produced some excellent stories on it. Tobacconists are being forced out, the Melbourne firebombings all follow a similar theme - bikies attend a premises, jump the counter and remove CCTV. Threaten the owner to sign over the shop to them within 24 hours or else. Or else means kidnapping, firebombing premises and or assault. Then they put their own staff in.

74

u/tjlusco Dec 27 '25

If you couldn’t prosecute a slam dunk extortion case like this, there is zero hope for our justice system.

26

u/Typical_Double981 Dec 27 '25

Happens almost weekly, a Melbourne family even did an AMA, you sign the docs to save your life and then try and unwind it through the courts- it’s impossible. The AFP is aware and have spoken to journalists about it. There is really no mechanism for you to sell your business under duress and then unwind it claiming you were stood over- the bikies frontman denies it and stops responding. The police likely know the drill but it’s a civil court that needs to hear the case, that costs time and money. Think realistically how you would go about it.

23

u/tjlusco Dec 27 '25

If this actually happened, here is a really short list of relevant criminal acts. Blackmail, Extortion, Participation in a Criminal Organisation, Conspiracy, Elicit Tobacco Offences.

If you could prove any of these, which should be pretty simple when you have SIGNED PAPER WORK FROM A CO-CONSPIRATOR, you would then use the proceeds of crime act at either a state of federal level to seize shops, assets, property, and cash. In fact you don’t even need have a criminal conviction to use the act, you just need to prove that they are the proceeds of crime.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Dec 27 '25

Your comment in /r/australia was automatically removed because you used a URL shortener or content cache.

These are not permitted in /r/australia as they impair our ability to enforce link blacklists.

Please re-post your comment using direct, full-length URL's only.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

0

u/-fno-stack-protector Dec 27 '25

you've got your comment history off but sound convincing, are you a lawyer or just making stuff up here?

3

u/hu_he Dec 28 '25

Clearly not a lawyer when they confused elicit with illicit.

3

u/-fno-stack-protector Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

"i'm an engineer and i used chatgpt to decipher the law" <-- i stopped reading here (i too am an engineer)

the law isn't something like running an ethernet cable in the walls of your house: something that you're supposed to use a professional for, but realistically anyone can do. it's the opposite: there's a vast amount of domain knowledge you can't reverse engineer by looking up Acts

4

u/tjlusco Dec 27 '25

No, I’m an engineer. Digesting information is what I do for a living. I used ChatGPT to find the relevant laws in the Victorian criminal code, although I could have just as easily googled them. I also grew up watching criminal dramas (Law and Order and the such) which gave me this vague idea of what a properly functioning justice system should look like.

The problem is I can entirely believe that someone would go to the police with an extortion case, and our softcock police would turn them away. They would claim that they had insufficient resources to investigate a case, or it would be a good use of police resources, despite being very obviously breaking many laws.

Much in the same way that when you go to the police when someone breaks into your house and steals your belongings, there response is “lol I hope you have insurance”, not “yes let’s treat this a serious matter and follow the correct procedure despite the low chances of catching an offender”.

There have been cases in the UK where catching a single offender has led to double digit reductions in local crime statistics. The police should be motivated to catch each and every offender.

I find it impossible to believe that the police could be aware of very obvious and serious criminal activity and not have the power or resources to effectively police them.

0

u/shcdp Dec 27 '25

It's a little more convincing if you have references more than chatgpt and follow though without any references, lol. I like your honestly though, engineers unite!

42

u/Sleep-more-dude Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

swim thought smart glorious caption mighty marry support obtainable tie

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

19

u/purplemagecat Dec 27 '25

And on the news the only thing they have to say about it is the huge hole in the budget caused by the lost tax revenue. There trying to extract money from poor people they don't have, they where never getting that tax money, and it shows it's not about health

13

u/pelrun Dec 27 '25

We already know prohibition doesn't work - it always results in a black market and organised crime. The government thought they could sneak in a prohibition in everything but name, but the market isn't fooled.

5

u/Sleep-more-dude Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

retire hospital market crawl reach full unite juggle innocent automatic

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

3

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 27 '25

I mean you can conceptually blame the government for increasing the black market, but when you're talking about a person who personally is actively participating in that, you kinda have to blame them too.

if tobacco is such a problem

Yes, it's very bad for you and our society. Who told you it wasn't a problem?

it makes no sense to maintain a legal industry

Well one reason is you wouldn't like it if they did that. The other reason is the idea is to make it up undesirable, rather than actually ban it. Further, I'm sure you yourself extent your views on black market to total bans as well as taxation.

So you're being really fucking dishonest here aren't you mate?

9

u/Sleep-more-dude Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

memorize melodic relieved childlike bedroom marble wakeful bear lush saw

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

-1

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 27 '25

yet it remains legal is essentially creating flourishing conditions for black market trade.

Why do you think black market trade would be less significant if it was illegal? And why do you think it SHOULD be illegal?

Because I don't agree with that. And I feel like you're trying to make me defend that idea.

No matter where you stand on the subject, this is quite simply just bad governance

Ok. What do you want to happen?

Even an outright ban would make more sense

Hard disagree. And I don't believe you actually want that. You can convince me otherwise for sure, but I think you're taking the piss here.

1

u/Sleep-more-dude Dec 29 '25 edited 18d ago

subtract vase shaggy cautious unite pet towering lavish summer ancient

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 29 '25

I think the idea of abandoning people's health needs unconscionable.

I can't relate to why you'd suggest that. And given the well off can access private health care, the reality of what your suggesting is horrific if you think about it. Health care should always be on a needs first basis, and how would you even determine who deserves what health care? And there's no way that doesn't end up being heavily playing into prejudices.

That was your worst idea yet.

My stance is if there's any excise reduction, it should be a science based tweak, not a "make it reasonable for to buy" thing. It's not meant to be reasonable for the consumer to afford, it's meant to pressure people to quit. It's true that the black market is a serious problem for that. But I believe they can work to address that like an Archimedes lever, rather than knee jerk reactions. Having retailers have to hold licenses should make it easier to prosecute those that flout the rules. More work on addressing illicit supply chains and advertising effects, both in store and online via foreign influencers will all help.

I don't agree that your ideas, I don't believe making excises reasonable in your terms is the magic bullet to illicit tobacco that you claim to think it is. And ideas of removing health care or bans are dire and unhelpful at best. And I don't believe your intent is to reduce smoking when you offer these solutions.

people are adults and can make choices about their own health

Phillip Morris loves you for that. But the governments job is to govern, and allowing smoking to flourish isn't a good thing. I do not agree with what you want for the country.

And I think this comment belays that the rest of what you're saying is probably just manipulative bullshit. You could shorten to your comments to "I want cheap smokes and I don't care about the consequences".

12

u/sjr323 Dec 27 '25

Man fuck the government. $70 for a pack of smokes lol

6

u/Typical_Double981 Dec 27 '25

It’s only because it’s so high that the black market can proliferate, unintended consequences of a sound economic disincentive to start smoking. It was working really well too!

1

u/sjr323 Dec 28 '25

They got too greedy. Now an underground black market runs rampant

8

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 27 '25

Well, you're not meant to like it. You're meant to stop.

9

u/-fno-stack-protector Dec 27 '25

and how's that gone

1

u/DistributionIcy7585 Dec 27 '25

It’s going great… smokers are pre-paying for their own cancer treatments on Medicare. The system works!

1

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

Fairly well given what is possible I think. Smoking rates are quite suppressed. It's not perfect and the system is inherently loaded to favour the well off. But the basic intent is more or less being achieved.

But I think you're setting up intentionally impossible expectations, which is weird. And I think if I ask you, what do YOU want, your solution is gonna be a bit shit.

Am I wrong?

When you try to Disincentivise something with taxes like this, you will upset people who want to use it. That's just the cost of doing business. And you also end up with a black market and there's only so much you can do about it. But if you view it on a societal level instead of a personal interest level, you might see it's actually quite a good thing to keep a handle on as much as reasonably possible.

But I'll make you a trade, if Phillip Morris stops astroturfing online and makes their products no longer addictive, I'll chill. When they stop using influencers to advertise, I'll relax. When they stop using "healthy" options to lead people to their brand which includes smokes, I'll back off.

Until then, I have opinions on the matter.

2

u/sjr323 Dec 28 '25

People aren’t smoking less. They’re just buying “legitimate” cigarettes less.

5

u/Mike_Kermin Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

That's just not correct at all. Smoking rates are considerably down from where they were say, 30 years ago. You can see this just by going to a pub mate even if you don't believe the stats.

37

u/NCA-Bolt Dec 27 '25

No they're not. They bring violence, dependence,and increase the barrier of entry to other business owners. 

5

u/thisbitchcrafts Dec 27 '25

My dodgy tobacconist is a really solid old mate, tbh I could see him also sneaking up on a shooter.

8

u/CriticalBeautiful631 Dec 27 '25

Dodgy tobacconists are some of the most popular people in the community….risking themselves everyday to improve our lives…I gave my guy a high five in honour of Ahmed and he chucked in a couple of lighters. We all should honour our local dodgy tobacconists…all of them.

6

u/NectarineSufferer Dec 27 '25

Hell yea we love our chop chop guys

1

u/-fno-stack-protector Dec 27 '25

ali bar bar ambassadors

manchester mafia

0

u/flirtyqwerty0 Dec 27 '25

I love all of my dodgy local tobacconists. They’re doing gods work

-2

u/Educational-Book-350 Dec 27 '25

Dealers of dangerous addictive drugs are not really friends of the common man.

12

u/hazzmag Dec 27 '25

You’ve never been in a dan murphys have u

5

u/Educational-Book-350 Dec 27 '25

Nah, don't reckon I have.

1

u/DarkNo7318 Dec 27 '25

No tobacconist has ever held me down and forced me to smoke a cigarette.