Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027
Mr CONAGHAN (Cowper) (18:59): Every Australian knows that taxpayer dollars should be allocated to the areas and the projects that best enhance our nation's chance at a safe and prosperous future, that align with our values and that protect our sovereignty. These are tenants that should be overlaid in every portfolio, and Home Affairs is no exception. Today, I'd like to focus on two areas within the portfolio that I've received the most commentary on from my constituents.
They are namely illegal tobacco and, more recently, the ISIS brides. I've been banging on about illegal tobacco for seven years. Illicit tobacco and vapes are just flooding our local high streets with illegal products, and it's directly affecting significant members of my constituency.
Parents are worried about their teenagers getting addicted to unregulated and unsafe products that they can access very easily by walking in. There are no checks. There are no licences.
They can pick up a vape. They can pick up illegal tobacco—chop chop—without even being questioned. You're seeing these pop up every single day on the corners of regional and rural Australia.
And then you have the owners of the legitimate shops who literally are closing. People who are trying to do the right thing, using legal products, are now closing their shops. Quite often, they're the ones who sell the milk and the bread in those tiny towns—like Dorrigo, which is in my electorate.
We notice there's a very real lack of action and bizarre inaction by this government. On behalf of them, I ask the minister: when will you admit that a blanket ban of vapes was never going to work without adequate AFP and Border Force resourcing and was nothing more than headline-grabbing tokenism? When will you admit that the current excise levels on regulated tobacco have actively created the illicit tobacco trade boom and take action?
Why haven't you created a permanent, standalone federal vaping, alcohol and tobacco agency similar to the US model, an agency that is funded properly and set up to work with state and territory law enforcement agencies and assist them rather than expecting them to do the heavy lifting? Why haven't you taken action to empower our courts to crack down and crack down hard on illegal operators and agents?
Without every single one of these measures, the illicit tobacco and vape trade will continue to thrive and in fact expand into our markets. This year, we're seeing reports of firebombings that have engulfed Melbourne's hospitality industry being linked to organised crime and the sale of black market liquor. It was not a stretch of the imagination to see that liquor was the next thing to come into this business model.
Then there are the ISIS brides and the litany of unanswered questions that the Australian people deserve real answers to from the minister. The first one is: why were they allowed to slip through the back door when there was a Hollywood-esque production of the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith? We need answers on that.
Why was the temporary exclusion order not imposed on the entire group of ISIS brides and children seeking to travel to Australia during 2025-26 as we saw in the example of Hodan Abby? Were passport arrivals, identity checks, consular engagement or liaison with foreign authorities provided in relation to the returns of ISIS brides in 2022, 2025 and 2026? Every Australian knows that taxpayer dollars should be allocated to the areas and projects that best enhance our nation's future and safety.