Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026

Mr KHALIL (Wills—Assistant Minister for Defence) (16:56): The Albanese Labor government is cracking down on illicit tobacco in Australia, and the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026 is really about restoring the rule of law in a market increasingly dominated by organised criminal activity. Illicit tobacco is not a victimless crime. It funds criminal networks, undermines legitimate businesses and places unregulated products into the hands of Australians.

Effective regulation depends not only on strong laws but on the public's confidence that these laws are enforced fairly and consistently. The rapid growth of illicit tobacco threatens public health, undermines confidence in our regulatory system and funds other illegal criminal activities. This bill will address a regulatory gap, allowing our law enforcement agencies greater enforcement powers, because no Australian should have to live in fear of the next firebombing in the illicit tobacco gang war.

That's exactly what people have been fearful of. We've seen this across the news for the last period of time where the firebombings and the threats have occurred. This is serious also in the sense that illicit tobacco directly funds the commission of other crimes like murder, kidnapping, arson and assault, and organised criminals have turned to importing illicit tobacco because they believe it is less risky than smuggling drugs.

This government, the Albanese government, is going to change that calculus. Our focus is to shut down illegal shops and make this trade unprofitable so that the crime is not worth the risk. Organised criminals need to know that importing illicit tobacco carries serious penalties, including jail time.

Under our government, we are going to crack down on these criminals because there is no place for this illegal criminal activity in our community. Selling cigarettes is not against the law. These laws are aimed at organised criminals and the front companies they use.

This government is doing everything to balance the need to combat criminal activity without undue burden on legitimate and legal business. So the bill will seek to amend the Customs Act 1901, the Excise Act 1901 and other relevant Commonwealth legislation to expand law enforcement powers to investigate illicit tobacco related offending and to raise the penalties for such offences.

These aren't new powers. We're enhancing powers to investigate illicit tobacco offending and increase the consequences. The key measures in the bill include increasing criminal penalties for the importation, possession, buying, selling, supply, production or manufacturing of illicit tobacco; enabling the use of telecommunications access powers in relation to illicit tobacco related offences; and expanding the scope of search warrant powers, information disclosures, the availability of examination orders and the grounds for making a non-publication order.

These amendments do not introduce unprecedented investigative powers. Instead, they aim to provide greater consistency and clarity across existing search warrant frameworks. They're also not expected to impose additional legislative burdens on business or community organisations in Australia.

Previously there has been legislative amendments introduced to address the risks associated with the illicit tobacco market, including on its profitability, however, the market has continued to have exponential growth and profitability for criminal factors. It is quite obvious to all that more work is needed to deter, disrupt and prevent further growth in the market and that's exactly what we are debating today—tougher penalties for those who profit from illicit tobacco—because without these amendments penalties and law enforcement powers will remain inadequate.

I would hope that all those across the aisle would understand that. Without these amendments, law enforcement will not have the powers they need to combat these criminal groups. Without these amendments, things will only get worse.

Taken in conjunction, the reforms in this bill seek to rebalance the risk-to-reward calculation made by criminal actors. This bill will raise offence penalties to match the severity of the harm being caused by the illicit tobacco trade and will enhance Australia's proceeds of crime regime to better target criminal profits from illicit tobacco. This illicit tobacco problem is really a wicked problem for Australia.

It has caused wide-reaching problems for public health and public revenue, and it now presents itself as a serious organised crime crisis. Communities across our country are increasingly witnessing the violence and intimidation linked to illicit tobacco operations, from illegal storefronts to organised fire bombings and extortion. One has just got to turn on the nightly news to see that criminal groups have used illicit tobacco as a vehicle to bolster their profits and to fund intergang warfare.

Organised crime groups are earning a whopping $4 billion to $7 billion in profits. This is funding other crimes such as arson attacks and murder. This trade is further fuelling that violence, the fire bombings, the intimidation as these groups actually fight each other in a turf war around distribution—something that has become an all too common practice here in Australia—and they are not victimless crimes.

They harm communities, they harm honest retailers, they harm workers, they harm people living in nearby homes and they are a harm and a risk to public safety, not to mention to the lives of the firefighters who are put into danger every time one of these attacks occurs. This bill responds decisively to a growing threat to public safety. In my electorate of Wills, organised crime groups have firebombed storefronts in Coburg, in Brunswick East, in Glenroy, in Hadfield, in Pascoe Vale and in Fawkner.

This is a list of nearly every suburb in my electorate that has had a firebombing. Earlier this year, in my local suburb of Glenroy, organised crime groups committed six different arson attacks and shootings in two months alone. One shop in Glenroy had been targeted twice in one month, and another shop was firebombed and then shot at three weeks later, making those incidents the fourth attack on a single business.

Local traders in Glenroy have expressed that they will be the next shop targeted. One trader was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying: 'I don't feel safe, but I still have to go to work. We shouldn't have to put up with this.

We're not used to ongoing crime like this in our country.' It is unacceptable that members of my community do not feel safe going to work or running their businesses. The illicit tobacco trade is fuelling this violence and this intimidation. The risks and the harm that illicit tobacco pose to our community cannot be understated.

That is why this bill is so needed. It's so vital to come down hard on these criminals. Allowing this trade to continue would not only risk unwinding decades of success in tobacco control and lowering smoking rates in Australia but risk tearing apart the very safety and wellbeing of our own communities, such as in my electorate of Wills.

We can't let this wave of violence continue. We have a responsibility to wipe out illicit tobacco and the organised crime crisis it brings. We're going to disrupt and dismantle border threats to stem the flow of illicit tobacco before they make it to our shores.

We're going to enhance detection, disruption and destruction of illicit tobacco and vapes at the border and within the community. And we're going to have better connection and coordination of efforts across the Commonwealth and the states and territories, including the establishment of a national disruption group. This bill will work in conjunction with our existing efforts to crack down on illicit tobacco.

Since 2023, the Albanese government has provided $346 million in funding to the Australian Border Force to crack down on illicit tobacco and vaping products. We have also appointed the first ever Illicit Tobacco And E-Cigarettes Commissioner, with $21.3 million allocated in the 2025-26 budget to help coordinate national efforts to combat illicit tobacco. We are seeing real and tangible outcomes as a result of the government's policy.

Since January 2024, more than 14 million vaping products and accessories have been seized by the Australian Border Force. In just the last six months of 2025, more than one billion illicit cigarettes were also seized. Interjurisdictional relationships have also improved, as it is crucial that the Commonwealth, the states and the territories work together on these efforts.

That includes new cooperation through the National Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Coordination Forum. By increasing the consequences for those dealing in the marketplace of illicit tobacco, we are further strengthening our ability to thwart the harms placed on our citizens, our shop owners, our businesses and our communities. Together, the reforms in this bill are aimed and will protect public health, support legitimate businesses and disrupt the organised crime networks that profit from the illicit tobacco trade.

Our coordinated national response further ensures Australia remains safer, healthier and fairer for future generations to come. I commend this bill to the House.