Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026

Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (19:27): The sale of illicit tobacco is fast becoming one of Australia's most lucrative organised crimes. It's no longer a problem that's confined to back alleys in big cities. It's turning up in suburbs and shopping strips across the country, including in my electorate of McPherson on the Gold Coast.

This is the predictable consequence of a tax policy that may look good on a spreadsheet but ignores what's happening on the street. Out of roughly $50 for a legal packet of cigarettes, close to $30 goes straight to the tax office. Official surveys say the number of people who report smoking has dropped sharply in the past year.

That should be great news, but wastewater testing shows that Australians are consuming more nicotine now than eight years ago. Smokers have not quit. Many have simply shifted their purchasing into the black market.

At between $10 and $20 a packet, illegal cigarettes are an irresistible offer for anyone who's addicted and under financial pressure. Nicotine dependence is powerful. If the only affordable option is the illegal one, the criminal syndicates are going to win every single time.

The tax office misses out, honest retailers miss out and the public health objective is totally undermined. While Canberra keeps hiking excise on the promise that higher prices will deter smoking, under Labor, excise has been ratcheted up again without any serious plan to deal with the second-order effects—the surge in illegal traders, the growth in organised crime and the spread of illegal vapes.

The health minister has even admitted in the past that the government is not going to use the police to enforce its own vaping laws. What sort of a message has that sent to crime gangs? It has sent the wrong signal and the worst possible message.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, you've seen a government in Labor that supported our amendment as the coalition to create the Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner. But it took them more than a year to permanently appoint somebody to the role. And it's taken months after the budget last year for funds to flow to Labor's new national disruption group.

While ministers talk, the black market is thriving, and more than 130 legitimate small businesses, often family run, have already been attacked around the country with millions of dollars in damage done. Debate interrupted.