QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Leader of the House) (14:35): The last thing this parliament should ever do is outsource its health policy to organised crime—the last thing it should do. And that is exactly what the opposition proposes. Think about this simple fact.

The simple fact is that the raw cost of an illicit pack of cigarettes is one-sixth the cost of legal cigarettes before you get to the excise. So, even if you reduce the excise in the way that the opposition are saying, you still have a massive price differential between what organised crime are able to do and what would be available in a shop. That is why the way to deal with this has to be through law enforcement.

That is why the process has to be through the national disruption group. It has to be through the work that is being done by bringing together the Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC and the Criminal Intelligence Commission—with the work that they're doing together. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order!

The Leader of the Opposition! The member for Goldstein is warned! Mr BURKE: That is why we see simple examples such as—11 August, 106 locations, 106 persons of interest, 107,000 cigarettes, 1,440 vapes and 11 stores closed.

In the same way, from 1 July to 31 May, Border Force have seized more than two billion illicit cigarettes and 268 tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco. When those opposite put forward their policy, there was one thing that said it all: they never modelled what the impact would be on nicotine use in Australia. They never modelled that, for the very simple reason that they know all too well that the exact impact of what they are proposing would be an increase in tobacco consumption in Australia.

Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Goldstein and the member for Macarthur are both on warnings, so there will be no more interjections from them.