MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (15:52): Why is no-one talking about this? The Albanese government has been running interference for organised crime every step of the way. They've consistently blocked parliamentary inquiries into the role of organised crime, its connection to the CFMEU and the Labor Party cartel.

We know, when there have been public projects where public money has been invested in building infrastructure and it's ended up in the hands of organised crime, the response from this government has been to turn around, open up the chequebook and ask how much the governments want to pass on through to the CFMEU and then organised crime. We know the Albanese government continues to run a protection racket for the super profits of organised crime around illegal tobacco.

Australians want to stop the illegal tobacco trade. They do not want a government that protects the super profits of organised crime for selling illegal tobacco. This is the fundamental problem with the Albanese government's approach towards illegal tobacco.

The government thinks that it knows the answers by simply going down the pathway of law enforcement, and it does not matter how many times it fails, how many times it claims it's cracking down on the trade but all it sees is more organised crime making super profits as they ship more containers into our country and we see rates of nicotine consumption increase.

We know full well that this government does not have a plan or a solution to the problems Australians are facing right now, and we know that it's because pride is getting in their way. The Minister for Health and Ageing, the Prime Minister—they're all standing up there defending their former colleague Nicola Roxon's plan, which has catastrophically failed. It's taken a product that was regulated and that was taxed, and that money then went to support the health system—the consequences for people.

There has been an absolute collapse in the revenue that is received from tobacco consumption. And what has that meant? Public revenue has gone down.

The superprofits for organised crime from illicit tobacco have skyrocketed. But the cost to the health system has not changed. So we don't accept any sanctimonious speeches by members opposite.

We do not accept any morally superior position in their arguments, because in fact what they are inviting and they are tolerating is superprofits for organised crime from illicit tobacco sales and trading off the lives, the safety and the security, and the health of the Australian people. Their position doesn't just not make sense. It's dangerous, and Australians are living the consequences of it, one Molotov cocktail at a time, through the hundreds of businesses across this country that have been firebombed.

Of course, there are the human consequences, as many members have outlined. Members in this place have constituents who have been taken off to hospital with burns from fire directly from these Molotov cocktails—these firebomb attacks on small businesses. We're not prepared to put up with it.

Sometimes reality gets in the way of a mad ideological objective. This government, so dominated by its progressive ideology—where they think they are the superhuman superpowers who can decide how the economy works and how society works—is confronting a brutal reality. Organised crime doesn't report its payments to the ATO, organised crime doesn't care about the health and wellbeing of the Australian people, and organised crime certainly doesn't care about the law.

That's why they take this pathway. It's time Australians saw through this government and the consequences of what it does. We know there's been a collapse in tax revenue.

We know there's been an increase in the superprofits of organised crime. And let's not mistake this. When organised crime in this country makes superprofits, that then goes towards other illicit activities—illicit alcohol, gunrunning.

And we know there's a direct connection between the illicit tobacco trade and financing terrorism, including from foreign interests, against the Australian mainland. This is the problem. We have a situation where our government is running interference and backing the worst of our society against the Australian people.