Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Ms BERRY (Whitlam) (12:35): I rise today in support of the Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026. The bill amends the Customs Act 1901 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to introduce a series of measures aimed at clarifying criminality associated with illicit tobacco products and enabling enforcement and prosecution.

At its core, this bill is about protecting Australians. It's about protecting public health, protecting communities from serious and organised crime and protecting the integrity of our borders. It's also about ensuring that Australia does not surrender decades of successful tobacco control policy to international criminal syndicates who profit from addiction, disease and lawlessness.

The Albanese Labor government has a clear position: we are not going to abandon evidence based health policy because organised criminals have identified an opportunity to make money, nor are we prepared to create a new generation of Australians addicted to nicotine by winding back protections that have helped drive smoking rates to historic lows. Australia has one of the strongest and most enviable tobacco control records in the world.

Daily smoking among adults has fallen dramatically. According to recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data, daily smoking rates have fallen to around 5.8 per cent of adults. This is hundreds of thousands fewer smokers than only a few years ago.

Smoking nevertheless remains Australia's leading cause of preventable disease and death, responsible for enormous human suffering and healthcare costs. The simple truth is that consuming tobacco kills people. The evidence is overwhelming and has been established over many decades.

Smoking is linked to lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and numerous other illnesses. Public health experts estimate that smoking kills approximately two in every three long-term smokers and remains responsible for around one in five cancers diagnosed in Australia. Behind the statistics are real people—families who watch loved ones struggle through chemotherapy, children who lose parents too early, and grandparents who never meet their grandchildren.

I should note that I lost my own grandfather, Bob, to the health impacts of smoking. These are the human consequences of nicotine addiction and tobacco use. The harms do not stop with traditional cigarettes.

E-cigarettes or vapes are also part of the problem. This is important as the coalition have made public statements that we don't need to worry about vaping. In the last decade, vaping has emerged as a significant public health challenge.

Alarmingly, vaping products are readily available and heavily marketed in ways that appeal to children and teenagers. In the towns throughout my electorate of Whitlam, like many other places in Australia, vape shops have sprung up near schools and in shopping centres frequented by young people. The evidence base on vaping harms is growing.

Studies from Australia and internationally have linked vaping to nicotine addiction, respiratory disease, cardiovascular impacts and exposure to toxic chemicals. Recent research from the University of Sydney presents strong concerns regarding links between vaping and both lung and oral cancers. These products frequently contain highly concentrated nicotine, heavy metals and harmful chemicals.

Dental professionals have reported increasing cases of gum disease, oral inflammation, tooth decay and other oral health complications associated with vaping and nicotine pouches. Equally concerning is the relationship between vaping and smoking uptake. Young people who vape are much more likely to progress to conventional cigarette smoking.

The idea that vaping would act as an exit ramp from nicotine addiction has simply not been reflected in the experience of many Australian communities. The public health dimensions are deep, and they are alarming. There's also an environmental dimension to vapes in particular.

Disposable and illicit vaping products have become a form of toxic litter in our suburbs. They contain lithium batteries, plastics and chemical residues. Despite being an electronic waste requiring proper disposal, they are routinely discarded in parks, streets, school grounds and waterways.

Communities are left to manage the environmental consequences while criminal syndicates pocket the profits. Understanding the problem requires us to understand the nature of the illicit market. Illicit tobacco is a global challenge.

A packet of cigarettes can be manufactured in parts of South-East Asia for mere cents. Those products can then be smuggled across borders and sold at prices that undercut legitimate products while still generating enormous criminal profits. This is not a uniquely Australian problem.

Jurisdictions throughout Europe, North America and Asia continue to grapple with illicit tobacco, illegal nicotine products and organised-crime infiltration of supply chains. The international experience demonstrates two important lessons. First, enforcement matters.

Second, organised crime adapts when governments fail to act. The Albanese Labor government has chosen action. Since 2024, the Commonwealth has committed more than $365 million towards combating illegal tobacco and vaping products.

Enforcement is now occurring before products leave foreign ports at Australian borders and throughout domestic supply chains, and the results have been significant. The Australian Border Force, alongside partner agencies, has achieved record seizures. Over the last year, authorities seized more than 2,300 tonnes of illicit tobacco and 13.2 million vaping devices.

Criminals have been denied profits, and harmful products were prevented from reaching Australian consumers. Over a kiloton of tobacco was seized in just four months under Operation PRINTWALL because of the Australian Border Force's strengthened controls and trusted partnerships. The Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Australian Border Force have prevented almost 24 million illicit vaping products from entering Australian communities since January 2024.

This success has also been possible due to greater collaboration among relevant agencies. The National Disruption Group, established under the leadership of the Australian Border Force, has united Commonwealth, state and territory agencies in a coordinated response. The AFP led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce has restrained tens of millions of dollars in criminal assets.

Why should Australians who do not smoke care about this issue? It's because the harms extend far beyond nicotine consumption. Evidence internationally and domestically has linked illicit tobacco supply chains to broader organised criminal activity.

Around the world, investigations have uncovered exploitation, coercive labour practices and modern slavery risks within segments of illicit tobacco production and distribution networks. Closer to home, communities are experiencing the consequences firsthand. Illegal tobacco shops have become focal points for criminal activity.

We continue to hear about firebombings, extortion attempts, intimidation and turf disputes connected to illicit trade. Small-business owners operating legally should not have to compete with criminal enterprises using illicit products, untaxed profits and intimidation to establish themselves in commercial precincts. We are also witnessing distortion of local retail markets.

In some communities, illicit tobacco and vape stores are saturating the streets where traditional small businesses struggle to survive. Criminally funded operators can also absorb losses, subsidise rents and use tobacco sales to support broader illicit activity. The result is unfair competition and a weakening of legitimate local commerce.

All this unwelcome trade and consumption of harmful cigarettes and vapes is also a direct cost to taxpayers. Australians rightly expect Medicare and our public hospital system to be there when tobacco related illnesses require treatment. Yet illicit tobacco avoids the taxation and excise systems that help fund public services.

Every packet sold on the black market undermines revenue that could otherwise support health care, education, border protection and community services. The coalition and One Nation say that Australia should simply slash tobacco excise rates to compete with illicit products on price. That argument is deeply flawed.

A packet of illegally manufactured cigarettes produced overseas for a fraction of a dollar will still generate substantial criminal profits, even if excise is reduced. Legitimate businesses paying wages, complying with regulations, meeting packaging standards and operating within Australian law cannot realistically compete with international criminal syndicates on price.

Reducing the excise won't eliminate organised crime. It would simply reward it. Worse, it would mean surrendering public health policy to criminal behaviour.

If organised criminals smuggle tobacco successfully, the answer surely cannot be to weaken tobacco control measures that have saved countless Australian lives. Nor should we forget the vaping component of this debate. The coalition's recent comments concerning the legalisation and availability of vapes and nicotine products ignore the reality that vaping itself has become a major public health concern.

A focus only on cigarette excise while ignoring vaping is half baked. The objective should be fewer Australians addicted to nicotine in any form. That brings me to the bill before the House.

This legislation complements the Combating Illegal Tobacco Act 2026 and modernises Australia's customs enforcement framework to deal with the realities of today's illicit tobacco market. We are proposing a comprehensive modernisation package that updates laws designed for a very different environment and equips agencies to respond to increasingly sophisticated criminal enterprises.

The bill creates new offences for importing, possessing and transporting illegal tobacco. It introduces tougher penalties for people involved in large-scale illegal tobacco operations. It gives customs officers stronger and simpler powers to seize illegal goods.

It applies customs controls to tobacco products that have received a refund of tobacco duty. It strengthens the licensing rules for customs brokers and operators of customs depots and warehouses. And it improves the operation of proceeds of crime laws to ensure that criminal profits can be identified, restrained and confiscated.

Prosecutors will no longer need to prove detailed knowledge or intent in cases where dishonesty or deception is used to cheat the government out of revenue. This has often been difficult because organised crime groups distance themselves from importation activities. Instead, the bill introduces a set of objective observable indicators.

This will enable authorities to more easily establish criminal intent for an individual or company distributing or selling these products where those products clearly do not meet the product standards or pricing regime expected for authorised tobacco. This is what we mean by modernising the current legislation. By making evidentiary presumptions and enforcement arrangements more realistic, authorities will be better able to prosecute.

This legislation is backed up by ongoing funding. The 2026-27 budget will add $20.3 million over four years to combat the illegal tobacco market. This means more boots on the ground, strengthening licensing, supporting joint operations and enabling storage and destruction.

We know that illicit tobacco is a low-risk, high-reward activity for organised crime. This legislation increases the risks, strengthens enforcement tools and improves the ability of law enforcement agencies to follow the money. It's also part of a broader strategy.

The Commonwealth is working with states and territories, many of which have implemented tougher enforcement regimes. Queensland and South Australia have taken a lead, demonstrating that strong compliance operations, shop closures and enforcement activity can disrupt criminal business models and drive meaningful impacts. Making it easier to shut the shops is where the states and territories really do play a critical role.

Illicit tobacco will not become legitimate even if the excise is different. These shops need to be closed in the interests of public health and dismantling transnational syndicates. We know that this is a public health issue, a law enforcement issue, a community safety issue and an organised crime issue.

The Albanese Labor government is taking a serious, balanced and evidence based approach. We are strengthening border protection, supporting states and territories, investing in enforcement, targeting criminal profits and maintaining our commitment to reducing smoking and nicotine addiction across Australia.