Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026
Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (18:54): I thank the Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs for working on this very important proposed legislation, the Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026, and bringing it before the parliament. I note the comments of the member for Durack, and she's quite right.
We do need comprehensive policy to deal with the scourge of smoking and of nicotine addiction. Where we disagree is in the price signal of high excise for cigarettes, which—and this is very important—is one of the most important measures we can use to reduce smoking rates. It's important to recognise that smoking kills about 70 Australians every year, and they don't die in a good way—if you can ever die in a good way.
They die in a bad way. Dying of lung cancer, struggling to draw every breath through an obstructed major airway, is a really nasty way to die. Dying of emphysema—struggling and gasping for every little bit of breath until you can breathe no more with your hyperexpanded chest, your muscle wasted and your pulse in the hundreds—is a really nasty way to die.
Smoking is bad for your health. Nicotine addiction is bad for your health. The cardiovascular damage that it causes is irreversible and causes early death in many, many people.
The importation of illicit tobacco has unfortunately expanded rapidly and is increasingly linked to organised criminal activity, with these criminal entities operating at such a significant scale that our communities' law enforcement agencies and reputable businesses have struggled to deal with it. These criminal entities have also managed to have end-to-end control over the illicit tobacco importation process and also the illicit importation of vapes.
We know that the current offences and enforcement powers under the Customs Act specific to tobacco related misconduct do not adequately deter illicit tobacco importation—as the profits are huge—or support efficient enforcement, treatment, investigation and prosecution of these offences. As such, the federal Labor government is acting with this amendment to the Customs Act to introduce five measures to increase the deterrence of criminal conduct in respect of the unlawful importation of tobacco and support more effective enforcement options and related prosecutions.
It is very important that we have this comprehensive law enforcement and prosecution of the offenders. We also note that the products that they're importing are not regulated in any way. They often contain substances that are highly carcinogenic with high levels of nicotine, pesticides and other illicit substances that we can't even identify that are damaging to people's health.
We are acting to try and reduce these importations. These measures that we're introducing will also improve the operational efficiency of the Australian Border Force and its capability to respond to the prevalence of illicit tobacco imported unlawfully and circulated within the Australian community. I'd like to note that I can see the clocks are not working.
The measures are not intended to affect legitimate participants—importers of tobacco, customs brokers, depot and warehouse operators et cetera—who comply with their legal obligations. This bill is the next step in the federal Labor government's ongoing crackdown on those behind the illicit tobacco trade, whose self-interest is causing social, economic and physical harm in our society.
This self-interest is fuelled by profiteering off the addiction of others, the deaths of others, and has been weaponised by gangs and criminals who want to protect their own wealth at the expense of our health. This bill follows the passage of the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill, which I spoke on previously, with its raised penalties. It unlocked new law enforcement techniques and updated the proceeds of crime laws.
This bill builds on that work and is part of a comprehensive package of management of illicit tobacco and vapes. It raised the stakes for the criminals to what I hope will be unacceptable levels. As noted by the Assistant Minister, the number of Australians who are smoking is fewer than ever.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's most recent report showed that daily smoking records show that it's now down to a record low of 5.8 per cent of Australians aged 14 and over. On top of this, vaping rates are now stabilised and have dropped a little to be under four per cent despite the best efforts of those criminals who are seeking to profit off tobacco addiction.
It's important to also note that we know the concerning relationship between vaping or smoking and seeing young people addicted to nicotine. Vaping in particular exposes young people to huge levels of nicotine over very prolonged periods, 24 hours a day. It very rapidly leads to nicotine addiction, and we know that those who become addicted to nicotine through the use of vapes are more than three times more likely to end up as chronic smokers than those who don't vape.
It's also important to remember that the decline in smoking and vaping rates didn't just happen because we all collectively decided to stop using these silent killers. It took a lot of hard work over a long period of time, including reducing exposure to advertising of these poisonous products. It included campaigns like the BUGA UP campaign of the seventies that I remember well.
And it included the very hard-fought battle that Nicola Roxon had to fight to get plain packaging introduced. It came about because of tough policies by Labor governments, who were prepared to take the hard battles on public health policy seriously and do what they could to reduce this dreadful social harm. Unfortunately, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in our country and still represents 20 per cent of our nation's cancer burden.
As I've said, almost 70 Australians die every day of a smoking related illness, and this is probably an under-reporting of the deaths from smoking. That is why this legislation is crucial. We need to bring these mortality rates down.
We also need to reduce the morbidity that smoking causes, with cardiovascular disease, a variety of cancers, emphysema and chronic obstructive airway disease. We need to bring these rates down. We need to make sure people can get access to quit programs and harm-reduction programs for smoking and vaping and to make people healthier.
We need to encourage them to engage in respiratory rehabilitation programs, and we do this through our public health policy. This legislation is crucial. We need to bring down the rates of these health conditions, and we need to bring down the criminals and thugs who are harming our health for their wealth.
This is also important to preserve and protect our public healthcare system, which relies on taxpayer funds to support people when they need it, especially those dealing with the health consequences of tobacco related products, such as cigarettes and vapes. The Labor Party has been the party for health in Australia for the last century. It's difficult for our public hospitals and our Medicare system to maintain the level of resources and treatments needed to manage tobacco related illness when the illicit tobacco trade avoids paying any tax at all and pays no excise that would go into the public purse to treat the health conditions that smoking causes.
On top of that, we have people advocating to reduce tobacco excise, which would put smoking rates up. There's no better example than Canada, which, when it reduced its excise rates, showed a significant increase in smoking rates, at a time when most countries in the developed world had gradually decreasing rates of smoking. This legislation would also reduce the illness rates caused by smoking in our health system.
Some parties in this country are promising to reduce the tobacco excise rates, such as the coalition and One Nation, and to give tobacco a big boost and the illicit tobacco industry a big boost as well. I find both of these policy proposals shocking and disappointing. Trying to cater to both ends of this horrific industry will only have harmful effects, not only on our economy but also on our society.
I don't want to see things go back to how they were when I was a student, watching people die every day from lung cancer and smoking related diseases in our public hospital system. It will have harmful effects on our economy and our society, and I can't believe that sensible people are advocating for reductions in excise. This bill creates new offences for importing, possessing and conveying illicit tobacco, and I'm very glad of that.
With the new framework, it will focus on unlawful conduct and better reflect the reality of concealed supply chains and distribution facilities. It introduces observable indicators of illicit activity. An established indicator must satisfy the reasonable suspicion element.
It does not, by itself, establish guilt, but it will lead to easier prosecution of those who are distributing these poisonous products. Importantly, the reasonable suspicion test is objective and focuses on observable facts rather than requiring officers to prove every hidden detail of a criminal supply chain. It will make our law enforcement much easier, and it will help establish appropriate attacks on the criminals that are running these empires.
Indicators include noncompliant retail packaging, noncompliant tobacco products including products concealed in plain packaging, tobacco concealed to avoid detection, missing import invoices or required paperwork, and tobacco sold for less than the combined value of applicable excise and GST, which surely should be a primary indicator of criminal activity. That final indicator is particularly important.
The fact that tobacco is being sold below the excise and GST payable can, by itself, establish reasonable suspicion that it was unlawfully imported. This will be a very powerful tool for the Australian Border Force and state and territory police forces and will help enforcement against criminal activity immeasurably throughout the country. It's very important, with over 2,300 tonnes of illicit tobacco and over 13 million vaping devices seized by our incredible law enforcement agencies over the past year.
This number is mightily impressive from a seizure perspective; however, it's very frightening for public health perspective, and it's really frightening for our young people. Young people are being exposed to smoking products at very low costs with easy access at the present time, and it needs to stop. This should not be on the streets of our local communities.
In my own community there are many, many tobacco stores who are clearly profiting from illicit tobacco, and they need to be closed down. We are working to ensure this legislation and these activities are backed up by ongoing law enforcement funding, with the 2026-27 budget adding over $20 million over four years to combat the illegal tobacco market. I congratulate the health minister and the Attorney-General for this.
It means more boots on the ground strengthening licensing, supporting joint operations with our state law enforcement activities and enabling the storage and destruction of illicit products. This bill streamlines the seizure and disposal of illicit tobacco, which is an important step in helping our law enforcement agencies process the administrative task of their duties.
It follows concerns raised by authorities about the difficulty with the large amounts of material being detected. I'm very proud to be part of a government that's introducing this legislation. I'm very proud to be part of a government that recognises that illicit tobacco and vaping products are causing irreparable harm to our community, particularly to young people.
I don't want to see a time when smoking rates in Australia start to go up because of poor enforcement activities. This is a very important public health measure, and I congratulate the government ministers responsible for this and for the work that they are doing. At this stage we know that, for criminals, illicit tobacco is a low-risk high-reward activity, and we know that we need legislation to increase the risk to them and to strengthen the enforcement tools available to our police officers and our enforcement providers.
We need to improve the ability of law enforcement agencies to follow the money and get rid of these terrible criminals as part of our broader public health strategy. I strongly support this legislation. It comes at a crucial time when we must not give into illegal activities.
I commend the bill to the House.