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

Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (17:08): I rise to speak in support of the Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Enforcement Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2026. This bill creates new offences for importing, possessing and conveying illicit tobacco, including an aggravated offence carrying up to 10 years imprisonment for large-scale and organised offending.

It closes the loophole that has led to duty-refundable tobacco leak from duty-free shops into the black market. It streamlines seizure and forfeiture powers. It tightens obligations on the customs depots, warehouses and brokers that sit in the gateway of our supply chain.

It also strengthens proceeds-of-crime laws so that the profits of this trade can be stripped from the people who make them. I do support this bill wholeheartedly. I've spoken in this House before about Australia's illicit tobacco problem, so I won't repeat the evidence today, but it is serious.

I've consulted widely, spoken to people on all sides of this debate and looked at the evidence, including the experience in Canada and elsewhere. And I'll be honest: I'm frustrated by where this debate is heading and by the stubbornness on all sides about solving this properly. Successive governments have watched a slow-motion car crash, and this government has watched it accelerate.

Excise rates have gone up while excise receipts have gone down. Crime has grown. And, seriously, I never thought I'd hear so much mainstream reporting about the Laffer curve.

We have passed enforcement measure after enforcement measure, and we are not seeing the progress that we need. That is my fundamental concern in relation to this bill. While I support the measures, I do not yet have the confidence that this is actually going to fundamentally address the issues nor do I have clear guidance from the government about under what circumstances it will consider going forward, including reviewing the excise as a potential measure.

I want to protect public health. Of course I do. Australia's low smoking rates are something that we should be celebrating, because this is about outcomes that are good for Australian families.

But health is no longer the only objective at play. We are also talking about organised crime, community safety and billions of dollars in lost tax revenue. These matter too, particularly the organised crime element of this and community safety.

That really matters in our community. On price, let me be clear I don't believe we will ever really undercut the criminals, but we can stop making the gap worse. At the very minimum the excise should be frozen.

I do not understand why the government hasn't taken the action to at least freeze the excise now rather than continue to increase the gap between the cost of cigarettes on the black market and the cost of cigarettes on legitimate markets. I am open to considering a reduction beyond that, but I want to see the modelling and I want to see greater detail in terms of that first.

The numbers put forward by One Nation and coalition are about as scientific as a finger in the air, and that is why I won't be supporting the amendments here. I want to see the government take these options in terms of excise cutting seriously. What I want to see the government do is, honestly, come up with a goal that is measurable in a time period after which they will change or not make further changes in terms of illicit tobacco, including excise cuts, because we don't have enough clarity about what the government is seeking and what the government's own success measures that are in this bill are seeking to achieve.

I think we're also not talking about how easy these products are to get. There are estimated to be more than 40,000 tobacconists in Australia. That's more than fast food or takeaway outlets.

It is now easier to buy a packet of cigarettes in this country than a cheeseburger. It's simply incongruous with the advertised rates of smoking. Equally, we cannot realistically expect underresourced police and health officials to monitor that many outlets.

The Commonwealth should be working with the states and territories to substantially tighten retail licensing. Tobacco should be sold by fewer businesses and only by those with diversified product ranges and the reputational considerations that outweigh the incentives to break the law. I think it is irresponsible for the coalition to be considering introducing new legal nicotine products before first considering how to make these products harder to get in the first place.

Yes, some legitimate businesses will be affected. I don't say that lightly, but this problem has gone so far that we have to be prepared to make hard choices. Some bad operators will reopen as mixed businesses.

That's, again, something we'll need to accept, but it will stop the neon advertising of tobacco on every street corner and make consumers less certain of which products are and are not selling. That is what a comprehensive response to this problem looks like. Stop widening the price gap.

Make it harder to access these products legally or illegally, and be ruthless on enforcement. Let's be honest. We may need to make adjustments to these approaches over time.

We are in uncharted territories, and we don't know what is going to work or what isn't. International case studies are few and far between, and the most representative one is 30 years old. The system isn't working currently, and the government needs to be honest about that and tell the public when and by what measures they are going to consider altering their approach, including considering changes to tobacco excise.

It is up to the government now to do this and to make sure that what they're putting in place this time actually works.