Coalition call to make tobacco products legal and affordable to smash black market

AUSTRALIA must smash the illicit tobacco market that is fuelling organised crime, hurting legitimate businesses and making a mockery of our laws, according to Federal Member for Lyne, Alison Penfold.

“Illicit tobacco is not a victimless crime,” Ms Penfold said. “It has become big business for organised crime.”

Ms Penfold says she has backed a plan, put forward by the Coalition, to attack the economics that make the market so profitable by giving law enforcement the resources needed to smash the gangs behind it.

This includes an 80 per cent reduction in tobacco excise and a $200 million nationwide law-enforcement surge.

Ms Penfold said the plan would cut the excise on a standard packet of 20 cigarettes from around $30 to just over $6; fund the targeting of criminal networks, supply chains and proceeds of crime; bring vapes and nicotine pouches into a legal, regulated and taxed adult market with protections for children; and fund a national education campaign.

Ms Penfold said legitimate retailers were paying the price for the failure to control the illegal trade.

“I have heard this message too often across the electorate,” she said.

“Small businesses doing the right thing should not have to compete against criminals operating outside the law.

“But nor do I want to demonise Australians who have been drawn into the illegal market because the price difference has become so enormous.

“People should understand that money spent on illegal tobacco can ultimately flow to organised crime. Our job is not simply to lecture them — it is to give them a realistic pathway back into the legal market.

“That means making the legal market competitive again and then coming down hard on the criminals who continue to operate outside the law.”

Ms Penfold urged the Albanese Labor Government to act rather than wait until the next election.

“The Coalition has put a comprehensive plan on the table. Labor now needs to tell Australians what it is going to do,” she said.

“We need to shut down the criminal supply chains, protect legitimate businesses and stop handing organised crime an extraordinarily profitable market.”