How a $10 billion tobacco tax became a smuggler’s jackpot
Our tobacco policies haven’t made it more expensive to smoke. They’ve actually made it cheaper to smoke and led to a state-sponsored boom in organised crime.
Australia has been on a mission to make it much more expensive to smoke. We’ve hugely increased the tax on cigarettes, starting with a big bang under Kevin Rudd, followed by further round under this government.
The plan was simple: we were going to improve the nation’s health and its fiscal finances at the same time. Two birds, one stone.
