This Month
Booze and ciggies tax down $12.5b as bootlegging, illegal tobacco boom
Soaring taxes have driven a fall in consumption but also a shift towards contraband.
- Phillip Coorey
July
Nicotine use soaring as vapes go underground
Experts warn the federal government’s new vaping policies will tip money into the pockets of criminal enterprises and potentially even increase smoking rates.
- Gus McCubbing
January
Crackdown seizes $4.5m of disposable vapes
Border Force authorities seized 150,000 disposable vapes worth about $4.5 million after the federal government cracked down on the ‘public health menace’.
- Gus McCubbing
September 2023
Metcash says higher living costs, illicit tobacco trade dent sales
Revenue at the food, liquor and hardware divisions is up 1.7 per cent so far this year, but consumers are seeking discounts and spending less at bars and pubs.
- Carrie LaFrenz
- Exclusive
- Tax avoidance
Billions in taxes being lost as illegal tobacco booms
Australian Border Force has confiscated just under a billion illegal cigarettes worth nearly $1.1 billion in forgone tax over the past two years.
- Ronald Mizen
August 2023
Illegal tobacco, rising cigarette prices dent supermarket profits
Master Grocers Association chief David Inall says illicit tobacco is a significant concern for its 2700 members, mostly independent grocery and liquor stores.
- Carrie LaFrenz
May 2023
Former federal cop has ‘no confidence’ in vaping crackdown
Sophisticated international crime gangs will easily outwit state and federal government attempts to crack down on recreational vaping, critics say.
- Duncan Hughes
- Explainer
- Smoking & vaping
Australia’s vaping problem (and the $234m plan to fix it)
The federal Labor government wants to enforce a new ban on vaping in Australia. But why is it such a big problem, and why doesn’t the current ban work?
- Campbell Kwan and Ingrid Fuary-Wagner
March 2023
‘Not benign’: Labor plans vaping crackdown
Health Minister Mark Butler has accused the tobacco industry of marketing vaping products to children.
- Tom McIlroy
February 2023
- Opinion
- Sharemarket
Celebrity fund managers on the nose as alternative models soar
The halos around celebrity fund managers like Neil Woodford and Cathie Wood have slipped on the back of ridiculous claims and investment blow-ups.
- Tom Richardson
December 2021
Illegal tobacco costs nation $5b a year, says BIS Oxford
Illegal tobacco has burgeoned to the point where it costs the community more than $5 billion a year in lost tax revenue, profits and jobs, according to a report by BIS Oxford Economics.
- Jacob Greber
November 2021
Take cigarettes off retail shelves to support quitters, experts say
Control efforts have so far been too focused on measures that dampen demand, such as taxes, and it’s time for a shift in thinking, they warn.
- Jill Margo
March 2021
Senators claim retail lobby group ‘misled’ e-cigarette inquiry
The National Retailing Association says it doesn’t have to reveal the source of the money for its campaign that supported Philip Morris’ position on vaping.
- Neil Chenoweth
February 2021
- Exclusive
- Smoking & vaping
The secret money trail behind vaping
E-cigarettes are supposed to stop people smoking - but the money trail shows big tobacco is all over the push to legalise vaping.
- Neil Chenoweth
December 2020
Tobacco giant wheezes on about COVID-19 charity
When it comes to brazen PR statements, Philip Morris' submission to a Senate vaping inquiry goes full throttle.
- Liam Walsh
September 2020
Whistleblowers tell how tobacco industry exploits loopholes
Legal legal loophole provides a “last line of marketing” to tobacco companies and should be urgently closed down, say researchers.
- Jill Margo
June 2020
Australia prevails in decade-long duel with Big Tobacco
The pioneering "plain packaging" rules for cigarettes have now seen off every legal challenge the tobacco industry has thrown at them.
- Hans van Leeuwen
Australia wins tobacco case at World Trade Organisation
The pioneering "plain packaging" rules for cigarettes have now seen off every legal challenge the tobacco industry has thrown at them.
- Hans van Leeuwen
February 2020
- Opinion
- Sugar tax
The sinister side of the woke nanny state
Our self-appointed betters who claim to know what's good for us are now telling us not only how to live but how to think.
- David Leyonhjelm
November 2019
China puts the brakes on its $7b vaping industry
The world's biggest manufacturer of e-cigarettes has banned the online sale of vapes to address rising health concerns.
- Sun Liangzi and Denise Jia