This Month
Minns wants tobacco tax cut to fight crime gangs
NSW Premier Chris Minns has joined Victoria in blaming soaring tobacco taxes for the rise in illegal cigarette sales.
Food orders on HungryPanda delivery app come with a side of black market vapes
New laws are designed to restrict sale to pharmacies, but vapes are “as easy to buy as sweet and sour pork” on one popular food delivery app.
March
How authorities lost control of the tobacco trade
Tuesday’s budget revealed that billions of dollars in tobacco duties are being evaded, amid fears a flood of illegal cigarettes is unstoppable.
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.
The crackdown on smokers has left a $9b hole. Here’s how to fix it
Treasury expects to collect just $7.1 billion in tobacco excise next financial year, as high prices force consumers to buy illegal cigarettes.
February
Chalmers was told his plan would fuel black market ciggies. He did it anyway
Warnings from Treasury that soaring excise rates would force smokers to look for cheaper, illegal cigarettes have been borne out, raising crime and reducing revenue.
Australia’s $10b tobacco mistake that’s helping criminals thrive
Unless and until we pair our tobacco taxes with matchingly strong enforcement, we’ll keep failing to fight illegal tobacco and cut smoking rates.
January
Tobacco taxes drop to nine-year low as black-market ciggies boom
A 282 per cent increase in the tobacco excise rate has turned smokers to the black market and put a big dent in the federal budget.
December 2024
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.
July 2024
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.
January 2024
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
March 2023
‘Not benign’: Labor plans vaping crackdown
Health Minister Mark Butler has accused the tobacco industry of marketing vaping products to children.
February 2023
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.
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.
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.