Tamania and NSW savage Canberra over tobacco ‘disaster’ | Take the poll
The NSW and Tasmanian governments have savaged Canberra over an ‘enormous public policy disaster’, as they announce new laws to target criminals selling illegal tobacco | TAKE THE POLL
The Tasmanian and NSW governments have savaged Canberra for having the worst tobacco policies in the world, as both states move to introduce new laws targeting major revenue streams of organised crime.
In strong comments that denounced the Albanese Labor government’s failed tobacco policy that has fuelled a lucrative market for organised crime, Tasmania’s Liberal Police Minister Felix Ellis and NSW Labor Health Minister Ryan Park both launched a barbed rebuke at federal Labor for distorting the market.
While Mr Ellis said Labor must “wake up” and realise it has one of the worst frameworks on earth, Mr Park said he and Premier Chris Minns found it “frustrating” that the state had to take the lead on enforcement when the product was flowing in from national borders.
Introducing the latest tranche of state laws which will penalise landlords who knowingly allow the illicit tobacco and vape trade to operate from their properties, both ministers blamed Labor for failing to recognise that the excise on tobacco must be lowered.
Mr Park confirmed he had written and spoken to his federal counterpart Mark Butler in a bid to have the excise lowered but it fell on deaf ears.
“There’s not a movement yet from the federal government in relation to that. That’s a challenge for us. I think most people would see that an excise or a tax that is going up but is producing less revenue is one that perhaps is not doing what it’s meant to do,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Ellis described the illegal tobacco trade as “an enormous public policy disaster” affecting communities nationwide.
“Without a doubt, the federal government’s response to smoking and illegal tobacco has been one of the worst public policy disasters in the world right now,” Mr Ellis said during a press conference where he displayed hundreds of illicit products.
“They have somehow managed to achieve an increase of the cost-of-living for everyday people, criminalising users of legal products, reducing their tax take and increasing smoking – all while giving a gift to organised crime.
“We’ll take strong action here to make sure that Tasmania is a particularly bad place for this kind of trade to operate but there will not be a solution to this more broadly in the country until the federal government wakes up and realises that their tobacco framework, particularly their taxes and charges, are fuelling this problem … That is one of the worst in the world.”
The Tasmanian government also signed a new memorandum of understanding between the police force and the health department, which will formalise intelligence sharing and joint enforcement efforts.
The legislation, expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026, comes amid a sharp rise in seizures across the state.
Tasmania has been particularly vulnerable to the illicit market, recording the second-highest smoking rate in Australia after the Northern Territory.
“We’re seeing organised crime, utilising the cash that comes in from these illegal operations, have significant damaging impacts on communities right around our country,” Mr Felix said.
Between July and October, joint operations uncovered more than 531,000 cigarettes, 809 kilograms of loose tobacco and nearly 8,000 vapes.
Director of Environment and Health Nick Bunker said the ready availability of cheap, illegal products was undermining public health programs and keeping smokers hooked.
“It’s certainly a concern that the increased availability and the lower price point of illicit products leads to people that may have given up continuing to smoke,” he said.
Tasmania’s island geography adds another layer of difficulty, with multiple potential entry points for illegal products.
An industry source told The Australian Tasmania and NSW deserved credit for taking action and holding the federal government to account.
“Australia is being overwhelmed by organised crime profiting from illicit tobacco and nicotine products. Yet states are being forced to foot the bill and divert scarce resources to address a problem created by federal policy failure,” the source said.
“They should be outraged. This is not a challenge Australia can simply arrest its way out of. While we applaud Tasmania and other states for stepping up, the Commonwealth must take responsibility and lead a co-ordinated national solution.”
The announcement comes after The Australian’s investigation exposed a catastrophic public policy stalemate on the issue, with a $5bn-a-year black market and an underworld turf war fuelled by years of steep cigarette tax hikes.
This week the NSW government introduced laws that hit landlords who allow the trade to operate from their properties with a $165,000 fine or a year in jail.
The new laws were the latest of a raft introduced in NSW in a bid to head off flourishing crime and violence surrounding the trade in Victoria, which is the only state without store-closure powers despite having the biggest illicit market problems.
The Cook Labor government in Western Australia has also been accused of lagging behind.
Overdue laws targeting WA’s booming illicit trade will not be tabled in parliament until 2026, even as new figures show more people were picking up the deadly habit.
The rise in the illicit tobacco trade was flagged by British American Tobacco as early as 2020, when Australia witnessed a surge in domestic cigarette manufacturing operations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since then, a violent turf war has taken hold of the tobacco market by Middle-Eastern and Asian organised crime syndicates operating with impunity.
In response to the rebuke by Tasmania and NSW, Labor has flatly rejected claims that its soaring tobacco excise was fuelling a black market, insisting it won’t “surrender health policy to organised criminals”.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill denied excise as an issue.
“There is no magic rate of excise that you could put in place that would impact or stop this illegal trade,” Mr Hill told The Australian.
“The very big increases in excise happened last decade under Coalition Governments - yet if they’re now arguing Australia should surrender health policy to organised criminals, they should just say so.”
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