One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called on the Albanese government to repeal the tobacco excise to counter the criminal monopoly on the market.<\/p>\n
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this month found that nicotine consumption increased by almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025, despite population growth of only 14 per cent over the same period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The increase, according to the ABS, was driven largely by the rapid growth in illicit cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other nicotine products.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Ms Hanson said the twice-yearly excise increases were a \u201cstupid thing\u201d the government was continuing to do amid the wave of crime gripping Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a stupid thing the government has done in constantly raising the excise tax on it and it’s going up again in September,\u201d she told 2GB.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut the excise tax, cut the guts right out of it so you don’t give them an industry out there for these mongrels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Hanson was asked what she would do to the excise if she were elected and whether she would put it on the \u201cchopping block\u201d to bring it under control.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it’s become a business out there and that’s why all these thugs and criminals are out there because it is worth money to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cut their supply and, also what you have to do with customs, you have to do checks. There’s only one check on one container out of every hundred coming into the country. We don’t have the customs check.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2017, illicit products accounted for just 12 per cent of total tobacco consumption, but by 2025 that figure had risen dramatically to 80 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s own budget has forecast tobacco excise revenue collapsing from $7.767 billion in 2024-25 to just $4.13 billion this financial year, well below the estimated $6.8 billion annual healthcare cost of smoking.<\/p>\n
In March, the excise rate increased, as it does each year in March and September, to $1.53 per stick.<\/p>\n
In a report earlier this year, Oxford Economics Australia found that Commonwealth revenue forecasts had \u201cconsistently underestimated the rapid rise of the illicit market\u201d.<\/p>\n
“The illicit market was estimated at 19 per cent of total consumption in 2020-21, 50-60 per cent in 2024-25, and is forecast to reach almost 90 per cent by 2028-29,” the report found.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gap between expected excise receipts back in 2018-19 and forecasted receipts by 2028-29 (reached) $67 billion. Forecasted excise revenue by 2028-29 is $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe illicit market is a highly lucrative revenue stream for organised crime, estimated at $4b to $7b per year. Violent turf wars vying for market control are harming the community and legal retailers.”<\/p>\n
Oxford recommended Treasurer Jim Chalmers slash the excise to 2019 levels until the market stabilises, cutting the price of legal packs by about a third of the current price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called on the Albanese government to repeal the tobacco excise to counter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1869,22,21,13133,11674,1955,11672,1668,2183],"class_list":["post-32709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-albanese","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-excise","tag-hanson","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline","tag-sky-news","tag-tobacco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}