![\"\u2018It](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/9436d6d93127cbd54c4e93a7945eea50.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nOpposition Leader Angus Taylor has unveiled the Coalition\u2019s plan to crush the illegal cigarette trade by making legal tobacco dramatically cheaper.<\/p>\n
Mr Taylor announced the plan on Thursday, saying it would attack the booming black market and strip organised crime of its customers and profits.<\/p>\n
The plan includes an 80 per cent cut to the tobacco excise, legalising the sale of vapes and nicotine pouches, as well as a $200 million investment in law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Mr Taylor said the two-pronged approach would drive up the price of illegal cigarettes and reduce the cost of legal cigarettes, returning about $8bn in lost tax revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current policy is protecting the business model of organised crime in this country,\u201d Mr Taylor told reporters at a press conference in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to smash the business models of organised crime in this country. That is what an 80 per cent cut to the excise combined with $200 million of law enforcement will do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will bring that business model to an end by taking away the customers, taking away the profits, and then smashing what is left with\u2026 \u00a0funding for law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the Coalition proposal, the excise on a standard packet of 20 cigarettes would fall from about $31 to $6\u2014an 80 per cent reduction.<\/p>\n
The Coalition believes this will reduce the cost of legal cigarettes from about $40-$60 per packet to about $18, in line with the current $15-20 cost of illegal packets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to raise the cost of the black market\u2026We’ll take away the profits and the customers,\u201d Mr Taylor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we’ll raise their costs, and we’ll do that through $200 million of joint law enforcement activities across federal and state governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am confident that that will make the illegal trade harder and more expensive, and that will ensure that what’s left, after we’ve cut the excise, is destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume said the policy will help reduce crime, as more than 200 firebombings have occurred over three years, tied to the black market.<\/p>\n
\u201cCriminals and organised crime are running the tobacco market in Australia, and that is particularly so here in Victoria,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last three years, there’s been more than 200 firebombings here in Victoria. The latest one was just this morning. It’s become the norm,\u201d Ms Hume said.<\/p>\n
A man was critically injured in a tobacco-shop firebombing in Victoria on Thursday, which was linked to violence surrounding the illicit market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Coalition has a plan to deal with this. It’s pretty simple. Our approach is straightforward,\u201d Ms Hume said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisrupt the organised crime’s business model by lowering the excise, removing their profit margin, and then making sure that enforcement is well funded and coordinated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s illicit tobacco market has exploded over recent years, with criminal gangs estimated to control 80 per cent of the trade.<\/p>\n
This has caused tobacco excise revenue to collapse from $16.3 billion in 2020 to a projected $4.1 billion this year.<\/p>\n
Modelling by the Coalition shows the approach would be a boon to taxpayers, recouping $8 billion in revenue over the first four years.<\/p>\n
Former Australian Border Force officer Rohan Pike welcomed the plan, saying Australia was \u201cgoing downhill on every metric\u201d with the current approach.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes less than a month after One Nation committed to cutting excise by 75 per cent.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Labor has defended the existing excise, saying reducing prices would lead to a \u201crace to the bottom\u201d with bikie gangs.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek told News24.com.au the Coalition\u2019s plan to slash tobacco excise would \u201ckill people\u201d by encouraging Australians to smoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we drop the excise\u2026 that is a guarantee that we will see smoking and vaping rates in this country increase. That will lead to deaths,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we drop the price of legal cigarettes, what\u2019s to say organised crime won\u2019t drop the rate of illegal cigarettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we really going to be in a race to the bottom with criminal organised gangs making these dangerous products overseas?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In response, Liberal MP Mary Aldred, who co-authored the Coalition’s report, The Illicit Tobacco Crisis in Australia, said Ms Plibersek “had it exactly backwards”.<\/p>\n
“Criminals rub their hands together every time the tax is increased. A $30-plus tax gap on every packet of cigarettes is acting as a massive subsidy for organised crime,” Ms Aldred told News24.com.au on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“If sky high excise worked, we wouldn’t have a black market supplying 80 per cent of the tobacco consumed in this country, up from 12 per cent in 2017, on the ABS’s own numbers.”<\/p>\n
Ms Aldred pointed to figures that there have been more than 200 firebombings since 2023 amid the surge in the black market, including at least one death.<\/p>\n
“The Minister is defending a policy under which nicotine consumption has risen nearly 40 per cent since 2017, even as the legal market collapsed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current absurd reality is that tobacco control and public health policy is being run by criminals.<\/p>\n
“Illicit products face zero quality control, zero age checks, and zero regulation. Every packet the black market sells is one the government has no oversight of. Bringing consumers back into a controlled and regulated market is a critical objective of our policy.”<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Tobacco Black Market<\/a>Tobacco Excise Debate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has unveiled the Coalition\u2019s plan to crush the illegal cigarette trade by making 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