The Tobacco Wars                                                                                                                                                

 

As I write this piece, crime syndicates are currently flooding the Australian marketplace with illegal cigarettes. Avoiding excise duty, they deprive the government of revenue and, pitched at a price well below legal smokes, they threaten to reverse the downward trend in smoking rates. Adding to the concern, firebombings of retail outlets are threatening lives and property as criminal gangs fight for dominance. 

Some argue government excise should be drastically cut to make legal smokes competitive, but this would only play into the hands of the criminals who would most likely lower their prices and still make a profit.

I suggest the following to clean up the mess.

Scrap the excise and replace it with a GST type of tax at the retail point of sale. This tax would be set at a level that maintains government revenue and would be imposed on all cigarettes sold, whether legal or illegal, thereby giving illegals zero price advantage. 

As a consequence, crime syndicates would be deprived of a viable enterprise, firebombing would cease and high prices would continue to discourage smokers.

This strategy of course would be extended to all forms of nicotine such as vapes and other tobacco products.

This suggestion was submitted to the federal departments of Prime Minister, Treasury and Health on September 9, 2026.