ILLICIT TOBACCO IS HARMING AUSSIE COMMUNITIES

The Albanese Labor Government has set its sights on retailers and has committed to raising the price of cigarettes every year for at least the next 3 years.

This will further entrench a black market operated by criminals, who don’t care who they sell to and use the funds they make to facilitate further criminal activity, just like what has happened with vaping products.

In this year’s Federal Budget, the Government has announced a 5% per year increase to the tobacco tax rates for the next 3 years, meaning the cost of cigarettes will be increasing too.

Retailers who have always played by the rules will be impacted while criminal black-market dealers will continue to benefit due to the government’s lack of enforcement against illicit tobacco sales.

Sadly, this policy won’t help smokers to quit, instead more will join the growing trend of purchasing illicit tobacco from illegal dealers. This only costs the Australian economy, impacts compliant retailers and ensures profits go into the hands of criminals to conduct more criminal activity.

CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MP

Join the fight to save Australian retailers.

Tell your MP’s that the Government’s latest price rise on cigarettes doesn’t help anybody other than illegal dealers and organised criminal syndicates.

Federal Labor Government has already created a vaping black market due to their failed laws, let’s ensure they further extend the current illicit tobacco market to become even worse.

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TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK

Now is the time to act. The Government has set its sights on retailers, and Australian’s hip pockets.

Tell your local federal parliamentarian what you think.

Review and edit the text of your submission below before send to your local MP.

Dear (MP name)

I write to you today to express my concern over the Federal Government’s announcement to raise the tobacco excise tax rate by 5% per year for the next three years. This will damage the businesses of legitimate Australian retailers and will enable criminal enterprises to benefit from the change to sell more illicit cigarettes.

All the Government is doing with this change is helping criminals create an under the counter market place where they sell an unregulated and often unsafe product for half the price of what many legitimate retailers can sell them for.

This is manifestly unfair. The new policy will simply strengthen this illegal market and make it more and more difficult for Australians to purchase a legal product and make it harder for them to quit.

Because of this, I believe the Government has the wrong priorities, and will not be able to manage the illegal importations that will follow, affecting all Australians and our secure border.

1. Retailers are doing it tough – Now is a tough time to be in retail. The AACS 2022 State of Industry Report confirms that Petrol & Convenience Retailers have lost over $300 million in retail sales over the last 2 years, almost all due to the booming illicit tobacco market. In the first 6 months of 2023, tobacco sales are declining by an additional 10 – 20% against almost exclusively to the black market trade.  So at a time when retailers need a boost, the Government is forcing a price raise on a product used by 2 million Australians. This policy not only takes business away from retailers but puts it in the pocket of illicit market dealers rather than the Australian economy.

2. It won’t help our budget bottom line – Australians are in a tough financial position. This policy will mean less people are buying legitimate products, meaning less tax being paid to the Government and less money to spend on things Australians need – like housing, health care services and cost of living relief. With some illicit market products half the price of legitimate products, raising the prices won’t help people to quit smoking it will only push them towards the black market.

3. Keeps Criminals Off Our Streets – The current policy is soft on crime and is ill prepared to protect Australian families against illegal tobacco and the criminal gangs that it brings. Most illicit tobacco syndicates don’t stop at tobacco, they use the proceeds from illicit tobacco deals to purchase more dangerous drugs and weapons, in some cases even fund extreme illegal activity.

4. Prohibition – We know prohibition doesn’t work. The Government hasn’t learnt from their failure with vaping products, which are banned yet have never been more popular. By trying to make cigarettes even more unaffordable for consumers, the Government has played into the black market’s hands. If the Government continues down its current path we will end up with a system where a rampant black market will continue selling to everyone, including children.

5. Retail level enforcement by police & health inspectors over many years has had minimal effect on reducing the illicit tobacco market once it cross the border. I am urging the government to increase their enforcement efforts to crack down on illicit tobacco operators & help protect legitimate retailers selling a regulated legal product & put an end to illicit tobacco sales.

These changes would be disastrous for legitimate retailers, consumers and communities and will embolden illicit black-market dealers.

I hope you consider my position outlined above and look to better policy on excise tax on cigarettes.

I can be available to meet with you to discuss the impact this is having on my business.

Your sincerely,

ILLICIT TOBACCO IS HARMING AUSSIE COMMUNITIES

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