Australia’s leading retail advocacy group has called on the Albanese Government to urgently act on concerns raised by New South Wales Labor Premier Chris Minns over the nation’s illegal tobacco and vape crime crisis.
The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) CEO Theo Foukkare said Premier Minns’ calls overnight for the Federal Government to examine the ever-surging tax on legal tobacco products must be addressed right now.
“It’s extraordinary that it’s gotten to this point.
Tobacco is a price sensitive consumer product.
If you put a price on it that is manifestly higher than what people can afford, they’ll find a cheaper alternative and that’s where this incredibly dangerous black market is cashing in – and even worse – they’re using that money to fund the most atrocious crimes as we have heard from Federal Health Minister Mark Butler,” Mr Foukkare said, “The Albanese Government knows this because its own Treasury Department advised this would happen if politicians continued to raise tobacco taxes to the levels.
They ignored that very serious advice and jacked it up anyway.
“That’s seen Australian adults flood into the illegal black market and turn to illicit tobacco and dangerous vapes – made in sheds in China with who knows what poisons in them – to save money.
This is a public health policy disaster,” he said.
“Thankfully Premier Minns seems clear eyed on this incredibly serious social issue – and ACCS is in full support of his calls.
Australia’s now heading toward a situation where the Federal Government can forget about its so called ‘sin tax’ for smoking being used to fund public health, because what’s left of the declining revenue collected from legal tobacco excise is going to have to pay for the enforcement of illegal tobacco.
If that’s not the definition of insanity, then I don’t know what is,” Mr Foukkare said.
“The states, territories and local governments are sick of the inaction from the Albanese Government, and this is becoming clearer with calls by the NSW Premier and – just recently – similar calls by Victorian Minister for Tobacco Regulation Enver Erdogan.
“An in-depth review is urgently needed to look at the entire framework of tobacco and illicit nicotine product policy, with a huge focus needed on Australia’s tobacco excise taxation settings.
Right now, there is bugger all clarity on just how much of the more than $40 billion in lost excise revenue from legal tobacco products is now in the pockets of tax-free funded organised crime groups.
“There is no clarity or information publicly available on how detrimental the cost of increased illicit enforcement has been on policing other crimes like domestic violence, human trafficking, youth crime and drug dealing either,” Mr Foukkare said.
“And the cost of additional enforcement responsibilities on the federal government, state, territory and local governments for law enforcement agencies that’s now needed to deal with this scourge has never been evaluated.
Neither has the huge increase in costs to legitimate business and property owners forced to secure their stores and pay huge insurance hikes because of the threat of being firebombed by organised crime groups linked to the illicit tobacco and vape black market “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Health Minister Mark Butler have ignored retailers and community leaders concerns for too long and now their own Labor affiliates in New South Wales and Victoria are calling them out.
It is time they freeze any further tax on legal tobacco, so that adults who choose to smoke will return to buying legal tobacco.
Only then will we see demand for cheap, dangerous, unregulated and un-taxed products dry up, leaving these dodgy criminals with no one to sell to.
This is a community safety issue for all Australians and can’t be ignored by the Albanese Government anymore,” Mr Foukkare said.
Theo Foukkare is available for breakfast radio and TV interviews and news grabs from 5am AEST – Tuesday 3 June.
Please call Theo on 0423 003 133 to book a time.
Subscribe to our free mailing list and always be the first to receive the latest news and updates.