Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak in strong support of the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026. This is a vital piece of legislation that forms the central pillar of the Albanese Labor government's relentless crackdown on a trade that has for too long operated in the shadows of our economy while casting a very long and dangerous shadow over our communities. For many years, public perception of illicit tobacco was somewhat benign. It was perhaps viewed as a victimless tax dodge or a niche issue for health advocates. But today the reality on the ground and in our suburbs tells a far more sinister story. What we are witnessing now is no longer just a revenue problem or a regulatory hurdle; it is a serious organised-crime crisis, and it is a crisis that threatens the safety of our streets, the viability of small businesses and the health of the next generation.

To understand the necessity of this bill, we must first understand the staggering scale of the problem. The first Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner was appointed by our government and produced the Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Commissioner report 2024-25. This report estimates that the value of the illicit tobacco market in 2024-25 was between $4.1 billion and nearly $7 billion. Let's be clear about what that money represents. These are not funds being tucked away by mums and dads. These billions of dollars represent a massive war chest for organised crime syndicates. This is the black economy in its most destructive form.

Organised crime groups are reaping profits, and that capital doesn't stay in the tobacco trade; it acts as seed funding for a broader spectrum of misery. This money is the lifeblood of criminal syndicates, directly funding the importation and distribution of drugs, high-level cyberscams that target our seniors, and sophisticated money-laundering operations that undermine the integrity of our financial institutions and systems. This trade fuels a cycle of violence that has moved from the underworld into everyday lives. In recent times, we have seen firebombings of shopfronts, brazen acts of intimidation, and public violence. This isn't just about cheap cigarettes; it is a direct assault on public safety and the rule of law.

As the member for Bullwinkel, I see the local ripple effects of this global criminal enterprise. Our electorate, spanning from the Perth Hills to the rapidly growing suburbs in the valleys, is home to hundreds of small businesses—newsagencies, convenience store operators and service station franchisees. These are the people who are doing the right thing. They're paying taxes and adhering to strict age-verification protocols, and they contribute to our local economy. When an illicit tobacco pop-up shop opens down the road, selling unregulated, untaxed products at a fraction of the legal price, it isn't competition; it is economic sabotage.

We're not acting in a vacuum here. The Australian public is of course demanding this reform. A major national survey by the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, ACOSH, and its partners, released in March 2026, revealed a clear mandate for change, and we are acting. Their survey of over 5,000 Australian adults revealed:

Overall, the Australian public's perception that there are too many shops selling tobacco was widespread (64%) and most respondents (75%) believed it is very easy or easy for Australians who smoke to buy illegal tobacco products right now.

This sentiment is backed by a startling reality. ACOSH CEO Laura Hunter recently pointed out:

… around 70% of Australians rely on petrol, yet we have only about 7,000 petrol stations across the country.

…   …   …   

But tobacco—a product that is deadly when used as intended … is sold in over 40,000 outlets.

…   …   …

Forty thousand outlets is an open invitation for illegal operators to exploit the system.

She went on:

When tobacco is sold on every corner, it makes enforcement harder and it normalises a deadly product …

We must also address the risk this poses to decades of national tobacco control policy. Australia has been the world leader in lowering smoking rates, through plain packaging, education and sensible taxation. As a nurse, I am of course totally supportive of these measures, having seen the devastating effects of smoking. I remember when every second person on buses, in workplaces and even on aeroplanes smoked, and we've come a long way since those times to protect our future generations.

However, when the availability of cheap, unregulated, illicit tobacco, often sold without health warnings and in attractive non-compliant packaging, threatens to undo that progress, this is particularly concerning in regard to our youth. The explosion of illicit chop-chop and unregulated e-cigarettes is designed to hook a new generation on the devastating product of nicotine. By removing the price signals and health warnings that we know work, these criminal actors are directly attacking the health of our children. We cannot allow the progress of the last 30 years to be torched by criminals looking for a quick profit.

This bill addresses the crisis by fundamentally changing the business model of illicit tobacco through two key objectives. First, we are rebalancing the risk-to-reward calculation. For too long, the penalties for dealing in illicit tobacco were seen by criminals as a mere cost of doing business—quite affordable. If the fine is $50,000 but the profit is $500,000, the criminal will pay the fine with a smile. This bill ends that. We are raising offence penalties to match the actual severity of the harm caused, ensuring that the punishment is a genuine deterrent and not a line item in a ledger. Second, we are attacking the profit motive. By making the proceeds-of-crime regime more effective, we are going after the one thing that criminals care about: their money. We are expanding law enforcement powers to investigate and ensure that the consequences for criminal actors are swift, severe and financially ruinous.

The Albanese Labor government is not just talking about this issue; we are delivering the resources that we need to win this fight. Since 2023-24, we have provided $346 million in funding to the Australian Border Force, a significant investment in our front line, and we also appointed the first ever Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Commissioner and backed back this with an additional $21.3 million in the 2025-26 budget. This commissioner is the general in this fight, coordinating our national response across every agency.

Our strategy is built on three clear, actionable pillars: disruption at the border, where we're stopping the flow of it before it reaches our shores; enhanced detection and destruction using state-of-the-art technology to find and seize products within our communities; and national coordination, breaking down the silos between the Commonwealth and state authorities to ensure there are no blind spots for criminals to exploit. The results speak for themselves. Since January 2024, in a country of nearly 30 million people, more than 14 million vaping products have been seized by the Australian Border Force. In just the final six months of last year, we took over a billion illicit cigarettes off the streets. That is a billion cigarettes that do not fund a crime syndicate and do not end up in the lungs of Australians.

The only way to truly shut down this trade is if the Commonwealth, states and territories work seamlessly together. The criminals, of course, don't care about state borders, but neither should our enforcement efforts. On that note of cooperation, I want to take a moment and give a significant shout-out to my colleagues in the Western Australian parliament, the Cook Labor government—no relation. In March of this year, the WA parliament passed some of the toughest, most comprehensive tobacco and vaping laws in this country. By introducing massive financial penalties—up to $21 million for companies—and potential 15-year prison sentences, Premier Roger Cook and health minister Meredith Hammat have sent a clear message: WA will not be a playground for organised crime. These laws, which include the power to shut down illegal shops for up to a year, provide the perfect state-level complement to the federal bill that we are debating today, and this is what Labor in power looks like—federal and state governments working as one to protect our communities and put criminals behind bars.

I briefly want to touch on the e-cigarettes aspect of this bill. We have seen an explosion in disposable vapes, often sold in bright colours with flavours like watermelon or bubblegum, and these are not smoking-cessation tools. They are a delivery system for high-concentration nicotine, designed to appeal to teenagers. The 14 million seizures that I mentioned earlier—this bill will give us the legislative teeth that we need to go further. We are closing the loopholes that allow these products to flood our convenience stores, and we're making it clear that, if you sell vapes to kids in our community, we are coming for your profits and your liberty.

There is much more to do around tobacco, and this bill is about much more than just tobacco itself. It's about the kind of society that we want to live in. We want to protect small businesses, prioritise the health of our children and ensure that crime does not pay. As a nurse, I have seen the consequences of tobacco use up close. I've held the hands of patients struggling for breath. I've sat with families as they have navigated the heartbreak of preventable illness. In the clinical setting, we fight to save lives one person at a time, and I'm very proud to be in a House where we have the power to protect millions. As Laura Hunter from ACOSS rightly said, a product that kills two of three long-term users should not be readily accessible in our communities. I commend this bill to the House.

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