Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I rise in support of this important bill and in support of our efforts to crack down on the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette market. I do so having spoken to many parents in my electorate of Dickson on the harm that the illegal tobacco and e-cigarette trade is doing to our young people. Not that long ago, I honestly thought that smoking was on the nose—too expensive, banned in pubs and clubs—and our laws that enforced plain packaging, restricted advertising and smoking in public places, as well as significant tax increases on cigarettes, resulted in big changes to the take-up rate of smoking. We will have one of the lowest adult smoking rates in the world, but recent data by Roy Morgan in 2025 suggests that uptake of vaping might be increasing. Roy Morgan found that the 18- to 24-year-old age group reported the highest use, at 20.6 per cent in 2025, which is about four times the rate in 2019, which was 5.3 per cent.

I never imagined that my kids would even be tempted, but there I was cleaning up my eldest son's bedroom, when I found a vape when he was 16. When I asked about it, the response was, 'Everyone is doing it, Mum.' Who knows where he bought it, but I soon learnt that many of the tobacco and vape shops that seem to be popping up in every suburban shopping strip are a cover for serious criminal syndicates and are making billions.

In March and April this year, Australian Border Force intercepted record levels of illegal tobacco, seizing over one kilotonne since December. Record seizures have occurred over the last financial year, with a 320 per cent increase in the number of cigarettes seized compared to four years ago. Organised crime syndicates made somewhere between $4 billion and $7 billion in the year 2024-25 and then reinvested that money into trafficking, scams and money laundering. Cheap smokes and vapes are everywhere. Almost every vape purchased in Australia was illegal in 2024-25—95.7 per cent of vapes.

But this isn't just an Australia challenge. This is a global challenge, and it's something we must address because it hurts our communities. We've known for decades that smoking can kill us and costs our health system well over $150 billion a year. Two out of three long-term smokers will die of a tobacco related disease, and 20 per cent of the cancer disease in Australia is due to smoking. It hurts legitimate retailers. It is a multibillion dollar black-market operation that is flooding our communities with illegal products. These syndicates are also linked to violence, firearms, intimidation and firebombings, and they risk unwinding decades of success in reducing smoking rates in Australia. We saw a series of arson attacks between two rival syndicates on shops in Victoria a few years back, burning down tobacco shops and allegedly recruiting teenagers to do so. This is a public health issue, but it's also a community safety issue, and the profits are used for other criminal activities.

This bill makes it harder for organised crime to profit from illicit tobacco and vapes. It creates new offences for large-scale illicit tobacco activity linked to organised crime. It increases penalties across importing, possessing, buying, selling, producing and manufacturing. It expands unexplained wealth and proceeds of crime tools, and it enables enhanced law enforcement powers, including wiretaps, for serious tobacco offences. The goal is to harden the environment and make it really difficult for these crime syndicates to operate, and this will take time. It will take collaboration, coordinating action and sharing of intelligence between federal and state agencies.

I acknowledge the efforts of some states, including my own state of Queensland, who have toughened laws to provide for long-term closure orders, investment in enforcement on the ground and penalties for landlords who knowingly lease to a criminal operator. Commonwealth funding to the states and territories is now flowing, with $84 million over two years for training to improve licensing and compliance systems and enable joint operations, putting pressure across the whole supply chain—production, air and maritime routes, freight channels, warehousing, distribution and retail fronts.

I've seen some commentary suggesting that we should surrender and that we should remove excise tax, make it cheaper and boost health education. That approach ignores the fact that the single most effective lever to encourage people to quit or reduce smoking is price. That's why we've had decades of success in driving down adult smoking rates. It also ignores evidence that demonstrates the illicit tobacco market is driven by a complex mix of issues beyond price. Giving in might appear easier. Reducing excise taxes might reduce the illegal trade, but it would also dramatically increase the take-up of smoking across the country and increase smoking related health costs and deaths as a result.

This bill builds on the substantial work the Albanese Labor government has already undertaken to disrupt and dismantle illicit tobacco networks. Since 2023-24, the government has invested $345 million to bolster the Australian Border Force's ability to detect and seize illicit tobacco and vaping products. We also established Australia's first illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes commissioner, ensuring a coordinated national response. In the 2025-26 budget, we provided a further $21.3 million to strengthen that role and support whole-of-government coordination.

These new laws directly respond to key recommendations of the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner report, which made clear that strong consequences are essential if we are to disrupt and deter this serious criminal activity. We're also strengthening existing investigatory powers, expanding the circumstances in which those powers may be applied, including through computer access and surveillance capabilities available under the Surveillance Devices Act. The bill also amends the Telecommunications Act by including a number of illicit tobacco related offences within the definition of a serious offence. This change will strengthen the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify, disrupt and prosecute those involved in illicit tobacco networks. These amendments provide greater consistency and clarity across existing warrant and access frameworks, ensuring that the law keeps pace with the realities of organised criminal activity.

Last year we also cracked down on high-risk financial services, including crypto ATMs used to launder profits and conceal transactions. AUSTRAC now also has more powers to act and has put banks on notice that they must do more to scrutinise retailers linked to illicit tobacco, tightening the net. We are seeing results, with lots of accounts reviewed and removed, private ATMs removed and increased reporting of suspicious transactions. Cutting off the money supply and flow starves these criminal outlets.

This bill seeks to achieve two primary objectives. First, it rebalances the risk-to-reward calculation for criminal actors by significantly increasing penalties for illicit tobacco offences. For too long, the penalties simply have not matched the scale or seriousness of the harm. Second, the bill strengthens and modernises the proceeds-of-crime regime to ensure that the Commonwealth can effectively target and recover the profits made through illicit tobacco.

Our national strategy rests on three key focus areas: (1) disrupting and dismantling border threats, stopping illicit tobacco and vapes before they reach our shores; (2) enhancing detection, disruption and destruction at the border and within communities—this includes coordinated operations, targeted compliance activity and increased on-the-ground enforcement; and (3) strengthening national coordination across all jurisdictions, because no single agency or level of government can fight this alone.

These measures are already producing real results. As of April this year, Border Force had seized a record-breaking amount of illicit tobacco over just four months, including over four million vapes and nearly 786 million cigarettes. These are extraordinary numbers. They reflect the scale of the challenge, but they also reflect the commitment and effort this government has brought to combating it. ABF teams across the country are targeting more shipping containers, inspecting more air cargo consignments, searching more international travellers suspected of carrying illicit tobacco and conducting more domestic warrants than ever before.

I know that people in my community of Dickson are concerned about the proliferation of tobacco stores selling illicit tobacco and vapes. I too am concerned. Please know this government is doing everything it can with the states and territories to shut down the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette trade. This bill will disrupt and dismantle criminal syndicates, with tougher penalties and greater powers to detect and seize illicit tobacco and vaping products. I commend the bill to the House.

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