Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026. I've met with members of the community—genuine, legal tobacconists. My friend Tim is a good guy, and his wife ran the coffee shop next to my office in my previous life, where I would go in the morning and chat. We'd chat a bit about basketball, a bit about life. He kept bringing the same thing up: 'These illegal shops, Matty. They're doing us in.' These laws have to be stronger. This is a man who'd built his life legally, who had multiple tobacconists, who sold his wares and did his work. Criminals came in to snatch his livelihood. We would all like to see smoking rates reduced. This is a big part of the process, but it is not at the expense of honest, hardworking Australians who are selling legal wares.

This is not just a federal government thing. Local councils have a part to play; state governments have a part to play. In my own region, Leichhardt, right across the road from my house, an illegal tobacconist sprung up. The Cairns Regional Council acted and shut them down. They tried again and were shut down again. That shop is now a florist. I look forward to it opening; I look forward to buying flowers. It was a legal response to an illegal problem. That is what happens when all three levels of government take responsibility to deal with what this is—a criminal organisation, a response that is not appropriate in our cities and our towns, peddling wares that we know to be dangerous to our children. I am pleased to be able to commend this bill to the House. It is another example of what we're doing to stop crime in our community.

This bill expands the law enforcement powers to investigate tobacco related offending and increases the consequences for criminal actors involved in the tobacco market. We have to reset the risk and reward. At the moment, it's been tilted the other way. This bill goes a long way to rectifying that. If criminals are looking at an enterprise, or racket, they need to understand that, if you mess up and we catch you, you are done. We will take it. We will take those opportunities from you, and you will serve time. This is a crucial step because it's not a revenue problem, it's an organised crime problem. It is bringing people who don't belong here, doing terrible things to our communities and terrible things to our small businesses—the people who've been working hard their entire lives—racketeering. It is believed that the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette market is valued between $4.1 billion and $6.9 billion. That's why they've arrived. That's what they think they can get a part of, and we're here to stop them. Organised crime groups are putting around $4 to $7 billion in profits, and they don't use that money to put into their pockets; they use that money to fund other criminal activities for whatever that might be.

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