House debates Questions without Notice

Tobacco Control

Wednesday, 9 September 2026 House of Representatives

Mark Butler

Mark Butler Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House

2:57 pm

I know the member comes at this from a good position. We might disagree on some detail. She, like every member of this House, wants to find a way to fight the criminals. She wants to find a way to fight the fact that, over a number of years, there has been a very big increase in the illicit tobacco market.

Now, we took the view, unlike those opposite when in government, that we needed to boost our enforcement resources, we needed to give the ABF vast additional resources to stop the flood, initially of vapes and then of illicit tobacco, and we've started to do that. We've also taken the view that we need to work in cooperation with state governments. Those opposite didn't do that. We've taken a very different view. Particularly, there are some states leading the way. I've mentioned them. There's Queensland, under the LNP, and the South Australian government. We're very pleased that the bigger states are coming to the party as well.

And, as I and so many other ministers have said, of course this government is open to other sensible ideas about how we can fight organised crime while not prejudicing our most important public health campaign. But this is the problem I have with the announcements that One Nation first made—and then, sure enough, led by the nose, the coalition followed.

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