Stop Labor’s Tobacco Black Market
Organised crime gangs are making billions from illegal tobacco, and Labor’s taxes on tobacco are letting the black market thrive.
Labor’s approach to tobacco has become a national law and order crisis, fuelling:
- Firebombings, extortion, and violence on our streets
- Billions of dollars flowing straight into organised crime
- A collapsing legal market and vanishing tax revenue
- Easier access to nicotine for kids, sold with no age checks
Illegal tobacco now makes up around 80 per cent of the market, up from just 10 per cent in 2017. Organised crime groups are pocketing between $4.1 billion and $6.9 billion in profit every year, money that goes straight back into drug trafficking, scams, and money laundering.
In Victoria alone there have been almost 200 tobacco-related arsons and six homicides linked to the trade.
Labor has kept pushing tobacco excise higher and higher, while doing nothing to close the price gap that makes Australia one of the most lucrative black markets in the world for illegal cigarettes. The result: legal tobacco prices have almost tripled since 2016, smoking has actually gone up 30 per cent since 2021, and tobacco excise revenue has already halved, with more losses forecast every year.
Labor has allowed a criminal industry to thrive on our streets.
Sign the petition to demand Labor:
- Slash tobacco excise to destroy the black market’s price advantage
- Fund a real law enforcement crackdown on organised crime networks
- Legalise and regulate vapes and nicotine pouches for adults, with strong protections for kids
- Take the tobacco market back from criminal gangs
Australians deserve a tobacco market run by law, not by organised crime.
Sign the petition today.