New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park has called on the Albanese government to formally review the tobacco excise, as the illegal market continues to thrive.
Smokers and nicotine users have increasingly turned to illegal products as domestic tobacco prices remain amongst the highest in the world, driven in part by the high national excise.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data indicates a majority of nicotine products, about 80 per cent, consumed in the nation last year came from the black market.
Mr Park on Wednesday told Sky News Australia the tobacco excise has created a dual cigarette market.
“There are two separate markets that can be located literally a couple of hundred metres from one another, with one small business doing the right thing, selling legal cigarettes with a heavy excise of about $1.50 or so per cigarette versus someone selling illegal tobacco three or four times cheaper,” he said.
“It’s pretty clear where people will end up going given the cost-of-living challenges that families face each and every week in terms of their family budgets.”
Australia’s tobacco excise can account for about $30 of the final cost for a 20-pack of cigarettes.
The ABS also estimates the illegal tobacco boom has cost the government from $7.7 billion to $11.8 billion in excise evasion.
Mr Park believed reducing the excise would assist law enforcement agencies already trying to dismantle complex black market syndicates.
“This has got ahead of legislators probably over the last five to seven years, and we are doing everything we can from an enforcement perspective,” he said.
“We’re shutting down between 15 and 20 stores each week, but we need assistance.”
Mr Park said the effect of reducing the tobacco excise would “take the sting” out of organised crime groups while addressing the price difference between legal and illegal cigarettes.
“I think it essentially takes a lot of the sting out of A, the criminal networks, but B, the big gap between the legal product and the illegal product,” he said.
“What is obviously going on here is anywhere between three to four times more expensive to purchase a legal packet of cigarettes versus an illegal package.
“That’s just not sustainable. We are and will continue to do our end of the bargain around enforcement, but we do need help with this excise issue.”
Meanwhile, vaping — an alternative to smoking cigarettes — has become a popular trend with a significant market among younger people.
Mr Park said public health efforts over the past century to reduce tobacco usage would be undone if the government doesn’t address vaping and unregulated nicotine products.
“I’m still very concerned about the level of vaping use amongst young people, and I’m not just concerned as the Health Minister, but I’m also concerned as a parent of a teenage boy,” he said.
“They are marketed directly to young people; they are often in locations that are targeting young people.
“The colours, the flavours are targeting young people, and if we don’t reduce this, what we are going to see is the next generation of young people hooked on nicotine.
“All of the work that public health experts and officials and legislators did over the last 60 or 70 years to reduce tobacco rates is essentially going to be gone if we don’t get on top of this, particularly the illegal use of these substances.”
The NSW government has shut down around 360 stores selling illegal vapes and seized over 250,000 units over the past seven months, according to the minister.
The 250,000 seized vapes equate to a value of about $23-$24 million.
Extracted in full from: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/not-sustainable-albanese-government-called-on-to-review-tobacco-excise-as-nsw-health-minister-warns-of-illegal-trade/news-story/527694113ecb4f5431aca0ce0b79579e
