How illegal tobacco is sickening Australia’s health debate

September 27, 2026 — 7:00pm

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Soaring tobacco taxes have delivered our multibillion-dollar cigarette market to organised crime, but will slashing these same duties repair the damage or give us the worst of all worlds: an immovable black market for tobacco, dwindling tax revenue and a rising population of smokers?

The policy disaster has shattered the unity of politicians, health experts and law enforcement on how to fix the problem without doing serious harm to Australia’s collective health.

Nick Coatsworth, Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer, has described it as the “most wicked public policy and public health challenge that Australia faces”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson raised the stakes last month when she announced plans to slash the tax on a packet of cigarettes by $30, gazumping the Coalition, which followed with its own policy weeks later.

Hanson’s argument made via social media could not be simpler: “Cut the tax. Smash the black market. Cut off the cash for organised crime.”

But even some economists and health experts are backing her proposal.

Independent economist Chris Richardson labelled the bipartisan policy that has sent tobacco excise soaring since 2010 as “epic disaster territory” and said a massive cut was needed to stamp out the black market.

University of NSW economist Richard Holden even advocated a complete removal of the tobacco excise for a period to stub out the illegal tobacco market altogether.

“Then you can start again and think about an appropriate level of excise that generates........

© Brisbane Times