New data shows 75 per cent of Australian tobacco sales are illegal
New data has shown that at least 75 per cent of Australian tobacco sales consist of illegal cigarettes and nicotine products.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed nicotine consumption jumped by almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025, with most products being purchased on the black market.
Experts say that the tobacco tax plays a role in people leaning toward the illegal products. Supplied
The number of people buying illegal nicotine products increased from 16 per cent in 2020 to at least 75 per cent.
“It’s not just a crime crisis, it’s going to turn very quickly into a health crisis and erode all the gains we’ve made in a world-leading tobacco control program,” former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth told 9News.
“Which is perhaps now not so world-leading.”
In 2017, just 12 per cent of the cigarettes, vapes, and other nicotine products used were illegal. That has now surged to 80 per cent.
Coatsworth said the “punishing” increasing tobacco tax played a large role in people leaning toward the illegal products.
A recent Australian study linked vaping to oral and lung cancer. AP
“They have been increasing for many, many years to $1.54 per cigarette, and that’s driven people into the arms of organised crime,” Coatsworth said.
The cost of legal cigarettes has tripled in the last decade, mostly because of a huge increase in government taxes.
Coatsworth said the purpose of tobacco taxes was to deter people from smoking but claimed it had done the opposite.
Illegal products cost a fraction of the price of a legal pack of cigarettes, which costs about $50, while illicit ones can be bought for less than $25.
But as legal sales plummet and people choose illegal options, the government is set to lose billions in excise over the next four years.
In a recent Senate inquiry, Coatsworth and some others expressed support for reducing the tax to try to drive smokers back to legal cigarettes.
Anti-cancer groups and several other experts slammed the suggestion, accusing tobacco companies of running a concerted campaign for their own benefit.
The problem is playing out across Australian cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, amid a fiery underworld war over the sale of illegal cigarettes.
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