NSW premier calls for lower tobacco excise as black market cigarette sales boom

ABC NEWS (Australia)

NSW Premier Chris Minns has called for the federal excise on tobacco to be reviewed. It comes amid a rise in sales of illegal tobacco across NSW and throughout Australia.

Transcript

00:00The Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has acknowledged that the illicit tobacco trade is a significant

00:08problem, but he's defended the excise, saying that it encourages Australians to curb their

00:15smoking habits.

00:16He's pointed out that in his most recent budget, he's put aside $157 million to try and crack

00:24down on enforcement of tobacco.

00:26Nevertheless, because so many Australians are taking up cheaper, illegal cigarettes,

00:33it's forecast to leave the Federal Treasury with an almost $7 billion hole between now

00:41and 2029, just because less Australians are having normal kind of legal cigarettes and

00:49are instead opting for those black market cigarettes instead.

00:55And the Premier, Chris Minns, has questioned whether it's worth investing so much money

01:02for the police to crack down on the illegal tobacco market when there's forecast to be such a

01:08slash to the Federal Budget.

01:10How prevalent is illegal tobacco?

01:12Well, Gemma, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare did a study last year and found that

01:21a quarter of Australians who smoked had smoked illegal branded cigarettes, which is a huge number,

01:29considering we've gotten really used to that plain packaging cigarettes in the last 15 years or so.

01:36And Australia actually has some of the most expensive cigarettes in the world.

01:42So it's really interesting to see that shift of people starting to have illegal cigarettes.

01:48But just to show how bad this industry is or how much it's grown just recently,

01:55just this morning a 42-year-old Sydney man has been arrested and charged after trying to smuggle

02:0220 million cigarettes into the country from the United Arab Emirates.

02:09So it's a really big problem that the New South Wales government is trying to crack down on.

02:16Reporter Julia Andre in Sydney, thank you.

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