Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Why fix a broken system when you can pretend it’s working? Australia’s $50+ cigarette tax created a massive black market—pushing 80% of tobacco illegal, fuelling arson, and wiping out billions in revenue. Is One Nation’s plan the answer?
The $12B Mistake.
According to the World Health Organisation, smoking is bad, okay? Their own Tobacco and Nicotine fact sheet declares that “there is no safe level of exposure.” Mind you, a 2023 article on that very same website insists: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.” So even a sip of red wine once a month is dangerous.
To be fair, it’s hard to find anything that’s not dangerous on the WHO website. For example, processed meat such as ham, bacon, and hot dogs is considered a Group 1 carcinogen. So if you’re an evil parent packing a ham sandwich in your kid’s lunchbox, you might as well throw in a pack of Marlboro Reds and a shot of vodka to round out a balanced unsafe meal.
Anyway, I think we can safely say that the WHO is playing the ultimate game of safe-ism. We may as well all just live in a box and eat chickpea salad, never leaving our house—because actions like venturing outside, driving a car, or getting sun exposure are all risks to your health.
Regarding smoking, the Australian Government has taken the WHO’s advice and decided its duty is to protect you from yourself. You clearly can’t be trusted with your own choices, so over the years, the nanny state has decided in its infinite wisdom to keep increasing tobacco prices until you can’t afford it anymore.
Just to be clear, I’m not a smoker, and I would encourage people not to take up smoking. That said, people are free to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they’re not harming anybody else.
The problem, as many of you might know, is that now that the legal price of smoking has become so high, a profitable black market has emerged. And along with it came the inevitable firebombings of smoke shops and violent turf wars—just as nearly every man and his dog predicted. People can’t afford legal cigarettes, so they turn to illegal ones instead.
And it’s not just a minor side effect. In June, the ABC reported: “ABS estimates 80pc of tobacco consumed in Australia last year was illegally sourced.”
80%! That’s not a few dodgy blokes selling chop-chop out of the boot of a ’94 Commodore—that’s the vast majority of smokers in the country.
Illegal tobacco has become so rampant that The Guardian even ran the headline: “Police running out of room to store illegal cigarettes they’ve seized amid Australia’s booming illicit trade.”
There is now so much contraband floating around that the cops are going to need to lease out a Westfield just to hold the evidence.
Naturally, now that the vast majority of smokers are buying illegal products, the federal government’s tobacco excise revenue has been in free fall. If this tax was meant to fund the health system and protect the public, the policy has officially tanked. However, the current government has such an ideological stubbornness against giving in to criminals that it refuses to change tack—meaning this black market will only continue to get worse.
Enter One Nation. Pauline Hanson and her team have decided enough is enough and have promised to do something about it. As the ABC recently headlined: “Pauline Hanson vows to slash cigarette prices by nearly $30 a pack.”
You may not agree with smoking, but the status quo is clearly not working. Constantly increasing tobacco prices have failed society—it’s only brought more crime, less revenue, and a thriving underworld economy.
Under the proposal, One Nation wants to slash the tax on cigarettes by 75 per cent and freeze indexation for three years, cutting the legs out from under the black market. With over $12 billion in tax revenue currently being lost to organised crime every year, you’d think the government might listen. But of course, Treasurer Jim Chalmers isn’t entertaining the idea—because, naturally, he’s smarter than you and he knows better.
Why fix a broken system when you can just pretend it’s working?
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
Why fix a broken system when you can pretend it’s working? Australia’s $50+ cigarette tax created a massive black market—pushing 80% of tobacco illegal, fuelling arson, and wiping out billions in revenue. Is One Nation’s plan the answer?
The $12B Mistake.
According to the World Health Organisation, smoking is bad, okay? Their own Tobacco and Nicotine fact sheet declares that “there is no safe level of exposure.” Mind you, a 2023 article on that very same website insists: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.” So even a sip of red wine once a month is dangerous.
To be fair, it’s hard to find anything that’s not dangerous on the WHO website. For example, processed meat such as ham, bacon, and hot dogs is considered a Group 1 carcinogen. So if you’re an evil parent packing a ham sandwich in your kid’s lunchbox, you might as well throw in a pack of Marlboro Reds and a shot of vodka to round out a balanced unsafe meal.
Anyway, I think we can safely say that the WHO is playing the ultimate game of safe-ism. We may as well all just live in a box and eat chickpea salad, never leaving our house—because actions like venturing outside, driving a car, or getting sun exposure are all risks to your health.
Regarding smoking, the Australian Government has taken the WHO’s advice and decided its duty is to protect you from yourself. You clearly can’t be trusted with your own choices, so over the years, the nanny state has decided in its infinite wisdom to keep increasing tobacco prices until you can’t afford it anymore.
Just to be clear, I’m not a smoker, and I would encourage people not to take up smoking. That said, people are free to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they’re not harming anybody else.
The problem, as many of you might know, is that now that the legal price of smoking has become so high, a profitable black market has emerged. And along with it came the inevitable firebombings of smoke shops and violent turf wars—just as nearly every man and his dog predicted. People can’t afford legal cigarettes, so they turn to illegal ones instead.
And it’s not just a minor side effect. In June, the ABC reported: “ABS estimates 80pc of tobacco consumed in Australia last year was illegally sourced.”
80%! That’s not a few dodgy blokes selling chop-chop out of the boot of a ’94 Commodore—that’s the vast majority of smokers in the country.
Illegal tobacco has become so rampant that The Guardian even ran the headline: “Police running out of room to store illegal cigarettes they’ve seized amid Australia’s booming illicit trade.”
There is now so much contraband floating around that the cops are going to need to lease out a Westfield just to hold the evidence.
Naturally, now that the vast majority of smokers are buying illegal products, the federal government’s tobacco excise revenue has been in free fall. If this tax was meant to fund the health system and protect the public, the policy has officially tanked. However, the current government has such an ideological stubbornness against giving in to criminals that it refuses to change tack—meaning this black market will only continue to get worse.
Enter One Nation. Pauline Hanson and her team have decided enough is enough and have promised to do something about it. As the ABC recently headlined: “Pauline Hanson vows to slash cigarette prices by nearly $30 a pack.”
You may not agree with smoking, but the status quo is clearly not working. Constantly increasing tobacco prices have failed society—it’s only brought more crime, less revenue, and a thriving underworld economy.
Under the proposal, One Nation wants to slash the tax on cigarettes by 75 per cent and freeze indexation for three years, cutting the legs out from under the black market. With over $12 billion in tax revenue currently being lost to organised crime every year, you’d think the government might listen. But of course, Treasurer Jim Chalmers isn’t entertaining the idea—because, naturally, he’s smarter than you and he knows better.
Why fix a broken system when you can just pretend it’s working?
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
