‘A national crisis’: Coalition outlines tobacco policy as illicit trade skyrockets

Liberal MP Mary Aldred says the rise of illicit tobacco is a “national crisis long in the making”. ​“We’ve had a 282 per cent increase in the tobacco excise regime since the Rudd government in 2012,” Ms Aldred told News24 host Jaimee Rogers. ​“That has been an astronomical increase, and it has flipped the cigarette market in Australia from a well-regulated legal market to being controlled by the illegal market. ​“The billions that are being lost in that tobacco excise are going to fund bikie gangs, criminals, and, in one case, a terrorist act with a fire bombing of a Melbourne synagogue. ​“So it’s a crisis, and the Coalition are prepared to act on this.”