‘Rolled out the red carpet’: Labor slammed for fuelling tobacco crime gangs

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonathon Duniam accuses Labor’s soaring tobacco excise of driving legal cigarettes so far above illegal prices that it has effectively invited organised crime gangs to dominate the black market. “The cut in excise by 80 per cent based on the modelling we have done through the parliamentary budget office will bring legal cigarettes to the price point of those to a comparative level with illegal cigarettes,” Mr Duniam told News24 host Chris Kenny. “They want to obey the law. “The increase in excise driving the price so high for legal product has paved the way, rolled out the red carpet for these crime gangs to set up as they have.”