Timeline:
29 November 2024:
"Firstly, as criminologists warn, tobacco tax increases will further grow the black market, pushing people that either cannot afford or are not willing to pay a higher price for their cigarettes to the black market. We're already seeing an underworld war over illegal vaping and tobacco sales, and shady operators have been reported knocking on the doors of now illegal vape shops, offering to take over their lease. Between the two related measures, the government has presented organised crime with hundreds of shops fitted out and ready to go into the illegal vape and tobacco trade. Australia is already losing a considerable amount of tax revenue due to tobacco sales on the black market—tax office estimates are $2.3 billion. This legislation will shift more revenue away from the government, towards organised crime.
In 2022 alone, 2.6 million kilograms of tobacco were sold on the black market. That was 2.2 million kilograms more than the previous year, indicating the growing influence of organised crime. It's clear; illegal tobacco consumption is estimated to make up 23.5 per cent of all tobacco sales in Australia. That's almost one quarter driven to the black market—that is, government driving it to the black market.
The government's actions endanger small business safety. Over the past six months, Victoria has experienced 40 firebombings to stores that illegally sold tobacco and vapes. In Ballarat, two tobacconists suffered a ram raid, and a drive-by shooting, which left a man dead, was linked to illegal tobacco products. The government says that the 2023-24 budget included $188½ million to fund the Australian Border Force to deliver a new illicit tobacco compliance model. It's unlikely they'll be able to properly crack down, given they're already overstretched in tackling the illegal drug market.
I must ask: how did Border Force fail to intercept 2.6 million kilograms of tobacco? Clearly this government has a problem enforcing the laws it already has. Now it wants to make matters worse. The vaping ban has already moved 87 per cent of vape users across to illegal vapes. While yesterday's brief moment of partial sanity will help that figure, it must surely be clear now that more taxation and prohibitions are futile and counterproductive. Here's a better idea: the government should spend less, tax less, and let everyday Australians and businesses get on with their lives."
The Analysis🔎:
Malcom Roberts says one thing and votes with the Govt on a failed pharmacy model:
Australia is doubling down on prohibitionist policies that have already failed. While the pharmacy model is slightly less restrictive than the original prescription-only approach, it still does not provide adult smokers with proper access to a less harmful alternative to cigarettes.
If Australia truly wants world-leading legislation, it should follow the evidence-based models in the UK and New Zealand, where vapes are available through licensed retail stores with strict age verification. The current plan keeps cigarettes widely available while driving vapers back to smoking or the black market—a public health failure.
25 June 2024:
"Under this legislation, a baker or confectionary manufacturer importing a food flavouring that can be used in vaping must first have it approved for use, despite its being in use for generations, and then obtain a licence to import or possess commercial quantities—of cake flavouring! The importer and probably their largest customers will need to keep records of their use of these potentially illicit food flavourings to ensure that organised crime is not supplied out the back door, with penalties of up to $3.8 million and/or imprisonment for seven years. This is serious business!"
"So far job losses from vaping prohibition are around 2,000, with 500 vaping stores already closed. The trade in vaping has now moved into the hands of organised crime, with a gang war breaking out in our capital cities to control the illicit vaping trade, as well as the illicit tobacco trade now that tobacco has been taxed to the point of idiocy. The bombings, ramraids, murders and violence so far in this underworld war are on the government, for breaking the government's social licence to act fairly, honestly and reasonably towards the public."
"Is vaping a gateway behaviour to smoking or drug-taking? Actually, no; it's not. On page 8 of the secondary school report, smoking rates amongst schoolchildren have fallen over the last five years. 'Ever smoked' is down from 17.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent. 'Smoked in the past week' is down from 4.9 per cent to 2.1 per cent—more than halved. This was in a period when vapes were readily available. Vaping is clearly working to reduce smoking rates. This is what has the quit smoking industry worried."
"The scare campaign that vaping is a gateway to smoking and to hard drugs is fraudulent and designed to cover up the reverse, because the reverse is true."
"the committee gave a thought of time to the quit smoking industry, which is funded at $500 million across forward estimates—half a billion dollars! This does not include the financial benefit of fundraising. That half a billion dollars is just the government's contribution yet quit smoking rates have been stagnating"
The Analysis🔎:
Malcom Roberts says one thing and votes with the Govt on a failed pharmacy model:
Australia is doubling down on prohibitionist policies that have already failed. While the pharmacy model is slightly less restrictive than the original prescription-only approach, it still does not provide adult smokers with proper access to a less harmful alternative to cigarettes.
If Australia truly wants world-leading legislation, it should follow the evidence-based models in the UK and New Zealand, where vapes are available through licensed retail stores with strict age verification. The current plan keeps cigarettes widely available while driving vapers back to smoking or the black market—a public health failure.
8 February 2024:
At the same time, our health bureaucrats have acted to protect their friends in the quit-smoking industry through this recent ban on vapes. They're protecting the quit-smoking industry, not smokers. One million Australians use a vape, many of whom use it to quit smoking. Australia's smoking rate is higher than in countries with laws that allow vaping. Vaping stops smoking. Britain's National Health Service advocates vaping as a quit-smoking medium, and our health authorities ban it. Why do they do that?
In 2024 public health has changed direction. Preventive health has turned into restorative health. Our health industry is now standing, figuratively, on every street corner hawking the latest drug to correct the very conditions that their failures in public health have made worse. How has this come about? How is this allowed to continue? These are my questions to government and to the media. Will you please start asking those questions?