‘$17 off a pack’: Hanson says One Nation will cut the tobacco excise by 50 per cent

Pauline Hanson has revealed details of her bombshell new plan to reduce the cost the cost of legal cigarettes in Australia.

She announced the policy on X this morning, saying the Federal excise has made tobacco products so expensive it has led Australian tobacco consumers to the illegal black market.

“Around 70-75 per cent the cost of legal tobacco products in Australia is the Federal excise, which is raised twice a year,” she said.

“Organised crime is running rampant with the tobacco black market, which is now valued at around $5 billion.

ABS figures show about 80 per cent of tobacco or nicotine products now consumed in Australia are illegal.

“One Nation will cut the tobacco excise by 50 per cent, and freeze indexation until 30 June 2028 (with an option to review and extend). This will reduce the retail price of tobacco products by around 35% (about $17 off a pack of 20 cigarettes),” Ms Hanson wrote.

“The aim is to reduce the incentive for consumers to go to the black market. This would improve consumer and business safety, reduce the black market and related criminal activity to manageable levels for law enforcement agencies, and potentially reverse the decline in government revenue.

‘Thugs and criminals’

The announcement comes a day after Ms Hanson called for the tobacco excise to be slashed in order to “cut the supply” of black market cigarettes to “thugs and criminals”.

“What a stupid thing the government has done in constantly raising the excise tax (on tobacco), and it’s going up again in September,” the One Nation leader told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday.

“Cut the excise tax, cut the guts right out of it, so you don’t give them an industry out there for these.”

Ms Hanson called the Labor government’s current approach to the tobacco excise “stupid”. Picture: Richard Dobson

Ms Hanson said lowering the excise would help to rein in Australia’s rampant black market.

“You have to, because it’s become a business out there and that’s why all these thugs and criminals are out there, because it’s worth money to them — you cut their supply,” she said, also claiming that the Australian Border Force was not performing sufficient checks at the border, only examining “one container out of every 100 coming into the country”.

“The government doesn’t want to address it because of the amount of money they were getting out of the tobacco tax, which was around about $17 billion,” she added.

“It’s just that money they’re not making that anymore.”

A tobacco industry insider heaped praise on the One Nation leader after her comments, telling news.com.au, “No one should wonder why Pauline Hanson is preferred prime minister, because she has clearly read the mood of the electorate on the illicit tobacco crisis and is prepared to step up to the plate where others aren’t”.

“She has taken a conversation politicians usually have behind closed doors and dragged it into daylight,” the source continued.
“Awkward for those still pretending the black market has nothing to do with price.”

It comes after NSW Premier Chris Minns also weighed in on calls to lower the tobacco tax, claiming it was fuelling crime in his state.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said he believed the tobacco excise was contributing to crime in his state. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

In a departure from his Labor colleagues, Mr Minns said information from police had led him to believe a recent crime wave was being driven by gangs fighting to control the tobacco black market.

“I do think (the excise) is involved, because when you’ve got a black market, illicit players in that marketplace will take advantage of it,” the premier said.

“Cigarettes are cheaper today (on the black market) than they’ve been for a few decades, which is the exact opposite of the intention of that tax.”

Mr Minns’ comments further ratcheted up the pressure on Anthony Albanese to lower the excise, but the prime minister has showed no signs of backing down.

“We are taking the strongest action that has ever been taken against the illicit tobacco trade … and we will continue to do so,” Mr Albanese said on the subject last week.

The average price for a legal pack of cigarettes is more than $40, while black market smokes sell for $12 or less. Picture: Supplied/NSW Police

The average price for a legal pack of 20 cigarettes is now more than $40, with each individual cigarette slapped with $1.5 federal excise, and automatic hikes in March and September each year.

Meanwhile, an illegal pack of cigarettes sells for $12 or less, and firebombings have become a regular occurrence at tobacco stores across the country as gangs battle for control of the lucrative trade.

Earlier this month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated that 80 per cent of cigarettes and other nicotine products consumed in Australia in 2025 were illegal.

While overall smoking rates were down from the the early 2000s, the damning ABS analysis found nicotine consumption had increased almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025.

“The increase was underpinned by a large rise in illicit cigarettes as well as increases in e-cigarettes and other nicotine products,” the report said.

“Consumption from illicit sources, as a share of total tobacco consumed, rose from 12 per cent in 2017 to 80 per cent in 2025.”

The figures were based on “nicotine metabolite concentrations” picked up in wastewater, coupled with data on the collapse of household spending on legal cigarettes and vapes.

The ABS pointed out legal tobacco prices had almost tripled since 2016.

Despite this, the latest federal budget showed a downgrade in tobacco excise revenue by $8 billion over the next five years.