Australia Illicit Tobacco Market Surges, Accounts for 80% Consumption

Sydney - Illegal, unregulated tobacco and black-market vaping products now account for roughly 80% of all nicotine consumed in Australia, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals.

The figures have prompted clashes between public health bodies and commercial lobbyists, with health advocates warning that organised crime syndicates are actively undermining decades of hard-won anti-smoking progress.

The experimental ABS estimates show that while legal, taxed tobacco sales have nearly halved since 2020, total domestic nicotine consumption has risen by approximately 40% since 2017.

The bulk of this growth occurred after 2021, driven by a wave of cheap, illicit e-cigarettes.

The findings are based on extensive wastewater testing conducted across the country.

Cancer Council Australia has demanded that federal and state governments implement an emergency law enforcement crackdown on illicit supply lines, rejecting calls from industry front groups to lower tobacco taxes to compete with the black market.

"The experimental estimates from ABS indicate that licensing and enforcement must be urgently strengthened by all governments if we are to tackle illicit tobacco and nicotine products," Chief Executive of Cancer Council Australia, Jacinta Reddan said.

"We've had concerns for some time that illicit tobacco risks driving up smoking, undoing decades of progress in Australia.

"Urgent action is needed to address this, but cutting tobacco tax is not the solution," she said.

Reddan said cutting the tobacco excise would simply play into the hands of multinational firms by making legal cigarettes cheaper, thereby increasing overall smoking rates without stopping illegal syndicates.

"Cutting tobacco excise would simply make legal tobacco more affordable, increase consumption, and boost tobacco industry profits, while the illicit market continues to operate," she said.

The ABS noted that the data was collected between August and October 2024, catching the market at a peak just before Australia enacted sweeping new border controls and pharmacy-only vaping restrictions in late 2024.

The Cancer Council warned that 66 Australians still die every day from smoking-related illnesses, and cautioned that health policy must not be dictated by criminal market pressures.

"The tobacco industry is already trying to frame this as a tax problem.

"We cannot let that narrative take hold. The solution is stronger enforcement and sustained public health action, not undoing decades of hard-won progress," she said.