Anthony Albanese today refused to answer direct questions about the organised crime gangs profiting from Australia’s booming illicit tobacco market and refused to rule out reducing tobacco excise.

In Question Time, the Prime Minister was twice asked directly about the impact of organised crime and more than 200 tobacco-related arson attacks in Victoria in three years.

Twice he refused to answer the substance of the question, instead handballing responsibility to his ministers.

When the Prime Minister was then asked the simplest possible question, whether he would rule out any reduction in tobacco excise, he again refused to answer and handed the question to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Remarkably, the Treasurer also refused to rule out reducing tobacco excise.

The Government has spent days attacking the Coalition’s plan to cut tobacco excise and smash the business model of organised crime.

Yet when given the opportunity in Parliament to rule out following the Coalition’s approach, neither the Prime Minister nor the Treasurer would do so.

The reason is becoming obvious.

Australia’s illicit tobacco market has become a serious organised crime problem, with gangs making an estimated $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion and using the profits to fund drugs, scams, money laundering and violence.

The current system is also bleeding the Budget. Tobacco excise revenue has fallen from around $16 billion in 2019-20 to around $8 billion, while organised crime collects billions instead.

Coalition analysis shows that if the average of the six excise write-downs since Labor’s first Budget update is repeated at the December MYEFO, tobacco excise revenue would fall to zero by 2029-30.

The Prime Minister has no answer to the organised crime gangs terrorising Australian communities, while the Treasurer knows his tobacco tax is haemorrhaging revenue to the black market, money that is funding firebombings, terrorism, extortion, drugs, scams and violence in our communities.

The Coalition has put forward a clear plan to smash this criminal business model, including cutting tobacco excise by 80 per cent, stronger law enforcement and tougher action against the gangs profiting from the black market.

You cannot smash organised crime while protecting its business model.

Today the Prime Minister would not even defend his own policy.

‍