Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank all honourable members for their contributions to this debate on the Customs Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Offences) Bill 2018, including and particularly the contributions of the members for Fairfax and Goldstein and the other members who made their contributions. As those members well know—indeed, as some of them have raised it with me on prior occasions—criminals who profit from the trade in illicit tobacco undermine the government's strategies to promote good public health outcomes and they threaten the viability of law-abiding local business operators.

This bill enhances border and law enforcement agencies' ability to investigate and prosecute the illegal importation of tobacco and supports the new illicit tobacco offences contained in the related Treasury Laws Amendment (Illicit Tobacco Offences) Bill 2018. Together these two bills establish a comprehensive set of offences targeting the importation, possession, purchase, sale and production of illicit tobacco. The amendments will make it easier for the Australian Border Force and the Australian Taxation Office to investigate and prosecute criminals who are involved in the illicit tobacco trade, regardless of its origin, whether smuggled or grown domestically. New offences will allow enforcement officers to target a wider range of participants in the illicit tobacco trade and will enable our courts to impose severe fines and lengthy prison sentences on criminals who engage in deliberate and highly calculated defrauding of the Australian public.

The framework the government seeks to legislate is backed up by our commitment to over $70 million in funding to the ABF-led Illicit Tobacco Taskforce in the 2018-19 budget. Together with its predecessor, the Tobacco Strike Team, the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce has seen considerable operational success since its establishment, including as recently as last weekend. Last financial year the ABF detected more than 240 million cigarettes and 217 tonnes of tobacco at the border. Worth over $356 million, it evaded duty that would otherwise have belonged to the Australian taxpayers, the Australian public. While it has been illegal to grow tobacco in Australia for over a decade, since July 2016 the ATO has seized 231 tonnes of illicit tobacco, worth an estimated $194 million in forgone tobacco duty.

The Turnbull government is committed to stamping out the trade in illicit tobacco and disrupting the serious and organised criminal groups that profit from it. On that note, I commend the bill to the House.

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