Pauline Hanson unveils plan to slash cigarette prices from $46 to $22 a pack to crush illegal tobacco trade

One Nation has pledged to slash the tobacco excise significantly in a bid to undercut the booming illicit tobacco trade and organised crime.

Party leader Pauline Hanson announced on Tuesday that One Nation would cut the excise by 75 per cent, pause indexation for three years and pair the measure with tougher action against organised crime.

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The party says the change would bring the price of a legal $46.50 packet of cigarettes down to about $21 or $22, similar to prices in September 2015.

Hanson said Labor’s approach had failed and handed an increasing share of the tobacco market to organised crime.

“People are sick of the firebombing, shootings, extortion and killings,” she said. “They are sick of watching tobacco shops burn, while organised crime takes control of the market.

“Excise in a packet of 20 is now about $30.60 and is scheduled to rise again in September.

“Excise revenue is in free-fall, dropping from $12.6 billion in 2022–23 to an estimated $4.1 billion in 2025–26 and $3.6 billion this financial year.

“Labor has not only lost the revenue, it has lost control of the black market in illegal tobacco.

“Every budget prediction they have made on excise has been wrong, wrong, wrong.

Hanson said evidence presented to a Senate inquiry put the price of illicit packets at roughly $12 to $25.

“Our plan makes legal tobacco competitive and attacks the gangs’ extraordinary profit margin,” she said, adding that the policy was not intended to encourage smoking, but to restore the rule of law and disrupt the black market.

“We do not blame Australians under cost-of-living pressure for stretching their budgets,” Hanson said.

“We blame a government that kept doubling down while organised crime built a multibillion-dollar market.”