This bill is currently before Parliament.
Health, care & disability
Illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. offences would carry higher penalties for importing, possessing, buying, selling, supplying, producing or making illegal tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules., including offences under customs, exciseA tax on certain goods made or produced in Australia, including tobacco. and tax law.
The bill was introduced because the government said the illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. and e-cigarette markets were growing, highly profitable for organised crime, and not being deterred by existing penalties and enforcement tools. It responds to the 2024-25 Illicit TobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. and E-cigarette Commissioner Report by increasing penalties, expanding interception and proceeds-of-crime tools, and making asset-confiscation processes easier to use.
The bill sits in a wider shift from treating illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. mainly as a tax and health problem to treating it as a serious organised-crime market. Official material says the market kept growing despite earlier law changes, and the 2024-25 commissioner report estimated illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. was worth $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion. The bill answers that pressure with higher penalties, wider interception access, and stronger tools to freeze, search for and confiscate criminal assets.
The local source bundle does not record a substantive public case against the bill. The available parliamentary material and collected reporting focus on the scale of the illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. market, organised-crime profits, money laundering risks, tougher penalties and stronger investigation or confiscation powers.
Julian Hill MP introduced this bill. Supportive speeches so far have come from Labor.
Did it become law?
Not yet
Final passage
No final vote yet
The bill has not yet completed passage through Parliament.
Days since introduction
76 days
Updated 10 June 2026.
Meaning
Illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. offences would carry higher penalties for importing, possessing, buying, selling, supplying, producing or making illegal tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules., including offences under customs, exciseA tax on certain goods made or produced in Australia, including tobacco. and tax law.
Some illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. offences would be treated as serious offences for telecommunications interception law, allowing agencies to seek warrants such as telecommunications service, named person and entry-on-premises warrants.
Proceeds-of-crime courts could better protect sensitive restraining-order information, including by using broader non-publication and closed-court orders to reduce risks to investigations.
Law enforcement could seek person search warrants under proceeds-of-crime law to look for suspected criminal assets or evidence, including cash, high-value items, devices and information used to access digital assets.
Information gathered under proceeds-of-crime powers could be shared with Commonwealth regulators such as AUSTRAC, ASIC and APRA for specified regulatory purposes, but not through this new measure for criminal offence investigations.
Unexplained-wealth and confiscation processes would be streamlined by widening equitable sharing arrangements, removing the preliminary unexplained wealthProperty or money a person has but cannot show came from a lawful source. order step, and allowing postal or electronic service of proceeds-of-crime documents.
Schedule 1 of the Bill would increase criminal penalties for offences in the Customs Act, the Excise Act, and the TAA 1953. These offences relate to the importation, possession, buying, selling, supply, production or manufacture of illicit tobacco.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Schedule 2 of the Bill would make amendments to the TIA Act to insert several illicit tobacco-related offences under the definition of serious offence. This will have the effect of enlivening a series of telecommunications access powers in the TIA Act.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Part 1 of Schedule 3 of the Bill would introduce additional grounds for making a non-publication order under the POCA, as well as expand the types of information and documents which can be protected by such an order.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Part 2 of Schedule 3 of the Bill would introduce a person search warrant... criminals may store information relevant to accessing and interacting with digital assets on devices which can be held by the person... They may also hold or conceal other items on their person, such as cash, and high-value items, including watches and jewellery.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Part 4 of Schedule 3 of the Bill would allow information obtained using POCA powers to be shared with other Commonwealth authorities for specified regulatory purposes... This measure does not extend to sharing POCA information with Commonwealth authorities for the purposes of investigating, preventing or prosecuting a criminal offence.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Part 5 of Schedule 3... enable a jurisdiction that has signed up to the Intergovernmental Agreement... to participate in equitable sharing arrangements... Part 6... remove the requirement for the court to make a preliminary unexplained wealth order... Part 7... allow the postal or electronic service of documents to a person.Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum
Context
The bill sits in a wider shift from treating illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. mainly as a tax and health problem to treating it as a serious organised-crime market. Official material says the market kept growing despite earlier law changes, and the 2024-25 commissioner report estimated illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. was worth $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion. The bill answers that pressure with higher penalties, wider interception access, and stronger tools to freeze, search for and confiscate criminal assets.
Border seizures show illegal tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. scale
The Australian Financial Review reported that the Australian Border Force had seized just under a billion illegal cigarettes over two years, worth $1.1 billion in forgone tax, as the Illicit TobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. Taskforce targeted a growing black market.
Australian Financial Review ↗Budget papers highlight lost tobacco duty
Public reporting on the 2025 budget said billions of dollars in tobacco duties were being evaded, adding revenue pressure to public health and organised-crime concerns.
Australian Financial Review ↗Commissioner report calls for stronger consequences
The explanatory memorandum says the Illicit TobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. and E-cigarette Commissioner Report identified stronger consequences, multi-agency capability, unified information and data, and demand reduction as key themes. It estimated the 2024-25 illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. market at $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion.
Combatting Illicit Tobacco explanatory memorandum ↗Government previews tougher tobacco crime laws
ABC News reported that the government planned tougher penalties, new offences and expanded surveillance and asset-seizure powers for organised crime networks involved in illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. and vapes.
ABC News ↗Illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. bill enters Parliament
The government introduced the bill in the House of Representatives to increase penalties, widen telecommunications-interception access, and strengthen proceeds-of-crime tools for illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. offending.
Parliamentary timeline and explanatory memorandum ↗Banks and AUSTRAC target tobacco money flows
ABC News reported that AUSTRAC had received more than 300 suspicious matter reports from banks involving illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. after asking banks to increase oversight of tobacco and convenience-store accounts.
ABC News ↗Legislative route
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Second reading moved
Key criticism
The local source bundle does not record a substantive public case against the bill. The available parliamentary material and collected reporting focus on the scale of the illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. market, organised-crime profits, money laundering risks, tougher penalties and stronger investigation or confiscation powers.
Because the bill was still before the House of Representatives in the collected material, later committee scrutiny, amendments or rights-based objections may not yet be reflected here.
Further sources
Votes
No recorded votes have been found yet for this bill.
Parliamentary debate
Start here — lead voices
Hill urged the House to pass the bill, arguing that illicit tobaccoTobacco that is imported, made, sold or possessed illegally, often to avoid customs duty, excise or tax rules. had become a serious organised-crime and public-health problem.
Read in Hansard ↗All speeches by bloc
1 speaker · 1 support
“This bill is a critical step to strengthen Commonwealth laws and increase penalties to make the consequences much greater for criminals, target unexplained wealth, and activate enhanced law enforcement techniques, like wiretaps and other powerful tools to track and disrupt criminal networks.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
Record
House · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
House · Second reading moved
Second reading opened
A minister or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
