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🇦🇺 Australia /Elections & Politics

One Nation and the Coalition are betting cheap cigarettes will stay uncool

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources New plan
  • Australia’s Coalition proposes cutting tobacco excise by 80% and legalising and taxing vapes and nicotine pouches, while One Nation proposes a 75% cut.
  • Health advocates and Labor warn the changes could increase smoking and nicotine addiction, despite the illegal tobacco market’s expansion.
  • Youth smoking and vaping rates have fallen, but opponents fear looser regulation could reverse that progress.

Is smoking cool again? Charli XCX’s cigarette-filled birthday bouquet during her Brat summer suggested, at least briefly, that it might be. For Australian teenagers, however, the image appears to have made little difference. Local research found that young smokers were generally described as “losers” or people “trying too hard to be cool”.

Smoking among 14-to-17-year-olds has fallen to levels that are almost too low to track reliably. Yet a poll released this year found that 26 per cent of 12-to-17-year-olds had tried some form of nicotine, while another 15 per cent were considering it.

race to the bottom

· LaborLabor’s description of the Coalition and One Nation proposals to reduce tobacco excise.

Those figures sit at the centre of a major proposed shift in Australia’s nicotine policy. More than half of the cigarettes sold in the country are now bought illegally. When vapes and nicotine pouches are included, the estimated share of the nicotine market controlled by illegal sellers rises to 80 per cent.

losers

· Australian teenagers, as reported in local researchOne of the terms teenagers used to describe young smokers.

The Coalition, led by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, wants to cut tobacco excise by 80 per cent, slightly exceeding One Nation’s proposed 75 per cent reduction. Labor has called the contest a “race to the bottom” with organised crime. The Coalition also wants to legalise and tax vapes and nicotine pouches, alongside additional funding for law enforcement and public education.

Labor and medical experts are deeply concerned. A study cited by the Cancer Council found that someone who has vaped is five times more likely to begin smoking. Australia has restricted alternative nicotine products by limiting vape sales to pharmacies and banning pouches, while stronger enforcement has failed to eliminate the retail black market. Youth vaping has nevertheless fallen by about a third since 2024, and the federal government and health advocates fear that progress could be undone. Their central question is whether higher smoking and nicotine addiction would be an acceptable price for regulating the black market.

trying too hard to be cool

· Australian teenagers, as reported in local researchAnother description teenagers gave for young smokers.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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