SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE

SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

MEDIA STATEMENT

2025 NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY

Friday, 17 July 2026

The Coalition welcomes any decline in smoking rates and the long-term trend reflects decades of work by all governments.

But Minister Butler should not mistake a headline for a success story, however, because buried in the same survey he celebrated today were a number of finding his press release glossed over entirely:

One in three Australians who currently smoke (34 per cent) have recently used illicit tobacco, compared with one in six just three years ago. That rate has doubled on Labor's watch.

Even more alarming, 57 per cent of those purchasing branded illicit tobacco are buying it from tobacconists, meaning the black market has become so entrenched it is now operating openly in communities across the country.

This sits alongside recent ABS data showing illicit sources now account for 80 per cent of all nicotine consumed in Australia, and that quarterly e-cigarette consumption has tripled since Labor introduced its pharmacy-only vaping model in 2023.

Minister Butler calls his vaping reforms "world-leading" but Freedom of Information documents show fewer than 6,000 legal pharmacy vape sales occur each month in a country with 1.7 million adult vapers. The same survey Minister Butler celebrated today confirms that 93 per cent of people who vape are obtaining their products from illicit sources, most commonly a tobacconist, while just 2.5 per cent obtained their vapes from a physical pharmacy.

And the AIHW today reports almost one in 10 young adults are still vaping daily — not from pharmacies, but from the black market that Labor's failed policy created — and despite two years of “world-leading" reforms that rate has barely moved.

Fewer Australians smoking is always good news but Australians deserve better than a Government which presides over an increasing black market and calls it a public health win.

ENDS

‍