Australia’s flourishing tobacco black market has been called a “total failure of policy” as the country leads dozens of others in an alarming statistic.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week found national nicotine consumption increased by almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025.
Illicit products accounted for 80 per cent of total tobacco consumption in 2025, marking a major increase from 2017 when that figure was just 12 per cent.
The 80 per cent market share figure far exceeds the comparable data from studies of European nations and other countries including Canada and New Zealand.
Former Australian Federal Police detective Rohan Pike has labelled the fresh ABS data “outrageous”.
“Australia had gone from ‘world leading’ to the global laughing stock of tobacco control,” he told Sky News.com.au.
“We must remember who caused this total failure of policy. It is the same public health advocates that the government go to to seek the solution.
“It’s like asking the arsonist how to put out the fire. They need to apologise and move aside so we can blow up our policy and start again.”
He also said Australia’s tobacco policies were “based on a fallacy in that health authorities think they can stop everyone from smoking and consuming any nicotine product”.
“They can’t. Prohibition never works,” he said.
A report prepared by consulting giant KPMG and commissioned by Philip Morris Products SA found illicit tobacco consumption accounted for approximately 11.1 per cent of total consumption across 38 European markets in 2025.
The study covered the 27 European Union member states and 11 other countries including the United Kingdom and Norway.
Illegal tobacco consumption represented at least 20 per cent of total consumption in just seven of those nations, with France having the highest rate at 41 per cent.
Another similar study by KPMG of Canada and 10 countries in Latin America found contraband and counterfeit products represented 31.9 per cent of total cigarette consumption in 2025 – a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from 2024.
In Canada, the share of contraband and counterfeit products in total cigarette consumption was 38.3 per cent last year, according to the study.
Meanwhile, an FTI Consulting report found 27.2 per cent of total tobacco consumed in New Zealand in 2024 were illegal products.