OK, so previously illegal cigs were 10% of the market, and now they're 80%. But the market has shrunk dramatically. From the article:

In 2010, about one in seven Australians smoked daily.

The country's main national household survey last year found that rate had dropped to about one in 18 people.

No. It's simply an enforcement issue. Police aren't doing their job

If you offer $1000 for every successful report of illegal tabacco and actually pursued the dodgy stores, it provides even smokers with incentive to report

Every non smoker out there is so f**king sick of the tobacco industry.

Illegal tobacco markets require that people still smoke. The current laws are in place to reduce the number of people who smoke.

So the illegal markets are fighting a losing battle here. Their market is shrinking. And as they take more market-share from lawful sellers, that only serves to hasten the decline, because those legitimate businesses are required to mask the illegal ones. Every seizure of illegal goods is a loss for that illegal business.

So I don't think we need to a change strategy here. The smoking industry is going to run out of breath, as long as we don't give them a break. I pretty wary of the people who are arguing in favour of easing off. One Nation in particular is basically just a lobbying magnet.

There is no future where 0 people smoke or consume some form of nicotine. I think the tax excise has simply achieved all it can, and new inventive strategies for tackling addiction are needed. Trying to achieve a smoke free society is folly though, especially while conditions continue to deteriorate across our society.

Worked for me! I smoked for 30 years. Went to Australia to 3 months and gave up. They were far too expensive.

Did it go too far?

Yes, obviously.

The purported reason for the tax is to discourage people smoking. If the unintended effect is supporting criminals providing an unregulated product, then obviously the tax is not satisfying it's objective.

There's a point at which more tax is just more punishment for addicts.

It's similar to increasing interest rates to curb inflation, it's effective up to a point, but increases beyond that fail to control behavior.

Nicotine addiction is complex, like any form of substance abuse. The high taxes in Australia have done a great job of reducing the harm, but if we've reached the point where more tax doesn't reduce harm then we need to consider other measures.

I know the cash only shop selling cigarettes for $5 each.

They even taking apple pay / payID now, instead of eftpos