A CLA government will consider the approach applied by Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador, to deal with organised crime groups. Taking a tough stance on criminal activity, he transformed El Salvador from one of the most dangerous countries in the world, to the safest.
The first step is for society to recognise the problem, understand the root causes of it and then to put pressure on politicians to solve the problem. Politicians can do this through a combination of being tough on criminal gangs and destroying their business model.
CLA understands that the major sources of income for organised crime are illicit drugs, illicit tobacco, vehicle theft, corruption on state funded unionised construction projects, and people and businesses paying for protection.
Illicit tobacco
An astonishing 50% to 60% of all tobacco products sold in Australia are illicit, with some putting illegal imported tobacco at about 5,400 tonnes and about 575 produced illegally in Australia. The Illicit Tobacco and E-Cigarette Commissioner (ITEC) put the market value of this to be A$4.1–6.9 billion. Since the excise tax on tobacco is roughly 70% of the total price, the illegal tobacco trade, which avoids the excise tax, is potentially a very lucrative industry for organised crime. The problem is not just the significant loss in tax revenue. A related problem is the extortionary pressures put on retailers to stock illicit tobacco supplied by organised crime groups. Basically, if they do not agree, their shops get firebombed and destroyed.
Since the underlying cause of the problem is the high excise taxes imposed on tobacco, the solution is an easy one – remove that tax or reduce it to such an extent that illicit tobacco is no longer a worthwhile trade. It is bewildering that our government have not already done so. This begs the question of how the incumbent Labor government is benefiting from this trade.
CLA will abolish the tobacco excise tax in full, thereby destroying organised crime’s business model.
Critics will argue that scrapping the tobacco excise tax will increase the number of people smoking tobacco, and since smoking tobacco is bad for the smoker’s health, health costs will rise, costing society a fortune in Medicare. There is some truth in that claim. At much cheaper prices, more are likely to smoke tobacco and those who smoke will probably smoke more of it. Smoking is a health hazard, resulting in more health problems. More smokers and their smoking more should reduce, considerably reduce, both medical care and social welfare costs across society. That’s because smokers are more likely to die younger and quicker than those who don’t smoke. Non-smokers are a lot more likely to spend many more years in retirement, collecting a pension, and their health is likely to deteriorate over a far longer period, requiring a lot more in medical care. From a purely economic perspective, society is better off with more smokers smoking more.
Illicit drugs
Our war on Illicit drugs continues to be a very costly failure. According to a 2021/2022 data analysis released by the UNSW Sydney Drug Policy Modelling Program, Australia spends about $5.45 billion annually on combating illicit drugs, of which $3.5 billion (64.3% of the total) is spent on law enforcement – on policing, prosecution, and border interdiction. Is that reducing the use of illicit drugs in Australia? Not according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). It says that Australians consumed 34 per cent more methylamphetamine (meth), cocaine, heroin and MDMA in 2024 compared to 2023, and reported that the annual National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program shows Australians consumed 22.2 tonnes of these four drugs between August 2023 and 2024. Clearly the current approach is not working.
How much more money do we need to spend on the problem and how many more years before we try another approach? A CLA government will give serious consideration to legalising illicit drugs. This will destroy organised crime’s profit incentive. If CLA were to legalise these drugs, allowing pharmacies to sell to those on the My Health Record national health register, far fewer recreational consumers will die or suffer from tainted product. Government will also be able to see who the heavy users are and offer help. CLA will ensure that any legalising of these drugs will be met with far lower tolerance for addicts and anti-social behaviour. Unemployable addicts will be sent to addiction rehabilitation facilities provided by the State, the cost of which will be repayable (like HECS for students). Government will adopt a 3-strikes rule, allowing a maximum of three stints in the rehab, then into long-term incarceration.
Vehicle theft
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over 65,000 vehicles were reported to Police as having been stolen in 2024. Consider the extent and sophistication of the logistics required to move them on. That is an extensive operation, involving many people in the supply chain, and many more paid ‘to look the other way’ or otherwise facilitate the movement of the stolen goods. Given the astonishingly high number of vehicles stolen every year, and the figures appearing to increase every year it is puzzling that our government hasn’t put a stop to it or significantly reduced the numbers of stolen vehicles. Is it due vehicle theft being low priority for our police forces or do our police not have the necessary power to investigate and prosecute the kingpins or is there another reason for it?
CLA’s strategy for combating this crime includes the following:
- Ensuring that our police forces give adequate priority to vehicle theft and have the power to investigate and prosecute the kingpins and others involved;
- Removing the effective indemnity for youth offenders – so they don’t get exploited to do the ‘dirty work’ for organised criminal groups;
- Considering El Salvador’s approach to tackling organised crime groups.