> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://goodoil.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # It’s Enough to Drive You to Smoking - URL: https://goodoil.news/its-enough-to-drive-you-to-smoking/ - Published: 2026-08-19T02:30:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-19T02:30:39.000Z - Description: Except you can’t afford that, either. - Author: Lushington Brady - Tags: AUS Politics, Tobacciana, Housing As the Australian housing market collapses, thanks to the ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to help’ Albanese government, young homeowners facing the prospect of sliding into negative equity can’t even afford to punch a dart or two to cope with the stress, thanks to successive governments ‘helping’ by piling so much tax on a pack of durries that the only place smokers can turn to is their local dodgy Middle Eastern black-market ‘vape shop’. One Nation’s latest policy pronouncement is directly aimed at undercutting the criminal tobacco trade that has seen a score of firebombings, assaults, kidnappings and even murder, across Australia. > [One Nation leader](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-18/hanson-one-nation-cut-tobacco-cigarette-tax/107048678?ref=goodoil.news) **Pauline Hanson** says her party wants to wipe out the booming tobacco black market by slashing the tax on a packet of cigarettes by nearly $30, bringing it close to the cost of illicit cigarettes \[…\] > > But the government has resisted any cuts to the tax on tobacco, which has been successively lifted over the past 15 years and now makes up more than half the cost of a pack of cigarettes. > > One Nation MP **Barnaby Joyce** told ABC Radio National that high taxation had fuelled the black market. > > “If you keep on putting up the price of cigarettes, you are going to get more mafia,” Mr Joyce said. And, ironically, bugger-all tax revenue. In a result that should surprise absolutely no one with half a brain – which rules out most of the Albanese cabinet – as the tax on legal tobacco has skyrocketed, the actual tax revenue collected has collapsed. Australia’s tobacco commissioner estimates that government tobacco revenue has dropped by between $7.7 billion and $11.8 billion. Criminals, meanwhile, are raking in more than $4 billion. But they were from the government and they were there to help. Just like they’re helping with the housing market. > [Rents are projected](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/brace-for-an-extra-30pc-on-your-rent-after-property-tax-changes/news-story/89705ad78d2e66f28f3265ff30dcf85f?ref=goodoil.news) to soar by as much as 30 per cent over the next two years to compensate many landlords for the loss of property tax concessions that **Jim Chalmers** and **Anthony Albanese** abolished, blowing out budget predictions and stoking fears of further inflation. While it’s tempting to say, ‘I told you so’ to all the renters who voted for Labor to ‘fix housing’, the sad fact is that most of them didn’t. Thirty-one per cent of Australian households rent, which means that there are more renters than people who actually voted Labor at the last election. But it’s *all* renters who are going to be punished. > Housing Minister **Clare O’Neil** \[…\] said on Monday the government’s decision to deprive investors of remove tax concessions had brought results. Well… she’s not wrong. Except about what the results actually are. Hint: it’s very, very far from ‘fairness’. > Data collated by the coalition shows Anthony Albanese’s underlying inflation record, measured by the trimmed mean, was now the worst of any prime minister since the RBA introduced its two to three per cent target band in 1993. > > The current government holds the highest average for underlying inflation at 4.3 per cent, the most quarters above the target range at 14, and the highest single reading at 6.8 per cent. And that would be par for the course – no Labor government in history has ever brought inflation below the RBA’s target – except that even by the dire standards of Labor governments, inflation is out of control under this mob. Where Keating had just one quarter above RBA targets, Rudd/Gillard/Rudd had 10. The Albanese government has had an astonishing 14 quarters with inflation above the RBA’s target. Just three have been within the target. Not a single quarter of Albo and Zippy’s reign of economic incompetence has seen inflation fall below target. > Opposition Treasury spokesman **Tim Wilson** said the ­Albanese government was dangerously tolerant of inflation. > > “High inflation is a design feature of the Albanese government based on stoking inflation, taxing inflation, then spending inflation in a vicious cycle so they can raise taxes on Australians families by stealth,” Mr Wilson said. It’s almost certainly going to get worse. > [In New Zealand and Canada](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-18/what-happens-if-property-prices-fall-20-per-cent-ask-nz-canada/107045250?ref=goodoil.news), the housing downturn is beginning to ricochet through the broader economy, highlighting the challenges the RBA and the federal government may face in the near future. > > Household spending is restrained, and retailers are struggling in both countries, hindering efforts to revive economic growth. > > Australia’s economy is already sluggish \[…\] A string of retailers has shut in the past 12 months, and even market darlings like JB Hi-Fi have been under fire from investors as difficult trading conditions are expected to weigh on performance. Even the Great Woke North, Canada, has admitted that immigration is driving the housing crisis and slashed net migration for the last two years. Yet its economy still struggles with the knock-on effects of its housing crisis. The Carney government is now openly considering buying up unsold apartments, to convert them into affordable housing. Who wants to take bets on how *that’s* going to go? They’re from the government and they’re here to help, after all. --- 💡 ****If you enjoyed this article please share it using the share buttons at the top or bottom of the article.**