General News
1 September, 2026
Reignite tobacco industry: Knuth
A REGULATED tobacco industry should be reinstated, with plenty of farmers ready to grow the product, says Member for Hill Shane Knuth.
Mr Knuth is calling on the Queensland and Federal Governments to reinstate a regulated tobacco industry in the region, citing economic opportunity, agricultural heritage, and the need to combat a booming illicit tobacco trade laced with harsh chemicals.
“The Tablelands and the Mareeba-Dimbulah area was once the biggest tobacco producing regions in Australia until deregulation, which totally wiped out the industry,” he said.
“But it’s now caused this illicit tobacco trade that’s costing this country billions of dollars.
“To help stamp out that illicit trade, we need to reinstate the tobacco industry here in Queensland and Australia.”
The Mareeba-Dimbulah area was the tobacco capital of Australia from the 1920s through to the mid-1990s when the Federal Government removed import protections and marketing quotas, deregulating the industry.
Most local farmers could not compete with cheap foreign leaf imports, with the last production around 2003, as growers abandoned tobacco in favour of crops such as sugar cane and mangoes.
It is now illegal to grow the product, even though it is legal to buy tobacco products imported from other countries. China now grows the most tobacco, producing over two million tonnes annually.
Increasing excise over the past few years has fuelled an illicit Australian tobacco market and Federal coffers have suffered, with the excise revenue plummeting from a peak of $16.3 billion in 2019-20 to $4-5 billion currently.
One Nation and the Coalition have vowed to significantly reduce the excise if they win government in 2028, taking the price of a pack of cigarettes back to around what it costs for the illegal products.
But Mr Knuth wants to go further, saying it is time to rekindle local production which would allow for strict regulation, traceability, and quality control.
“This is the golden opportunity to actually grow our own tobacco here, not source it from overseas,” he said.
“No one knows where it’s coming from. No one knows what chemicals they use.
“We’ve got the resources, we’ve got the soil, we’ve got the water, we’ve got the farmers ready to go.
“All that we need now is the permits so the farmers can actually make it happen.
“We’re not promoting smoking, but while it’s been sourced illegally from overseas, why don’t we produce it here?”
Joe Trimarchi, from Red Hill Farming, hails from generations of agricultural production on the Tablelands and says with the region’s capacity and rich tobacco history, reigniting the industry would ensure quality without the harsh chemicals used in overseas sources.
“We have some relics of the past, that’s all that’s left of the tobacco industry. I believe there’s an opportunity to revive the industry again,” he said.
“My dad and his father, when they first came here to the Atherton Tablelands, they were growing tobacco and producing it. I believe it was quite successful in that time,” he said.
Mr Trimarchi, who has held licences to grow medicinal cannabis and hemp for seed and fibre, believes a similar licensing framework could support a modern, regulated tobacco sector – including organic production.
“I’ve had a licence to grow medicinal cannabis, I’ve had the opportunity to grow hemp for seed and fibre, and I think they could possibly be done again along the same ways with a licensing arrangement to grow tobacco,” he said.
