Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
When it comes to excise tax, the answer was not clear in Australia. When Australia implemented plain packaging, it increased the excise tax at the same time, so we are unable to say which of those two things caused the reduction in smoking or whether it was both of them. Definitely excise tax is a mechanism to try to discourage people from smoking, but it does drive people to contraband.
Interestingly enough, in budget 2018 there was very sneaky legislation that put an escalating tax on tobacco and cigars that will increase every year, in perpetuity, with the consumer price index. This is a tax without any voter input that will go on and on and up and up. Perhaps those extra funds could be used to good purpose, but I would prefer to be transparent with the public and allow the public to vote in who they want, based on their tax policy.