A man has been flown to hospital with critical injuries while another is believed to have significant burns after a tobacco shop firebombing gone wrong.

The first injured man, who is yet to be identified, was found near The Boss tobacco store in Melton, on the outskirts of Melbourne’s north-west, about 3am on Thursday.

Fire crews found him after responding to the fire, which fully involved the stop.

Police have deemed the blaze suspicious. They are seeking two people in relation to it – one of whom they believed has significant burn injuries.

It came as the federal Coalition unveiled a policy to take the price of legal cigarettes back more than a decade that it said would help tackle the expanding black market for tobacco.

“It’s time to cut the black market and take back control,” Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says in a post on Facebook on Thursday.

Fire Rescue Victoria confirmed there was no one inside the Melton building when crews arrived early on Thursday. They donned breathing apparatus and began attacking the fire as it threatened to spread to neighbouring stores, which share a roof space.

The blaze was declared under control within 12 minutes.

Detectives remained at the scene on Thursday, with sections of Melton’s High Street sectioned off.

The injured man was flown to hospital in a critical condition.

“The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated,” a police spokesperson said.

Coalition seeks to combat illicit smokes with price cut

Thursday’s incident came as the Coalition announced a policy to slash the cost of pack of legal cigarettes by $30.

It follows a One Nation proposal last month of a 75 per cent cut to the tobacco excise.

Taylor wants to go further, with a cut of 80 per cent that would take a packet of cigarettes back to 2013 prices.

Taylor, who is seeking to counter a surge in popularity for Pauline Hanson’s party that has dragged support for the Coalition down to near-record lows, said he was confident making legal cigarettes competitive would smash the illegal trade.

“I understand business, and sadly, this is a bad business that we have to destroy,” Taylor told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday.

“We’ve got the worst of all worlds right now, with rising smoking, rising crime, and the result of this is that there’s less tax revenue for the government.”

The excise, which adds about $1.55 to the cost of every cigarette to take the average price of a legal pack of 25 sticks past $50, has been blamed for a surge in organised criminal activity and a wave of firebombings on retailers in the major cities.

An estimated 80 per cent of all tobacco consumed in 2025 was illicit, up from 12 per cent in 2017, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A Coalition-led inquiry, which handed down its final report last Friday, called for an immediate pause to the excise and further investigation into possible impacts of lowering taxes.
The Albanese government has resisted any change to the excise, which brings in billions every year, despite growing pressure from economists and NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns.

Senior government minister Tanya Plibersek has rubbished the opposition’s policy, labelling it a race to the bottom.

“It will kill people. Like seriously, we have some of the lowest smoking rates in the world because cigarettes are expensive,” Plibersek said on News24.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge echoed the claims, saying the Coalition policy ignored public health concerns.

Meanwhile, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume was adamant the Coalition wasn’t copying One Nation’s homework.

“This is not a slogan. This is not a headline. This is a solution to a policy problem, a failure of this government,” she told Channel Nine’s Today.

The Coalition’s policy includes a $200 million for law enforcement and a further $60 million for a public health campaign to discourage taking up a smoking habit.

-AAP