Last week, One Nation announced it would cut tobacco excise by 75 per cent.

Not to be outdone, Opposition Leader Angus announced that the Coalition would cut it by 80 per cent.

What’s next, a One Nation cut by 100 per cent followed by a Coalition cut of 120 per cent? Either way, these policies are reckless and irresponsible.

The previous Labor government hiked tobacco excise as an anti-smoking measure that it combined with plain packaging of cigarettes.

Plain packaging was intended to remove the prestige associated with cigarette smoking.

Advertising implied that smoking Peter Stuyvesant would take you all around the world – to Paris, Rio, Monte Carlo, Acapulco and more.

Benson & Hedges in the gold pack was for you when only the best would do. The Marlborough man was to impress rugged outdoorsmen. And so on.

The big tobacco companies challenged the government in the High Court and lost. They resorted to international forums and lost there too.

Ministers such as Nicola Roxon and Wayne Swan were resolute. So was I as trade minister. The director-general of the World Health Organisation congratulated Australia for leading international efforts for plain packaging.

The best way to prevent young people from smoking is to discourage them from starting. Plain packaging was part of this, but so was ensuring the financial cost of smoking was high.

Did these twin measures work?

A chart showing smoking rates among young people through the introduction of the big excise increases and plain packaging says they did – especially the excise increases.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Do Hanson and Taylor want more young people to take up smoking, or do they just not care?

What’s certain is that in a few decades those young people, by then in their 40 and 50s, will experience ill health from tobacco smoking, which will put even more pressure on state health systems.

Hanson and Taylor won’t be around then, so that won’t be a problem for them.

Now let’s turn to the other argument being used for cutting tobacco excise.

Hanson and Taylor want you to believe that the crime gangs that are responsible for gangland killings will disband if the tobacco excise is slashed.

The gangs won’t step up their imports of cocaine as another source of income and dispute. They’ll say: “Fair cop, we’re retiring from crime and will become good citizens.”

Law enforcement, we are told, is just too difficult. Yet the merchants selling illicit tobacco aren’t operating out of dingy back alleys. They are selling illicit cigarettes in plain sight in shops in the major streets of our capital cities and suburbs.

The last excuse for scoundrels advocating the slashing of tobacco excise is one of civil liberties. This is a right-wing position, that it is not for governments to tell people how to behave but for the individuals to decide in a free society.

That one hasn’t been rolled out, but it might be just a matter of time. One Nation supporters refer in social media to the present Labor government as “communists”.

It’s probably not worth dignifying this argument with a response.

In fact, it all comes down to this. One Nation is trying to appeal to its base by promising to slash the price of cigarettes irrespective of the dire health consequences for those young people who being smoking in response.

The Coalition, never to be undone by One Nation, adopts its policies and goes further.

Get ready for more of this behaviour as we move towards state elections in Victoria and NSW and, later, a federal election.

The Coalition must know it can’t get to the right of One Nation, since One Nation will respond by going even further right. But at least it might keep the Coalition’s ratings in opinion polls from falling further.

That’s not a path to victory. It’s a dereliction of duty. 

Craig Emerson was economic and environmental adviser to Bob Hawke and trade minister in the previous Labor government