“Fundamentally, the argument that cutting the tax on tobacco in half would eliminate the illicit trade is a fairy tale.”

Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin is talking in the aftermath of Dr Nick Coatsworth’s appearance before a federal Senate inquiry where he argued that the high cost of cigarettes is driving consumers to the black market, where profits are funding organised crime.

For a respiratory physician to be suggesting cuts in tax on a product that has killed millions over the decades was newsworthy.

As Dr Coatsworth himself said, his argument was a source of personal pain in many ways because it aligned with the cynical money-making interests of an industry harming health.