Royal Commission on the Tobacco Monopoly
30 December 1905 – 14 June 1906
Inquired into whether a monopoly existed in the Australian tobacco industry and whether the Commonwealth should take over the manufacture, import and sale of tobacco.
How it came into existence
Appointed by Letters Patent dated 30 December 1905 to continue the work of the Senate Select Committee on the Tobacco Monopoly (31 August–29 December 1905), whose inquiry had grown out of a 1904 proposal to fund old-age pensions by nationalising tobacco. Senator George Pearce chaired it; the other members were E. Findley, J. P. Gray, J. H. Keating, J. C. Stewart, W. H. Story and J. Styles.
How it ended
Its report was presented on 14 June 1906, and the commission then ended. It found that a syndicate held a partial monopoly over the tobacco industry and recommended nationalising the industry; that recommendation was not adopted.
Main functions
- Existence and effects of a tobacco monopoly
- Advisability of a government monopoly of tobacco manufacture and sale
Lineage
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Sources
Government records and websites
- Parliamentary Handbook: Royal Commissions (dates of Letters Patent and final reports)
- Final report (ParlInfo)
- Parliamentary Library: Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry
- Navigate Senate Committees: Select Committee on the Tobacco Monopoly
- Navigate Senate Committees: Select Committees on Old-age Pensions and Tobacco Monopoly