Anthony Albanese freezes beer tax but ignores calls to ease pressure on distillers

Daily Mail​

10 hours ago

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered on a key election promise by freezing tax hikes on tap beer sold in pubs and clubs, but spirits producers say they've been left out and want similar relief.
Normally, the excise on beer increases twice a year, every February and August, in line with inflation.
The freeze will pause these automatic increases for draught beer sold in kegs, but it does not apply to bottled or canned beer, nor to spirits or ready-to-drink beverages.
The saving is modest, on a standard 48-litre keg of mid-strength beer, the freeze amounts to roughly 18 cents, equating to less than a cent per pint.
In another win for booze makers, the government will boost tax breaks for the industry, lifting the excise remission cap from $350,000 to $400,000 for brewers, distillers and winemakers starting next July.
But spirits producers say it's not enough, arguing they're still copping unfair indexation tax hikes while beer gets a break.
'Currently we have a tax system that was brought in in the 1980s, when Australia really didn't have a distilling industry. We maybe had five or six distilleries,' Cameron Mackenzie from the Australian Distillers Association told Sunrise.
'Now, we have over 700 distilleries in Australia. From a manufacturing, innovation, job, tourism, even from an export point of view, this tax is going to hurt that end of the scale. But no-one can keep absorbing these tax increases.
'We have two tax increases a year, forever.'
Mr Mackenzie warned that without change, the costs will continue to be passed on to customers.
'All of the hospitality venues in Australia - restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs -are all going to get stung with this, and ultimately it goes on to the consumer,' he said.
'The consumer is far less likely to go out to a venue if their drink prices keep going up.'
'I think that the freeze on beer tax is an indication that they are willing to have that conversation now. This isn't the 1980s. It is 2025.
'We need a more modern tax structure. A standard drink is a standard drink, and it should be taxed accordingly.'
In the most recent excise rise this February, spirits with more than 10 per cent alcohol by volume increased from $103.89 per litre to $104.31 per litre.
Meanwhile, draught beer with more than 3.5 per cent alcohol increased from $43.22 per litre of alcohol to $43.39 per litre, but the freeze will stop further rises for tap beer sold in pubs and clubs for the next two years.