Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

They certainly should—I agree with the member for Lyons on that point.

We agree these reforms are necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the Australian wine industry and improve the integrity of the rebate itself, which, in its previous form, was damaging the sustainability of wine production across Australia. As I've said, the old WET producer rebate created an unfair and uneven incentive for businesses to create a structure that maximised rebate claims. Reforming the rebate better targets the areas for which the policy was initially intended. It was to benefit smaller wine producers, who are making significant commitments and investments to the industry around rural and regional Australia.

As I was saying before, through this legislation Wine Australia is going to administer two funds. The Export and Regional Wine Support Package will have $50 million allocated to it. That will aim to help transform the Australian grape and wine industry through wine tourism and wine exports. Three grant programs will be offered under this package—wine export grants, international wine tourism state grants and international wine tourism competitive grants. We've heard that the object of the wine export grants is to reduce exporting transaction costs for wine exporters and so increase export opportunities to China, Macau, Hong Kong and the US from Australia. The objective of the international wine tourism state grants is to support state wine associations, such as Wines of WA, to work with wine tourism stakeholders to build international wine tourism within the state. In that regard I very much look forward to working with the Hon. Paul Papalia, the member for Warnbro, which is in my seat of Brand, who is the new state Minister for Tourism.

The objective of the international wine tourism competitive grants is to support stakeholders in plans to grow the number of tourists visiting and spending time in the Australian region for the purposes of international wine tourism. It allows entities with an annual turnover of less than $20 million to claim 50 per cent of their promotional activities, up to a cap of $50,000. The fund is limited and money will be allocated on a first-in-best-dressed basis—not exactly the fairest means of distributing funding, especially when funding is limited. There doesn't seem to be a competitive process; it's who gets in the door first. And limiting the markets this promotional grant will go to seems to be a little short-sighted as well. There has been a solid trajectory in growth in Australian wine exports internationally from the nineties until now, and I think our export capacity, particularly into Asia as tastes change, is still to be fully realised, especially in the sense that wine makes up only around five per cent of Australia's agricultural exports.

I might reflect on the WA wine industry. Whilst in Western Australia we produce only around five per cent of Australia's wine by volume, Western Australia produces nearly one-quarter of the nation's premium and super premium wines. That's a fact Western Australian members in this place are very proud of. With our exports generally, we do have a way to go. There's much to celebrate: in 2015 bottled wine exports to China increased by 45 per cent, which demonstrates the power of that emerging Asian market and the demand for the high-quality wine that Australia offers. But still nearly half of our bottled wine exports go to Europe and nearly a third to North America, so even with the massive 45 per cent increase in exports to China there's a lot of opportunity in that market.

I want to reflect for a few minutes of my remaining time on the great local wine industry in my state. Off the back of the wine industry we get to benefit from a fantastic tourism industry that's enjoyed by both domestic and international visitors. I know the member for Lyons, who is sitting here this evening, is a fan of wines from the Margaret River region, as is the Deputy Speaker in the chair, the member for Newcastle.

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