Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 but to suggest some means by which it could be improved. Australians continue to live in the grip of an ongoing, severe cost-of-living crisis. Tomorrow, the Reserve Bank is expected to keep an anticipated cash rate cut on hold after inflation exceeded recent forecasts. That has been driven by rising costs for basic necessities like housing, food and energy.

The rising cost of living has been a challenge which has confronted millions of Australians for some years now, with inflation having risen so sharply since our economy bounced back from the COVID induced recession. As the inflation dragon has roared through our economy, the Albanese government has been at pains to tell us that there are limits on what it can control: the independent RBA sets the cash rate; Woolworths and Coles have become two of the world's most profitable supermarkets thanks to sharp rises in the cost of essential foods; and, on the east coast of Australia, domestic gas prices have surged since they were aligned with the global price for polluting gas.

The price of most grocery items is set by the markets but the government is not a powerless bystander in this space. There are some everyday items in which the government does have a hand in price-setting, and one of those is the price of a draught beer. That's right—the price of a cold one, a pint, a schooner or a pot. The average price of draught beer has gone up by over 30 per cent in the last three years. This rise, which is considerably higher than that of inflation, has occurred in the middle of our cost-of-living crisis. Contributing to that rising cost is the automatic indexation of the beer excise every six months, which effectively forces price increases well ahead of the annual CPI. What that means is that, while households continue to face the rising costs of food, of housing and of energy, the humble beer has become almost a luxury item. There is some good news, though, for Australia's beer lovers. It is within this government's power to act on this particular cost-of-living issue.

So it is pleasing to see the government's commitment to freezing indexation on draught beer, but it's not clear why we have to freeze it for just the two years. The impact of high inflation on the excise indexation over the last few years has left the price of draught beer simply too high. I'd make a case that we should stop automatically indexing the beer excise. This freeze should be permanent. A permanent cap on the indexation of draught beer excise will help millions of consumers tackle cost-of-living pressures in their homes. Right now, it's more expensive to enjoy a beer in my home city of Melbourne than it is in Tokyo, in New York or in London. Melbourne can't be the world's most livable city if you can't afford a beer while you live there.

A permanent excise cap will also support Australia's emerging craft beer industry. Despite the rapid very recent growth of small independent brewers, the draught beer market in Australia remains saturated by big international brands. In fact, roughly 85 per cent of the Australian beer market is controlled by two foreign owned companies. I think it would surprise many pub goers to learn that household names like VB, Carlton Draught and XXXX are owned by large Japanese companies. Asahi owns CUB, 4 Pines, Balter, Yak Ales, Matilda Bay and Mountain Goat. Another Japanese brewer, Kirin, owns Lion, and hence it owns Little Creatures, Hahn, James Boag, Tooheys, James Squire, Stone & Wood and White Rabbit. Despite what many people think, these are not, or are no longer, Australian brands, and it might well be an issue for the ACCC to look at, because what I'm hearing from constituents and from people who own bars and have a strong interest in this issue within the electorate of Kooyong is that independent brewers face real challenges with the rising cost of ingredients and of energy.

They're also dealing with softening consumer demand, and they're dealing with stiff competition from large retailers like Coles, which are increasingly selling their own home-brand beers in a way which largely mimics craft styles. Many small brewers for which excise increases were deferred during the struggles and the hard times of COVID are now struggling to deal with that debt in what has proven to be a persistently tough economic climate. In that craft beer industry, beer sales support Australian workers and local economies. The independent beer sector employs more than 8,000 people directly, and many brewers also contribute to hospitality and tourism in the way that they've designed and run their businesses. A permanent cap on the draught beer excise would be of great benefit not just to the hundreds of local brewers who employ thousands of Australians but also to the communities in which they live. It would be a much bigger benefit to them than it would be to multinational beer corporations.

Deputy Speaker Georganas, to paraphrase a famous old beer ad which both you and I are, sadly, old enough to remember, a hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer, and the best cold beer is one that you can actually afford. On behalf of Australia's 600 craft brewers, and on behalf of millions of Australian beer drinkers, I commend this bill to the House.

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