Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry, Deputy Speaker. I am immensely proud. I am immensely proud of the role that pubs play in the community. There used to be more; my only devastation is that many of them went by the wayside due to property prices and where they became unviable businesses in comparison to being converted like the old Bowie pub.

The current excise regime, as we all know, is unsustainable. Brewers are charged the excise, but pubs wear it in the price of kegs. Of course, when you go to tap that keg, you want not just the freshness of the beer but the freshness, of course, of making sure that the tax rate is not punitive. Customers increasingly buy from bottle shops instead because pubs simply can't compete. That is not good for pubs. Margins have collapsed, and many business owners are operating on the edge. We do not want pubs being unsuccessful. We will all pay a significant price as a society when pubs don't succeed. We need them to be part of the social infrastructure of our community.

This bill offers only two years of relief. It's a short-term measure, no doubt, because the government just wants it for a period so they can then try and renew it in the lead-up to the next election rather than turning around and saying to pubs, 'We're going to deliver a long-term commitment of support.' I would hope, one day, that we get to a position where pubs know they can go ahead with confidence. They have so many other challenges—being able to get labour let alone the cost of labour, let alone the management of labour. The Labor Party makes it so impossible to manage, hire, employ and pay people properly. Then they've got to be part of selling a good product—of course, that's up to them—but also be in an environment and create the atmosphere where people want to get along and be convivial.

Tax, as often with so-called sin products, pays a huge contribution to the overall price. We already pay some of the highest excise on beer in the world, and then we add 10 per cent GST on the top—the tax on the tax. Last year alone, beer drinkers paid almost $2.4 billion in taxes to the federal government, meanwhile costs of goods, energy and wages keep rising. It's inflation on inflation on inflation, and it's all being paid for by you, the Australian people. It's not being paid for by the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker—you never know what his habits might be—but by the Australian people. Publicans are afraid to lift prices because they can't absorb the increases. They know that it's a challenge. Their margins are tight, their costs are rising and they don't want to pass them on because they still need people to come in and spend. If they don't, they know they'll go home. If they go home, they don't take a cut. Their profits fall, staff hours are cut and fewer young people gain skills in hospitality. That's where pubs play such an important role as well.

It's like so many other small businesses. Small businesses, so often, are the gateway for young Australians to get their first job, to skill up, to learn discipline and to learn practice to be able to then go on and become full participants in the Australian economy. That's why we back small business every step of the way in the Liberal Party. We understand not just that it's Australians backing themselves to be successful and to go on and offer economic opportunity and security for their families but, in addition to that, that it's the gateway for the next generation of Australians to get their first job, to learn and to grow. And, of course, if they earn an income and position themselves, one day they too may be in a position to own their own small business and write themselves into the economic success story of this great nation.

We want to make sure that we ease the pressure on pubs. We understand why they're important to our community and we understand why they're particularly important to the Goldstein community. We want to take the pressure off them. That's certainly the message we've been getting from the local pubs and breweries in Goldstein. Kieron Hewitt from Amber Brewery and St Andrews brewery has made this point. How can you run a business when the government changes the rules every six months to three years? It's completely destroyed the industry thriving three or four years ago. They've had to line up to be able to expand into non-beer products to be able to survive. With the excise tax coming in at the same time as interest rates, people just don't have the money and can't afford to go out anymore. Government needs a commercial reality check if it wants to understand how to fix these problems, and breweries, of course, are the ones who are being hit. Whether customers have noticed or responded to the price increases really comes down to competition. Of course, we know that there are large brewers internationally who are flooding the market to try and make sure that they can compete and take the biggest chunk of what is actually a diminishing market share. So that leaves a lot of the Australian brewers doing the best they can to compete, but the government has largely undercut them by increasing taxes and made it harder for them to be successful. The reality is we need a serious fix now that makes sure that we provide a long-term solution. So, while I welcome this bill, the reality is my natural sympathy will always be with lower taxes; it will always be with lower taxes, and it doesn't matter what it is, my position, Deputy Speaker Freelander and Member for Fremantle, it will always be for lower—

The member for Fremantle is interjecting. He was making a remark that I wasn't in the last parliament. That is why he should be so happy I am back in this chamber, because it will mean the lower tax nirvana of the future has begun.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Dereck Hales from Bad Shepherd, who said how, importantly, beer tax remains the single largest barrier they have in their industry and for private Australian owned businesses. It increases every single year and the gap between excise and the WET scheme for wine has become nearly laughable.

Of course, this is one of the big challenges with alcohol taxation overall. We know that one of my other preferred tipples, at different stages, depending on the time of day, is gin. As the member for Fremantle clearly—but my reputation precedes me.

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