Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is very much a hot tip; thank you, Member for Bruce. Get on it! If it wins, I hope it can alleviate some of—I won't say 'the debt crisis that you've forced upon us'. I always say, 'Gamble responsibly.' Don't ever gamble more than you can afford to lose. But what Labor is saying in this particular bill is ignoring the deeper issues with the alcohol excise system. I heard the member for McEwen say that, particularly for regional areas, our pubs are the heart and soul of our communities—or words to that effect. I very much agree with my learned friend in that regard. They are, and they're doing it tough. For generations since European settlement, pubs have been the lifeblood of those communities. Indeed, in early pioneering towns in the regions, often the pub was there first. The church might have come a little later, and then the racetrack. It was probably in about that order, or maybe the church and the racetrack were around the other way. But the pub was certainly first—the little local inn where they sold beer. It was very much the community centre and the focus of conversation and that is the way it, perhaps, should be.

In recent times in the Riverina we've had a few pubs doing it tough. The Royal Hotel was New South Wales's most popular licensed hotel name in 2025, but the Royal Hotel at Grong Grong—although it's now in the electorate of Farrer now, just outside the Riverina—recently looked as though it was going to shut until the local community got behind it. A local community has done that not just for Grong Grong but also for Illabo, where they secured the Longhorn Hotel. It was a community effort of a Riverina village coming together to save its watering hole. Not only there: they've done it at Henty as well.

These little taverns and bars can't afford to be lost in modernisation. Perhaps the licensee takes out the poker machines—the very valuable licence to print money—and takes them to Sydney, and takes with the licence with them. The pub shuts. Where do people go then, to have a bet, a beer or a conversation? It's good for mental health—it just is. It's the focal point of the community. Quite often, they're the sponsor of the local sporting teams. They're there, and they support so much and everything that is great about country living.

Fiona Hamilton, who was the Illabo Cooperative chairperson, described the pub there as the heartbeat of the village. This is what she had to say, and it is at the core of the reason why these hotels are so important: 'We all rely on the hotel for essential services including banking, bill payment and postage, staple pantry and food items, newspapers, snacks, coffee and a break for travellers, overnight accommodation for farm and rail workers and, most importantly, a place in which the whole community can enjoy each other's company over a beer and a meal.' The future of the hotel had been uncertain. The co-op came about and people chipped in and made sure that the pub remained open. Good on that community! It's in the Junee shire, and it makes such a difference to have the pub on the Olympic Highway. It includes accommodation, a post office and a small general store. It is open for business and trading. That little community has done very, very well to keep the pub open just like they have at Grong Grong and at Henty, and that's an important thing.

Across Australia, there are 4,337 hotels. They're all very well represented by Stephen Ferguson. He is someone who is a great advocate for the pubs, for what they do, for the role they play and for sensible drinking and gambling. Because that's what pubs are about. There are 731 taverns, 261 inns, 162 bars—there is a difference between all these watering holes—75 pubs and 562 others with names such as saloon, vault, GPO Sydney and, would you believe, the Cuckoo's Perch. That's according to the website pubrooms.com.au. Australia has eight different licensing jurisdictions. Why? I don't know—that's according to the website. There are many and varied categories of licensees. There are hotels, taverns, bars, off-licences, roadhouses, licensed restaurants and clubs. Those clubs that said Mr Ferguson represents benefit from his wisdom and his wise counsel. When he trawls the halls of parliament looking for the best deal for clubs, we should listen to him because he's a sensible, practical, pragmatic person. If the government were serious about the issues with the alcohol excise system, it would have advocated for a comprehensive review of the alcohol excise system, but it hasn't. They just haven't.

We welcome relief for pubs, clubs and beer drinkers. We do. We won't stand in the way of a cut to the beer tax, and that's obviously going to be something welcomed. I know the Prime Minister likes to tell everybody that he's got his own beer named after him, and good on Albo. I've actually had a sip of that particular brown ale, and it's pretty good, but let's be clear. This freeze delivers less than 1c of relief per pint. I'll say that again: less than 1c cent of relief per pint. That's enough to give Labor the headline of a cut to the beer tax. It's enough to give the PM a picture in the Tele or the Herald Sun, Australia's two most widely read newspapers, but it's just a headline. If Labor were serious about it, they'd have Treasury conduct a comprehensive review of the entire alcohol excise system, and I know that would be welcomed by those beer drinkers who, quite frankly, are paying too much for their beer.

I'll tell you the other thing that the government could do while they're at it: look into the money that they're losing through illegal cigarettes. I'm not a smoker myself. I never have been. I never will be. I know and I appreciate that Dr Freelander, who is in the chair, would very much have worries if the number of smokers went up, as I would too, because we see all the disadvantages of that for the health system and for the smokers themselves. But smokers are being forced, because of a cost-of-living crisis, to get their cigarettes under the counter through chop chop, through these illegal smokes which are absolutely coming into this nation in droves. Our state police forces are almost overwhelmed with the numbers that they are pulling up, particularly on the highways. It's the modus operandi for illegal trading for motorcycle gangs. Insurance companies are now not even wanting to insure shops next door to legal tobacco sellers, let alone the illegal tobacco sellers themselves, and this is a real problem because it's actually costing millions, perhaps even billions, in excise.

Back onto the subject at hand—we're talking about beer excise here—the measure will pause indexation of the beer excise for a couple of years, but it does nothing about inflation in the cost of everything, including beer. Just the other day, inflation smashed through the Reserve Bank of Australia's target band. This means more expensive mortgages and dearer groceries, and that's a sad reality. The cause of high inflation is, as we know, Labor's reckless government spending. But what that government spending is not doing is investing in roads in regional Australia. Unfortunately, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government—who is from a regional area, that being Ballarat—and the Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories—and she's from Eden-Monaro—are not even looking at what they can do as far as making sure the right infrastructure spending is occurring in regional Australia. It's regional Australia that is hurting the most thanks to this government's reckless lack of interest and care for those people who do not live in the bright city lights of our capital cities.

This freeze applies only to on-premises draught beer, not bottled beer, packaged drinks or wine. Again, if Labor were serious about this issue, it would be looking at all parts of the excise system, not just selected, certain parts. Listen to Stephen Ferguson. He won't be here tomorrow. I'm sure he'll be at the Melbourne Cup—half his luck. I won't even talk—

See this speech in context