Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the Customs Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025. I'll start by saying that the coalition supports these bills, but we do want to make a few points. We support the freeze to the beer excise indexation, and we will not stand between a cut to the beer tax and the government, but we must be upfront and honest with Australians—this freeze delivers less than 1c of relief per pint.

I'll come back to the merits of the bill and where we're at as a country, but I will say that, in my electorate of McPherson, we have some incredible breweries and some incredible venues that serve beer. I'm very fortunate in my electorate to have Black Hops Brewing in Burleigh as well as the Burleigh Brewing Company, which is very well known. I've had the opportunity to take the Leader of the Opposition to visit Peta and the team at the Burleigh Brewing Company in the past. We also have the very well-known Balter Brewing Company in Currumbin.

Absolutely, member for Grey. We also have Currumbin Valley Brewing. We have some incredible surf lifesaving clubs, bowls clubs, golf clubs and other clubs that serve beer.

I will say that what we're seeing from the government is only a patchwork fix in the face of high inflation. It is being sold as a government measure designed to ease the cost of living. We're not seeing the bold structural reform that is needed, we are not seeing the changes that are needed and that so many Australians are crying out for. While this will provide that less than 1c of relief per pint, in the context of this government, I'm sure we will take anything we can get right now. There is a long way further that we need to go.

Recent inflation data has highlighted just how ineffective this policy will actually be in helping everyday Australians. Those of us who are out in our communities speaking to members of our community, to small businesses and to families hear every day the real effects of this cost-of-living crisis, with the government's reckless spending keeping inflation higher for longer. We have seen Australian taxpayers paying $50,000 every single minute just on the interest on Labor's trillion-dollar debt. Because of this economic vandalism, we are seeing households paying more: 15 per cent more for food, 15 per cent more for health, 19 per cent more for housing, 37 per cent more for insurance and, of course, nearly 40 per cent more for electricity.

There is nothing in this bill that resembles anything such as a strategy to address the government's spending spree, which is fuelling inflation. There is no plan to fix the $600 million illicit alcohol tax which has been previously identified by the Australian tax office. There is no sign of a broader excise reform conversation. These are just piecemeal freezes. It is great to give the government their headline that we are 'axing a beer tax' but it is not even that. The measure is worth just $90 million over the forward estimates. That is tiny—very, very small—compared to the $8 billion that is collected annually from alcohol taxes.

More should be done for Australia's hospitality and alcohol industries. These are businesses who have gone through COVID, have gone through record high inflation and incredible cost-of-living pressures. As governments and as members of parliament, we must do our part. If Labor is serious about cost of living, it must stop the spending spree and it must start growing the economic pie. This is something that I have spoken about on numerous occasions in this place. We are seeing a crisis of short-term governance. We need to think long-term. One of the things we need to think about long-term in this place is intergenerational debt, to which Labor has added $100 billion just in the last three years.

Australia's alcohol taxes raise about $8 million per year and, as I said, the freeze will cost $90 million a year, which is only two per cent of the annual alcohol tax receipts, with excise on alcohol indexed to CPI twice a year. This freeze also only applies to draught beer served on tap. As I said, it amounts to a cent per pint, so most people watching this will not actually notice much of a price difference.

The alcohol industry is an industry which supports so many people across my community on the southern Gold Coast. It directly supports the employment of 176,000 full-time equivalent jobs. The alcohol manufacturing industry employs around 22,500 people, the alcohol-related retail sector employs a further 21,000 and the hospitality sector employs a whopping 126,300 people. In my electorate of MacPherson on the Gold Coast, we have an incredible, vibrant entertainment culture. We are one of the centre points of tourism, not only in Queensland but across the nation. This bill should go even further for the people in my electorate—the small business owners, the individuals and the people visiting—to actually see the benefit.

As I said when I started this speech, as a coalition, we do support this bill. However, it doesn't go far enough and it doesn't do anything to address the structural problems that we are seeing in Australia in relation to our government expenditure and to ease cost of living. We must act now and we must act effectively because small government announcements here and there are not going to work. The time is now to address overdue reforms and overdue tax reforms. On the coalition side, we're more than happy to be constructive and to work with the government. But let's be realistic about the results and let's be realistic about the effect that tokenistic measures could have. We support this bill, but we look forward to seeing a lot more addressed that is currently overdue.

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