Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

She's a wonderful saxophone player, and our coalition will not be torn apart, Member for Wannon.

We need to raise more than just a glass to the brewers. The Australian beer industry generates $16 billion a year for Australia's economy and supports nearly 176,000 jobs. Of those jobs, 126,300 are in hospitality. This bill is important, and we support it, because beer is a good part of Australia's culture. When Mick Dundee was in a bar in New York, an American came up and said, 'Hey, what's going down?' His reply was: 'Oh, yeah, mate. I'm just blowing the froth off a couple.' There are people blowing the froth off a couple all around Australia and, as much as that's a fun thing to do, it generates economic activity for a lot of people and for a lot of industries. But I think we can do more to help industry generally. For the farming industries that supply to the brewing industry, the people who are supplying infrastructure such as Furphy tanks to the industry and the people who are out there marketing and selling the beer, we can do more to help them. We should do that by reviewing how we tax alcohol in general, whether it's fair and whether there are unintended consequences, and what we can do to stimulate Australia's art scene, and get back to more socialisation—from before the pandemic, back in the old days—stimulate the industry and particularly stimulate the hospitality industry, because those jobs, those people and those businesses are hugely important to Australia's economy and culture.

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