Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an honour and pleasure it is to follow the member for Melbourne, my new neighbour in this place. The Yarra River used to be the border between Melbourne and Macnamara, but now we have this wonderful amalgamation of the southern and CBD parts of Melbourne.

One thing that the member for Melbourne and I share is some of the best places for people to come and visit in our magnificent city, whether people go to the Melbourne electorate to see some of the most amazing sporting or cultural events in the country or they navigate south to the arts capital of the country, in Southbank, and right through so many other parts of my electorate.

What people know is that, if you're going to come to our neck of the woods, you're going to have so many options of amazing small and big establishments to visit and enjoy. It's something that we stand on in this place, wanting to support our amazing local businesses and establishments that make Melbourne vibrant, make it exciting and make it fun but also provide jobs to our wonderful hospitality workers.

The Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 is all about supporting our local businesses and the amazing hardworking staff who work in them. It is really hard work to be a hospitality worker. People who work in our local establishments work really hard to serve people and ensure that those businesses can function. They do so to help represent our city and ensure that people who are visiting our city, as well as the locals who want to support their local pub or bar, have a great time.

At first glance, this bill might seem a little technical, but the beer excise is something that can add up and make a financial difference to a lot of small businesses. Around the country, we have members who are privileged to represent these great local and vibrant small businesses—pubs and breweries and all those sorts of establishments—and something that we take great joy and pride in is supporting them and ensuring that they have lower costs so they can focus on running their business and not worry about the escalating costs of excises such as these.

I mentioned at the start some of the overall wonderful vibes that you can receive and experience in Macnamara, but this is not an exhaustive list. I sincerely apologise to any of the establishments that I have forgotten. Some of my favourite local establishments that represent the array of iconic venues that we have in our community are ones that locals love, that people who visit our city love and that really shine and welcome people in, whether they're from our community or from other parts of Melbourne or Australia or they come as part of our vibrant tourism industry.

The Espy in St Kilda is one of the most iconic venues, and it recently had a big renovation. I can happily report to the House that the floors are a lot less sticky, but the decor and the time that you can have at the Espy is as good as ever. The team who redid the Espy did a marvellous job, and it is absolutely heaving on a Saturday night. For anyone who wants to go to St Kilda and have a great night out or a great meal, I definitely encourage the Espy.

We've got the Railway Hotel in South Melbourne, an iconic local business that's been there for a long time. Back in my university days, I occasionally ventured down to the Windsor Castle Hotel, which was a good venue for a Wednesday night. You could go and have a good beer down at the Windsor Castle Hotel. It's tucked away behind a little nook right in the heart of Windsor.

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