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

I won't take that interjection, but St Kilda East has become a real hot spot for night life. There are some great local bars as well. The local taphouse was one of the first places where you could get fantastic beers on tap that were some of the best that you could get in Melbourne, and the food there is also excellent. I definitely recommend coming down to St Kilda East as well. People unfairly think of St Kilda and near the beach, but St Kilda East is such a great part of my local electorate and has so many great establishments on Fitzroy Street, which is obviously the night-life capital of Melbourne, and so many iconic venues, such as the Prince of Wales, which also has a smaller establishment in Chronicles Bar, which I will give a shout out-to. It's a young, local team who established this and are popping up a few other venues as well. Chronicles Bar is always welcoming, and the team there work really hard. It's a great small, local business that's making it work on a street that desperately needs really good businesses and people walking up and down there, contributing to and supporting our local businesses.

In Southbank, there are so many different options around and so many amazing food options as well. An old favourite of mine is the Belgium Beer Café. The team of Macnamara once did our Christmas party there, and it was a great day. The team there really looked after us, and they are wonderful people.

All of these local stories and all of these local businesses—we want them to continue and thrive. The costs of excises to run these on-tap beers add up, and this is a core part of their product business, and we want to ensure that they are able to thrive and continue to manage all of the costs of running their businesses in a way that makes it sustainable so that they continue to be there. When you ask people, 'What are the things that you love about our local community?' it's having the places that are familiar, having places that are unique and having places that are unique parts of our local community, just like the Vineyard, which was established in 1886 on Acland Street, just down the road from my office, where we launched our campaign for the election earlier this year. The team of the Vineyard were just absolutely wonderful in welcoming over-200-people-strong Labor contingent who were gearing up for the election campaign. We had musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music perform. We had the Deputy Prime Minister come and launch the campaign. It was all hosted in this iconic venue that has been around for, as I said, over 100 years.

These are the sorts of businesses that this excise freeze will support. These are the sorts of businesses that we're here to support right around the country. In Macnamara, every single pub, every single bar, every single bowls club and every single venue do more than just pour a beer; they support jobs, they support local communities, they bring people together, they're the homes of good and fun parts of our amazing city, and they're also why people come to Melbourne to visit, to stay and to enjoy.

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