Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025, a bill that is fundamentally about backing the small businesses that power our regional economies and preserving the community hubs where Australians come together. The bill before the House delivers on the commitment by the Albanese Labor government to stand up for Australian pubs, clubs, brewers and hospitality workers. We are proposing a practical, targeted and responsible two-year pause on the indexation of draught beer excise and excise-equivalent customs duties. This measure, which formally commenced on 1 August 2025, is about one simple thing: stability. It's about keeping the price of a pint stable for everyday Australians. It's about protecting the jobs of these people who pour the pints. It's also about ensuring that the venues that serve our communities can keep their doors open.

In the electorate of Bullwinkel we know the value of a local pub. In our regional towns and our suburban hubs, the pub or the local club is rarely a place just to buy a drink. It is a community institution. It is the third place—not work, not home but the neutral ground where we gather. It's where the local football team heads after a win and where they commiserate after a loss. It's where raffles are run to support the local fire brigades. It's where families gather for birthdays and where communities gather to support one another in difficult times.

I saw this firsthand during the campaign when I visited the Gidgegannup Recreation Club. I was there for a very special sundowner. It was the launch of the Resilience and Recovery Through Art project for the Wooroloo Bushfire Art Trail. It was commemorating two years of recovery post bushfires. While I was there I had a chat with the incredible bar volunteers from the community, who were working hard to make the evening a success. Amidst the celebration of local resilience they spoke to me quite candidly about the challenges of hosting community events like that one. They raised the issue of rising costs, specifically the cost of catering and the impact of the beer excise on their bottom line. They made a simple but powerful point to me that night: the less it costs to stock the bar and put on the event, the more money that can go directly into the community initiative itself. By reducing these input costs we ensure that funds raised at a sundowner go towards community projects rather than being eaten up by the overheads.

When venues like the Gidgegannup rec club come under pressure the whole community feels the squeeze. We know that the hospitality sector has faced a battering in recent years. They have weathered the pandemic lockdowns, they have navigated supply chain disruptions and they have faced rising input costs on everything from electricity to ingredients. We get that. This legislation recognises that reality. It provides breathing space. Specifically, this measure applies to containers of between eight and 48 litres—the kegs that are commonly used in our pubs and clubs—as well as containers over 48 litres, used in larger venues. It is important to note, especially for me as a nurse, that this does not apply to bottled or canned beer sold in bottle shops. We've been very deliberate here.

This is not a blanket tax cut for regional giants. It is a targeted intervention for hospitality operators. We are supporting the venues that employ staff, cook food, and service our communities. By pausing the automatic indexation of excise for two years, we are stabilising the tax component of a pint. We are reducing the pressure on these venues to pass on rising costs to their customers. Around 10,000 hospitality venues around Australia will directly benefit from this. These include our pubs, bars, taverns and clubs, and we know that around 75 per cent of these venues are small, family-run businesses. These are mums and dads who have mortgaged their homes to buy a lease. These are families who work 80-hour weeks to keep the lights on. For small publicans and family-run clubs, this decision offers the certainty that they need to plan ahead. It means they can retain the extra casual staff members. It means they can reinvest in their kitchens.

But the benefits of this policy flow much further than just the front bar. Approximately 160,000 Australian workers in the hospitality and brewing sectors rely on these venues staying profitable. This measure supports our Australian brewers, particularly the small, independent craft producers, who are such a success story in our modern economy. Many of these are independent brewers, and they rely heavily on keg sales to local venues to maintain their cash flow. When we pause indexation, we help those brewers manage their production costs. We help them to continue to invest in local economies. And the ripple effect continues. It flows to the farmers growing barley and hops in Bullwinkel. It flows to the transport operators trucking the kegs. It flows to the equipment suppliers and the thousands of small businesses linked to the hospitality supply chain.

This is a clear example of the Albanese government's partnership with the hospitality, tourism and manufacturing sectors. These are the industries that drive local jobs and form the backbone of many regional economies, including my own in Bullwinkel. By ensuring that small brewers and publicans can continue to compete fairly against large multinational producers, we are protecting diversity and competition in the Australian beer industry. Those opposite may ask about fiscal impact. This policy reflects Labor's belief that responsible government can ease pressure on families and businesses while maintaining the economic discipline required to keep the budget sustainable. This is a cost-of-living measure that strengthens small-business resilience without driving inflation. It is measured, it is temporary and it is fiscally responsible.

The government has listened to industry feedback. Brewers, publicans and small-business groups have consistently called for relief from this automatic excise increase during this period of high inflation. We have listened and we have acted. We are governing with balance and purpose. We are remaining committed to evidence based health policy. This pause does not change the overall structure of alcohol taxation or weaken public health objectives, but it does ensure that a fair go applies to a small business just as much as to the worker. However, we know that the price of beer is not the only pressure facing householders in Bullwinkel.

This measure complements many of the Albanese Labor government's wider, ambitious cost-of-living agenda methods. We are delivering real, practical and ongoing help for Australians who are feeling the pinch. We are delivering exactly what we said we would. Since 1 July, we have seen the national minimum wage and award wages increase by 3.5 per cent, ensuring workers' pay packets keep moving in the right direction. We have seen the super guarantee increase to 12 per cent, putting more money away for the future for working Australians. We have expanded paid parental leave to 24 weeks and ensured that super is now paid on all government paid parental leave—a massive win for gender equality and retirement savings. We are rolling out another $150 in energy bill relief before the end of the year. We have cut 20 per cent off student loan debt for three million Australians, and that includes 13,000 students from Bullwinkel alone. This will be a huge relief for young people in my electorate looking to start their lives as adults in the workforce.

We have introduced Commonwealth prac payments for nurses, teachers and social workers, supporting the essential workers of the future practically when they need do prac so that they can continue their part-time jobs and look after their families whilst they study. And just last month, in October, our hardworking aged-care nurses—yay for nurses!—received the next instalment of their historic pay rise.

A couple of weeks ago, it was great to meet Amy in Northam. Amy is finishing her law degree as a mature-age student at the newly opened Northam regional university student study hub. This hub is incredible because it allows regional students like Amy to study right where they live. This significantly helps with their living expenses, removing the need to relocate to the city or pay city rents just to get a qualification. It is practical support that keeps our regions strong and keeps education accessible.

This is what meaningful, responsible cost-of-living relief looks like. It looks like tax cuts for every taxpayer, which kicked in last year, with more on the way. It looks like another 50 Medicare urgent care clinics opening throughout the rest of the year and bulk-billing expanding from November so that families can see a doctor when they need to, not just when they can afford to. And we are achieving all this while managing the economy responsibly.

Unlike other countries that have faced recessions and massive job losses, Australia has managed to get inflation down without sacrificing the gains that we have made in the labour market. We look abroad and see inflation ticking up in the United States, in Canada, in New Zealand. We see it remaining stubbornly high in the United Kingdom. But here inflation is stable and is half of what we inherited in 2022. We are securing the economy while supporting the community.

To conclude, this legislation before us today is a small but vital piece of that puzzle. It's about keeping local venues open. It's about keeping people at work. It's about keeping communities connected. These are values that sit at the heart of the Labor tradition. The legislation represents good, steady, responsible government in action—targeted relief, real results and a fair go for Australian workers and small-business owners alike. The Albanese Labor government is in touch with community life. We understand the pressures on small businesses, whom we are acting decisively to support. I commend this bill to the House.

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