Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to speak on this legislation, the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the associated bill, because this is one of the most popular commitments that we took to the election on 3 May—a two-year freeze on the draft beer excise, the first time this has happened in 40 years. I note the amendments moved by some on the other side. I'm not quite sure what side the member for New England is on these days; he was deputy prime minister not once but, believe it or not, in the sequel that no-one asked for, twice. Did anything happen on his watch? No. It took a Labor government to freeze the beer excise, making sure this was part of our cost-of-living measures we implemented—not just talking about cost-of-living pressures but doing something about them. Forty years is a long time between drinks, but it is just one of the rounds of cost-of-living measures that our government has taken.

As local MPs we're all a bit biased, but I happen to think that the best small breweries in Australia are in my electorate in Grayndler, in the Inner West—and there is a fair bit of evidence. We have the Inner West Ale Trail. We not only have breweries—16 at last count, in a small area where you can walk from brewery to brewery, in the Inner West; another industry has grown up, of the food trucks and food small businesses establishing themselves outside those breweries. But there's another one as well—the tourism trail. People can book, and they go in a bus from brewery to brewery, sampling the wonderful produce that is produced there in my electorate in the Inner West. Importantly, I am not aware of a single social issue that has arisen at any of those breweries. People engage collectively. They engage in a really positive way.

Can I also say that the many pubs, sporting clubs and RSLs around all our electorates are the heart of our communities. They're the organisations that will sponsor the local rugby league or netball or cricket clubs. They are important at a time where more and more we see social isolation being a feature of our society, as families become smaller, as communities become less connected and as more and more interaction is online rather than in person. The capacity of people to gather at their local pub, club, RSL or local leagues club is so important because there's that sense of belonging. I know that is the case in many of the pubs in my electorate. From time to time, there's a particular seat at the Courthouse Hotel at Newtown, at many of the pubs around the Vic on the Park or the Henson Park, that you know not to sit on because that's Daryl's seat or that's Ben's seat. That's the way it's always been, and that is the case right around Australia. I remember being on a visit with the member for Kennedy up at Hughenden and I made what he told me was almost a fatal error of sitting in the wrong seat at a pub. The seven-foot giant who walked in and declared that it was indeed his seat meant that it had been good advice on that occasion from the member for Kennedy.

This is a place that is so important and that's why these measures, which are small measures, are important. They are about respect for the work that our publicans and our club executives do on a day-to-day basis. Quite often, when you're there, particularly on a Friday afternoon or over a weekend, they're running raffles to raise money for surf lifesaving or running raffles for the people who are suffering. During hard times or natural disasters, for example, they are the places that really kick in. I'm reminded by the presence in the chamber of the Minister for Emergency Management. Before she was in this place she was a local mayor during those extraordinary disasters that happened throughout Australia, but particularly on the South Coast of New South Wales in her electorate of Eden-Monaro. I well remember going to clubs there where people were staying, literally, in emergency accommodation on the floor. These social organisations were looking after people in times of need and that's why they are deserving of support, because we rely upon them at times of need. And they don't have to be asked to do it; it's just what they do. Overwhelmingly, they're family businesses. They're run by people putting in long hours every day. They also employ locals. For so many people, whether they be full-time or, importantly, part-time workers, it's a way for people to get through their university days or to just work part-time when they're raising a family.

This is an important measure. It is good for our economy, good for our jobs, good for our local communities as well, and that's why, from the front bar to the beer garden, when you raise a glass, you can do so knowing that our government won't be raising the price for over two years. As I said, when we looked at the pressures that people are under, we understood. Whether it was the commitment to raising wages or cutting taxes or cheaper child care or cheaper medicines or Urgent Care Clinics or the energy bill relief or the home batteries to reduce permanently people's bills or cutting student debt, my government has focused each and every day on the big measures down to the small ones such as this one, but they all make a difference, because they also make it clear that my government will be continuing to be focused on cost-of-living measures as our first, second and third priorities as we go forward, as we have done given the bin fire that we inherited in 2022, when inflation had a six in front of it and the deficits were huge. We have turned that around. We know that there's more work to do, and we'll continue to work each and every day. But this legislation, implemented by Labor—nothing done over the previous 40 years—is an important step forward, and I commend the bill to the House.

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