Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government taking action to support Australia's local pubs, sporting clubs and RSLs and the Australians who gather and celebrate in these venues?

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

I thank the member for Moore for his question. I'm reminded of his fantastic first speech in this place where he spoke about his background as a publican, the work he did engaging with people and how it motivated him to go into public life, to represent the people he used to serve across the bar. He's now serving across his electorate and doing a fantastic job.

Today we introduced legislation cementing our two-year freeze to the draft beer excise—the first time this has happened in 40 years. Forty years—that's a long time between drinks! As a local member, with so many terrific small breweries in my electorate, I know what this means for brewers, for publicans and, most importantly, for their customers, people who enjoy the odd beer.

Those local pubs, sporting clubs and RSLs are community focal points; they're places where we gather. And increasingly, as society becomes—with smaller families and people wanting to interact and have that social interaction face-to-face, these venues are really important in bonding our community together. Indeed, if you go into any of your local pubs or clubs, they will be the people who are sponsoring the local rugby league team or the local AFL team or the local netball team. They are the people who are really contributing and putting back. They're having barbecues at pubs to raise money for funds and for charities, making an enormous difference.

Ten thousand hospitality venues will benefit from this freeze. Overwhelmingly, they are small businesses run by mums and dads, by people who pitch in and work really hard on a day-to-day basis. That's why this freeze is a good thing. It's also part of our cost-of-living measures, together with other measures we've put in place—the cheaper medicines, the cheaper batteries that are in place—to provide cost-of-living support and to make a real difference for people to be able to get by.

And when Australians now raise a glass, they know that the Australian government won't be raising the price at the same time, something they've campaigned on for a long period of time. It's good news for Australian beer drinkers, it's good news for Australian small business, it's good news for Australian pubs and clubs and good news for you, Mr Speaker, that, on that note, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.