Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Very briefly, I understand the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measures No. 4) Bill 2017 is a non-controversial bill, but I just want to make a couple of brief statements and get on record that the Greens have been very involved in the process over the last couple of years of looking at the wine equalisation tax. I sat on the Senate references inquiry that looked at this and went all around the country and heard from wine producers. I myself have previously been a wine producer, having a small vineyard. I've manned my own cellar door and pruned my own grapes. I understand that this WET has been a very difficult tax, especially for a lot of smaller vineyards. It's been very complex, it's been rorted by a number of players in the industry and it needed to be fixed.

I'd just like to say that I have worked closely with stakeholders in my state and I wanted to get on record today that I recognise that a number of them are disappointed with the changes to the wine equalisation tax in the bill that we have before us today. There are some that, with the changes to the threshold, will lose $150,000 a year. These producers are by no means large producers; in fact, by Australian domestic standards, they're still very small producers. So that money is still very important to them, and I know they're bitterly disappointed with some of these changes.

I also want to recognise that we need to keep a very close eye on how the cellar door rebate system works. The rebate's critically important for small vineyards such as the one that I used to run. It helps employ people in regional areas and it helps bring tourism to regional areas. I'm not sure that we've got the balance exactly right on that.

Overall, though, we felt like putting this in contro and taking it to committee stage and trying to move amendments wouldn't get the support of the Senate, but I want to get on record today that I recognise the disappointment of some producers in Tasmania. But, to be fair, I also recognise there are a number of small producers that are happy with the changes. Unfortunately, it's a zero-sum game: some win and some lose. I'm not sure that the government's actually going to raise much revenue out of this at all, so I'm not quite sure what the purpose of changing the thresholds is, if it's not raising revenue. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and we will be supporting this today.