Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tasmania produces the best wine in the world. You mainlanders make an okay drop, but Tassie wine is special. Mainlanders know it; they come in droves to Tassie to sample our wine and eat our cheese. They spend up big, and a lot of jobs in our state rely on the tourists who come for our wines.

For the last few years, a grant program run by the government helped our wine producers open cellar doors to sell directly to tourists. More cellar doors equals more tourists and more jobs. Now this grant is in danger. It's normally announced in July, but this year: silence. This is a retrospective grant, so wine producers have built it into their business plan and they're anxiously waiting to hear if the program is continuing and wondering if they'll take a financial hit if it isn't.

I've visited local wine producers. The people who run the vineyards aren't millionaires. They're mum-and-dad operators having a red hot go at running their own business. They've told me that without this grant, they might have to put off staff. Without these grants, plans for expansion might not happen—expansion which other businesses in the area are relying on. This is just the latest blow for them. In the past few years, they've lost exports to China, lost tourist revenue through COVID and suffered catastrophic bushfires in 2016 and 2019. They're also facing a third year of crop-threatening La Nina rains.

The government is reviewing all grants programs at the moment, and I know that money is tight, but these businesses are worth investing in. They put our tourist spots on the map, they win international awards for their wine, they bring in tourists and employ local people. We can't leave these businesses in limbo any longer. The government needs to announce that the Australian Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program will run again this year. I urge them to do it as soon as possible.