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Are the federal government on a mission to send independent brewers and publicans broke?

Today the Australian Tax Office has published the new alcohol excise rates after a 1% increase in the consumer price index (CPI) over the past quarter. On 5 August, independent brewers will pay more excise on the beer they produce.

These excise hikes might be able to be absorbed by the foreign owned duopoly that controls the Australian beer market – but independent brewers are different.  Our breweries cannot keep absorbing the ballooning costs of making beer without increasing the price of their beer – this means, being able to support your local will be soon out of reach for many and job losses will continue.

Every cent that independent brewers spend on excise is money they cannot invest back into their staff, innovation, sustainability or supporting their communities. They also do not want to pass these costs on to consumers but they may be forced to as the cost of materials, energy and freight still making it almost impossible to keep these Australian owned small businesses alive.

Publicans and consumers are now expressing their anger alongside our producers as it is evident that the Federal Government do not care that having that quintessential beer with mates at the pub is becoming more and more unaffordable.

There are international examples of recent government initiatives put in place to ease the pain for UK and Canadian small brewers – demonstrating they understand the value their industries bring to communities – whereas our government simply reduced the Australian independent brewing sector to a ‘revenue line’.  

And before Government and health advocates say excise tax is about harm reduction – wine remains the largest contributor to apparent consumption of pure alcohol in Australia and beer drinkers pay double the tax per standard drink compared to bottled wine and eight times the tax rate per standard drink of cask wine. 

If the Government were serious about harm reduction they would be supporting the independent beer industry who has spearheaded the way in low and no alcohol options.

We’re very sure they want us to stop talking about excise, they want us to stop talking about how every aspect of the beer market in Australia is rigged against your local brewer and that they have failed to do anything about it. But the Independent Brewers Association, and our supply chain members we represent are not going to stop fighting.

We join with publicans and our Aussie beer consumers who are now calling on the Albanese government to stem the losses for the industry and to ensure a pint of beer remains affordable however, we no longer have faith that they are listening.

If you are a consumer and you want to be part of the movement calling for meaningful change for small beer producers – subscribe to askforindiebeer.com.au.