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We know that it’s election season when there are photos of politicians pulling a pint behind a bar or pretending, they are ‘one of the people’ enjoying a beer at their local.

Why is that?  It’s because politicians want to seem ‘normal’ and relatable – that they understand and know the problems of everyday Australians. And of course, beer has always been about sociability.  It is the beverage built for sharing, buying a round or a jug to share over a meal with friends at your local is part of our national culture. 

Whether you’d enjoy having a beer with someone is such a common barometer in our society for how we judge a person that Essential Executive undertook polling on the question of ‘Which prime ministerial candidate would Australian voters rather have beer with?’  With Anthony Albanese polling at 61% to Peter Dutton’s 39%.

Peter Lewis, Executive Director of Essential Executive said that the question is a bit of fun, but there is also “something there…[in terms of] how people related to politicians – the hypothetical pub test.”

Anthony Albanese is of course famous for having the Inner West Ale Trail in his electorate.  Whereas last week we saw Peter Dutton choose one of his first stops on the campaign trail at foreign owned multinational brewery XXXX.

Bob Katter also recently boasted about the successful launch of his new beer, Patriot, with independent brewery, Copperlode in Cairns.

The question really is then – if the major party politicians understand the importance of enjoying the shared experience of a beer with your friends, family and community as quintessentially part of Australian culture then why aren’t they doing something to save their industry?

Australian owned breweries not only contribute $3.5 billion annually but also support their communities with meaningful employment, by providing community hubs and are engines of innovation and local manufacturing. 

With 48% of independent breweries saying they are struggling to maintain profitability – and over 52 small brewing businesses closing in the past two years – the major parties have been sleepwalking while our Australian owned brewing industry implodes.   

And we can only presume it’s because they are happy to collect campaign contributions from big beer and their lobbyists that incentivise them to take no action further intrenching their market dominance. The risk being, the only beer left for Australians to choose will come from two foreign owned multinationals – or the home brand beer from supermarkets.