News

The media are falsely reporting that beer tax is on hold and that beer will be cheaper for the consumer.

Beer tax is not on hold. Beer excise tax for draught beer only is frozen for two years. This is by no means includes all beer.

And all the freeze is doing is giving producers a little breathing room to either not increase prices or to absorb the cost. It will not have any impact on the cost and/or price of beer now.

“I responded to a lot of media requests regarding the freeze, much of which required me to dispel the misconception that this was a significant boon for our members and would somehow make beer cheaper.” says Kylie Lethbridge, Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Brewers Association.

For many years now, we have been trying to explain to government that independent brewers have been forced to move into small-pack/retail because the on-premise tap market is control by two foreign owned multinational breweries. As the proposal for the draft freeze was announced in the lead up to the election, we were clear that while it would provide some relief to excise paying independent breweries – the benefit would predominantly go to the big multinationals.

Independent economist, Professor Kym Anderson recently set out the disparity between packaged beer vs other alcohol products – clearly showing that the rate of increase for packaged beer had outstripped draught beer. And that change will be further entrenched from 4 August 2025.

As the Government looks to consider wide ranging taxation reform and has recommendations of note relating to alcohol tax needing to be revisited (from their last term) we will continue to make sure this freeze is seen for what it is and push for a fairer playing field for Australian owned small breweries.