Mr Speaker, everyone knows that households and small businesses around the country have been doing it tough.  

The cost of living has been hurting Australians for some time now.  

To address that, one of the Labor Party’s election promises was to  

• pause indexation on draught beer excise and excise-equivalent customs duty rates, for two years from August 2025.  

• The idea, of course, is to ensure that the price of a cold one down at the pub, stays the same price for a little while longer.  

The legislation – the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 – implements that promise. The Labor Party has a clear mandate for it, and so I will be supporting the legislation.  

However, in my view, the underlying election promise was flawed.  

• By pausing the excise on draught beer only,  

• the policy mostly benefits large multi-national companies, and  

• does nothing to assist the small, independent craft breweries that Australians have come to love so much. 

Excise on those craft beers will not pause under this legislation, which means the price of them will keep rising, even as draught beer stays the same. 

My amendment addresses that, by extending the 2-year excise pause to independent craft beer.  

If government revenue – taxpayer dollars – are going to be spent to alleviate the cost of doing of business, I want to make sure it helps local businesses.  

Take Buckle Café and Distillery in Artarmon in my electorate of Bradfield, as an example.  

• After this legislation was introduced, 

• I got in touch with Ben, the owner,  

• to see whether he thought extending the excise pause would help the Distillery and other similar, local craft breweries.  

Ben said: "It's getting harder and harder.  

I've been in the industry 15 years now and the day to day has certainly not gotten easier." 

“The freeze on draught beer excise was a great vote winner from Labor. Unfortunately, it sounds great; 

•  and Joe Public goes, ‘oh, that sounds good.  

• My schooner's not going to go up in price at the pub for a little while.’  

But it actually disproportionately favours the big multinational brewers because they dominate and control a lot of the taps in the market." 

• "Multinational big brewers go out there, they'll secure taps and lock from that.  

• And so us fighting to get our beers on tap is a constant battle.  

• There are already so many walls that you hit as a craft brewer, and this is just another one.” 

“It’s about a fair go." 

The Independent Brewers Association – whose members are overwhelmingly small to medium businesses in big cities and small communities throughout Australia – agree with Ben from Buckle.  

The IBA points out that independent brewers employ locals,  

• give back to their communities,  

• strengthen Australia’s manufacturing capability,  

• provide tourism destinations, and  

• work directly with the agriculture sector.  

Critically, their profits stay in Australia.  

And so I repeat – if the government is going to spend taxpayer money pausing an excise on beer, surely independent, Australian businesses should be the priority. 

Spending that taxpayer money for the benefit of multinational companies doesn’t pass the pub test.  

So let’s see if the government’s listening. I commend the amendment to the House.