Australian beer drinkers are being encouraged to raise a glass today to recognise the value of beer in Australia on International Beer Day.
It is a day to celebrate that beer is a great Australian success story with 85 per cent of beer being grown here, made here and consumed here, generating $16 billion every year for the Australian economy.
Most significantly within this is our longstanding partnership with Australian farmers. In a typical year brewers would purchase around $500 million of agricultural products and directly support 3,000 farm jobs.
The new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said that “Australia must be a country that makes things.” We believe there is no finer example of this than the brewing sector.
It’s been a challenging time for the Australian brewing and hospitality sectors. Australian beer is the key product for most pubs round the country and our hospitality sector is still rebuilding after the pandemic.
And as cost of living pressures hit the hip pocket the fact that the beer tax has just gone up by the biggest amount in over 30 years means its more difficult for people to head out and enjoy a beer at their local.
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The vast majority (85 per cent) of beer consumed in Australia is made in Australia – in breweries and production facilities from Little Creatures in Western Australia to XXXX in Queensland, VB in Victoria and Coopers in South Australia.
John Preston, CEO of the Brewers Association of Australia, said:
“International Beer Day is a great day to get down to your local for a meal with the family or a beer with your mates and celebrate this wonderful industry.
“Celebrating Australian beer is also about celebrating our farmers who produce the barley and hops that make our beer so special and our hospitality sector which does so much to bring us together.”
Earlier John Preston has been critical of the federal government increasing tax on Australian beer. In 2021, Australian beer drinkers paid $2.5 billion in excise duty to the Federal Government. According to the Brewers Association of Australia, the high figure means Australia will overtake Japan in 2023.
“We’ll become the third-highest beer taxing country in the world behind Norway and Finland,” the CEO of the Brewers Association of Australia, John Preston, told A Current Affair back in April, before 2022 election in May.
Australia beer price: Punters and publicans outraged over Federal Government beer tax https://t.co/BIr3IIk7Ot
— Brewers Association of Australia (@brewers_aus) April 14, 2022
“That’s a podium we don’t want to be on.”
The Brewer’s Association of Australia had been calling on the Federal Government to reduce the excise tax on draught beer by 50 per cent, particularly in light of COVID’s devastating impact on pubs and clubs, but the plea fell on deaf ears.
“We were really disappointed,” Mr Preston said.
“We felt there was a really good opportunity for the Federal Government to step in, given what happened to pubs and clubs over the last couple of years with COVID.”
But putting difficulties behind and moving on, John Preston is calling on Aussies to raise a glass – on this important day – International Beer Day 2022 – and celebrate Australian beer.
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