Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Member for Indi. In particular, I want to thank someone who has left the industry and who, at one point, when we came across yet another roadblock and frustration, said to me, 'Tony, I think I'm done'. Thankfully he wasn't done and he continued to fight the fight—it was Paul Evans, formerly from the Winemakers' Federation of Australia. This is a man who, time and time again, assisted me in pushing for this proposal.

So what will we see? What we will see is a re-establishment of the original integrity of the wine equalisation tax. It was always intended to support small wine producers, principally in rural and regional communities. By taking its operation away from bulk wine, by reducing the rebate slightly but allowing those who sell above the cap—or who would be eligible, otherwise, above the cap—a $100,000 cellar door grant, we're effectively going back to where the original architects of this rebate intended us to be.

A number of changes are being made, all of which are important. There will be a $300 million saving, which the industry has said they will give back because they don't believe it is serving the purposes of the industry. From that, $50 million will be provided to industry to grow the Australian wine brand. I have spoken on numerous occasions in this place, as indeed I think everyone in this House has, about the benefits of the trilogy of free trade agreements established in recent times. We have seen the great benefits of that in the wine industry. Export opportunities have grown exponentially, particularly to our Asian neighbours, China principal amongst those.

The history of Australian wine's ability to sell the brand—that is, Brand Australia—to the rest of the world has not always been so glowing. Constituents of mine who visit wine fairs around the world often return with photographs and stories that are somewhat embarrassing. For example, at Vinitaly we see very small offerings of the presentation of the wine Australia brand compared to large international brands. This $50 million will assist the Australian wine industry in marketing itself to the rest of the world. In the middle of what was the really low point of the commodity price around wine, particularly in the warm regions, people were starting to approach me and say, 'Tony, what we need is another vine pull.' There needed to be an incentive to remove vines and the production. I said to them: 'Please stop there. The reality is we need to sell more wine, not produce less wine. We need to sell to the rest of the world more of our fantastic product, not produce less of our fantastic product.' That is, in fact, what we have done in recent years.

We have enjoyed fantastic tailwinds in this regard, with the movement of the Australian dollar and with demand out of North America. These things, coupled with the free trade agreements, have created the perfect climate for an international push for Australian wine. This $50 million contribution is perfectly timed over a number of years, with industry guiding where it's applied. I say to industry: 'Spend it wisely; it is a significant sum of money. It is $25 million more than you originally asked of government.' Indeed, it was members of the government of the day: me, Senator Ruston in the other place—

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