Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Her crusade for lower taxes is certainly something I believe in. But to have lower taxes on distilled spirits, Deputy Speaker, well, that just lights my eyes up! As you know, I am a bit fond of a tipple from the wonderful gin distilleries of this great nation. I have paid my own fair share of tax and excise across this country, as many other people have, and I think it's about time we had a proper discussion about reform as well, and I know a lot of other members in this place do too. I say that not as a producer. I don't have a distillery in my electorate, Member for Bass, I'm sorry to say. I'd be quite happy to open one and be the No. 1 chief patron; however, the space doesn't allow for it. But there are some in close proximity. Hippocampus, which used to be based in Western Australia, is I understand now in Bentleigh East, which is just outside the Goldstein electorate. We have the very energetic, young blokes from the Original spirit company, which, like many things in the wonderful Goldstein electorate, even if we don't produce it, we definitely consume! So, we are very proud of our contribution in encouraging the distilled spirits market to grow particularly premium spirits.

It's one of the great success stories of our country. If you think about all the things that we do, and there are many—we do wonderful wines, wonderful minerals, wonderful agriculture and aquaculture—this is one of those areas where we have created a sector out of pure value-add and human ingenuity. It's a space where we as a country do it so differently to everybody else, which gives us an incredible product position. But there's one thing that's holding us, like the entire country, back: we desperately need tax reform, tax reform, tax reform. Let's start with distilled spirits. I'd like something a little bit bigger than that, but I'll take it as a good starting place. We have such unique ingredients. It is a product we can sell to the world and that the world yearns for. It loves the product we offer, but tax is holding us back.

The member for Mayo made an excellent observation. If you've ever been to a gin distillery and talked to the makers, they will tell you explicitly about how the tax structures force them to pay tax up-front. There is no other sector that is required to do that. As a consequence, it's harder for new businesses to be established. We could have more distilleries creating new and innovative products—more Shiraz gins, more gins with lemon myrtle, more innovative hybrid products. The member for Mayo made a sound point on that too. I've had some gins from her electorate. In fact, Member for Mayo, my parents went to your electorate recently and dropped off some gin from your electorate. I think have had some from pretty much everybody's electorate. In fact, I'm quite disturbed at how much excise tax I have paid! But that's by the by.

We need these sectors to thrive, because there is potential not only for these products to be consumed by us, to generate local employment, although they can, and to be exported—and a lot of our distilled spirits go on to win global medals, and rightfully so, because they have such unique flavours and taste; more critically, tax is holding the sector back from growing by making it harder for people to invest, to start new and innovative products and to be able to go on and sell them to the world. If we want to have a successful distilled spirits sector, with the potential to grow—and we have a distilled spirits sector already, but it is being held back—if we remove some of the taxes and make them a bit more equal to other tax arrangements, it would allow the sector to flourish and thrive. You would get all the allied benefits as well. You'd have spirits regions, where people would go and enjoy tourism. There'd be local B&Bs and lovely restaurants and, yes, maybe wine as well—one of those other great success stories of our country. At every point, if we rolled tax back, we would enable and empower the sector to grow, to attract capital and to be part of the future success of our nation.

I want to see change. I see members here from all sides of the chamber seeking change, particularly members from Tasmania. We give a fair amount of money to the Tasmanian government through direct transfers. I want to make sure that they go towards something that we could all enjoy more of. As part of the great tradition of our country, Deputy Speaker Wallace, you might remember that, right back at the foundation of the modern nation, when we became colonies, we used distilled spirits as a tradeable product. Let's bring that back and make it part of our future too!

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