Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians have embraced the craft beer experience, and it is an elevated experience characterised by an upmarket ambience—not the beer-soaked carpets and sticky tables of street-corner pubs—restaurant standard food and a wide range of brews. And these businesses are local, with venues in our suburbs or regional areas associated with strong connections to the community. These small businesses have surged, accounting for eight per cent of the beer sector, with businesses going from a couple of dozen in 2003 to almost 700 in 2023.

The period post lockdown was lucrative as people splurged on craft beers, but those good times did not last. For many reasons the cycle of boom has been followed by bust. A perfect storm of factors has contributed to this outcome. The routine indexation of the alcohol excise is one factor, but there are many others: changing consumer behaviour—Australians are simply drinking less beer than they used to; worker shortages driving up wages—a real competition for talent; rent increases; energy shock from the war in Ukraine badly exposing our ageing energy grid that is over-dependent on fossil fuels; and supply chain shortages increasing the costs of ingredients. In short, it is an inflationary storm fuelling a cost-of-living crunch leading to higher interest rates, which has had the effect of snapping wallets shut. It's been a vicious cycle.

It is predicted up to two-thirds of these businesses will go under in an industry dominated by a Japanese duopoly, emphasising the importance of our competition and merger reforms that this government is promoting. Some describe this as market rationalisation. Businesses vulnerable to downturns without big enough moats have been picked off by the so-called free market. What's missing is the hard work of the founders—the people driving these businesses, putting their heart and soul into them, supporting locals and local communities and gentrifying neighbourhoods by attracting other businesses when they arrive.

Also missing are the social, economic and health harms associated with alcohol; that's a narrative I am more than familiar with. Patients with alcohol associated health problems were the norm when I practised, but I saw a change from the usually older male or female with alcohol abuse and its advanced manifestations, whether they be cognitive impairment, dementia, memory failure, alcohol withdrawal seizures, cirrhosis, peripheral neuropathy or cardiomyopathy. 'Every major organ affected' was usually the diagnosis made from the end of the bed. The change I saw was in more younger men presenting to the emergency department after the lockdowns finished. One was a man, a young professional and IT worker, who presented with yellow eyes; he was so jaundiced from alcohol hepatitis. Another I treated was a young father in his mid- to late 40s who, in an alcohol fuelled episode, had destroyed his kitchen and punched a hole in the wall, scaring away his kids and wife. In that bed he wept, as he had been estranged from his family.

The social harms of alcohol misuse or abuse are rarely seen by most Australians because of the stigma associated with them. But they are evident to any healthcare professional. Our hospital wards are full of these patients day in and day out. Hospitals, GPs, community care, social workers, community and children's services, housing services, legal services, the justice system and police—all are the services needed to deal with one family affected by the harms of alcohol. Multiply that up by the over one in four Australians who are adults who drink too much. In 2022 the ABS reported over 1,700 alcohol related deaths; it's likely an underestimate because most of this is hidden. The social harms, like domestic violence, are even greater, and someone has to foot the bill.

The Liberals are now singling out the excise, when they did nothing about this reform when they were in power for over a decade. We have listened respectfully to the industry, but we will not be adjusting the excise at this stage. Instead, our focus is to support individuals, families and businesses during this inflationary phase, and we're doing that with a range of measures: tax cuts, energy rebates, grants for small businesses and so on. Had we inherited a more resilient balance sheet, we could have looked at short-term relief.

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