Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow marks the start of the 15th annual WA Beer Week—a celebration of WA's burgeoning craft beer scene featuring dozens of events across Perth and Western Australia. I am sure many in this place will have heard of some of WA's finest brewers. Little Creatures in Fremantle, Feral Brewing in the Swan Valley and Matso's up in Broome all spring to mind.

But today I would like to pay tribute to one of WA's finest brewers, which people may not have heard of—the Last Drop Pub and Brewery in Canning Vale in my electorate. Last Drop operates a brewery in the Armadale Hills that was brought over from a Bavarian village in the 1990s and finishes off its premium draught beers at its Canning Vale site. Last Drop's hefeweizen took out the gold at the Australian International Beer Awards in 2011, adding to a swag of awards for this fantastic local small business. I promise this is not just a bid to follow in the member for Grayndler's footsteps by having a local brew named after me!

Outside of the pleasure of drinking a local drop, small businesses brewing locally create decent paying jobs for local people. As the recent disgraceful actions of Carlton & United Breweries have shown, backed by international conglomerate SABMiller, there has never been a better time to check out your local brewers. So this week I would encourage Western Australians not only to drink responsibility, as they always should, but also to drink fresh and drink local.