With the change in the federal government, we are advised that health bureaucrats are using this as an excuse to re-introduce problematic language to increase the scope of FSANZ beyond its current remit.

Along with our colleagues at Spirits and Cocktails, The Australian Distillers view is that it is a good time to review and update the FSANZ Act to reflect contemporary needs for industry and consumers. There is scope to modernise the Act and improve efficiency in the regulatory system. It is important that FSANZ remain focused on its core business – ensuring consumers have confidence that food is safe through the regulation of additives and contaminants to prevent acute diseases and food handling processes are hygienic

Expanding FSANZ’s remit to include issues like sustainability and packaging will stretch its resources further into areas it does not have expertise. While FSANZ should ensure consumers have transparent information to make informed decisions, to expand its role to intervene in longer term disease from lifestyle and behavioural choices will duplicate its work with health agencies, creating regulatory complexity for industry. Health departments and the national drinking guidelines already have clear recommendations around the consumption of alcohol, and consumer education should be channelled through those agencies.

Progress has been made on socialising the need for a Parliamentary inquiry into the spirits industry. We have recommended for the terms of reference to be:

Further details will be announced in the coming month.

Notice from the City of Sydney - 'Open for feedback'.

The City of Sydney is seeking your feedback. This annual survey will help them understand the continuing impacts of the pandemic, check on current business needs and monitor economic trends.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION PERIOD
8 August 2022 to 18 September 2022

What we’re doing

We invite you to share key insights on your business needs, priorities and operational challenges.

We want to hear from City of Sydney retailers, creative businesses, tourism operators, hospitality owners, and businesses working in professional services and technology.

Your responses will help shape our business support initiatives and ensure our recovery plan continues to align with your needs and priorities.

Why we’re doing this

First prompted by Covid-recovery, our previous surveys in 2020 and 2021 directly informed new initiatives to support business. These included activations like the al fresco city program, CBD activation grants, the CBD revitalisation campaign, outdoor dining initiatives, free capacity building programs like Reboot and Charge Up Challenge.

How you can give feedback

The survey closes at midnight on Sunday 18 September 2022.

There are several ways you can provide your feedback:

1. Complete our survey

2. Email

Email 

A record hike in Australia’s spirits tax will be a crippling “double whammy” for distillers and spirits manufacturers already battling some of the worst conditions in the history of the industry.

The latest excise increase, based on CPI figures released today, comes on top of surging costs for freight, glass, cans and raw materials. The hike is estimated to translate to an additional $1 of tax to be paid on an average 700ml bottle of spirits (40% ABV).

“This is effectively a double whammy on spirits,” said Spirits and Cocktails chief executive Greg Holland. “It’s the biggest increase in almost 50 years, since our tax figures were updated in 1978, and in that time spirits manufacturers have been slugged with the GST and the RTDs (ready-to-drink) tax as well. “

Australia has the third highest spirits tax in world, under a complicated alcohol tax regime that has been condemned by multiple independent and government reviews.

“We know all Australians are feeling the pain of inflation but this outdated tax regime means the spirits industry is effectively punished twice,” Mr Holland said.

“Our members are already paying skyrocketing prices for inputs like barley, glass and cans, and facing freight charges that have more than doubled in some regions - and now they’re being asked to pay even more to the tax man.

“It is also important to remember government data shows most Australians are drinking more responsibly, often choosing to enjoy quality offerings like a gin and tonic, bourbon and coke, dark and stormy cocktail, or a good scotch or Australian whisky. On top of all the other cost of living pressures they’re facing, those millions of Australian consumers will now likely be slugged even more as a result of this excise increase.”

Australian Distillers chief executive Paul McLeay added: “This places an enormous burden on a local industry that barely existed a decade ago but is now highly acclaimed around the world, thanks to the hard work and creativity of Australian distillers. We should be celebrating them, not stifling them.”

Examples of cost increases over the past 6-12 months, as reported by the major spirits manufacturers operating in Australia and local distillers include:

Australia’s outmoded alcohol tax regime indexes spirits excise to inflation, creating a situation where the tax take from spirits compounds every six months and grows further out of proportion to other drinks containing the same proportion of alcohol. As a result, up to 60 per cent of the retail price of an average 700ml bottle of spirits in Australia is now tax.

Automatic increases in line with the CPI mean the Federal Government’s average tax take from the distilling industry, which includes the manufacturing of premixed spirits, increases by $100 million – $120 million every year.

Mr Holland said: “This tax is cannibalising our industry. It has an insatiable appetite; no matter how hard our distillers and manufacturers work to grow, it keeps taking more.

“We look forward to working with the new Federal Government to build a more sustainable future for the Australian spirits industry.”

ENDS

  

As your membership is a corporate membership, if you have not already done so, you should add team members to your membership. Thank you to those that have already contacted us and uploaded their team members.

If you are yet to do this, please complete the excel sheet here with all the information on each member, then email this back to our admin team and we will upload their information to the system. This will mean that all your team will be able to access the safety tool kits and other resources in the members portal and receive invites to our new upcoming events program.

Please ensure your company record card is also complete with company logo, description and website address so you feature prominently in our directories.

Simply login to the system with your email address and password and head to your main contact's profile. (Please note only the main corporate contact can add these details to their record card).

If it is the first time you are accessing the system, then you will need to click 'forgotten password' and follow the prompts to set up a password.

ABAC recently retained JWS Research to monitor compliance of a random selection of its signatories (including Australian Distillers Association members) with ABAC placement rule 2. This placement rule requires alcohol marketers to use all available age restriction controls to exclude minors from viewing its Marketing Communications.

JWS Research have identified that the Instagram accounts and Facebook accounts of many of our members did not have available age restriction controls applied to prevent minors from accessing the account. Each member was contacted directly by the ABAC after it was advised in one of my newsletters, and they were asked to advise in relation to these accounts whether:

• the accounts are within your reasonable control (or that of someone acting on your behalf)?
• If not, explain your relationship with the account owner?

If they did have control, they were provided with instructions on how to activate age restrictions. Instructions for age restriction controls across Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Snapchat can be found here.

Australian Distillers participated in the pilot led by Convergence Tech to deliver a world-first Australian blockchain pilot that stands to radically overhaul a 100 year-old tax system and has the potential to recover at least $45m annually in lost tax revenue, based on KPMG analysis.

The National Blockchain Pilot has successfully demonstrated the potential of blockchain technology to improve tax revenues, combat fraud and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the spirits industry on the global stage.

Importantly for our Members, once implemented, the capability will also help protect honest distillers from illicit competition selling spirits products at unsustainable price points or earning unfair margins.

We commend our Members, Government and Convergence.Tech for their close collaboration during the Pilot, demonstrating the benefits that public-private partnerships can achieve. We encourage the Australian Government to move forward with a full implementation of this capability to deliver these significant benefits for our Members, taxpayers and the broader economy.

“From a distiller’s perspective, the Blockchain Excise Pilot has the potential to streamline excise administration, reduce counterfeit product and parallel importation risks, lay the foundations for a “trusted trader” style arrangement with the ATO, and simply provide confidence to producers, as well as their investors, customers, and other stakeholders, that their excise obligations are 100% accurate, compliant and up to date. “

William Edwards - Founder at Archie Rose Distilling Co.

“By making sure there is compliance it means we won’t have rogue operators, creating a level playing field for everyone. And that’s probably the most exciting thing – the transparency and dynamism of the technology. It’s this capability and opportunity to unlock

more significant improvements that will drive strong uptake of the technology throughout the industry”

Paul McLeay - Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Distillers Association

Download the full report by clicking the image below.

The policy settings for the spirits industry in Australia were set more than thirty years ago. There have been minor tweaks since that time, yet the industry has had significant change and development.

Like the wine industry of thirty years ago, it took the industry and Government to work together to have a fresh look at the barriers that industry faced and the most economical and sustainable approach to secure the industry future growth.

One of the key transitions was the establishment of a Parliamentary Inquiry to give the industry an engaged review. The parliamentary inquiry process is bipartisan in nature and allows for a deep dive on all of the issues that affect the industry that the government has influence over.

The Australian Distilling Industry is at the stage where it is appropriate that the Australian Government has a significant review into our industry to ensure it has the opportunity for sustainable growth and is not held back by out of date and unnecessary policy settings.

We have an opportunity to outline the long-term needs for future growth of the industry and the value of creating a representative body as a key driver to achieve those longer-term objectives and pave the way for fundamental change in the industry that will support its continued growth.

The Safety and Sustainability Project Group has comprehensively updated their presence in the members portal. See here for updates including their role, video resources, toolkits, and useful links. Congratulations to Ian Schmidt for driving these member focussed resources.

Safety and Sustainability Project Group

As you may be aware, there are many ongoing discussions of technical standards for aged spirits in Australia. An example of which is the significant discussion about the term “Rum” used by Australian producers who are using the term without making Rum as defined by the Excise Act.

The Australian Distillers Association President and CEO were requested to engage with ACCC the Australian Government to determine our position. There have been several meetings with Australian regulators regarding the terms, including a border force and DFAT discussion with CEO Paul McLeay and Vice President, Cam Syme to discuss Geographical Indicators in the context of the Australian EU FTA. The concern was raised that Australia does not keep our own house in order, where the Australian Government was considering putting resources in place to protect international GIs.

Australian Whisky producers understand that Australian whisky and rum are unique. Our technical standards are not as cumbersome as some of our international producers. In Australia, "whisky" means a spirit obtained by the distillation of a fermented liquor of a mash of cereal grain in such a manner that the spirit possesses the taste, aroma and other characteristics generally attributed to whisky and has been matured by storage in wood for at least 2 years. Rum has a similar definition.

During the Australia UK Free Trade Agreement negotiations, the Australian Distillers Association, on behalf the Australian producers agreed to review our definition of Whisky and determine if the technical standard is contemporary, meets industry practices, and has the rigour to maintain consumer expectations.

As reported in the article ‘Australian Distillers Members experience a unique opportunity for professional development and networking with global peers as part of the recent UK Ireland Tour’, in June 2022 a delegation of 12 Australian distillers met with the Irish Whiskey Association and the Scotch Whisky Association for bilateral meetings to identify the obligations, benefits and compliance regime of implementing Geographical Indicators and other technical standards.

The Australian Distillers established a Technical Standards Project Group and have invited the Scotch Whisky Association to present at an open forum in August to all members.

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE