Federal election 2025: Anthony Albanese promises to put draught beer tax on ice in crafty vote-winning move

Anthony Albanese is promising Australians looking for their next shout that he will put beer taxes on ice for two years after the election.

The draught beer excise usually increases twice a year with the most recent hike of just over 1 per cent at the start of February.

But the Prime Minister — whose inner-west Sydney electorate is known as the craft beer capital of Australia — has promised to freeze it at current levels for two years starting from August.

“Freezing the excise on draught beer is a common sense measure that is good for beer drinkers, good for brewers and good for pubs,” Mr Albanese said.

While the indexation on the excise only accounted for a small percentage of the cost of a pint, keeping it a the same level was good news for pubs and their patrons.

“My Government is building Australia’s future, and to do that we need to support our small and medium local businesses to thrive,” he said.

The measure will cost the budget $95 million over four years in tax foregone.

“This is a modest change but will help take a little bit of the pressure off beer drinkers, brewers and bars,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

Last weekend, the government announced tax relief for distillers, brewers and wine producers, who will be able to get a refund on any excise paid — up to $400,000 — starting from July 2026.

Austrade will also offer Australian distillers, brewers and vignerons support to help them increase exports to high priority overseas markets, including in southeast Asia.

The announcement, while it may be welcomed by the hospitality industry and alcohol consumers, does not fully chime with national drinking trends.

In 2024, the average sales volume per capita of alcoholic beer in Australia came to around 49.6 litres, a slight decrease from the previous year and the continuation of the downward trend in per capita volume, according to Statista.

In comparison, the average sales volume per capita of non-alcoholic beer in Australia — which doesn’t attract alcohol excises — has been consistently rising since 2020.

Fewer young people are consuming alcohol, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

In 2019, young people aged 18–24 were most likely to drink alcohol monthly, but not as often as weekly.

But in 2022–2023, the proportion who drank alcohol monthly dropped from 34 per cent to 29 per cent.

Last October, the PM launched the “inner west ale trail”, showcasing 17 independent breweries and declaring they were putting the fun back into Sydney.