Beers to hit $12 as drinkers face 30-year-high price hike

A second tax increase in six months is about to hit Australian beer drinkers. Find out what beers will be affected and how much they’ll set you back.

Australian beer drinkers will be hit with the second hefty tax increase in six months from Wednesday, with the brewing industry warning the price of a drink could soon hit $12.

The 3.7 per cent tax ­increase, which affects draught as well as packaged beer, comes on top of a 4 per cent increase in August.

The tax hikes, which are linked to inflation, mean beer drinkers are now paying $1.50 more tax per slab and almost 5 cents per schooner than they were in July last year. Almost $20 of the price of each slab and nearly 90 cents of every schooner is now going to Canberra.

Australian beer taxes are now rising at the fastest rate in more than 30 years, to the fourth highest in the world.

The tax spike has led to the brewing industry calling on the federal government to follow the lead of their counterparts in the UK and Japan which have stepped in to slow beer tax increases.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emjoys a beer at the tennis last night. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Fionnuala McCarthy (from left), Rosie Cookson, and Amelia Jones enjoy a couple of beers that will soon cost them much more. Picture: Julian Andrews

It is also warning that a similar increase in six months’ time will see Australia overtake Japan to move into third place on the global beer tax table, behind Finland and Norway.

The increases appear to be having an impact on consumption, with Treasury in October forced to revise down how much beer tax it expected to collect by $30 million to $2.65 billion in this financial year.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been asked to consider freezing beer taxes. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

In a letter to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, warning schooner will soon cost $12 in a club or pub, the Brewers Association of Australia, has asked the government to consider freezing the tax on beer sold in bottle shops for two years and halving the beer tax paid on tap beer in pubs and clubs in the May budget.

Brewers Association boss John Preston said an 8 per cent tax increase in the space of 6 months was “a huge blow” to everyone who enjoys a beer and the pubs and clubs which rely on beer sales.

“These are hidden tax increases which have been going up every six months for the past 20 years,” he said. “We believe that beer drinkers are now really beginning to notice when the price of their pint, pot, schooner or slab goes up due to yet another tax increase and venues are telling us that the record increases are making it more difficult to get people back through the door.

“People are already paying $8 a schooner in parts of Sydney – if this keeps rising like this it will be soon be surging past $12.”

The price of a schooner could soon hit $12. Picture: Scott Powick

He said Treasury’s own data now showed the tax increases were not delivering more revenue to the government: “They are just hurting beer drinkers and small businesses.”

The news of a price hike was about as popular as a warm beer among the drinkers at The Paddo.

“I think it’s pretty shit but what are we going to do about it, it’s like everything else going up,” retail worker Fionnuala McCarthy said.

“Am I happy about it? No … but everything has gone through the roof anyway.”