After Abu Dhabi allowed beer brewing in 2021, Chad McGehee co-founded Craft, which offers between eight and 14 beers at a time, many of them rich in local flavours
AFP

The Coalition is reportedly in talks to bring a pre-election promise to fruition -- cutting beer taxes to deliver much-needed relief to pubs, restaurants, breweries and customers.

The reforms are probably on the horizon as Nationals Leader David Littleproud is set to meet Australian Hotels Association (AHA) representatives on Monday, reported Sky News.

Littleproud on Sunday reinforced his stance by highlighting that the unaffordability of beer at pubs drove patrons to consume liquor in unregulated places.

"The cost of living crisis has meant that Australians aren't turning up to the pubs, they don't have the disposable income they used to," he told Sky News on Sunday. "Then when you couple that with the six-monthly increase in excise, that's putting beer out of the reach of many Australians."

Beer prices have surged to $18/pint due to excise tax, adjusted twice annually, with a 1% increase effective Aug. 5.

Littleproud's meeting with the AHA will also be joined by local MP Pat Conaghan who has been actively advocating for a bill that acts against any future hike in excise taxes.

The new reforms, if implemented, will be a welcome relief, as local brewers, restaurateurs, and pubs are reeling under the current tax scheme. Australia now has the third-highest beer taxes globally, with the excise tax reaching $1.40 from August, followed by Norway and Finland.

The Coalition is still undecided on whether to support freezing alcohol taxes, and Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume refrained from clearing the air.

"It's a very complicated tax to manage... We want to make sure it's a comprehensive approach," Hume told Sky News last week.

The tax cut proposal tabled by Littleproud, however, didn't get the green light from the senior Liberal Leaders, despite having the underlying intention to ease the cost-of-living strain on the population, with opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor saying, "The starting point to reducing the pressure of indexation is to get inflation down."