Diageo’s Bundaberg Rum has relaunched its rum-bellion campaign ahead of next month’s spirits tax hike. For 2025, the campaign will expand beyond Queensland to also target certain NSW cities.
As it stands, $38.40 out of every $61.50 1L bottle of Bundaberg Rum is paid directly to the Australian Government in taxes.
“Bundy is raising this issue on behalf of spirits drinkers across the country and hundreds of craft distillers,” said Amanda Lampe, Director of Corporate Relations at Diageo Australia and Chair of Bundaberg Distilling Co.
“We’ve spoken to Bundy drinkers from towns across the eastern seaboard and they’re very aware of how much more it’s costing them to enjoy an occasional drink at the pub or in their homes.”
In this year’s campaign, Bundaberg Rum will target ‘heartland Bundy towns’ such as Cairns, Gladstone, Maitland, Coffs Harbour and Bathurst with billboards and radio advertisements exposing the amount of tax paid per bottle of Bundy rum.
Lampe says that the current rate of spirits taxation is directly affecting consumption habits of Bundaberg consumers.
“While the spirits tax isn’t the biggest pressure people are facing at the moment, they deserve to be able to enjoy their favourite drink at the end of a long working week, if that’s what they choose to do,” she said.
“Some have told us they’ve stopped going to the pub on a Friday night because it’s too expensive, others can only afford water when they go out for a meal. Many say that buying a round for their mates isn’t affordable, and that’s just not right.”
Currently, Australian spirits producers are faced with tax increases every February and August. The upcoming 3 February increase will be the 76th tax hike in line with CPI inflation since automatic indexation was introduced by Keating in 1983.
Australian Distillers Association CEO Paul McLeay believes the current taxation policy is thwarting the industry’s potential.
“These twice yearly spirits tax increases are holding back Australia’s 700 distilleries, many of them small businesses,” he said.
“There is enormous potential for Australian distillers to create jobs, exports, and attract foreign investment to become an industry to rival Australia’s proud wine industry, but we need the right policy settings.”
The current spirit tax policy is also a proven factor contributing to inflation, as shown by the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics in its monthly CPI indicator. What’s more, the tax increases are directly resulting in reduced taxation revenue forecasts for spirits, beer, and wine as price hikes continue to reduce consumer demand.
According to the Federal Government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2024–25, taxation revenue for Spirits is forecast at $3,310 million, 7.8% below what has been budgeted.
“Consumers aren't willing to absorb costs/aren't willing to bear price increases [and] it means that our producers are having to eat the increase,” Paul McLeay told Drinks Trade shortly after the August tax increase.
“The time to act is now, and we're saying the urgency is there… We certainly have support from our aligned people - certainly people within government - but when it comes to the Treasurer, it's just hitting deaf ears.”
Bundaberg Rum is asking consumers and industry alike to join its ‘rum-bellion’ and send a message to Canberra that this tax on spirits has become too much to bear.
'Rum-bellion' in pictures:
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