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.

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.

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.

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 Safety and Sustainability Project Group has comprehensively updated their presence in the members portal.

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.

At the Australian Distillers Association 2022 Conference in April, Greg Holland from Spirits & Cocktails Australia, advised participants of the opportunity to join him at the SpiritsEurope conference to be held in Dublin. The following delegates opted into a unique opportunity for professional development and networking with global peers.

Established in 2015 and developed in close consultation with the executive of Australian Distillers, the Melbourne Royal Australian Distilled Spirits Awards are Australia’s first and largest national spirits competition highlighting the innovation and excellence of Australian spirits.

Melbourne-based Starward is the first Australian distillery to take the top honour in the competition’s 22 year history, beating close to 5,000 of the world’s most renowned spirits including whisky, gin, and tequila from countries such as Scotland, Japan, USA and UK.

The NSW Government will subsidise up to 12 NSW-based niche and specialty food and beverage manufacturers to exhibit in the Flavours of NSW zone at Fine Food Australia 2022 in Melbourne.

In 2022 we celebrate 30 years of contemporary Australian craft distilling. This modern story began in 1992 when Bill and Lyn Lark were granted the first licence to distil whisky in Tasmania since 1839, becoming the first Australian distillery to produce single malt spirit in 154 years.

Australia currently has the third highest spirits tax in the world, with automatic six-monthly indexation further increasing the disproportionate burden placed on spirits, compared to all other alcohol categories.