Australian Grape & Wine is watching election announcements from all parties closely ahead of polling day on 21 May 2022.
From the coalition, we’ve seen a commitment to invest $15 million in cellar door tourism – applying to wine, spirits and craft-brewery businesses. If elected, grants of up to $100,000 in matched funding for small and medium sized businesses will be made available for the construction or upgrade of cellar door or tourism-associated facilities (excluding accommodation). An additional $5 million would be provided through the Wine, Spirits and Craft Breweries Tourism Events program to provide up to $100,000 to tourism and local government organisations to create new events and experiences to attract tourists and showcase wineries, distilleries and craft beer makers. In addition to this specific commitment, the coalition has also made a range of announcements relating to helping businesses become more energy efficient with a view to cutting costs and emissions, and reaffirmed its commitment to the agriculture visa.
The ALP has announced a Trade Diversification Plan, which reaffirms the ALP’s commitment to trade and open markets and focuses on a range of markets, with a revised India Economic Strategy sitting at the top of the list. With regards to labour issues, the ALP will not support the coalition’s ag-visa, instead committing to establishing a new agriculture stream within the existing Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
And we’re not the only group looking at commitments ahead of the election. For example, the Public Health Association of Australia has issued its ‘election scorecard’ for the coalition, the ALP and the Greens. This work highlights the policies many public health advocates are hoping to see in the future, with the Greens ranking the highest of the three parties the Association looked at. More information can be found here.
In what is shaping up to be an unpredictable election with a strong chance of minor parties and independents holding the balance of power, we’ll be keeping a close eye on election commitments announcements in the week and half before polling day, and making sure your interests are well represented upon the formation of the new parliament.
