Since 1901, Australia's Federal Government has used a web of excise charges, import duties, taxes and exemptions to extract reliable revenue out of the nation's thirst for beer, wine and spirits. This has helped make Australia one of the most expensive places in the world to kick back and enjoy a libation.
Why is Australian beer so expensive? All alcoholic beverages in Australia (beer, wine and spirits) attract various levels of excise. This is indexed every 6 months (I think). Then you pay GST (Goods and Services Tax) of 10% of the total price INCLUDING THE EXCISE.
In my own personal experience, I found alcohol to be substantially cheaper in Europe than in Australia. In The Netherlands, for instance, you can buy a bottle of wine from the shops for around $7 (it'll be bad, but it'll do the job).
The wholesale and retail trade in liquor is an important part of the liquor market in Australia. The mark-up on beer sold to consumers is 39.5 per cent, while the mark-up on wine, spirits and tobacco is 72.2 per cent.
One of the main reasons for this decline is that federal and state taxes on alcohol have not kept up with inflation. Federal taxes on beer and wine have not changed since 1951, when they were set at 16 cents on a six-pack of beer and from 3 to 67 cents on a 750-milliliter bottle of wine.
The tax on Australia's spirits will tip over $100 per litre of pure alcohol as part of the twice-annual increase in line with inflation. The upcoming hike, to be implemented from August 1, has led to spirits manufacturers and distillers to call for a freeze on the controversial excise.
Led by pietistic Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption.
All processed drinks incur a goods and services tax (GST). And drinks that contain alcohol are hit with a heavy additional excise. The exact percentage is difficult to calculate, but the alcohol-related tax on a bottle of full-strength beer can exceed 30%.
Australian drinkers of vodka, whisky, gin, rum and other distilled spirits (but not, for reasons explored below, brandy) face an excise of A$80.41 per litre of alcohol, which works out at A80 cents in tax for a standard drink. This is the fourth highest tax rate for spirits among the OECD's 33 member countries.
If a bar owner takes all the net profit, instead of reinvesting some of it back into the bar, the average bar owner makes just shy of $40,000 per year. Those numbers are based on a 12.5% net profit margin, the average between 10 and 15%. And an annual revenue of $330,000.
The 2021 Global Drugs Survey, which accepts submissions via an anonymous online survey, found that Australians got drunk 26.7 times a year, far higher than the second-ranking country, Denmark, on 23.8 times. The global average for getting drunk was 14.6 times per year.
Heather Tillott of Sullivans Cove
We have quite high excise rates in Australia on spirits. That's a big part of it. Even wages… We're not in large scale industrial set-ups where you can have one person manning a huge distillery at one time.
According to Expatistan, the cost of living in Australia is around 35% more expensive than in Italy too. While there is a higher cost of living, a move to Australia will allow you to earn more while exploring the Asia Pacific region.
Tinnies = Cans of Beer
But the Australian slang for beer is amber fluid. Some states call it a pint, and in others, it is a schooner. Stubby meaning?
Market research company IRI Australia has revealed the biggest selling beers at liquor retailers in 2022, with Great Northern coming first for the second year in a row, ahead of Carlton Dry in second place and XXXX in third.
Australians have been named the heaviest drinkers in the world in a survey after spending more time drunk in 2020 than any other nation. The international survey found Australians drank to the point of drunkenness an average of 27 times a year, almost double the global average of 15.
Australians aged 18-24 years generally consume more standard drinks on a day they drink than any other age group.
Drinking and driving
In Australia, it's illegal to drive if your blood alcohol level is over 0.05%.
According to the Brewers Association of Australia, only three countries in the world have a higher beer excise than we do: Norway comes in at number one, followed by Japan and then Finland.
At $2.26 per litre for packaged beer, Australians pay 17 times more beer tax than Germany ($0.13), 15 times more than Spain ($0.15), 7 times more than the US ($0.31), 6 times more than Canada ($0.35), 4.5 times more than France and Italy ($0.50), and approaching double that of New Zealand ($1.26).
Zero alcohol drinks are a speciality craft
The price of alcohol-free drinks are based on 3 main things; the manufacturing process, the quality of ingredients and the demand. Non-alcoholic wine for example, starts off as real alcoholic wine and it is that base wine that determines the final price.
It is believed that the Quran forbids alcohol because it harms one's health, can lead to addiction and disrupts society.
Prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933 under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment.
Although the sale or consumption of commercial alcohol has never been prohibited by law in the United Kingdom, various groups in the UK have campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol; including the Society of Friends (Quakers), The Methodist Church and other non-conformists, as well as temperance movements such as Band ...