Brewers’ tax cut a beer shy
ADRIAN Cubit has blown the froth off the Federal Government’s celebrated tax cuts for craft brewers. The Federal Government announced $85 million in tax breaks over four years for craft breweries using smaller kegs which had been hailed a win for consumers and producers. But for Toowoomba’s 4 Brothers Brewing, which recently celebrated its first year of operation and uses 50 litre kegs, the Budget measure won’t mean much. “It’s definitely a good start in the excise reform that the industry has been lobbying for for a while,” brewer Adrian Cubit said. “It’s not going to make a huge difference to us. At the moment we package everything in 50L kegs, but we might now be able to package in some smaller kegs for the same excise rate and then supply them to customers.” Mr Cubit said changing the brewery’s kegs could potentially open up new customer bases in Toowoomba and surrounds.
“It’s definitely good the industry is in focus,” he said.
“It should hopefully be good for some restaurant trade.
“The craft brewing industry is very good for the economy.
“It brings a lot of jobs and a lot of tourism, as well as manufacturing jobs, so it’s definitely good (the Federal Government) sees those benefits and look at ways to benefit the industry.”
Mr Cubit said Toowoomba could stand to benefit from opening the city up to Brisbane via passenger rail - a project towards which $15 million was given in the Budget for a business case.
With a background in the rail industry before turning full-time brewery owner, he said it was about time the project was given some thought.
“I think it’s great they’re finally looking at at least doing some study in getting a passenger rail linking Toowoomba and Brisbane,” he said.