AUS: Replacing wine equalisation tax with new alcohol tax would be catastrophic for industry

(News) - A POWERFUL health lobby is pushing for tax reform that winemakers say would devastate their industry.

 The National Alliance for Action on Alcohol wants the wine equalisation tax (WET) replaced with a new tax on alcohol by volume, in the hope the increased costs would stop people drinking so much.

The change would take an extra $1.32 billion from the wine industry and deliver it to the Government's coffers, they say.

The alliance is a coalition of 70 public health members including Cancer Council Australia, the Australian Medical Association and other public health and academic organisations.

Alliance co-chair Mike Daube said the reforms would be a "win-win" for the Federal Government.

"Fixing Australia's chaotic alcohol taxation system will yield much-needed revenue for the government and savings to the health and police systems; it will also prevent an enormous range of health and social problems," he said.

Lying south of Big Valley, the new Kelsey Bench-Lake County AVA covers 9,100 acres and was petitioned by the Kelsey Bench Growers Committee. The region currently has one bonded winery and 27 vineyards. As relayed in the petition, the name is a combination of the “Kelsey” surname used by early settlers and “bench” to describe the region’s higher elevation terracing (1,400 -1,600 feet). There is a local town named Kelseyville but most of it falls outside of the new AVA so the final name of Kelseyville, sometimes seen in AVA promotional pieces, was not chosen by the petitioners.