Pasin urges Labor to heed wine growers’ Budget warning

Pasin urges Labor to heed wine growers’ Budget warning

Federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin MP says the Australian Grape & Wine 2026–27 Pre-Budget Submission represents a comprehensive and responsible call for help from an industry under extraordinary pressure.

Mr Pasin said the submission is a holistic, industry-led approach designed to help Australian wine grape producers and their families navigate some of the toughest circumstances the sector has faced in generations.

“This is not a Wishlist and it is not about hand-outs,” Mr Pasin said. “It is a serious, evidence-based proposal from industry to help producers survive a structural crisis that is beyond their control.”

Mr Pasin said the submission confirms what growers across South Australia and the nation have been saying for years. This is not a temporary downturn but a deep structural crisis driven by falling global demand and chronic oversupply.

“I have long called for structural reform in the wine sector,” Mr Pasin said. “Global wine consumption is in long-term decline and Australia continues to produce far more wine than the market canabsorb. That reality is now acknowledged by industry and international bodies yet Labor still refuses to deal with it honestly.”

Industry and government data shows global wine consumption has fallen by around 3.5 billion litres between 2022 and 2025, with forecasts pointing to a further decline of around one billion litres by 2028. Mr Pasin said those figures alone demonstrate the scale of the challenge facing Australian producers and the futility of pretending the problem can be solved through marketing alone.

Mr Pasin said Labor’s response continues to focus on piecemeal measures that treat symptoms rather than causes, including recycled programs, modest grant funding and marketing spend that does nothing to address falling global demand or the growing oversupply of wine. Mr Pasin said the failure to act decisively is evident at the federal level.

“Federal Labor continues to frame this as a short-term problem when the evidence clearly shows it is a long-term shift in global demand,” he said. “Re-announcing existing programs and modest funding measures might look good in a Budget paper but it does nothing for producers staring down unsustainable prices and rising costs.”

Mr Pasin said wine grape producers are not asking for sympathy but for leadership and a coordinated response that recognises reality and supports an orderly transition.

“Behind every vineyard are families carrying enormous financial and emotional strain,” he said. “This submission is a desperate call for help from an industry trying to manage change in a responsible and humane way.”

“The cost of inaction will not disappear. It will show up in abandoned vineyards, business failures, job losses and long-term decline in regional communities. Labor’s failure to respond at the scale required punishes hard-working Australian producers who are doing everything asked of them and still being left to carry the burden alone.”