Australian Distillers members elected Holly Klintworth of Bass & Flinders Distillery as their first female President at their Annual General Meeting held on Monday.

ABAC have now completed a follow up of the issues arising from the recent compliance monitoring project. The ABAC Management Committee is waiting for the JWS Research report which has been delayed as the project leader is currently on extended leave. There are now three useful resources for ensuring responsible placement of alcohol marketing.

The Technical Standards Project Group hosted the Scotch Whisky Association to discuss Geographical standards and other issues for the preservation of Whisky in a global context. You opened the meeting. The slides and video can be viewed in the Members Portal.

Updates from our state and territory associations.

With the change in the federal government, we are advised that health bureaucrats are using this as an excuse to re-introduce problematic language to increase the scope of FSANZ beyond its current remit.

Progress has been made on socialising the need for a Parliamentary inquiry into the spirits industry.

Notice from the City of Sydney - 'Open for feedback'.

The City of Sydney is seeking your feedback. This annual survey will help them understand the continuing impacts of the pandemic, check on current business needs and monitor economic trends.

A record hike in Australia’s spirits tax will be a crippling “double whammy” for distillers and spirits manufacturers already battling some of the worst conditions in the history of the industry.

As your membership is a corporate membership, if you have not already done so, you should add team members to your membership. Thank you to those that have already contacted us and uploaded their team members.

ABAC recently retained JWS Research to monitor compliance of a random selection of its signatories (including Australian Distillers Association members) with ABAC placement rule 2. This placement rule requires alcohol marketers to use all available age restriction controls to exclude minors from viewing its Marketing Communications.

Australian Distillers participated in the pilot led by Convergence Tech to deliver a world-first Australian blockchain pilot that stands to radically overhaul a 100 year-old tax system and has the potential to recover at least $45m annually in lost tax revenue, based on KPMG analysis.

The Safety and Sustainability Project Group has comprehensively updated their presence in the members portal.