It's the political equivalent of a school-kid promising to put Coca-Cola in the bubblers, but it's happening here and now. Independent MP for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, says she's about to drop a new Bill to make the humble schooner cheaper locally in a bid to help out local breweries.

"This week I’ll move an amendment to freeze beer excise indexation," Dr Monique Ryan MP wrote on Twitter yesterday. She's referring to the excise tax that the government levies on brewers (who then likely pass it onto you, the consumer) which goes up with inflation.

Dr Ryan MP says it's all about fighting back against the big end of brew-town:

"A schooner shouldn’t cost $11 in Melbourne when it’s $5 in Tokyo," she said on social over the weekend. 

"The amendment will help consumers and back in the 300+ Australian breweries who are doing it tough against Kirin, Asahi, and their outlets."

I'll drop the link to the proposal when we see it tabled in Parliament.

In the meantime, what does this all mean for the humble schooner?

Right now under current tax rules, your ales get more expensive twice a year.

In Australia, every brewery from multinational giants to small operations pays the government an excise tax on every litre of alcohol they produce. And that tax isn’t fixed. It’s indexed to inflation, meaning it automatically rises in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) every February and August. It has been that way since the early 2000s when the government locked in automatic indexation on the excise.

The impact has been significant. Every six months, breweries must absorb the increase or pass it on. According to the Brewers Association, the Australian beer tax is among the highest in the world. Smaller brewers argue the twice-yearly hikes hit them hardest because they lack the scale to cushion the blow, while pub owners say it drives up the cost of living for ordinary drinkers.

Treasury’s defence is that indexation simply maintains real revenue in line with inflation — without it, tax receipts would erode over time. Critics, however, say beer is already overtaxed compared to wine and spirits, which are taxed differently. While spirits are taxed by alcohol content and wine under the so-called Wine Equalisation Tax (based on value), beer cops a flat rate per litre of pure alcohol produced.

The result: every time inflation ticks up, so does your schooner. In February this year, the excise rose again by more than 2 percent, bringing the total beer tax to around $57.79 per litre of alcohol. Brewers are now lobbying for a freeze, arguing that with inflation already driving up costs on everything from grain to packaging, automatic excise hikes are compounding the pain.

And that's exactly the freeze Dr Ryan MP says she's tackling this week.