The fact that he is a front bencher in a Government which has turned Australia’s wine industry into the most heavily taxed on Planet Earth didn’t prevent the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Senator Nick Minchin from labelling Australia’s wine industry as an outstanding success story and commending its development as a shining example for other industries. The Minister was launching the Australia’s Wine Industry: Collaboration and Learning as Causes of Competitive Success, a study commissioned by the Australian Business Foundation. It’s not so hard to see what he was getting at: which other industries have worked so hard in recent years to balance someone else’s books? All of which makes some of the comments he made all the harder to take at face value: ‘The Federal Government recognises the importance of helping industry realise its potential and through Action Agendas, Government and industry are working together to develop long term strategies and goals for industries’, he warbled. So that’s what the WET is all about, eh?
