Perth / Western Australia

If Bloody Spud Shed can handle a 10c container program on their $1 water bottles, I'm sure wine makers can absorb 10c somewhere. Their margins aren't that tight.

Even if it did drive up prices: It'd be for everyone. Every winemaker is going up 10c, that doesn't change the playing field at all.

For Mr Harris, the issues stem from the increase in labelling the bottles would require – something he believes would drive up the cost for consumers.

“I only put one label on my bottles, and they want two. We label by hand, so the extra cost of labelling, producing the label, the labour to label plus the barcode, just makes it uneconomic at my price level in the market,” he said.

“So, all small producers would then be forced to up their prices to cover all their costs, and there are a number of people around (the Swan Valley) who still label by hand.”

You don't need two labels. A single label that goes around the whole bottle gives you ample room to retain your present branding, as well as including the barcodes etc required to meet the standard.

When the WA government first introduced the scheme in 2020, a 24-month transition period was put in place in which suppliers could sell containers without the mark.

The transition period ended October 2022, and it is now an offence to sell eligible containers without a refund mark.

This one is fair. I wouldn't argue against a grace period as these producers adapted to the 21st century. Everyone else got that chance, after all.