Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The tourism industry is a very important industry to the Australian economy, not only in our big cities but also in our regional areas. It is great to be here tonight with the member for Forde, who I know is a strong proponent of the tourism industry in his local electorate and his local region, as I am a strong proponent of the tourism industry in my region of tropical North Queensland and the great city of Cairns.

I am not sure which mushroom the shadow minister for tourism has been hiding under in bringing this motion forward, but it is a pretty outrageous motion, particularly considering the current economic climate facing the tourism industry in this country and some of the tough times it has gone through. I know that what the tourism industry thrives on is confidence. What it is looking for from the government—and, one would hope, from the opposition—is some sort of support for the industry in the form of continuing to work with it and developing confidence in it.

To suggest that the Rudd government is doing nothing to support the tourism industry is really a shameful act by the shadow minister, as is bringing this motion here tonight. We only have to look at the actions of the Rudd government to see that in the short term we are working with industry, with the release of our new campaign, through Tourism Australia, built off the Australia movie. I think it is a fantastic campaign. I hear positive feedback about it from the tourism industry in my local area. We are showing through our National Long-Term Tourism Strategy that we are committed to ensuring that we have a long-term plan for the tourism industry in this country. So we are working in the short term as well as in the long term.

We have a national aviation strategy. Aviation is critically important to tourism in this country and we are going to build support for the aviation industry going forward. We are also moving forward on a process of national accreditation to ensure that the industry provides the highest level of service to tourists when they come to this country. The government have also been proactively managing the Approved Destination Status scheme, recently suspending companies from the scheme due to immigration and quality-of-tourism breaches.

The government is also undertaking a range of microeconomic reform to support small businesses, the backbone of the tourism industry. They have been struggling with the skills crisis. They are looking for a government to invest in infrastructure. They are looking for a government that provides some certainty in industrial relations and gets the balance right. We are doing that. We have tackled some of the immigration bottlenecks that built up under the former Howard government and prevented the industry from getting skilled workers. We are dealing with some of the red tape issues in areas like superannuation.

I tell you that in my area tourism is built on natural icons, like it is in many parts of Australia. I see the member for Forde here, who I am sure would agree. People are looking for a government that is going to tackle climate change and take this issue seriously, because it is a real threat to our natural icons and to our tourism industry.

I mentioned the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy. The National Long-Term Tourism Strategy will provide long-term vision for the tourism industry. It will establish the basis for consistent, long-term policy engagement with the tourism industry by successive governments. It is aimed at strengthening the tourism industry supply side capacity and maximising the net economic benefits to industry in Australia. The tourism strategy, like the government, is focused very much on working with the industry. We have taken a bipartisan approach. We have put together the strategy, and I congratulate the minister for it. Margaret Jackson is the chair of the steering committee. Members include people who have supported the opposition, such as Matt Hingerty. We are not taking a partisan approach to tourism. We are looking to work with the industry in partnership to build it into the longer term.

I talked about the Australia campaign that was released recently. This is a fantastic initiative by Tourism Australia. I want to congratulate Geoff Buckley, his board and his team on bringing it together. This ‘come walkabout’ campaign not only builds on the natural icons that we have in this country but also links in with some of the challenges that people find in their busy everyday lives and how they look to go on holidays to seek to find themselves and, in finding themselves, to have more rewarding lives. I think Tourism Australia have done fantastic work. I was at the Tourism Tropical North Queensland awards on Saturday night. They played the advertisement there and it received a huge round of applause. Rob Giason, the local TTNQ CEO, wanted to play it again later. The industry is really looking forward to gaining leverage off this campaign to attract tourists back to Australia.

The member opposite talked about tourism operators and made some disparaging comments about this government, but the feedback I get from operators is very positive—although they have commented on some of the previous campaigns. One of the big operators in my electorate, Mr Charles Woodward, said the former government’s campaign through Tourism Australia, the ‘Where the bloody hell are you’ campaign, was a complete disaster, particularly in markets like Japan. And you might ask: ‘Where the bloody hell has the shadow minister been bringing this sort of motion forward? Where the bloody hell has he been? Hiding under a mushroom?’ Mr Woodward said that it was essential that Australia got back to basics and focused on nature based tourism.

The Australia campaign, through Tourism Australia, not only focuses on those natural icons but also links in with people’s busy lives. The campaign is going to be delivered across Europe and America, and the eastern nations will be promoting and delivering that campaign. The industry is very supportive of it, as I have said. The advertisement on the internet has had some fantastic hits and it was also presented at the recent tourism awards in Cairns.

I can assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that coming from an electorate like Leichhardt, where tourism is particularly important to the local economy, I do understand how important it is to have the government supporting the tourism industry. The industry in my local community is worth $2.8 billion. We had 4.2 million visitors who were drawn to the region last year, and there are 7,100 tourism related businesses in my local area. We have some fantastic tourism hubs, whether in my local town of Cairns, or Kuranda, Port Douglas, Cooktown or all the way up to the Torres Strait. We have some fantastic towns that depend on tourism, and they deliver some fantastic experiences. The region offers an array of experiences to visitors, including outdoor adventures, the outback, culture and heritage and Indigenous culture, as well as food and wine. There is increasing development in agricultural tourism, and of course we have the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Clearly, tourism is fundamental to Cairns and tropical North Queensland. It is particularly important to me and to the Minister for Tourism. We took a hit this year with the decision by Qantas to cut flights between Japan and Cairns in December. That is going to impact on our local industry. We are going to lose 62 per cent of total flight capacity out of Japan later this year. Estimates are that it is going to cost the industry around $100 million. I met with the Minister for Tourism on the day that that happened, and we discussed the issue. I worked with the local tourism industry through TTNQ, and I congratulate Rob Giason and his team for the work that they have done in working with us and with the Queensland government. We will continue to work with them with our $4 million package to support the industry through these difficult times.

We have already announced $750,000 in marketing support for charter flights from Cairns to Japan and from Japan to Cairns. We want to ensure that the industry is well placed to deal with the cutback later this year. We are putting in place some short-term support for the industry, particularly in terms of marketing and support for charters. We are also working to make sure that the industry is supported into the longer term. We have some work happening and we are working with the industry in developing that with some research and analysis to ensure that we are well placed to take advantage of developing markets, whether they are in Korea, China or India.

The Prime Minister has taken a direct interest in tourism in my electorate, and he was particularly interested in ensuring that we responded appropriately following those Qantas cuts. He rang me from Japan. He took a real interest in how our package was going down in tropical North Queensland. And I know the industry has appreciated not only the minister’s interest—he has been up there twice in the last couple of months to meet with the industry and discuss our package—but also, as I have said, the Prime Minister’s interest. As I said—(Time expired)

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