Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

he minister at the table interjects. He concedes that the tourism industry is already being battered by a sky-high Australian dollar. He says, 'Oh well, they've already got that problem, so why would we worry about this other problem?' This is the lunacy of this government. This is the lunacy of an approach that says, 'We're already doing it tough because of this factor, so what's one more nail in the coffin?' So there is no compensation for international tourists.

In addition to that, under Labor's policy there will be no carbon tax payable on a flight overseas for an Australian but there will be a price payable to holiday domestically. So, in addition to there being a disadvantage for Australia vis-a-vis other countries around the world, under Labor's policy it will cost you more to holiday domestically but it will not cost you more to holiday internationally—and that in some way makes sense to the Labor Party as well! So, using that one industry as an example, we can already see the immediate upfront economic disadvantages that will flow to the Australian economy versus the long-term benefits that will flow to the Australian economy—which are largely qualitative and perhaps even unquantifiable—as a result of Labor's changes. The simple issue is that these reforms must be done in lock step with the rest of the world. (Time expired)

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