House debates

Tuesday, 16 June 2020

Questions without Notice

Australian Bushfires

2:24 pm

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

was being perceived. They had very real fears at that time, and that was pre-COVID, that people might cancel their holidays to Australia. I must say, when I was talking to various global leaders at that time there was quite an inaccurate picture of the extent of where the fires were across Australia. That was causing very real concern about international bookings into Australia, particularly in places like Western Australia, parts of western Victoria, along the Great Ocean Road and the Northern Territory. I'm happy to look at the specific issue that the opposition leader has raised. But I can say on the broader issue of understanding what global perceptions were at that time that there was a concern in the government and there was a concern in the tourism industry about how we could be tasking our missions overseas to be addressing any misperceptions about those arrangements to ensure that the terrible damage that was being caused by the bushfires was not made worse by misinformation in the global domain.

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