Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the importance of Australia's visitor economy and tourism industry;

(2) notes that during the pandemic, international visitation fell by over 95 per cent;

(3) further acknowledges tourism industry concerns that in the first twelve months in office, the Government has:

(a) cut funding to Tourism Australia by $35 million;

(b) increased the cost of visitor and working holiday maker visas by 20 per cent;

(c) increased the passenger movement charge for international tourists; and

(d) refused Qatar Airways' request to double their flights to Australia;

(4) recognises the international market for the global traveller is fiercely competitive and many destinations have returned to pre-pandemic levels of international visitors;

(5) further notes that:

(a) international visitor numbers to Australia for the year ending May 2023 remain down 40 per cent on the corresponding May 2019 figure; and

(b) of the 5.6 million international visitors in the year ending May 2023, only 32 per cent nominated holidaying as the reason for travel, with the majority of visitors nominating visiting friends and relatives as the reason; and

(6) calls on the Government to back our tourism operators and regions reliant on international visitors by:

(a) reinstating funding cuts to Tourism Australia; and

(b) reversing its 'tourism tax' targeted at international visitors.

What the Labor government has shown over the past 16 or 17 months that it has been in power is that it is no friend of the tourism sector. I want to go through some statistics that show why the decisions the government makes are so damaging to our economy and that demonstrate exactly how important the tourism sector is to our country.

Visitor numbers to Australia for the year ending May 2023 are still down 40 per cent on the corresponding figure in May 2019, which is, of course, the pre-COVID comparison. Prior to COVID, Australia's visitor economy was worth $166 billion. It was growing faster than our national GDP. It supported over one million direct and indirect jobs in 300,000 businesses. Australian tourism and hospitality operators are largely made up of small and medium businesses who were hurt when international and domestic borders were shut during the global pandemic. As members may be aware, the international market for the global traveller is fiercely competitive. Visitor numbers to European and Middle Eastern destinations and to many countries overseas have now returned to their pre-pandemic levels. They're back to where they were pre COVID. A lot of people are coming into Australia for family reunions, so they're people who are coming to see family members. They're not part of the tourism sector that we used to have. Even the numbers we are getting, which are increasing, are made up of a much higher proportion of family members coming to see family and not the international tourism market—they're the people who stay in the hotels and support the tourism sector and the tourism destinations.

Let's go through what the Labor government has done. They've cut funding to Tourism Australia by $35 million, which is the agency that is tasked with getting our international tourism numbers back up. It's a globally competitive market. We're trying to improve a sector that has been damaged by the pandemic, and Labor cut funding to the agency that does that. They have increased the cost of the tourist and working holiday maker visas by 20 per cent. Visas have increased from $510 to $630. This is one of the highest priced working holiday visas among comparable countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada. The government has to realise that it's not a privilege to come to Australia any more—well, it's always a privilege; people always love it—it's a competitive market. The fact that they're pricing us out and that other countries are much easier and cheaper to get to is not okay. The government also increased the passenger movement charge for international tourists.

A more recent decision, but, again, crazy decision, was the government's decision to reject Qatar's proposal for extra slots to fly into Australia. It would mean an extra 700,000 additional seats, which would generate tens of millions of dollars of economic stimulus to our tourism industry and the broader economy. What happens if you don't increase competition? What happens because the government rejected Qatar's application? There's less competition, which means prices will not fall as they otherwise would have. If Qatar were able to fly these slots or flights into Australia, it would obviously put pressure on lowering prices, which is damaging to the tourism sector. While we're talking about exports, those planes have big bellies that fly out exports. The fact they're not allowing those flights in is also damaging to our export sector.

We've had an explanation from the Assistant Treasurer. The Assistant Treasurer told us why the government had blocked Qatar Airways flights. He said:

Qantas' record $2.5 billion profit was "a good news story" and the Albanese government blocked extra Qatar Airways flights to keep the national carrier profitable …

So there's some insight into how the government thinks about competition in the tourism sector and keeping air flights low. What has been the response of industry to that decision? Qatar's proposal had the support of the New South Wales and Victorian Labor governments. It had the support of our airports, travel agents and tourism bodies. Former Tourism Australia's managing director, John O'Sullivan, said that the minister's response was incredibly concerning and frustrating for the industry sector— (Time expired)

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