Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Paige for moving this motion and providing us all with the opportunity to talk about the significance of Australia's visitor economy, which is absolutely recognised and supported by the Albanese government because of the vital role it plays in cities, towns and regions across Australia and in my electorate of Fremantle. Freo is a great example of the emergence of the visitor economy, which, Australia-wide, has become one of our key export earning sectors and one of two service export sectors in the top five along with international education.

This month we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Australia II's victory in the America's Cup, which happened way back in 1983. In some ways, that marked the turning point in which Freo went from being a significant port and place of arrival to being a significant national and international destination in its own right. In recent years, Fremantle has made it into Time magazine's top 50 world's greatest places and Lonely Planet's top 10 cities to visit on the basis of the city's distinctive character and heritage, physical beauty, multicultural diversity and thriving cultural and creative sector. I particularly want to acknowledge the work of the hospitality and tourism businesses in Fremantle. The Fremantle Chamber of Commerce and the City of Fremantle are working to make Freo a dynamo of the Australian visitor economy scene. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the visitor economy was Australia's fourth-largest export earner, generating $166 billion annually and supporting the jobs of more than a million Australians. We are well on our way to moving past the damage the pandemic caused to the sector in supporting the industry to surpass visitor numbers and related visitor spend.

If you want to compare May 2019 with May 2023, the Tourism Research Australia International Visitor Survey results show the spend in Australia is now at 101 per cent of pre-COVID levels, and nights spent in Australia are at 91 per cent—well on their way to recovery. Similarly, overnight spend on domestic travel is up 37 per cent from 2019. Those are heartening figures. They demonstrate that the considered, thoughtful work of this government, led ably by Minister Farrell, is being reflected in increasingly positive results for the tourism and travel sector.

The member for Page refers to the decision to increase the passenger movement charge from $60 to $70. This is a figure which hadn't been increased since 2017. It's been raised in line with inflation as part of the fiscal discipline this government has demonstrated since coming to office. It is easy for those opposite to play politics about that measure if they want; their time in government was characterised by the waste of public funds, the delivery of an unending sequence of deficit budgets and the lazy accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt. As the member for Page knows, the funding received from the passenger movement charge supports the biosecurity costs associated with international travellers. For nine years, the former coalition government was unable to deliver a sustainable biosecurity funding model; that's another mess we're prepared to clean up in the national interest. An increase in the charge of $10, or two cups of coffee, won't deter travellers but will assist in ensuring the protection of our biosecurity which benefits all Australians but is essential protection for our vulnerable agricultural industries.

One of the many messes left to us by the previous government was an unbelievable backlog in terms of visa processing. The tourism travel industry has made it clear this was a massive problem. We've responded by investing $75.8 million to improve service delivery and enhance IT systems. The modest increase in costs for visa applications will help fund the costs associated with cleaning up the visa backlog mess I've described and work to improve visa processing for the benefit of both industry and tourists, and others who choose to visit Australia.

As a government, we will continue to invest strongly in tourism, delivering an appropriation of $169 million to Tourism Australia in 2023-24. Of this funding, $125 million is going to support the Come and Say G'day campaign, released in October last year, to help drive the recovery of inbound visitors. That is on top of the $48 million tourism travel support package announced in last year's October budget, made up of targeted programs designed to drive demand and bring back international visitors.

The Albanese government will continue to support the tourism and travel sector as that sector continues to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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