Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for moving this important motion in the House. The motion is a response to the Albanese Labor government's disgraceful decision to make returning to pre-COVID tourism levels even harder. The Albanese Labor government decided it was a great idea to cut funding for tourism by $35 million. They also decided it was a great idea to increase the cost of visitor and working holiday visas by 20 per cent. You know what else they decided was a great idea? To increase the passenger movement charge and to refuse Qatar Airways' request to double flights to Australia.

Just like everything else the Albanese Labor government has decided to do, this is a policy disaster. It goes against the best interests of the people of Dawson, not to mention the entire nation. The electorate of Dawson relies heavily on tourism. Our nation relies heavily on tourism. Jobs filled by direct and indirect tourism businesses in Queensland accounted for a staggering 8.6 per cent. To put that in perspective, tourism employment in Queensland provided more jobs than the combined industry sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishing as well as our mining sector—and these are the lifeblood industries of Australia.

In my electorate of Dawson, we ranked 11th out of 151 federal electorates for the total number of employees working in the tourism industry. I want to paint a picture for everyone in this room. The Whitsundays is ranked number 2 in the world as an international tourism destination. The Whitsundays, where I live, is home to 74 beautiful islands, and we are the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. According to Tourism Research Australia data, the number of tourism businesses in Queensland before COVID was approximately 64,000 and more than half of those businesses were operating in rural and regional areas. Does it shock anyone that the Labor government is again ignoring the people in rural and regional Australia? It shouldn't, because there is definitely a pattern there.

I'd also like to bring to the attention of the House the THRIVE 2030 report that was revised and endorsed by the Labor government in March this year with no less than 24 Labor representatives committing their support. Two key action items in this report are: develop and implement a coordinated approach for direct and affordable long-haul flights to Australia, and to ensure Australia has a safe, affordable and competitive visitor visa system to maintain and grow market share, which is the exact opposite of what the Labor government is doing. Qatar, anyone? Anyone?

I pose this not only to you, Deputy Speaker, but to the House as well: I can't make sense of why the Prime Minister and every single one of the Labor representatives are determined to create senseless barriers to entry for everyone in the world who wants to come and spend time in our spectacular nation. How can the Albanese Labor government keep undermining the businesses and families in rural and regional areas relying on our tourism industry to live? How can the Albanese Labor government keep making these senseless and aggressive decisions without having any consultation with the tourism industry and then say to us that it's in the best interests of all Australians? How can the Albanese Labor government support and endorse an 88-page report on the importance of needing to return to pre-COVID levels only to backflip months later and do the exact opposite of what they said they would? I am bitterly disappointed in the decisions made by the Albanese Labor government, and all Australians should be too.

I urge the Labor government to back our tourism operators and back our regions that rely so heavily on this industry. We need to reinstate the funding for Tourism Australia, and we need to reverse the tourism tax targeting international visitors.

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