Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the report presented by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation entitled Current vacancies: workforce challenges facing the Australian tourism sector. The tourism industry plays a very important role in Australia. In 2003-04, tourism contributed 3.5 per cent of gross value added, 3.9 per cent of total gross domestic product, 5.6 per cent of total employment and 12.1 per cent of total exports. More than 550,000 Australians generated $17 billion in Australian export earnings. On those figures, you can see just how important the tourism industry is to Australia.

The number of international visitors to Australia is increasing. In 2004, there were over five million international visitors, and that was a 9.9 per cent increase on the previous year. Various countries contribute to those visitor numbers. New Zealand is by far the largest source of our international tourists. There is strong growth predicted in the tourism sector into the future.

However, the growth in the industry is sensitive to international events and it stands to be inhibited by the skills shortage that exists. The committee looked at the skills shortage and came up with a number of recommendations to address it. Overwhelmingly, the most important issues are, firstly, wages and conditions and, secondly, the lack of training and the lack of a career path for people working in the tourism industry. People employed in the tourism industry often view a job in that industry as a job that you do before you get a real job. The simple fact that there is no career path—or a very limited career path—impacts on the number of people who work in the industry.

The tourism industry has a very high turnover of workers. In large part, as I mentioned at the start of my comments, that is due to the very low wages that are paid to the workers in the industry. The conditions of work also impact on that, including the fact that people are required to work very long hours. There has been a shortage of chefs in Australia since the 1950s and it just continues to grow. We have heard of restaurants having to close their doors simply because they do not have the staff to operate them. Chefs and other people in that industry are quite often working when other people are out having their recreation. This places a big burden on the people employed in the industry.

It is also very interesting to note that, because of the relatively low wages and poor conditions, these workers do not have a commitment to the industry. At the hearings, the committee heard from the Hotel, Motel and Accommodation Association, who indicated that, over the years, there have been regular breaches of the laws within the industry whereby employers have not adhered to award conditions. Peter Olah, who was giving evidence to the committee, said that Work Choices had actually allowed employers to now do legally what they had been doing illegally for some time. What this shows is that employers do not have a commitment to their staff. If they did have a commitment to their staff, that would go some way to addressing the skills shortage that exists in the industry.

It is also important to recognise that many tourism businesses are small, marginal businesses. They have a high turnover of owners. Quite often they close down. A large percentage of them are family businesses, single-owner businesses or partnerships. These businesses do not have the depth of training to operate successfully over a long period of time. The businesses are also often seasonal. In the snowfields it is very much a winter industry and in the Top End, once again, the peaks tend to be in the winter. Each area has its peaks. I thought the Whitsundays had a very good approach to tourism, in that all the operators in the Whitsundays join together as a group to try to improve the industry, to give some depth to the industry, and to draw on the expertise of, and to provide support to, others.

The recommendations of the report went across a number of areas. We recognise that there was a lack of data collection and analysis of the labour needs within the tourism industry. It is very much an ad hoc approach. I think that is symbolised by those small businesses that are operating in a very unplanned environment. They are struggling and reacting to the circumstances of the day rather than having a planned approach to their business. Anyone who has any sort of relationship with business knows that the most important thing is to have in place a plan and to work towards that plan.

As a committee we thought there needed to be more comprehensive workforce planning done within the industry. We also thought that there needed to be a partnership with regional research industries, institutions and industry bodies to undertake a review and analysis of employment data for tourism and related sectors—once again adopting a much more planned approach. This will provide support to employers whilst at the same time encouraging employers to think about the needs of their staff. Because of the seasonal nature of the workforce, we felt that the development of a seasonal workforce management plan would be of benefit to the industry and at the same time be of benefit to those people who work in the industry. I feel it is very much an industry that by its nature does not make a total commitment to its workers. It is an industry that sees itself as being seasonal, that sees itself as offering an employment opportunity to workers on a very short-term basis and that does not value its workers to the degree that makes a commitment to their training and develops that career plan that I think is ever so important if the industry is to thrive. There are very good overseas examples of where this commitment is made and where tourism is considered not as a job you have before you get a job but as your real-life job. If that is to happen in Australia and if we are really to address these shortages, we have to address the issues surrounding wages and conditions and the ongoing training of workers.

I would also like to put on the record that within the industry it is important that we deal with the issue of prior learning—recognise prior learning and reduce the barriers to recognising prior learning—and actively promote the competency based apprenticeship pathway. These are all recommendations. In the report we deal with visas, but my contribution to this debate has concentrated on the fact that we need to make a real commitment to training and a real commitment to wages and conditions if we are to address the skills shortage, because there is competition from other industries that pay a lot more to their workers and that have much better conditions for their workers than the tourism industry. Unless something is done to make it more attractive—unless issues like housing and the long-term career paths of people working in the industry are addressed—then we will continue to have this skills shortage that affects this industry that is very valuable to the Australian economy.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to contribute to this discussion. Before I start I would like to thank linesmen and ballpersons—I thank Dr Anna Dacre; Siobhan Leyne, the inquiry secretary; and all of the staff involved with making us as members of this committee look good in writing.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Hall interjecting

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think all of my colleagues opposite are happy to be associated with those remarks. I know that Labor members have been spending a little bit of time talking about employment relations issues, Work Choices and so forth. I know that there is not a dissenting report, as I said to the House, but I took advice from the Clerk—I know that the member for Werriwa was disturbed about that—and the Clerk put the words ‘dissenting report’ in my earlier contribution in the House. So, if it is acceptable, I will disassociate myself from my own comments and say they put some other comments in there. That is what the Labor members did. They reflected a bit on industrial relations practices, as is their wont, and there was obviously a deal of interest and pressure from a variety of unions keen to put a point to the committee, which we listened to. One would suspect that Peter Olah talking about the fact that Work Choices provides some flexibility that had not been there before was in fact recognition that restrictive award conditions made it impossible for some people who were employed to do one job but were not necessarily affiliated or paid according to the various awards relating to the various tasks that they might undertake. In that regard, Work Choices means that they can have a private agreement with that person. I really do not want to spend much time in this discussion dealing with that.

I think it is fair to say that it is true, as the member for Shortland just observed—I will paraphrase what she said—that this is a sector that is vital to Australia’s economic base, that does not pay its workers as well as it might and that has only itself to blame for so many of the problems it currently has when it comes to labour shortages. As people in Western Australia observed to the committee, if you are a good cook, a good chef or a good wait staff person and you are in the local hotel, restaurant or whatever in a mining area then—guess what!—the mining industry bloke down the road is going to come and hire you and will be fairly likely to offer you some accommodation that you might not already be getting. I think that when they opened an extension to the Cable Beach resort in Broome it caused the Chicken Shack store in Broome—I think that was the name of the place—to close completely because all of those who were broiling and oiling chickens at the Chicken Shack went off to work at Cable Beach, where I am sure they picked up some other skills. The point is that there is an enormously competitive labour market in this particular area.

My grave concern as somebody from a media and marketing background who watches the ambitions of government and tourist authorities to bring more people to Australia—and I note the member for Cook is here and his passion for Qantas, our national carrier, to bring those people in is very well known in this place—is that we as a nation are not actually going to be able to live up to the expectations that we have created in our tourist marketing, because one of the key elements of meeting those expectations that is missing is the failure to properly invest in our people. To leave it all to chance—to leave it to the backpackers, the entry level job seekers and, as the member for Shortland rightly observed, the people who get a job in tourism or hospitality before a real job comes along—and to leave it to just those people to underpin the way in which our tourism and hospitality industry operates is an enormous folly.

We have a sector that is small and medium business in the most. There is not a Sofitel and a Hilton in every country town. Those Hiltons and Sofitels do have a huge impact on the professional standards—there is no doubt about it. In every country town you may well find that well-meaning, superannuated people are taking on the business investment of their lifetime, hopefully turning their retirement dreams into some sort of success for themselves, and are struggling to find staff. Kate Lamont, who provides enormous high-level advice for Tourism Western Australia and who put Margaret River on the map through her abilities as an entrepreneur in building up a business case for Margaret River wineries, said to the committee at the Perth hearings that she is back to changing sheets in her hotel rooms. This is an extraordinary problem for the sector; you have someone who you want to be entrepreneurial and to give good advice to government and industry doing the close work of tightening up the sheets around the beds they let at night.

We have a problem in this sector. Some of it is built around the failure to pay adequately but, to be fair, a lot of it is built around the failure of this industry to be collaborative enough to put pressure on the government and to make sure that, if you move from one hotel or caravan park to a hotel thousands of kilometres away, the experience you gained at one place counts for something. The national training system does not kick in and recognise the in-house training as well as it should. That conflict has to be put to bed because, if we want to give people a chance to grow their wage and a long-term career, and if we want this industry to meet all of the expectations of people coming to this country, we have to give people a career path.

In the recommendations put forward, the committee has provided some ways to achieve this. It asked, ‘Why don’t we have a portable long-service scheme?’ If it is agreed that you have been working and that you have been involved in the industry in one place and moved to another, let that all count in understanding, appreciating and respecting the experience you have gained in those different places; and let that be recognised by the industry. As the member for Shortland asked, ‘Why don’t we accept that a lot of the places are seasonal?’ We have to make sure that if you get 12 weeks work at the ski fields, which might well be 18 weeks given that the snow fell fairly early this year—I know nothing about skiing, but I heard that on television—why don’t those 12 or 18 weeks work count towards a long-term understanding and credentials to give you a nationally recognised training outcome? That prior experience and learning should count towards something so that you can invest in yourself with further training and know that, even if you do not have a piece of paper, your experience is being recognised. That does not exist in Australia today.

We are sending all the wrong messages to people, saying: ‘There’s a little bit here and a little bit there. Take your CV, tout it around and hope people understand what you have written down.’ We need to put a better stamp of approval across the efforts that individual workers make and we need to make sure that individual employers are working in a collaborative way to reward people with those sorts of skills and experiences.

This report set out to put forward a number of suggestions for the recognition of people’s competency and the training and experience they have. We also explained what I think is a fundamental failure of the migration occupations in demand list, the MODL, which requires that people have at least three years of postsecondary training in a particular profession for that professional skill or trade to be recognised as worthy of importing to Australia. That is a huge failure when you are looking for front-of-house staff and cannot find them. It is a real problem if you cannot find enough people to make the beds in your hotel rooms. The skills required to make a bed properly, to maintain a room properly and to serve wine and food properly—let alone the high-level standards of maitre d’s in restaurants—are not recognised by the migration occupations in demand list, because the criteria are too restrictive.

The committee has honed in on this and said there is something absolutely daft about a skills shortage in certain parts of Australia so pronounced that we are told some hotels in capital cities around this country are shutting down entire floors, saying, ‘Don’t rent a room on floor 14 because we can’t make the bed.’ The Crown Casino in Melbourne preserved two-thirds of its restaurant during Chinese New Year because they did not have enough waitstaff. The committee is saying to think about the cost to the economy of keeping alive this restrictive practice on the migration occupations in demand list.

So I think we have put forward a bit of food for thought. I hope that the government takes our observations seriously. I hope the industry takes it seriously, because there is a bit of challenge in this to the industry—to get organised and to get on with the job. But I still say, as I always said when I was the minister responsible for training in Australia, the message is clear in the tourism sector: the best investment you can make in your business is in your people. If you want to train them and invest in them, you will keep them. If you don’t, you will be short of them. (Time expired)

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad I am following my colleague the member for Moreton in debating this House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration report on the tourism sector. I have to say he did make a very significant contribution to this inquiry, particularly in relation to vocational education, much of which was picked up in this report, and I think the industry will be better for it if they actually act on a number of those recommendations.

I acknowledged the contribution of my friend earlier today but I did not acknowledge the former chair of this committee, the member for Deakin, who instigated this inquiry. I should mention that the member for Deakin, Mr Barresi, was very committed to this inquiry from the outset. I am sure we mourned his passing as chair as we visited Cairns, the Northern Territory and other places like that, drilling down into this inquiry!

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I agree with you, Member for Werriwa, and I associate myself with your comments.

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a more serious note, I would also like to join with the chair and commend the committee secretariat: the secretary, Dr Anna Dacre; the inquiry secretary, Siobhan Leyne; the research officer, Loes Slattery; and the admin officer, Daniel Miletic. These people, quite frankly, have put in a sterling effort on this report. They do a lot, as the member for Moreton indicated, to make us look good. A report like this is as much a reflection of their dedication, professionalism and commitment as it is of the serious way in which all the participating members approached this inquiry. We are very fortunate to have such professional service available to us. As I said in the main chamber, it is something that we should not take for granted; we should certainly acknowledge the support that we do get from that part of the organisation and the people who are always able to give us independent advice whenever we need it. Without dwelling on it, that is certainly something that is significant and something that should be recognised.

In this inquiry, one of the things that was challenging the committee was: what is the tourism industry? Largely, the tourism industry is basically whoever considers themselves to be in tourism. Unfortunately, that does not translate in terms of participation in some form of structured industry. I agree with the member for Moreton that one of the things that was quite apparent throughout this inquiry, when people spoke of tourism jobs, was that it was a job that you had before you had a job. That actually flows through into the general mentality or attitude, certainly the attitude to training and retaining staff—and an attitude that prevents the industry taking that next step and going further. I think for the industry it is important that it does view itself as a significant part of our economy.

For instance, this industry accounts for something in the order of $17 billion in terms of overseas earnings or annual net income. It contributes about 3.9 per cent to the GDP. These are significant figures. This is not simply a fledging industry. Sure, it is a young industry, but it is also an industry which has its place. It certainly has a significant attraction and value to it and it has tremendous growth opportunity. But, to do that, the industry has got to start investing in itself.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you and I, like everybody else, know there is no shortage of lobbyists in this industry. When people want something, they will come and knock at our doors, but they will not do it collectively. They will not look at this as an industry. One of the clearest examples of that was when we started looking at employment in this industry. I understand this, and I take the advice and evidence that was presented. A lot of employers were not of the view of investing in training because the staff may not be there—the employers have a high turnover rate and, if the employers invest, someone else is going to benefit from it. So they are not actually looking collaboratively as an industry at training. They are saying, ‘What’s good for me and my enterprise in my business?’ The trouble is that an industry is no stronger than the weakest link. I know there are cost inputs in this, but I think the member for Moreton is right: we do need to do various things, particularly in relation to recognition of prior learning. If someone moves from one business to another part of the business or to interstate or works in one of the resorts in the ski fields and picks up skills as they go, that should be seen as building up this collective skills base and almost as having a skills passport. But we do not recognise that, as someone is a ‘new employee’ every time that they start somewhere else. That is something that has to change.

The sector of the industry that showed probably the most foresight in this regard was the Australian ski one. They knew that they had a very limited season. They knew that they wanted to attract people back into their sector of the industry in following seasons. They were trying to work collaboratively with each other in what they had to do to attract people back and how they would share staff around. Someone might stay in one resort one year and work at the chalet down the road next year—but it was all about their staying in the industry. That is how the ski sector was starting to see itself.

That is what has got to occur with this industry, and we have set out a range of recommendations that look at that. Training should not be seen as an impost on a particular employer but as an investment in the industry. If we are serious about growing this industry, that has really got to occur. For that to occur, one of the things that we need to do is, quite frankly, have the industry focus on itself. I actually wrote, as one of our key recommendations, that we see the establishment of an industry leaders forum to look at these issues over a range as wide as the industry itself. It would not be as to Joe Bloggs’s motel down the road or anything like that. It would be a coming together of all the very small parts. It would be the motels sector, the hotels sector, the chalets sector—all the tourism resort sectors—coming together to work out what they need to do to expand this industry as an industry. As I said, I have actually billed that as one of our key recommendations.

This industry has now got to pick up the lead that has been set by this inquiry and follow the recommendations in the report. We call on the federal government to help facilitate the establishment of an industry leaders forum to focus on these issues. I, the member for Moreton and every other participant in this committee believe that, quite frankly, for the tourism experience to be valuable it must in fact involve a lot of the labour force employed by this industry. Therefore, that needs investment if we are going to attract people back—as against the once in a lifetime ‘I won’t stay there again’ syndrome, the ‘Fawlty Towers’ syndrome—because attracting people back to the tourism experience is all about employed people and having those people trained, having those people accredited and having people who can move about in the industry safe in the knowledge that they are building up their skills. They include chefs to some extent. I know that to date all our views about apprenticeship training have been based on time. But for this industry it is probably not sensible to base everything on time, because a lot of it is seasonal and people may still be able to undertake their training whilst they are employed in a particular area. We should make sure that training in this industry is competency based and that the competencies are at least recognised and transportable to every employer that a person goes to.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They love our kids in Canada.

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Exactly, and I take the point of the member for Moreton. One of the tragedies of all this is that those in overseas tourist destinations appreciate the training that has been done and the skills that have been developed by a lot of our young people, but we are not doing that when it comes to developing our own tourism industry. I think to some extent it is a matter of maturity.

We are now saying it is time to take the next step. It is time to move this industry forward. It is time to develop this industry to its potential. It is time to invest in the development of skills and not simply provide a job before someone gets another job. We are now talking about developing careers to make this industry sustainable and to make this industry somewhere people want to work for a lifetime and get their passport to work all around this country in first-class facilities. The young people of this nation are entitled to be proud. They are certainly entitled to receive the training that is going to accredit them for full participation throughout their working life, hopefully in this industry. We have to now bite the bullet and realise that this is an industry worth working in and it is an industry worth having a career in—this is something the committee is unanimous on. (Time expired)

Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation on the tourism sector is very timely, and it comes at a significant time of expansion in the Australian economy, which is seeing pressure placed on many industries, particularly with respect to the availability and ability of skilled workers to take up positions in communities across the country. As a nation, the economy has grown some 40 per cent over the last 10 years. The growth in Western Australia is predicted to continue for some years to come. Therefore, it is possible that the workforce challenges facing Australian tourism—and, more particularly, the Western Australian tourism industry—are likely to continue without some recognition of this report and its 25 recommendations, which are dealt with under the headings of employment in Australia’s tourism industry, addressing labour shortages and skills demand, recruitment and retention, investing in business, and training and taxation incentives.

Like many other industries, the tourism sector faces global competition for skilled employees. However, many available workers do not have the skills required to effectively carry out the work without additional training. As a committee we heard that the industry has a culture of turnover, which very much limits opportunities for training whilst supporting the seasonal flow of workers. Recommendation 3 goes to the thrust of this and suggests that industry in partnership with government look at developing a seasonal workforce plan to build community and industry cooperation, which would go a long way towards addressing the ebbs and flows created by the seasonal work pattern.

Restaurants, cafes and hotels have traditionally been great employment opportunities for part-time students or travellers wishing to supplement their income. Whilst previously the table and counter staff could be unskilled, as they had the support of the permanent skilled staff, employers are now finding the solutions to the problems much more difficult. In the past any shortcomings were covered by the skilled staff. It is increasingly harder for businesses to attract and maintain skilled staff. The training that is provided to staff is not retained because of this mobility of the workforce. They are frequently being poached for other higher paying positions within the tourism industry and other industries that are looking for people with ability. Many skilled staff are poached from the tourism sector while at the same time possible new entrants are finding employment in more highly paid industries such as in the resource sector. This is having a significant impact on businesses in the tourism sector trying to find suitable staff to fill vacancies.

The name of the report, Current vacancies, is well chosen, as currently, across the nation, chefs, service staff, kitchen staff and supervisors are in big demand. The Restaurant and Catering Association of Australia estimates that there are currently some 8,000 vacancies Australia wide. The resource sector is expanding with opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers, providing lucrative employment options, which has seen a migration of workers from their chosen career into these better-paying opportunities. In my electorate of Hasluck we have the Swan Valley, which is well known for its winemaking and grape growing over many years. Over the past 20 years the Swan Valley has changed remarkably. We should all take the opportunity to visit there when in Perth. It is not very far from the CBD.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hardgrave interjecting

Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is fantastic. When driving along the length of West Swan Road years ago, you would have been lucky to pass a cafe. You may have been able to drop in to a couple of wine cellars for a drop of wine tasting or see sultanas drying in the drying sheds. I think there were only a couple of restaurants in the area at that time.

These days there are many good restaurants, cafes, wine cellars, boutique brewery operations, chocolate factories and cheese factories dotted throughout the valley. Indeed, Spring in the Valley is a great festival and is held at a wonderful time of year to celebrate the development of the tourism sector in Western Australia. Some 50,000 visitors visit boutique breweries and enjoy fine food, wine and music, as well as the arts and crafts on offer.

Indeed, it is very pleasing to be able to make this speech today while the Mayor of the City of Swan, Charlie Gregorini, the Deputy Mayor, Mel Congerton, and Chief Executive, Mike Foley, are visiting Parliament House in Canberra. The Swan Valley boasts some extraordinary restaurants and wineries, such as Sandalford Wines, with its annual program of bringing music to the valley, as well as the Riverbank Estate Winery, which I had the pleasure of visiting only recently.

It is not just in the electorate of Hasluck that the impact of the skills shortage is being felt. As the report indicates, it is being felt right across Australia. There is a need to address it, and many of the recommendations in the report go a long way towards doing that and ensuring that we develop a much more professional tourism sector than we may have had in the past.

Tourism helps define who we are. It enhances our Australian nature, our natural environment, our cultural diversity and our ecotourism. It puts genuine Aussie ingenuity on display for not just our neighbours but travellers from around the world. Along with other programs and campaigns that we have developed, we want to look our best and be at our best so as to encourage by word of mouth return visits. In 2006, there were 635,000 international visitors and six million—a huge figure—domestic visitors to Western Australia, with a combined expenditure of some $4 billion. The tourism dollar has been steadily growing, apart from a slight drop in the early 2000s.

It is well known that the hospitality industry is experiencing a very difficult time in filling vacancies. I have been able to assist some constituents—restaurateurs and people running hospitality venues—in my own electorate of Hasluck with advice on 457 visas and other options to help ease this labour problem. This report makes a number of very worthwhile recommendations, such as data collection and analysis to provide for comprehensive workforce planning. Recommendation 11 details the visa extension of up to two years for overseas tourism and hospitality students who comply with education and training conditions. This would be a sensible and an attractive option to assist in alleviating the current shortfall in some of these fields.

I agree with the member for Werriwa, who just spoke on the report, about recommendation 12, which recommends the establishment of an industry leaders forum to promote career choices and opportunities in the industry. As a result of a review carried out in 2005-06 of the separate training packages for those in the hospitality and tourism industries, it was recommended that those packages be combined into one package. A new package was then developed with extensive industry consultation. It has been formally endorsed by the industry but has not been unanimously endorsed by the states and territories. I urge those states and territories to endorse it so that we can overcome some of these difficulties and ensure that some of the recommendations of this report with respect to vocational training and education in the tourism and hospitality area can be implemented. All the recommendations are sensible and should be implemented to address the skills shortage. I look forward to that occurring.

With some 22,700 people commencing Australian apprenticeships in tourism in the 12 months to March 2006, a range of measures have already been put in place to make apprenticeship systems more accessible, including more flexibility for the delivery of on-the-job training components and incentives for employers who offer employment related training, including mid-career apprenticeships and higher technical skills announced by the Prime Minister in the Skills for the Future package.

We have a lot to do, but quite clearly this report addresses a number of critical issues in the tourism industry. I believe that, if the recommendations in the report entitled Current vacancies were implemented, they would go a long way towards addressing that outcome. I commend the report.

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity as the shadow minister for transport, roads and tourism to speak in the Main Committee on what I regard as an important report, entitled Current vacancies: workforce challenges facing the Australian tourism sector. I thought it would also have been appropriate if the Minister for Small Business and Tourism had found time to attend the Main Committee to compliment the committee on an exceptionally good job. It is a much-needed report. I know she is a very busy woman, planning her next overseas trip.

As we all appreciate, the work of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation, with the assistance of the secretariat, is exceptionally important to the tourism industry. A huge amount of work has been undertaken by the committee and the secretariat in pulling together all of the evidence and the associated material received by the committee over an extended period. On behalf of the opposition, I can simply say that we welcome the report, and we will be having considerable regard for its recommendations. I say that because I think it is fair to say that the time-honoured image of Australia’s tourism sector as a fun-loving, easygoing industry to work in, with parties at every turn, has been hardened in recent years. There is a huge challenge confronting the industry.

Much like the industry itself, the tourism market force has undergone significant change that adapts to radically changing global trends both within and outside the tourism industry. Labour shortages have emerged as a key factor affecting the future growth and viability of Australia as skilled workers become a rare resource. Australia’s $81 billion tourism industry is not immune to this trend. If anything, it has felt the effects more acutely. It is a people focused industry with high service standards and requirements and consequently demanding labour requirements. Yet, unfortunately, as a sector it is struggling to maintain competitiveness with other sectors which have the capacity to offer higher wages and better conditions, such as the provision of housing in the resources sector. Bus tour drivers who have a heavy vehicle licence are being lured over to the mining sector where, without any need to upskill, they are offered three times the wage they earn in tourism. The same goes for young people starting out in life. Why not work in the mines on a fly in, fly out basis and earn at least twice as much as they can in hospitality, without having to deal with the poor image associated with the tourism sector? That is also a key issue addressed by this report.

Unfortunately, while tourism from a tourism perspective is an industry defined by new and enjoyable experiences, relaxing holidays by the beach or exciting adventure tours, it is characterised in a less than glamorous way for the actual workers in the tourism businesses. As the committee found, the reputation of the tourism industry is that it is an industry of hard work, bad conditions and relatively low pay. This is a point not disputed by the operators, employer representatives or employee representatives who gave extensive evidence during the work of the committee.

I might say that it is a trend that has been exacerbated by the Work Choices legislation, as admitted in evidence by the hotels and motels association, an employer organisation. The organisation indicated to the committee that there were regular breaches of employment law and nonadherence to award conditions, unfortunately, in parts of the industry. I say this is a shame because there are a lot of good tourism businesses out there seeking to do the right thing by their workforce and the industry at large, many of them small to medium sized operators, who believe in the work of the sector and want to realise its potential by pulling together.

This report appropriately outlines that there is a role for everyone to play in helping the industry to address the serious issues, and the tourism business operators and industry as a whole are no exception. I do not think we need to suggest that operators and the industry as a whole do not know the requirements that are ahead of them. You do not need to have a master’s degree in marketing and brand development to know that the tourism industry has a serious image problem when it comes to employment options for our young people. There is a widespread perception in the Australian community that employment in the tourism sector is not the start of a career path, but rather it is the job that you have as you pass through to where you want to end up with a career option—short-term employment to earn a few dollars on the way through.

This disappointing fact is reflected in the high turnover rates of staff within the hotel industry, which is an additional cost to industry. The Sustainable Tourism CRC noted in its submission to the committee that turnover rates were between 39 and 84 per cent, depending on the level of the role. The CRC also found that the main reason for the employers’ turnover were low pay, poor working hours and the need to search for better career opportunities. It is a disappointing fact, because the tourism industry is an industry where you can work your way up through a career path if you are prepared to stick to it. It can be a very rewarding career path and it can fulfil all the requirements of meaningful and stimulating work.

The industry therefore needs to get out there as a matter of urgency and celebrate its success with stories about its success. While the sector is made up primarily of small to medium sized businesses, they are businesses that all face the same challenges yet are driven by the same goals of increasing not only numbers on the ground but tourism yield while maintaining a high product and quality product standard. This provides the sector with a unique opportunity to come together and for a collaborative approach to training and skilling to ensure the future viability of the industry.

Unfortunately, the industry currently lacks coordination in several key areas—an issue that was brought to the fore through the committee’s work, which noted that opportunities in training were being missed. These opportunities include looking beyond just young people as the traditional pool of workers. There are vast opportunities to be seized in encouraging more mature age workers in tourism, particularly those already travelling that are commonly known as the grey-haired nomads. Opportunities also abound in employment of Indigenous Australians, and this comes with the double benefit of realising the massive growth potential of Indigenous tourism in Australia. I, therefore, wholeheartedly support the recommendation of the committee to support the identification of barriers to the employment of older workers and an inquiry into the opportunities for Indigenous tourism growth and associated employment and, more importantly, training opportunities. It is one of the many common-sense recommendations to arise from the report.

Another is recommendation 11, which would enable overseas tourism and hospitality students to extend their visas by up to two years once they have successfully completed their tertiary courses. They must be courses of some standing and significance and they must have undertaken an appropriate level of work placement as part of their course completion and training program. However, while I fully support this initiative, I do have some reservations about offering the option of moving into the permanent migration scheme after the completion of two years continuous employment. Those reservations relate to a pilot trial to fill vacancies in the hairdressing field. On all available evidence, this is a trial that is not working. The trends today see participants move out of the area of demand, in hairdressing, once their permanent residency status has been approved. We want people who actually take up these opportunities to give a commitment to long-term employment in the tourism sector, especially in rural, remote and regional Australia, and not to use it as an easy entry point to Australia for short-term visas and appropriate long-term migration opportunities.

I do not believe that this option will therefore solve the industry’s labour requirements. The industry has to refocus and re-engage the Australian workforce and, in doing so, improve its retention rates, better train its workers and overcome some of the turnover costs associated with the industry. Having said that, can I say that the report includes many common-sense recommendations, including a better plan for the future of the industry, better research and willingness by all in the industry—all levels of government, the private sector employees and their unions—to actively work together to overcome the challenges identified in the report. In the meantime, as an interim measure, I implore everyone in Australia, including businesses, to better manage their workforce and to encourage the Australian workforce to have a holiday and reduce the huge liability that currently exists in business for accumulated annual leave and long service leave. This can do an exceptionally big favour to the tourism industry, because we are very sluggish on the domestic tourism front. I commend the report to the House.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the report that was tabled in the parliament today, Current vacancies: workforce challenges facing the Australian tourism sector. I take heart from the comments made by the member for Batman, the shadow minister for tourism, that indeed there were a series of commonsense recommendations made unanimously by members of the committee. Tourism is a very important sector. It is growing quite rapidly. However, despite its growth and despite its increasing growth of GDP, it is an industry that has many challenges to overcome. Not least of all of the challenges that it needs to confront and overcome is the current skills shortages—indeed, just basic labour shortages.

We understand the difficulties that the tourism sector has to tackle on a day-to-day basis. We were able to meet with many businesses whose core business is tourism and hospitality, and they raised many concerns about the difficulty of attracting labour to their businesses. There were businesses, particularly in remote areas—very important tourist precincts, but quite often areas remote from capital cities—that were having difficulties attracting the necessary labour. It was not always about skilled labour; it was about just having the hands-on experience, the capacity to lend a hand in the peaks of the tourist period. So committee members in inquiring into this matter—an inquiry that we were asked to do by the minister for tourism—sought to look at some practical measures that could mitigate the adverse effects of labour and skills shortages in the industry and recommend them directly to the executive government for it to consider and hopefully incorporate into its policies.

A number of the recommendations looked at ways in which we could change current law in a way that would enable certain people to work for longer periods. For example, people on particular visas might be able to extend those visas if they work in remote areas, so that businesses in remote areas of the country would be able to attract sufficient staff to ensure their businesses were prosperous. As the member for Batman indicated, we were also concerned about increasing the participation of older workers in the sector. I guess there we are talking about domestic workers—that is, the Australian residents who should be able to supply the shortfalls in labour demand in these critical areas.

Of course, there were also concerns raised—and this is where the members differed somewhat—over whether Work Choices legislation was a benefit or not to the industry. We did have some alarming evidence in the transcript that pointed to behaviour which I do not think anyone would condone. Indeed, the representative from one of the employer bodies—the Hotel, Motel and Accommodation Association—indicated that there were many employers in the hospitality industry that were in breach of laws prior to Work Choices but who, because of Work Choices, were no longer in breach of the law. It was put to that witness, ‘What you are saying is that there were people who broke the law and, because of Work Choices, they still do the same thing but they do not break the law?’ and he answered yes. That was a concern, certainly to Labor members of the committee. We did not think the government should be assisting businesses to find ways to drive down wages and conditions by allowing something that was unlawful yesterday to be lawful today. I am not suggesting that all government members would think that was the best thing to do, but clearly this was a representative of an employer body who thought he could now do that. And it seemed he was advising members of that body to do exactly that.

Leaving Work Choices, and the industrial relations law generally, out of the equation, the members of the committee focused most of their energies on looking for ways to mitigate the shortages that exist. I think that the committee members participated very constructively and consensually, particularly in looking to find unanimous recommendations to put to the executive government. I appreciate the efforts of the former chair, the member for Deakin, who has an interest in the area but has an interest in training as well. Of course, the member for Moreton took over his role halfway through the inquiry, and we worked well there.

I would like to put on the record our appreciation for the secretariat. They did a magnificent job. The secretariat not only collated the information, the primary sources and the secondary sources, and brought together the evidence but also were heavily involved in drafting reports for us to look at, examine and then consider whether we would amend or accept. I think through their good efforts we have come up with a report that focuses on common-sense recommendations that will be useful for the tourism and hospitality sector in addressing the problems that it currently confronts.

I also add that the member for Werriwa, who took over as the deputy chair, along with the chair played a very proactive role in ensuring that the report was ready and is of sufficient quality for the executive government to consider. Now that the report has been tabled, it can be considered by all members including the executive government.

Debate (on motion by Dr Washer) adjourned.