Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the House adjourns this evening, some of Australia's top restaurants are being recognised by their peers at the Restaurant and Catering Awards for Excellence for Sydney metropolitan and surrounds, in Sydney.

Major award winners this evening include Caterer of the Year, Freshcatering at Redfern; Restaurant of the Year, Sydney metropolitan region, Becasse Restaurant and Restaurant of the Year Blue Mountains Central West region, Darleys Restaurant at Katoomba. The Lifetime Achiever went to Robert Ho, Hall of Fame inductee was Stefano Manfredi and Restaurateur of the Year was Con Dedes.

I am pleased that culinary mastery is more than ever front and centre of popular culture—something that television shows like Ten's MasterChef, and Foxtel's Aurora Eat, Play and Stay has reinforced. Hospitality and tourism are all about the experience, and tonight's winners are individuals and teams who create memorable dining experiences for domestic and inbound tourists alike.

Australian restaurateurs are amongst the best in the world, and year on year it is clear that the standards achieved in cooking and presentation are continuously improving. These coveted awards do a great deal not only to recognise hard work and achievement but also to encourage competition within industry and ensure that restaurant industry standards are maintained. Now in its 13th year, the Awards for Excellence program gives restaurant and caterers well-deserved recognition of their hard work and promotional support, and helps to attract incremental business and to promote industry best practice.

The tourism sector provides employment for nearly 500,000 Australians and accounts for $92 billion of economic activity. When you add in the restaurant and hospitality sector, which also services non-tourists in Australia, you start to get a picture of the magnitude of this sector to our economy. Now is a critical time for restaurants, as under a carbon tax the restaurant and catering sector is significantly exposed. They will pay more to run their refrigeration, dishwashing machines, ovens, lighting, signage, cleaning machines, office and other equipment in addition to the increase in costs of food should Labor's carbon legislation pass into law. Of course, if the law is passed, Labor cannot be trusted to maintain its exemption for petrol which would further drive up input costs for restaurants and cafes around Australia, at the same time reducing disposable income that is absolutely vital to the survival of this industry. Restaurants are already reeling from a range of bad Labor policies, they certainly do not need to be burdened with the carbon tax.

One of the most damaging policies for restaurants since Labor came to office was to remove chefs and cooks from the skilled migration occupations list and the list of recognised occupations for which training assistance is available. Blind Freddy can see there is a skills shortage in this sector. The tourism sector is already at the mercy of seasonal and economic fluctuations and what this industry needs is a government that does not exacerbate their difficulties or create new problems.

As I mentioned in this place last week, 18 months ago, Labor thought it was fine to transfer workers from the bars and swimming pools of tourist towns to the draglines and trucks of the mines. This of course has created a hospitality industry skills shortage, as I said, exacerbated by Labor removing chefs and cooks from the business migration list of skills. Labor's proposed solution to this problem is to reverse its policy to exclude food professionals from the skilled workers list to fill vacancies—a solution that is long overdue, but we await the action to match the rhetoric. It is time for the rubber to hit the road, minister.

While we remain to be convinced of the merits of the Pacific guest worker scheme, one simple measure that government can adopt is to solve the current problem of tourism sector workers gaining worker visas then leaving to work in other sectors. Last week, the government announced it will remove the burden on restaurants and cafes to provide separate menus on weekends and public holidays that incorporate service surcharges. This is a policy change that the coalition has been advocating for some time along with major tourism, catering and hospitality services representative organisations by people like John Hart of the Restaurant and Catering Association. This is a government that burdens small business with bundles of red tape then claims to be the champion when they remove it. Yet in the face of these challenges, the restaurant and catering industry is doing a sterling job. For the sake of this valuable industry, I urge members opposite to consider how their policies, in particular the planned carbon tax, will damage cooking and food service professionals such as those recognised at tonight's Restaurant and Catering Awards. I look forward to seeing all the finalists from across the nation at the National Restaurant and Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence on 24 October.