Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Tourism is a vital industry in my electorate of Lyons. Will the minister update the House on how scrapping the carbon tax would benefit the tourism industry, the 300,000 businesses involved in the sector and the 900,000 Australians that are employed in that sector?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons. He is known as Mr Tourism in Tasmania for his very passionate promotion of Freycinet Peninsula and Cradle Mountain. He is also doing a great job as deputy chair of our tourism committee. The carbon tax has become a $115 million a year leg-rope on our great tourism industry, an industry that is one of our great strengths. The fact is that many of the 512,000 jobs that were lost in small business over the six years of Labor administration were in the tourism industry. They stand culpable because this was a time of great growth in the tourism industry in the region. Many jobs were trashed unnecessarily in the tourism industry.

Look at what else happened in the region. Under Labor, between 2007 and 2013, international visitors increased by 16 per cent. Now, you will take credit for that, but the fact of the matter is that for Singapore, geographically one of our great competitors, they went up 51 per cent. This was at a time when the middle class had been growing exponentially in the region and tourism had been growing—and we lost out. In fact, we lost jobs in the tourism sector. Labor's carbon tax and tourism taxes such as the 45 per cent increase in passenger movement charges, increased tourism visa charges of over 50 per cent and reduced funding for Tourism Australia all combined to give us that pathetic result and to see the job losses in our region.

The carbon tax caused all this damage because it is a tax that our international competitors do not have to pay. This is what they do not understand on the other side. It pushed up the price of local holidays relative to all of our competitors. It is a simple proposition. Think about it. It is why you should be supporting the removal of the carbon tax. As the middle class in the region grows from 600 million to three billion over the next 20 to 30 years, we need to get our tourism businesses in the best possible competitive position. Scrapping the carbon tax is a very big contribution: $115 million a year taken off the competitive disadvantage imposed by those opposite. If the Labor Party were serious they would get rid of this tax.