Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, in this place and also in the Federation Chamber, much has been said about the plight of our nation's travel agents, and justifiably so. There are some 40,000 people in the industry, 80 per cent of whom are women, and 60 per cent of the businesses of those travel agents are in regional and rural Australia. They were the first to be hit by this pandemic, and they'll be the last to come out of this pandemic. We have an obligation as a government to support them, and we have. I've spoken to literally hundreds of them over the past six months, and they were very, very grateful for JobKeeper, they were very grateful for the $128 million support package, and they were very hopeful that, in a bipartisan approach, we can see our way to an industry-specific support package in line with the continuation of a JobKeeper style.

But there is something else we can do as a government—again, in a bipartisan way—that will assist not only the travel agents but also service providers such as hotels, resorts et cetera, and that's by shining a light on online travel agencies such as Trivago, Expedia, Wotif, Skyscanner, Booking.com, Airbnb and Kayak. They're all based in Germany or the USA or are Chinese owned. They do not have the same obligations as travel agents in Australia, in that they don't have to disclose their commissions when they accept a booking. Our travel agents have to tell the client, 'My commission is 10 per cent, and that's reflected in the invoice.' Online travel agents don't have to disclose that, they don't have to disclose where that money's going to and they do not pay tax in our country. We need to do everything we possibly can to educate the public on that fact.

We have to move the goalposts for online travel agents to make it fair for our travel agents. They take tens of billions of dollars a year from the pockets of our travel agents and our service providers. If we can educate the public by legislating that online travel agents must disclose what their commissions are and where they are based, that should change the way of thinking of people who book online. They will say, 'Well, I'm not paying $3,000 of my money to a German based or Chinese based company; I'm going to go straight to the accommodation service provider and book with them, or, if I want the security of booking through a travel agent, I'll book through an Australian based local travel agent for 10 per cent, because that's all they charge.'

A fellow emailed me and took a screenshot of his account. He was very grateful for a $3,000 grant from the New South Wales government, but, two entries below, you could see this: 'Booking.com BV, Amsterdam, 13 July 2020, $3,272.60'. In one fell swoop, there goes the $3,000 from the New South Wales government, straight into the pockets of a big corporate in Amsterdam. He said to me: 'I don't mind paying commission for people doing work, but it must be fair. Ten per cent—I'm happy with that. But these companies charge up to 25 or 30 per cent commission on top of what people pay.' That's not fair. If our travel agents have to disclose what their commissions are, where they're based and have to comply with all these other transparency rules, then it is only fair that we as a government ensure that online travel agents are subject to the same obligations.