Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is speeding towards the JobKeeper cliff: that moment at the end of March when this government cuts JobKeeper to zero. For some sectors—tourism, for example—it is not going to be a soft landing. A recent national survey of travel agents found that just one in 10 believe they will survive the JobKeeper cliff without urgent intervention. That's 40,000 jobs lost.

One business in my area—Helloworld in Carlingford—has been talking to me about just this problem. The owner, Angie, has seen a lot in her 40 years as a travel agent. Her business has survived disruptions like SARS, the GFC, terrorism and the Ansett collapse, but nothing compares to COVID. Since the border closed almost a year ago, Angie and her staff have been working tirelessly to secure refunds for their customers. It's cost her $60,000 to keep her business running so she can provide refunds to customers, with no business coming in. Agents like Angie have been crying out for help for months. It took the Morrison government until December to announce tailored support for the industry in the form of $128 million in one-off cash grants. But the scheme is so poorly designed that, because of the way they report turnover, the majority of travel agents, including Angie, received no support. Because of timing and the way her business is structured, Angie also missed out on the lost carry-back measures in the budget.

We are losing incredible investments in relationships when we lose these businesses, and they will not be easily replaced.