House debates

Monday, 15 February 2021

Statements by Members

Tourism Industry

4:24 pm

Photo of Bill ShortenBill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | | Hansard source

In the short time available to me I speak again today about the plight of travel agents as we head towards 31 March. Travel agents talk about their plight better than any politician can. Tina from the Latrobe Valley says: 'A 29-year-old business. Credits owed to customers. Refunds being chased. People facing retrenchment. The value of the business smashed to nothing.' They need help. Neil on the Sunshine Coast says he just wants an extension of JobKeeper until international borders are raised, perhaps a better retail guarantee from landlords and the sorting out of the additional grants scheme, which has been poorly administered by the tax office and Austrade.

Angie, from north-west Sydney, reports on the difficulties they're going to have in being able to chase refunds if JobKeeper is not extended past 31 March, and I thank them. Dave from Nerang has been working 13 hours a day, seven days a week chasing up people. He faces bankruptcy. He's had to spend his super. He says, 'The government's travel agents support package hasn't delivered what was promised and needs to be redesigned.' And Melanie, from Brisbane, has a small family-owned business. To the best of her ability she's chased money for her clients for the last 12 months. There's still money outstanding. If the travel agents aren't there to help the passengers and the tourists, the money won't be recovered. We also need Tourism Australia to do more to promote using local travel agents than international travel platforms.