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

I rise to speak about the problems that travel agents, and people who work in the travel industry, are approaching on 31 March with the cut-out of JobKeeper. Travel agents have realised people's dreams in the good times, and in the bad times of COVID they've collected literally billions of dollars in refunds for passengers. But they are going down the gurgler. The mental health concerns and pressure on these family businesses, and a lot of the employees, is shocking.

The government has announced a $130 million package, and we give them a tick for that. The problem is that this is a grants program. Today I just want to briefly call upon the government: please link this $130 million, that you are allocating to travel, to wages and salaries. Make it a JobKeeper-esque scheme, call it something else if you don't want to admit you're keeping JobKeeper, but don't repeat the mistakes of the first round of grants which were too hit or miss for the travel industry. A few travel agents got $100,000, but maybe should have only got $4,000. On other hand, many travel agents were only getting $4,000 when perhaps they should have received $100,000 for their business and employees.

I'm worried the government's creating the same mess again because they don't understand the travel agents' industry. Why not require that the money which is given to travel agents in this next package be attached to wages and salaries? Use it as the best support to look after the owner-managers and the employees of the travel agents' industry, rather than just handing out grants? Finally, why not talk to travel agents rather than dictate to them? (Time expired)