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

Prior to the pandemic, we had a booming travel industry. We had some 40,000 people working in the industry, 80 per cent of whom were women, and 60 per cent of those people were working in regional and rural Australia. This pandemic has affected us all. It has affected every industry, but none so much as the travel agents industry. We shut down our borders, which was the right thing to do. We shut them down early and we shut them down to protect our people, to protect our nation's health. But, in doing so, we have created a situation where one industry, the travel industry, has lost everything. Over 90 per cent of their income comes from the $60 billion worth of travel each year. About five to 10 per cent of that is domestic travel. This government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to support the travel industry, and they are very much appreciative. There was $128 million in the previous tranche of support for travel agents, for the employers, and $130 million in the last tranche. There has been hundreds of millions of dollars in JobKeeper for the employees. Sadly, despite those supports, over 17,000 people have left the industry. Of the 40,000, we now have 23,000. This is an industry we cannot leave to die. We must continue to support them.

Over the past six months I have been out talking to employers and employees. They ring me almost on a daily basis and they email me on a daily basis indicating that the $130 million, whilst well intended by this government, and it is well intended by this government, is being misdirected. It needs to go to the employees. Employers are telling me that they're happy to take low-interest loans for a period of time to get through the next six or nine months to keep their employees. These businesses are businesses that were turning over, in some instances in my electorate, over $1 million a month. They're prepared to take that little bit more pain, providing that they keep their employees with them, keep their employees under the banner, because they are specialised professionals and if they go from this industry or if they go on to JobSeeker they'll be lost forever. The $2 billion or $3 billion in consumer credits which are currently being held and managed every day by these employees will simply vanish into the ether, as will our travel agency industry. It will vanish and it will not come back. It will go on to online travel agencies—none of whom are owned here in Australia. They're owned by the Chinese. They're owned by the Netherlands. They're owned by the USA. They don't pay tax here. They don't present a presence here. They don't care whether you enjoy your trip or not. They are faceless and they're not human. That's not where we want our travel industry to end up.

We need to support the remaining 23,000 people. We need to redirect this $130 million with other supports for the next six to nine months. We're already getting travel domestically. We're approaching those travel bubbles in the next three to six months with Singapore or Japan or New Zealand. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They just need that little bit more assistance for the next six months. There will be throngs of Australians wanting to go overseas. There'll be throngs of international people wanting to come to Australia. We just need to get over that last hurdle.

I urge my government, I urge them despite the fantastic work that we've done, to get them through this next six months to allow the mums and dads who work in my electorate, in your electorate and across the nation to keep their businesses and keep their jobs. I ask my government to listen to them and to ensure that that happens.