Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGrath for his question. Senator McGrath is a relentless champion of small businesses, particularly small businesses up and down the coast and inland across the great state of Queensland operating in the tourism sector.

As senators should be aware, on 27 September the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr McCormack, and I announced the opening of round 3 of the $200 million Building Better Regions Fund. For the first time under that fund, $45 million is specifically available through this round for tourism infrastructure projects. These projects will help to fund infrastructure across regional Australia to drive tourism and ensure that our record numbers of holiday visitors occurring across Australia continue to grow, especially in our regional areas. Indeed, this announcement was welcomed by Regional Development Australia, who said at the time that those projects will 'help stimulate local economies by investing in the tourism sector'. This sector is vital for our regional and remote communities—creating jobs, stimulating new business and sustaining long-term economic growth. That is a fact that is well known by those across Queensland who have long celebrated and contributed so much to our national tourism economy and those businesses.

Latest national visitor survey results show more Australians are choosing to holiday in their own backyard as well, which is great news, with visitor spending soaring to $67.5 billion across Australia—an increase of eight per cent—and Australians taking a record $100-plus million domestic overnight trips during the year ending 2018. This high visitor spend and the record numbers of domestic and overseas trips, as well as strong positioning in terms of our international sector, all provide great opportunities for regional and remote tourism businesses that will only be strengthened by the Liberal-National government's investment through the Building Better Regions Fund.

The PRESIDEN T: Senator McGrath, a supplementary question.