Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that some of the biggest decisions that will determine the long-term economic recovery of the Cairns region and other tourism towns in regional Queensland will be the decisions of this government. This government will need to make a decision about whether they taper and target JobKeeper to support heavily impacted tourism regions, and we know that Cairns is the hardest hit area in Queensland. They are pleading for certainty on JobKeeper today.

This government will also need to make a decision about whether to provide support to our aviation sector, because we know that without a second national airline—without Virgin flying to the regions directly from our cities—our tourism industry will not recover in the long term. But this is what we know about this government's support for the tourism industry: they have shown a complete lack of urgency to support tourism industries; they have dropped the ball on Virgin, risking regional tourism; and the Prime Minister is now insisting on snapping away support—