Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The other day, I was in Armidale and a lady chased me down the street. She was a travel agent, and travel agents are getting absolutely smashed during this pandemic. We must be able to do something further to help them. Travel agents are a unique case. It's not that they're not busy; they're flat out. They're flat out dealing with cancellations. They're flat out trying to deal with the problems of vouchers and finding out how people can redeem them. With this problem, they're becoming a bank, because they don't get the money back; all they get is a credit, but the clients want their money back. We have to do what we can to assist these people further. I believe that, as we move out of this pandemic, there are some issues which we can wind down quicker, but there are some issues which we must have another look at, and travel agents are one of those. I'm going to put my shoulder to the wheel with my colleagues. It's great to hear the support of the member for Curtin. We understand this and we have brought it up with the minister. We have brought it up in the joint party room. We're trying to make sure that we do whatever we can to keep people such as Chris Watson, Paul and Leigh McLennan, Neal and Vicki Kembrey, Anna McMurtrie and Teree George in a job, in business, and in a vital part of the New England community.

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