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

I thank the member for Adelaide for putting this motion on. I have been speaking with the travel agents across my electorate and indeed across Australia for the past six months. The last speaker is quite correct. This has to be a bipartisan approach. I have stood in this Federation Chamber and on the floor of the House and I have called for the government to make an industry-specific package. We worked together to get the $128 million that is currently being fed out to those needy recipients through the travel agents.

There are some 40,000 people in this industry. Eighty per cent are women. They are mum and dad businesses, sometimes generational businesses. Sixty per cent of those small family businesses are in regional and rural Australia. We have an obligation to ensure their longevity after this year. The borders will not open this year; it is quite clear there will not be international travel. These businesses rely on between 90-95 per cent international travel. They are unable to make an income from their current profession.

I have been speaking with, Darren Rudd, the CEO of AFTA, in relation to the $128 million and also the potential for an ongoing 'travelkeeper', in line with the JobKeeper, for this industry. We can see that most industries have come off JobKeeper because they no longer need it. They have recovered sufficiently and they are back on their feet. They are able to make money and pay their employees. It was a great government initiative. It kept us economically financial and kept a lot of people in work.

What we see now is that the travel industry is one of a handful of industries who require that ongoing support. We do need to approach it on a bipartisan basis. We can't say us and them. We need to work together to ensure that that happens. What you've seen over the past 12 months is an industry that has continued to work effectively for free.

The borders were closed for the right reasons. The borders were closed for the health of our nation. Everybody agrees that it had to happen. When those borders closed, the travel agent industry was the first to be hit, and they would be the last to come out of it. But they didn't just stop work and apply for JobKeeper. They continued to work with $10 billion of booking fees over 12 months, to ensure that that $10 billion was returned to the citizens of Australia. At last glance they had returned I think around $7 billion to $8 billion worth of those travel fees. And not only did they not get paid, but the ACCC made a ruling that the commissions for the work they had previously done had to be repaid, so they were out of pocket for that work.

But did they complain? No. They continued to do the heavy lifting for that industry to ensure that that money was returned to its rightful owners. They also continued to do the heavy lifting in getting our own citizens back into the country. So, we owe them a debt of gratitude for the work they have continued to do. And we owe them the opportunity to maintain their living, maintain their profession so that it will be there in 12 or 18 months time and so that they aren't on the edge of the cliff. I've spoken to literally hundreds of travel agents around the country, who tell me that they are facing bankruptcy, that they are having to hand back cars they have leased. They are facing an incredibly difficult time, but they are also appreciative of this government for the $128 million. They are appreciative of this government for the JobKeeper payment that was provided. And now they're asking this government to provide to them an industry-specific—

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