Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to acknowledge the dire financial situation facing many in the travel and tourism industries as a result of closures of international borders, unpredictable domestic travel arrangements and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many members here, I expect, I have a number of travel agents in my own electorate who've been doing it incredibly tough these last nine months. Not only have they been not doing any new business themselves, but most of their time has been spent having to process refunds for previous bookings and businesses for which they've also needed to return the commissions. So, for many of them, if it were not for JobKeeper and other government programs of assistance they'd be cash-flow negative. Nonetheless, devoted as they are to their clients—and many of them have been in the industry for a few decades or more—they've kept their doors open. They've, by and large, kept their staff on. They've kept helping their clients—including people who've been seeking to return home to Australia and have had a hard time getting on flights—and doing their best, basically, to stay optimistic and stay positive.

We have, of course, provided support to the travel industry. We've had a large amount of money go to the travel and tourism sector under JobKeeper. I know from my own constituents that they've been very grateful for the support that JobKeeper has provided in allowing them to keep on their own employees. I'm conscious, as many are, that there is a degree of anxiety amongst that sector about the ending of JobKeeper at the end of March and what's in front of them. I know, having had discussions with the executive about this, that there is a recognition that this is one of the sectors that is going to have a hard time recovering after COVID-19 and will be slower coming back. Thought is being given to how we can assist this sector. I'd encourage those internal conversations to continue.

I do want to, of course, mention the consumer travel support program that was announced on 1 December, which provides grants from $1,500 to $100,000 to help travel agents continue to operate and process refunds for consumers. Under that program, which has been a $128 million program, already $60 million has been paid. As at 1 February, 1,541 travel agents have received payments and another 1,033 are being processed. I've been contacted by a number of travel agents, as I'm sure many here have been, about the revenue test that's being used for eligibility for that and whether it's total transaction revenue or the item you put at B1 on your BAS. I believe those issues are being worked through now, and I wanted to assure travel agents who might be watching that those concerns have been heard.

I am conscious, though, that this is still going to be an industry and a sector that will be very slow to recover. International tourism will take some time to be restored, and a large part depends upon how the vaccination program proceeds, not only in Australia but also globally. I've been encouraged by the vaccination results in Israel—where almost 60 per cent of the population has now been vaccinated and it's seeming to have a significant impact not only on hospitalisation but also on transmission—but also in the UK and the US, where the vaccination program is being rolled out at speed, and, of course, in Australia, where the first vaccinations were given yesterday and we are now rolling out vaccines for some time.

Equally disruptive, though, have been the domestic border closures—these are the state border closures—because, as many people would know, a lot of people had their domestic travel plans interrupted over the summer and earlier. If they were intending to travel to Queensland from my own state of New South Wales or Tasmania, border closures which were not always, frankly speaking, driven by the evidence or the best health advice have had a dramatic impact on the tourism sector and have also had a chastening effect on consumers who've been, as a result—once bitten, twice shy—unwilling to make further arrangements.

I was contacted recently by Sue Francis. She's the Director of the Travel Industry Club, a travel agent in Paddington, and happens to live on my street in Paddington. She's been in her current business for 25 years and in the industry for 40 years. She explained that, like many local travel agents, she's worked to pivot her business to domestic sales but this has been very hard, given the state border closures adding to the uncertainty, the stress and the financial strain of the travel and tourism business. I've also heard from many others—including Wentworth Travel, in my own electorate—who've got staff who've worked in the industry for their entire lives in many respects. They'd like to keep their jobs and they'd like to keep their industry, but they're concerned about what the future holds.

So I do want to speak in favour of the industry, urge them to keep their heads up and let them know that help is on its way.

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