Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a lot of sympathy for this motion from the member for Newcastle because I understand her concern for travel agents in particular and the fact that the government is withdrawing JobKeeper at the end of this month. I don't know how many people are going to lose their jobs once JobKeeper is withdrawn. One job is one job too many. Hundreds is far too many. Thousands is horrific. If you are in one of those families, you will be facing difficulties, and I admit we are still in most difficult times and it will affect every electorate in the nation. My heart goes out to the people who have survived on JobKeeper to this point and the businesses that have relied on JobKeeper to keep their staff going and achieve the things they needed to achieve to keep well engaged with their employees.

Travel agents are in a unique position. For instance, in my electorate they are still managing $13.4 million worth of customers' investments in their overseas travel, and they have to be managed or they could be lost. On top of that, it affects 3,172 people in my electorate who have paid for overseas travel. Travel agents get their income from international travel. They get a tiny bit of income from interstate travel. The package that the government has produced, while its generous and, as the Deputy Prime Minister, said scalable, flexible and gives opportunity for change, I would encourage the government to consider further what they might do in that scalability and in that flexibility and in that generosity, as to how they may view travel agents. I will give as an example an events operator in my electorate. He supplies all the equipment for events to happen: the stages, the props, the chairs, the tents, and whatever. His business is down 90 per cent. He had a very difficult year last year and is facing an even more difficult year this year because the lack of confidence has stopped people actually investing money into a future event. They have pulled back, so he's just not doing any business, yet all his expenses—for his trucks, his insurance, the staff he still has left, his rent, his overheads—continue. That can amount to a lot of money each month. The government's package says, 'We'll give you a cheap loan to carry you through until the next point,' but, if you take that loan, you have to have the confidence that there's not going to be another lockdown and you will have to extend for another 12 months.

So debt, whether it is owed to the federal government, the state government or your bank, is debt. At the end of this time are you going to take on a loan, line yourself up and, in three years, end up with a debt? I have been in business a long time myself. When you need to reinvest—your equipment may be out-of-date in three years time and you need everything that is new and efficient—the bank will say, 'We can't give you money because you already owe $200,000 to the federal government.' That's why Peter Strong said loans are not necessarily good for small business. I know government thinks they are, but I have lived that life. Debt is debt is debt. They know that. And people who run businesses are finally attuned to where they will be in three years; they have to be.

Travel agents are going to have a very different time. They are different. They are important. They are a bit of glue in our community. And they will not have any income until we get back to international travel. That's what we have to face up to. So the flexibility is going to be important. There may be some people who need continuing support. It's up to the government of the day to look at individual situations and individual organisations.

I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak on this very important bill.

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