Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The circumstances facing people in businesses like this is absolute death.

I also met with a representative of my local travel agent, Donna Jones. They are facing the situation where they're going to have to close their doors as well. Forty three per cent of travel agents believe they're unlikely to return a profit at least until 2023, if indeed they are even in business then. A recent survey of travel agents found that 94 per cent of them are dealing with a decline in revenue, and 99 per cent, at least, are experiencing a 70 per cent decline in revenue. They feel like they are this far away from having to close their doors. The Prime Minister and this government have not got an answer to the problems.

It is adding insult to injury that, at the same time, this JobKeeper program has wasted so much money. It has been the life support for industries like Leisure Coast Limousine Service, travel agents and others in the tourism industry in my electorate and around the country. But they're about to have the rug pulled out from under them. Today it was revealed that these programs that we lobbied so hard to get in place under this government have been rorted and exploited—not by a few pennies, but by $10 billion. If that $10 billion had been put to use in a real program to support travel agents and to support the tourism industry all down the east coast, then in a few weeks time we wouldn't be about to see thousands of employees having to face the sack and lose their jobs. We call on the Prime Minister to do the right thing. We call on these businesses to do the right thing. How much of that $10 billion that has gone into fluffing up executive bonuses and dividends in businesses that were supposed to be on their knees could be rechannelled back into the tourism industry and back into those businesses that really need it? (Time expired)

See this speech in context