Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism. At a time when the tourism export industry is doing it exceptionally tough, will the minister justify why the Rudd Labor government is slugging the tourism industry with nearly $1 billion of new tourism taxes? Aren’t the minister and the government contributing to the growing job insecurity within the industry?

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the question about the tourism industry. The tourism industry is a very important section of the Australian community. It represents 480,000 directly employed Australians and it represents $22 billion in export earnings. I also appreciate that the tourism industry today is going through a huge challenge both domestically and internationally. We as a nation are not only facing the challenge of the strength of the Australian dollar, which is having a huge impact on traditional markets such as Japan whilst we try to seize opportunities in new markets such as China and India, but also facing the impact of the oil crisis on the cost of aviation. In the last 12 months alone, the cost of jet fuel has doubled. It is also interesting to note that, for the first time ever, the cost of fuel relative to labour costs in a labour intensive industry has now outstripped the cost of labour.

It is in that context that the Australian government is going out of its way to assist the tourist industry, not only through the support of Tourism Australia and its endeavours to put in place a new marketing and creative advertising campaign but also through creating new opportunities through changes in the guidelines for the export market development program. This effectively means the program will no longer just be available to individual tourist operators. The changes are aimed at encouraging regional tourism organisations to work collectively to go beyond Australian shores to actively promote the opportunities in important regions such as the Gold Coast, Northern Queensland, the Hunter region of New South Wales and a number of other regions of Australia which are exceptionally important, because regional employment in the tourism industry is the key to a number of economies.

We also appreciate that one of the big attractions for people coming to Australia is not only that they will have a terrific tourism experience but also that Australia is a nation which takes the fight against terrorism seriously. That means that, in terms of border control, we have to make sure that the government is well resourced financially to put in place the best possible organisational response to terrorism.

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: $1 billion of new taxes—and this is no connection back to the—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Moncrieff will resume his seat. The way to raise a point of order is to at least state the point of order, not to verge into a debate. The question has been asked and people have indicated that they think that this is a serious matter. They should listen to the response by the Minister for Tourism.

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a very serious issue. I can also advise the House that one of the challenging issues confronting the tourism industry at the moment is inflation. The industry are not only experiencing the impact of oil prices, from both a domestic and an international point of view, but also seeing it feed in through increases in the price of food and beverages. They expect us to operate in an economically proper way—and, at a macro level, that is about taking on the fight against inflation. It is for that very reason that the Australian government made some very tough decisions in the recent budget aimed not only at guaranteeing that we deliver every election promise, including the changes to the export market development program, which are of major assistance to the tourism industry—

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Ciobo interjecting

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say for the information of the shadow minister that that idea actually came from consultation in Cairns during the course of last year—because we actually get around Australia and talk to tourism operators to work out how we can assist them with fundamental changes to policies to enable them to compete in a tough global market. I simply say in conclusion that we as a government will not only confront the international challenges but also put in place, for the first time in a long time, a new consultative process aimed at facing up to some of the supply-side issues which were neglected by the previous government and held the tourism industry back in recent times—fundamental issues such as infrastructure and the shortage of skilled labour in Australia, which are very much covered by recent budget announcements of the Australian government.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, the tourism industry is important. I simply say to the honourable member that, unlike the opposition, the government has no short-term political stunts aimed at assisting the tourism industry in a very tough global world.