Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Will the minister update the House on the recovery of the Australian tourism industry following setbacks such as the global financial crisis and swine flu?

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

I appreciate the question from the member for Lyons, a person who represents a large regional seat that is very much dependent on the vibrancy of the tourism industry. With that context I acknowledge the resilience of the industry in the face of many challenges, yet again, over the last 12 months. I also remind the House that, as we come out of the global financial crisis, the industry yet again confronts a huge challenge in the context of the strength of the Australian dollar. We should also have regard for the fact that there are actually good value holidays in Australia. Rather than thinking about having a holiday overseas as we regain confidence economically we should have regard for staying at home, supporting Australian workers and also supporting the Australian government’s No Leave, No Life campaign, which has broad industry support, given that we currently have accumulated 123 million days of leave, worth $33 billion.

But what of the resilience of the industry over the last 12 months? Last year the industry had to confront a situation in which the global economy actually contracted for the first time since World War II. That effectively meant in normal circumstances a very tough year for an industry that directly employs half a million Australians and represents just under four per cent of Australia’s GDP.

During the course of the year, international tourism in terms of arrivals worldwide actually fell four per cent. Interestingly, visitor arrivals were down six per cent for Europe, five per cent for the Americas and two per cent for the Asia-Pacific. I am pleased to report to the House that the Australian tourism industry actually outperformed the rest of the world with international visitation, which is very important to jobs for ordinary Australians, meeting an arrival rate in 2009 virtually equivalent to that of 2008, at 5.6 million.

Perhaps more importantly it is not just about numbers. Visitor arrivals increased by six per cent and visitor expenditure increased by five per cent. It is this performance on the international tourism front in association with the government’s decisive action in underpinning the Australian economy through our response to the global financial crisis that has done the industry well in securing and supporting Australian employment. By way of example, domestically, Restaurant and Catering Australia estimate that at least $80 million was injected into the restaurant and catering industry from the stimulus package, and they have appropriately given full credit to the government’s economic stimulus package. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has also reported that in the 11 months to November 2009 we saw a 9.5 per cent increase in turnover for restaurants, cafes and take-away food services compared to the same period in 2008.

In terms of employment, I also express my appreciation to the industry itself. Whilst we have done exceptionally well internationally given the global financial crisis, there was a sharp decline, for example, in visitor travel in the Australian community. Yet, despite the global financial crisis, the Australian tourism industry achieved an overall increase of 36,000 jobs in the 12 months to November 2009. I do acknowledge in that context that some of those jobs were changes from full-time to part-time employment because the industry on this occasion resolved, having invested in the training of their workforce—many of whom are women—to go out of their way to retain their employment given the challenge of actually keeping people when we think about the better wages and conditions that are currently available in competitive industries such as the resources and energy projects around Australia at the moment.

I also note in passing that this is an industry that represents a huge number of jobs for women workers. They are not historically highly paid workers and they are a group of workers that will be tremendously disappointed if the opposition does not get out of the government’s way when it comes to putting in place a guaranteed minimum opportunity for paid parental leave in Australia. It is about time the opposition understood not only the importance of the tourism industry from the point of view of employment in Australia but also the importance of the safety net for women workers in the Australian tourism industry, who have long sought decisive government action to extend to them paid parental leave, just like we extended superannuation, in a previous government, to workers who historically did not have opportunities for what the better off in the Australian community expect as part of their employment packages. I simply say to the Australian tourism industry: thanks for a job well done in supporting the Australian government initiatives to shore up employment in a tough global situation.