Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

condemns the Rudd-Gillard Government for:

(a)

reducing funding for Tourism Australia at a time when the high Australian dollar is putting pressure on local tourism operators; and

(b)

increasing business costs for local tourism operators through:

(i)

higher tourism taxes;

(ii)

the bungled award modernisation; and

(iii)

additional superannuation guarantee payments which will be entirely funded by employers; and

(2)

calls on the Rudd-Gillard Government to match the Coalition’s commitment to increase tourism funding by $100 million to:

(a)

focus on high-yielding business events tourists;

(b)

build stronger research foundations;

(c)

encourage tourism infrastructure and product development; and

(d)

boost domestic tourism marketing.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After you have spoken, we will need a seconder. The member for Paterson may proceed.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The tourism industry in Australia was worth $93.5 billion as at 15 December 2010 and raised $22.8 billion in tourism export value and employed in excess of 500,000 Australians. I have moved that this House condemn the Rudd-Gillard government for reducing funding for Tourism Australia at a time when the high Aussie dollar is putting pressure on local tourism operators. While the Gillard government has been spending big money on pink batts, giveaways and cost blow-outs on school halls, funding for Tourism Australia has gone backwards. The Gillard government’s own budget papers show that while federal government spending has skyrocketed from $272 billion to $352 billion under Labor, funding for Tourism Australia has dropped by $13.5 million in real terms. These funding cuts under Labor mean that, in real terms, funding for Tourism Australia has not been lower since the introduction of the landmark tourism white paper in 2003. Under the Gillard government, the tourism industry is wearing the burden of Labor’s debt and deficit without having gotten any of the benefits of their record spending. In response to Labor’s 2010 federal budget, the Tourism and Transport Forum said:

The tourism industry is concerned the failure to maintain Tourism Australia’s current funding levels means that a golden opportunity to capitalise on Australia’s tourism’s strengths has been lost …

I have also moved that this House condemn the Rudd-Gillard government for increasing business costs for local tourism operators through higher tourism taxes. Labor’s addiction to reckless spending has been matched by an addiction to new taxes to fund their record debt and deficit. In their first term alone, the Rudd-Gillard government have introduced more than $1 billion of new tourism taxes on the Australian tourism industry, including: increasing a departure tax called the passenger movement charge by 24 per cent; raising tourist visa fees by more than 33 per cent; and abolishing the private provider system for the Tourist Refund Scheme for the GST. These new tourism taxes were introduced by the Rudd-Gillard government at a time when the Tourism Forecasting Committee was expecting inbound visitor arrivals to drop by 4.1 per cent. At Cairns Airport, for example, for the year ended 30 June 2009, while inbound visitor arrivals fell by 24.3 per cent compared to the previous year, the Rudd-Gillard government took home an extra $2.25 million in tax revenue.

The Labor government say increasing taxes on cigarettes will reduce the number of people smoking, yet they do not believe that increasing taxes on tourism will reduce the number of people travelling. Analysis by the Tourism and Transport Forum shows that regional Australia has been hardest hit by Labor’s increased tourism taxes. Just a one per cent rise in airfares across Australia results in a 1.01 per cent fall in demand, but for Cairns a one per cent rise in airfares causes a 1.32 per cent fall in demand. Labor’s Minister for Tourism, the Hon. Martin Ferguson, said in 2003 that the passenger movement charge was ‘ripping off the travelling public’ when it was levied at $38 per passenger. Yet in his first budget as the Minister for Tourism he increased it from $38 per passenger to $47 per passenger.

I have moved that this House condemn the Rudd-Gillard government for increasing business costs for local tourism operators through the bungled award modernisation. The tourism industry has more award reliant workers than any other sector, putting it at the front line of Labor’s botched award modernisation process. The Queensland Tourism Industry Council said in 2009:

This has led to the creation of a modern hospitality award that does not recognise the diversity of the tourism and hospitality industry and which will impact on the economic viability of tourism and hospitality businesses.

Labor’s botched award modernisation process, which was led by the Prime Minister when she was the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, created much uncertainty for tourism operators. The then Chief Executive Officer of Restaurant and Catering NSW/ACT, Robert Goldman, said in 2008:

The Award Modernisation decision was just circulated … I do suggest that many of our worst fears have been realised …

Ultimately, Labor’s botched award modernisation process has led to higher business costs for Australian tourism businesses, making them less competitive in the international tourism market, particularly when our dollar is at an all-time high. Many businesses will see an increase in operating costs of over 25 per cent. This represents another broken promise from our Prime Minister, who expressly promised that costs to businesses would not increase as a result of modern awards.

Reflecting on those increased business costs, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hotel, Motel and Accommodation Association, Lorraine Duffy, said in 2010 the ongoing cost of doing business for Australia’s accommodation sector is:

... diluting its attractiveness as a country for investment of major hotels and for smaller operators as a sustainable way to make a living.

I have also moved that this House condemn the Rudd-Gillard government for increasing business costs for local tourism operators through additional superannuation guarantee payments, which will be entirely funded by employers. Many tourism businesses will also be slugged with an additional tax on their payrolls thanks to Labor’s increase in the superannuation guarantee from nine per cent to 12 per cent, which, as I said, is to be entirely funded by employers. The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Victorian Tourism Industry Council said in 2010 in response to the increase:

Increased superannuation costs will hurt the business bottom line and discourage the hiring of new labour...

I have also moved that this House call on the Rudd-Gillard government to match the coalition’s commitment to focus on high-yielding business events tourists. The business events sector represents the greatest opportunity to build Australia’s visitor economy. Business events produce the highest daily yield of any sector of the tourism industry. The business events sector contributes an estimated $17.6 billion a year to the national economy, generating 116,000 jobs. Business events also promote and showcase Australian expertise and innovation to the world and attract global leaders and investment decision makers who would otherwise not have come to Australia. As the global financial crisis approached, the Rudd-Gillard government cut funding for Business Events Australia by more than 10 per cent, deserting the sector at the worst possible time.

Only the coalition recognises the importance of the business events sector to building Australia’s visitor economy. The coalition’s Plan for Real Action on Tourism will provide Tourism Australia with a further $10.5 million over four years to increase the marketing capacity of Business Events Australia. This significant investment would bring Australia’s business events marketing capability in line with our international competitors. The coalition’s real action plan would also provide the Association of Australian Convention Bureaux with $17.5 million over four years to operate a business events bid and boost fund. This industry partnership fund will provide the business events sector with a significant pool of funds to coordinate and support bids for key international conferences. The fund will also help maximise delegate boosting opportunities for conferences. The coalition’s real action plan would also focus departments and agencies of the Australian government, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on delivering leads for potential international conferences Australia could host.

I have also moved that this House call on the Rudd-Gillard government to match the coalition’s commitment to build stronger research foundations in the tourism industry. A strong research foundation is critical to building Australia’s visitor economy. The Rudd-Gillard government has reduced Australia’s tourism research capacity. Labor discontinued funding for the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre and moved Tourism Research Australia from Tourism Australia to being a general expense in the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. According to a report by its own steering committee on tourism, the Rudd-Gillard government’s policies will ‘leave a substantial gap in the tourism industry research capability’. The coalition’s real action plan would provide Tourism Research Australia with $8 million over four years to grow Australia’s tourism research capabilities.

I have also moved that this House call on the Rudd-Gillard government to match the coalition’s commitment to encourage tourism infrastructure and product development. The coalition has put forward an investment proposal to make sure that our tourism product is in line and competitive with the rest of the world.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the motion on tourism funding, but I can let the member for Paterson know that I do not support this motion that he has put to the House. In fact, I am very happy to tell him that he would be well served to have a look at the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy, which was signed off by all tourism ministers in December 2009, because many of the long-term challenges and opportunities faced by the tourism industry here in Australia are encapsulated in that tourism strategy and, more than that, the strategy actually sets out a working plan to meet many of the challenges and to make the most of those opportunities.

I want to rebut straight off the first point of the shadow minister’s motion, where he talks about a reduction in funding for Tourism Australia. That is simply not the case. Any suggestion of reduced funding for Tourism Australia is incorrect. Tourism Australia’s funding has been maintained across the forward estimates in the budget. In fact, in response to industry demand following the global financial crisis, which of course presented enormous challenges to our tourism industry—as was experienced in the tourism sector right around the world—$9 million of Tourism Australia funding was brought forward at that time and was matched by an additional $11 million from states and territories and commercial partners. That was an effective increase in the budget for tourism at that time when support was so badly needed.

We take tourism very seriously here in the Labor Party, and I note the presence in the chamber here of the member for Port Adelaide, who was the leader of Labor Friends of Tourism in the previous parliament before his promotion to the frontbench. He is just one example of the enormous support for tourism that exists in the Labor Party and in the Gillard government. Why do we support tourism? It is very simple. Tourism is our largest services export industry. It accounts for some $24 billion each year in exports. The most recent figures, from 2008-09, show that it accounts for over 2½ per cent of our GDP annually and also employs half a million people, which is the equivalent of 4½ per cent of the workforce.

We are very mindful of the challenges the sector faces. While those figures are strong and provide a good base for us to work with the industry to seize further opportunities, we do have to recognise—and the government does recognise—that this does represent a drop in tourism’s contribution to the economy and a drop in the proportion of people employed in that sector. There is work to be done but the government is hard at work meeting those challenges.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as a Queenslander you would know as well as I do that tourism is particularly important to our state. In Queensland, tourism accounts for $9 billion of our state’s economy every year. Over 50 million people visited our state in 2010. I will be putting out the call in this and every other forum, and in every opportunity I get, to let visitors know right around Australia and around the world that Queensland is very much open for business and we really do want to welcome you back to our state. We are getting ourselves back on track after the floods and cyclones and of course many of the tourism icons in Queensland were untouched by those disasters.

I do not want to buy into the doom and gloom of some people here in the chamber. I want to spend my time in this debate talking up tourism, the tourism industry and the opportunities and experiences that are still very much on offer for tourists in our state.

The federal government was very quick to respond to the flooding and later to Cyclone Yasi in the state of Queensland. It was back in January that the Gillard government and the state Labor government announced that they would contribute $5 million each towards a tourism industry support package. Much of that money is going towards marketing, which is a very important thing that the industry has been calling for. It will include a very strong domestic marketing campaign to assure Australians that Queensland is open for business and that many of the most popular tourism destinations were untouched by those disasters that held peoples attention during January.

While I am talking about the floods, I will mention something in my local area that is very positive for our tourism sector. In early January, when we were facing the terrible flooding in Rockhampton, while we were getting enormous support from right around the country and even around the world, Tiger Airways announced that they would cancel all flights into and out of Rockhampton until the end of March. They basically pulled the plug on Rockhampton not just for that period when the airport was closed due to flooding, which was going to extend for maybe three weeks, no, Tiger told us that they were pulling out until the end of March. There has since been a lot of effort put in locally. I was furious at the time and sent a very strongly worded letter to the managing director of Tiger Airways Australia and I know I was joined in that response by many other people in Rockhampton.

I am pleased to tell the House that Tiger Airways are now coming out and supporting our local tourism operators. They have got a special deal, which was advertised last week, offering very cheap flights to Rockhampton from Melbourne. They will not start again until the end of March, but I do have to give them credit for partnering up with our local tourism operators to get that message out there that Rockhampton is open for business and that people can get there easily and cheaply.

One other thing that Tiger has done—again, I pay them credit where credit is due—is they are now flying direct out of Tullamarine Airport, which is going to make an enormous difference to the accessibility of Rockhampton, Central Queensland and the southern Great Barrier Reef when it comes to attracting interstate visitors to our community.

On another positive note, another example of how the government is supporting tourism and tourism operators is the TQUAL program. The next TQUAL round was announced just a couple of weeks ago. Some terrific projects have taken place in my electorate with the help of TQUAL grants in the last few years. When talking to the CEO of our tourism body this morning she said there is already a great deal of interest in applications for this latest round.

A couple of the ones I have been involved in and opened in the last couple of years include Henderson Park, which is a farm-stay operation 30 minutes north of Rockhampton. It is run by the Barrett family, who have been on their property at Hedlow Creek for about a hundred years. They have an absolutely beautiful set-up there with cabins and, now, the five-star Hedlow Lodge right on the banks of Hedlow Creek. That was done with the assistance of TQUAL funding.

The other one that received funding in the last couple of years is Capricorn Caves. Ann Augusteyn and her team there received money to help them expand their facilities. The great thing about this is that money from the federal government leverages private investment in these tourism operations and really allows them to take what they are offering to tourists to a new level. That is great news for the tourism operators in our electorate. They are a couple of local examples of some terrific investments in our local tourism facilities and I would encourage operators to take advantage of this latest round of TQUAL grants.

It is very clear from these measures—TQUAL, the long-term tourism policy and the response to the floods—that this government is very strongly behind the tourism industry in this country.