Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this bill, the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015, because it means that, after 18 months of dithering, delays and cuts, the government has finally come to the same conclusion that we have always held on the Labor side of the House, which is that tourism is important. Labor has always understood the enormous potential of our tourism industry and the need to ensure that we remain a competitive destination for visitors and maintain momentum toward our Tourism 2020 goals. But what we have seen from those opposite since they were elected is funding being withdrawn, arbitrary cuts to tourism programs and research, on-the-run election promises which have crumbled—such as for the Cadbury factory in Tasmania—and a slowdown of visitor growth from China of almost half. So this legislation to ensure that Austrade has the power to develop tourism policies to benefit Australia and share vital information and statistics could not come soon enough.

While we will be supporting this legislation, Labor nonetheless has some reservations about the wording which ensures that tourism will never be a priority under this government. We would also like to see this legislation followed up with concrete action from the government—not just rhetoric but action which results in growth in the tourism sector and jobs growth. I note that the trade minister was at the Destination Australia Conference last week talking about the potential of tourism as our biggest growth sector over the next decade. Labor agrees with the minister, but he needs to do more than shift responsibility for delivering that growth entirely to industry while government withdraws from active engagement. The Commonwealth must pull its weight by supporting and investing in our industry to realise its full potential. This bill gives Austrade the power to develop and administer policies relating to tourism, including domestic tourism, and also gives Austrade the power to collect, use, disseminate and share statistics.

What is extraordinary is that we are now halfway into the term of this government—a government that forgot to appoint a tourism minister after the last election; a government that did not allocate tourism to any particular department; a government that gave confused answers before the Senate estimates process as to whether it would be a part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or a part of the Department of Industry and exactly who in the bureaucracy was in charge of tourism. I think that stated mistake began what has been a litany of failure in the tourism sector which is regarded by industry itself as a real problem that is resulting in a lack of confidence in this government from the tourism sector.

This bill legislates to make tourism the last priority. The bill states that tourism will essentially only get a look-in if the CEO has time. The bill says:

… if the provision of the service utilises the CEO’s spare capacity and does not impede the CEO’s capacity to perform his or her other functions.

So once the person responsible in Austrade, with all the responsibilities that are there, has performed his or her other functions—once they have got on the phone or engaged with our global trading partners; once all of that is done—they can give some consideration to tourism. It is a footnote, and tourism should not be a footnote. Tourism should be central to the government's actions in terms of driving jobs and economic growth, particularly in regional Australia, where the tourism sector is so important.

We on this side certainly recognise the importance of tourism. As shadow tourism minister I have had a series of roundtables right around the country with the sector. Last Friday, in Hobart, we had a very good engagement with the tourism industry in Tasmania about investment, about future growth and about opportunities and how we seize those opportunities to maximise economic growth. There, at the Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania, people were particularly concerned to talk about the next steps to boost jobs in the region, given the Cadbury grant collapse. That was a farcical situation where a promise was made on the run by the Prime Minister during the last election campaign, and then had no paperwork to back it up. Then, after months and months of the Prime Minister and other senior ministers saying, 'This grant will happen,' it completely collapsed. Of course, what you should do is make promises after some level of due diligence—not make a promise, have it collapse and then have the circumstance where, 18 months later, you are in a farcical situation.

At a time when unemployment is at a 12-year high and tourism offers unprecedented job-creating activities, Australia cannot afford to not have Commonwealth engagement right across the industry, coupled with sound policies, to ensure that we can capture the growth presented by the Asian Century. In government, Labor recognised this, which is why we conceived, funded and implemented Australia's first national strategy for tourism growth, Tourism 2020. This ensured that all states and territories, along with the Commonwealth and industry, were pulling in the same direction towards our goals for growth and jobs in tourism—and it paid off.

When Labor left office, we were well on track to achieve Tourism 2020's aims of doubling overnight expenditure to between $120 billion and $140 billion by the year 2020. We also made tourism a national investment priority and provided tourism operators, 95 per cent of whom are small businesses, with access to our Enterprise Connect advice scheme.

I am particularly pleased to see that domestic tourism has been specifically mentioned in this bill, because it is not just an economic issue. It is part of the Australian experience. Whether it is visiting friends and relatives at Christmas, a side trip during a conference, sports trips, which are increasingly common around the country, a long weekend away, summer by the beach, or the great Australian dream of caravanning around Australia, it all adds up to an $86 billion domestic tourism industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and local economies—and that is before you add spending by overseas visitors, which adds about $27 billion.

Just this morning I met with Stuart Lamont from the Caravan Industry Association of Australia. He was telling me of the upsurge of young families with parents aged between 35 and 49 increasingly hitting the road. This surge is contributing to record visitor numbers in caravan parks where, for every $100 of caravan park revenue, $138 worth of direct economic benefit flows through the local economy. Much of this is in regional Australia. That trend was confirmed in the latest National Visitor Survey released on 11 March, which showed that domestic overnight trips reached a record high of 81 million in the year ending December 2014.

However, since being elected, there are signs that we could struggle to meet our domestic tourism growth targets under this Prime Minister and this government. One of the first acts of the government was the cuts made to all domestic tourism funding, which left the states and territories to fend for themselves. The problem with this analysis of leaving it to the states and the territories is that it implies that the states and territories are just competing for the domestic tourism market with each other. The fact is that the states and territories are not competing just with each other. They are also competing with international destinations—be it Bali, Malaysia, the Philippines or other potential destinations in our region. That is why it is a very short-sighted view.

The slide in visitor numbers that we have seen in Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT are a direct result of that. It is a predictable outcome of cutting all domestic tourism funding—an immediate cut turning the tap off—without having any transition plan to the states. The government also abolished the Survey of Tourist Accommodation, which left industry, investors and the state and territory governments providing guesswork when it comes to critical business planning and investment decisions.

In Queensland, instead of increasing tourism funding to compensate for the austerity measures of his good friend the current Prime Minister, former Premier Campbell Newman followed suit by cutting $20 million out of tourism in Queensland. We saw how that turned out: falling visitation and expenditure in Queensland, including a two per cent reduction in domestic overnight expenditure last year. I am pleased that the newly elected Queensland government has a clear plan to turn that around while also protecting our Great Barrier Reef. It is not surprising that they are the new Queensland government. They won all four seats in Far North Queensland around Cairns up to Cape York. They won all the seats around Townsville as well—and the Whitsundays and Bundaberg. These tourism destinations voted Labor because they understood that Queensland Labor understood the importance of the tourism sector.

Regional tourism grants were abolished. As a result, the government's on-the-run promise to create the grant at Cadbury stood out at a time when they cut other regional tourism grants. The project at Cadbury was supposed to draw 400,000 visitors per year. Now the whole plan has just melted away. There is no response to that. The government did play favourites—and there is a whole story around how that promise came to be made to Cadbury. In the end it was too hot for the government, which is why the melting of that promise occurred.

My Tasmanian colleagues—I was with them last week—and I are still waiting to hear what will occur to replace the jobs that were supposed to be created by the Cadbury grant. I have a suggestion: go back to the applications that were submitted by the 38 tourism operators for quality projects with ready-to-go matching capital—and fund them. Our tourism industry deserves better than a haphazard approach and the announce-and-defend model of cuts that we have seen under this government. Labor believe that we can do a lot better—and I want to talk about our plan for tourism and how we would build on this legislation to grow our industry.

Deloitte has nominated tourism as one of our supergrowth sectors that is set to surge more than 10 per cent a year—well ahead of global gross domestic product at 3.4 per cent over the next 20 years. That will offer unprecedented opportunities for our workforce, for investors and for our economy—but we do have to get the settings right. Those settings include not just talking about appropriate taxation levels, about aviation or about visas—although those things are important. It is about having a cohesive vision for the tourism sector for Australia.

If Australia can get it right—

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! the honourable member's time has expired. I know he was in-depth there, but the shadow minister's time has expired.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, you cannot change the clock halfway through. When I looked up it said 16 minutes.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Okay. After conferring with the clerk I can say that I am a very generous Deputy Speaker and we are going to restart the clock at 15 minutes for the shadow minister. I apologise for that confusion.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I did think, when I looked up at the clock a minute ago and it said 17 minutes, that there was something going on.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought my prayers had been answered!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that people want this government to be over and done with as quickly as possible, but that is ridiculous!

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suggest that the speaker moves on.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If Australia can get it right, we have a huge competitive advantage for the future in our region. With the growing middle class in China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, the opportunities for job creation are so critical. So let me suggest seven things that the government could do that are practical, to supplement what is in this legislation.

The first thing it could do is to have a tourism minister. It is pretty simple. It matters—titles matter when you engage in the international community. John Key in New Zealand—let me give him as an example—is the Prime Minister and the Minister for Tourism. He recognises how important tourism is in New Zealand, and I think that the government could have regard to that.

The second thing that they could do is to invest in public transport. Public transport is so critical for tourists who arrive in major cities. Those of us who have been to places like London, with the Tube, Paris, with the Metro, or New York City, with the subway, know that those cities simply could not function, particularly for visitors, without those. Public transport is absolutely critical for the federal government to be engaged in if it is not going to distort the market and lead not just to zero investment in public transport by the federal government but a reduced investment by state governments as well over a period of time.

The third thing that it can do, in a related area, is to engage in cities policy—to develop productive, livable and sustainable cities. Just a couple of weeks ago the Queen Mary 2 docked in Sydney Harbour. It brought with it thousands of tourists, ready to spend an average of $370 per day in our shops and on our services. That is about job creation.

Action on climate change: so many of our iconic tourist destinations will be impacted if dangerous climate change is allowed to occur. I think of the Kakadu National Park and the Australian Alps, as well as the Great Barrier Reef.

The fifth is to have a vision for high-speed rail. Last Monday I was in Albury with the candidate for the state election, Ross Jackson, talking with him and others in the community about the potential for this project. I was talking just yesterday with the former Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, a strong advocate for high-speed rail and someone who I appointed to the High Speed Rail Advisory Group. If we have the connecting up of our eastern seaboard capitals—Sydney to Melbourne and Sydney to Brisbane in three hours—as well as regional centres—including Canberra, of course, in under an hour, Albury-Wodonga in under an hour and Newcastle in under an hour from major capital cities—then that transforms economic opportunity in those regional centres, and tourism would be a major beneficiary of a high-speed rail line.

No-one these days who goes from Rome to Milan goes by air; they all go by train—just like from Paris to London. It has transformed travel in Europe between those cities. All the research that we did showed that rail is more than competitive for journeys of under three hours and, of course, it is also safer, better for the environment and a better travelling experience in terms of the time wasted in going to and from an airport. Indeed, one of the stops is envisaged to be at Wagga Wagga. It would transform the opportunity for international visitors to visit a great regional city like Wagga Wagga. It would be a very positive experience, and the opportunity for businesses that would flow there would no doubt flow through the economy.

The sixth issue is respect for research, institutions and evidence based policy. We believe in best practice, evidence based policy. That cannot happen if the Commonwealth does not provide adequate services through Tourism Research Australia and Tourism Australia. The abolition of the Survey of Tourist Accommodation last year came without notice, and the government still has not found funding for next year. That has a real impact: businesses tell me that they cannot plan and investors do not have the decision-making tools they need to feel confident about investing here.

And, lastly, there is international engagement. International engagement is absolutely critical. We started, in government, the Asia Marketing Fund to target new growth markets like China, India and Malaysia. We also conceived and funded the first Australia Week in China to take tourism, trade and investment to Shanghai. The current government is not having that in 2015. The current government is not having Australia represented at the World Expo in Milan this year. That is so important. There are over 950,000 people in Australia who have Italian heritage, I being one of them, and for Australia not to be positioned there is a real lost opportunity in terms of the market. It is good enough for places like Kiribati and Tuvalu, island states in the Pacific that are a lot poorer than Australia, to be represented at the World Expo, but we will not be. This is seen as a slight by the Italian government and also by the European Community, which is such a critical tourism market for Australia, and that is very much a lost opportunity, particularly given that we obviously have an embassy in Rome and, indeed, we have a trade commissioner in Milan.

So Labor sees a large number of areas, and I have put forward seven practical suggestions to assist the government, because I am always here to help the government with positive suggestions on a way forward. We do welcome the very small step that has been taken through today's bill to at least assist Austrade to increase its capacity to focus on this tourism industry. Tourism is vital for Australia. It is important that it be not a footnote but central to economic strategy moving forward. In terms of job creation and economic growth, it is a vital sector for our economy.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I appreciate your indulgence in allowing me onto the speakers list to make some brief comments. The Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015 is a good bill and a bill which is supported by the opposition.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to the provisions of the bill that affect parliamentarians. Currently parliamentarians are able to hold self-managed superannuation funds, and some do. However, the current legal situation post October 2004 is that parliamentarians who come into this place, although they can hold their superannuation in self-managed funds, may not place their 15.4 per cent superannuation into those funds. That is simply not fair, inconsistent and not reasonable. This is a good amendment which brings that situation into line with the situation for public servants and for any other worker around the country. It is therefore a good way of normalising arrangements for parliamentarians. It is supported by the Remuneration Tribunal. We should never make changes to any aspect of parliamentary remuneration or salary-like entitlements that are not either recommended by the Remuneration Tribunal or strongly supported by the Remuneration Tribunal, and I am pleased to say the Remuneration Tribunal was very keen to support these amendments, since they were required effectively because of an oversight by successive governments. I include myself, since I was the minister for this part of members' entitlements for three years. I have remarked that, if I had been aware that this particular flaw existed, I would have moved quickly to rectify it myself, since it is a gap in members' entitlements that should be fixed, and the change costs the taxpayer absolutely nothing. Labor always believes, and this parliament has always believed, that the issues that affect the conditions of members of parliament should always be determined independently by the Remuneration Tribunal.

There are two other matters which I will just bring to your attention and which I believe should also be attended to as a matter of urgency. They are simple and they involve no cost or a very low cost. It remains the case that members of parliament do not have any occupational health and safety insurance. This is a very low-cost measure and is simply something that brings parliamentarians into line with every other worker in the country. There is also the improvement of the redundancy condition so that it is in fact paid as a redundancy instead of being regarded as being in the nature of a redundancy, which it currently is, therefore carrying a tax burden which is then reimbursed later. There is no cost to the taxpayer from regularising the redundancy arrangement. There is no cost to the taxpayer from this measure and, with the support of the Remuneration Tribunal, I believe that we can attend to matters that are outstanding and that affect parliamentarians and our quiet enjoyment of this role, knowing full well that our superannuation and those other conditions that should be looked after properly can be looked after properly.

I make a final note that these provisions that we have made today are completely consistent with the probity rules that are enforced from time to time by the Prime Minister of the day. There are no probity rules that ought to see these changes, which are proper and appropriate, operating in anything other than public interest. I am very pleased the government have brought these forward, and I am very pleased to be supporting them.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank all members who have contributed to the debate on the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015. I look forward tonight to speaking after the member for Grayndler at the Bus Industry Confederation annual dinner. Of course, buses play such an important part in tourism, particularly regional tourism.

I would like to take the member for Grayndler up on a few of the points that he made in his final remarks on this bill about tourism. I would like to quote from the Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, who on 29 October 2014 announced record expenditure of $30 billion—that is up seven per cent—by international visitors to Australia in 2013-14. He announced that at the fourth annual Tourism and Transport Forum leadership summit. The member for Grayndler made a fair few accusations about tourism and our level of interest in it, but rest assured, Member for Grayndler, that we are very much engaged with tourism and very much aware of the great role that it plays in driving not just investment in Australia but recognition of our great role globally. As the member for Goldstein said at that summit:

"This is a major vote of confidence in Australia's tourism sector which is extremely well placed to experience strong continued growth," …

…   …   …

Total overnight visitor expenditure – the measure used to track industry progress—

and I will admit that the member for Grayndler talked about this in his speech—

grew five per cent for the year—

that is, 2013-14—

to $83.4 billion, meaning the industry is well positioned to reach the Tourism 2020 goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to between $115 and $140 billion.

I need to point out that we have made tourism one of five national investment priorities. The minister responsible has 'welcomed the record value of international investment in tourism infrastructure achieved' during 2013-14. The report of Tourism Research Australia showed:

… the tourism investment pipeline is now worth almost $50 billion across the accommodation, transport (aviation) and attractions sectors.

It is certainly hardly an industry that the coalition government would be ignoring. This is really important, and this is the clincher. I quote Minister Robb here:

Having scrapped the carbon tax, frozen the Passenger Movement Charge for the current term of parliament and by providing additional funding for Tourism Australia, it is clear that Australian tourism is open for visitors and investment—

and that is important.

I note that the shadow minister did not talk about the two New South Wales tourism ministers, because he is well aware that the member for Dubbo, the Nationals leader, Troy Grant, who is the Minister for Tourism and Major Events, and his offsider, the member for Monaro, John Barilaro, who is the Minister for Regional Tourism, are doing such a good job. They are doing such a good job, and I look forward to them continuing to do that job in a strengthened Baird government after this Saturday.

The Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015 represents a further step in the journey towards more streamlined and simplified resource management and governance arrangements right across the Commonwealth. It forms part of the ongoing Public Management Reform Agenda, which is intended to support the government's deregulation agenda and the active management of risk by Commonwealth entities. This bill involves a range of technical amendments that would further improve the operation of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, the PGPA Act, including a provision to support the administration of goods and services tax obligations by non-corporate Commonwealth entities. The amendments contained in this bill will provide greater certainty in relation to the operation of the PGPA Act.

The volume and variety of enabling legislation that Commonwealth entities are subject to mean that the process of harmonising and streamlining arrangements with the PGPA Act is an ongoing process, notwithstanding the inroads made to date. The bill would, if enacted, amend a further 33 acts across the Commonwealth. It is another small but very important step towards a better governance and resource management framework for the Commonwealth.

The government has circulated amendments that I will move shortly that will amend two further acts in relation to parliamentarians' superannuation, and I thank the member for Brand for his comments in relation to that. The amendments will enable parliamentarians to direct their superannuation contributions and make salary sacrifice contributions to a self-managed superannuation fund.

Once again, I thank all members for their contributions, and I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.