Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister for tourism. I refer to reports of a fall in the number of backpackers coming to Australia. What connection is there between the fall in the number of backpackers and the government's backpacker tax?

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am certainly very pleased to take this question, as I know there is a longstanding interest in Australia's tourism industry, although in the past that has been explicitly more on this side of the House than that side of the House. But, notwithstanding that, let us be clear on what is being proposed. We as a government have taken the decision to have a review of Australia's backpacker tax. We have had to make that decision off the back of the unfortunate circumstances that were left to us by the previous Labor government, because the previous Labor government not only cut funding to Tourism Australia and imposed record tourism taxes but left the nation's books in such circumstances that we have had to make decisions and look at various proposals to try to reach fiscal consolidation on a faster pathway than the Australian Labor Party has put forward.

Let me put a proposal to the member opposite who asked the question. If you are genuinely concerned about this proposal, if you are genuinely concerned about this prospect, then why don't you encourage your leader to support the $6 billion of savings that Labor announced they are now walking away from? If the Labor Party were quite genuine about making sure that Australia's tourism industry continues to go from strength to strength, as it has under the coalition, which I outlined only yesterday, then the best thing you could be is a strong advocate to encourage your leader to stand by the very promises that he made only two months ago.