Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently met with representatives from the travel industry from my electorate. Travel agencies around Australia are invariably mum-and-dad owned businesses, often in the family for generations, and employ around 40,000 Australians. Travel agencies were the first to be hit by this pandemic, when our international then our internal borders were closed. I'm told that over 90 per cent of most agencies' work comes from international travel. Over the past nine months, travel agents have done much of the heavy lifting in helping out citizens return home, despite the ACCC's ruling that they must return commissions for work they had already carried out. They continue to work—effectively, for free—to assist the management of an estimated $10 billion of cancellations and refunds on behalf of an estimated four million Australians. They and their 40,000 employees are grateful recipients of JobKeeper, but, without further tailored support, job losses and business closures are inevitable. I urge this government to develop an industry-specific support package consisting of continued JobKeeper past the 21 March date, along with a sector-specific support package in line with those provided to the arts, construction, and the film and television industry. Without this assistance, we will lose our Australian travel industry.