Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it hard to believe that yet again I am having to stand up in this chamber and urge the government to come to the rescue of travel agents in my electorate and around the country. Travel agents are part of our really important tourism industry and they're not all big corporations. Many of them, including the ones I'm going to speak about from my electorate, are sole traders and family businesses—and they are struggling. So if the Treasurer and the Prime Minister won't listen to me and my colleagues then maybe they'll listen to my constituents.

Linda, who lives in Langwarrin, wrote to me and said, 'The rebuttal from the federal government to the extension of JobKeeper, most recently in Scott Morrison's Press Club address, is yet another insult to the work travel agents do and the help we need.' Trish wrote to me again—she's written to me a number of times—a couple of days ago because her business in Mount Eliza is struggling and she wants to reiterate the urgency that the government continue JobKeeper for travel agents. Trish says, 'We are in dire straits and we need help.'

Katie, also from Mount Eliza, wrote to me and said: 'While the JobKeeper payment has not covered my wage or costs over the last nine months, it has enabled my business to survive. It's allowed me to help get refunds for my clients and it has been important. The purpose of my letter to you,' Katie wrote, 'is to employ you to lobby the Treasurer and Prime Minister to extend JobKeeper for the travel agent sector. Travel agents will be one of the last industries to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, and if JobKeeper is not extended for us, including sole traders, then I will be left with no alternative but to close my business.' Josh, from Carrum Downs, echoes Katie's sentiment. He wrote to me, saying, 'If JobKeeper ends for the tourism industry as of 31 March 2021, we won't survive.' And Peter, from Langwarrin, who I've spoken about in this place before, runs tours for people with disability. He says that cutting JobKeeper will mean that he won't be able to retain staff and that he may not be able to continue.

The reality of the COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support Program is that many businesses, including small businesses—especially small businesses—either didn't qualify or were only entitled to a small amount. Katie qualified for $4,000, which went nowhere near covering the hundreds of unpaid hours that she spent looking after clients' interests over the last 10 months, to secure refunds and ensure the business could survive. On behalf of all my constituents and people around the country, I implore the Treasurer and the Prime Minister: please step up and do something real and concrete to make sure these hardworking Australians can keep their businesses afloat.