Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Liz, Lynne, Nicole, Matt, Jess and Kim work at a travel agency in Waurn Ponds. They're all worried that they will lose their jobs when JobKeeper is ripped away later this month. Their boss, Greg, is working four jobs just to keep afloat. Subsidised flights won't help this business. Why is the Prime Minister ripping away JobKeeper while it's still needed by hardworking small-business owners like Greg and his employees?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will add further to my answer. One of the key elements of the support that has been put in place through the measure of a 50 per cent discount on flights is to ensure that travel agencies are working closely with aviation operators and our airlines to put together packages to take people into travel agents to give them that business. But, more importantly, the $250 million—the quarter of a billion dollars—of direct assistance into the travel agent sector is directly targeted towards supporting those businesses, who have been one of the most affected through the crisis. But I'll ask the minister to add further to the answer.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Further to the Prime Minister, I thank the member for Corangamite for her question, because it's an incredibly important question. The government is providing over a quarter of a billion dollars of support to our travel agents. We've done that through an initial $128 million program, and so far, as of 18 March, almost $91 million in grant funding has been paid and 2,656 travel agents have received payments under the program, and another 437 are being processed at the moment. Can I also say to travel agents, at the moment we're designing and putting the final parameters around the new $130 million program. We had a meeting between Austrade and the four representative bodies last week. There will be further meetings this week. As a matter of fact, I'll be doing some consultations this afternoon on the new $130 million program. We want to make sure it is targeted and will provide the assistance and relief that the travel agents need. We also know that our discount flight program is working. It will start—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You might scoff, on the other side. But seriously, you scoffed on HomeBuilder. This is the feedback we've had already, and it hasn't even started yet. We have seen an over 40 per cent increase in bookings for Virgin and Qantas before the program has even started. Do you know why? It's because it's given confidence to peoples' will and want to travel, which is what it was designed to do. When it kicks off in April, my message to all Australians is: grab those discount flights and do so through your travel agents. That way not only will you be helping the broader travel industry you'll be helping travel agents as well.