Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak about the Gold Coast and particularly issues relating to tourism and how we can look forward to a resurgence in tourism on the Gold Coast. The southern Gold Coast is one of the most incredible regions in our great country. In my opinion, it is second to none. I've had the great privilege of representing the southern Gold Coast for just over 12 years now. The past few years have been incredibly challenging for our small businesses and workers, as well as our mums, dads and families, on the Gold Coast.

Clearly the southern Gold Coast is a tourism hotspot. We share our southern border with New South Wales. So the prolonged border closures really did cripple our community. It was very difficult as a border community for those people who were shut out of either New South Wales or particularly Queensland, as my electorate is in Queensland. Effectively the town was cut in two. It was very difficult for those people who worked in New South Wales but lived in Queensland and vice versa to be able to go about their normal work. We found that families were separated. Many owners and their employees literally could see their business or their workplace just across the road, just a couple of hundred metres away, but, in many cases, they weren't able to walk over to work.

These are some unique challenges that border cities have faced over the last couple of years during COVID. As we start to recover from COVID, we are, next year in particular, looking forward to a bumper year on the Gold Coast for tourism. It is great to see that many of our businesses are bouncing back after international borders were reopened about a year ago now. It means there are people coming in to support our tourism providers on the Gold Coast and it provides a much-needed injection that the Gold Coast needs. It was great to see our wonderful beaches full again and to see our kids back enjoying their weekend sports and competing with children that other towns sent to compete on the Gold Coast. These are the things that clearly drive our community. Whilst the times have been tough over the last couple of years, in my view, we have emerged even stronger.

But this is why places such as the Gold Coast, my home town, really do require some additional federal support. So I was very disappointed in the budget to see that there had been some programs that were cut or changed that impact on the southern Gold Coast region. It was disappointing to see that Labor didn't announce any new tourism measures, effectively turning a blind eye to our region as we recover from the pandemic that brought our international tourism to a standstill. This can be addressed by government by funding the industry, but we didn't see that from Labor in the last budget. In fact, Labor slashed Tourism Australia's budget by 25 per cent. Between the slowdown of international travellers visiting the Gold Coast's premier attractions and a hard border with New South Wales freezing border communities like Coolangatta out of foot traffic, the Gold Coast could really benefit from some tourism funding and some international visitors right now. So it makes no sense to cut $35 million from the budget of the lead agency tasked with rebuilding our international tourism market.

When we, the coalition, were in government we delivered record revenue for Tourism Australia, allowing the agency to promote cities like the Gold Coast to travellers from overseas like never before. This attracted visitors that spent a lot of money in businesses, including our restaurants, cafes and tourism attractions. The tourism industry is clearly the backbone of the Gold Coast economy. We want to see it returning to pre-pandemic levels and to, in fact, increase beyond that. But additional funding is required to make sure that that happens.

We have a local community that really has put its shoulder to the wheel to try and rebuild. Many, many businesses suffered drastically over the last couple of years. What we are asking for are two things. One is support for Tourism Australia so that further support can go towards attracting international tourists to Australia and, in particular, to the Gold Coast. We are also, then, inviting everyone who is currently in Australia to make time to visit the Gold Coast over this Christmas holiday break. I know that, whilst we will be busy, we will always make sure that we have room for our visitors.