Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The increase in the passenger movement charge, as proposed in the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2008, is an extremely important issue. I want to reinforce the imperative that we must look after Australia’s tourism industry, especially in my state and in the state of Senator Brandis, Senator Macdonald and Senator Boswell—the state of Queensland. Tourism represents about 3.9 per cent of Australia’s GDP. It is a vast industry that generates $23 billion worth of exports and employs about 480,000 people. The tourism industry, especially in North Queensland, has some serious problems now. The price of fuel has been an incredible dampener on the capacity of people to come to Australia. Without those people coming to our nation, there is a huge hole in the economy, especially for places like Cairns. We have to remember these areas rely on things such as sugarcane farming, tourism and fishing, and then it starts to wind down. The economies of towns, especially those in the far north—Airlie Beach, Port Douglas and Cairns—and also on the Gold Coast, have been built around tourism. Anything that we do in these precarious international economic circumstances can make it even more difficult for people to come to Australia and be part of our nation and of what we have to offer, and that has a huge economic cost.

What is also very galling about the bill is that we are apparently looking at a cost recovery mechanism. It is one of these Labor Party cost recovery mechanisms. It is very similar to the alcopops tax. I believe that the government is going to collect another $100 million with the increase of $9 with this charge. The point is: why can’t we get clear numbers on how this is cost recovery? I do not think the government can prove it. If the government cannot prove it then it is not so much cost recovery but another tax.