Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise this afternoon to speak on the impact of the Gillard government's proposed carbon tax on the Australian tourism industry. Coming from Western Australia I acknowledge that tourism is very important to us. An article by Felicia Mariani of the Australian Tourism Export Council states, 'We have a triple whammy for Aussie tourism.' She goes on:

THOUSANDS of small and medium businesses who make up the Australian tourism industry are facing three significant impacts on their bottom line—the high Australian dollar, declining domestic tourism and the carbon price impact.

That is her concern. She further talks about an industry being left high and dry. The bottom line is that the government has left the tourism industry high and dry, providing little or no direct support or capacity for businesses to transition to a low-carbon economy, providing no compensation for the tour operators who will be hit hard by increased fuel costs.

Once again, we in Western Australia are very reliant upon helicopters and aircraft for our tourism industry. Also, a number of four-wheel drives rely on diesel. If you are in the tourism business, with a helicopter or an aircraft, your fuel excise costs will increase more than 150 per cent. That will clearly force up the price for customers and will affect your ability to be competitive in the market. This is a huge problem in areas such as Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and, I guess, South Australia. It will impact everywhere. As far as regional airlines are concerned—which, once again, we rely upon very heavily in Western Australia—the tourism operators with light aircraft will be facing a 157 per cent increase in fuel tax over the next three years. The current tax on aviation fuel is 3.55c per litre. This will increase to 10.16c per litre by 2014-15. These are the sorts of things that will happen. Getting the diesel rebate, there will be an 18 per cent reduction in fuel tax credits. So tourism is one of the forgotten industries that will bear the brunt of this carbon tax, with marine and remote tourism operators facing the full force of the increases.

Going on with the figures, the tourism industry contributes a lot to Australia: $34 billion or 2.6 per cent of Australia's GDP. It directly employs, as we have heard, more than half a million people nationwide. But it is not equally recognised alongside other export industries. We have had some comments about Queensland. I will quote an article about the Queensland Tourism Industry Council:

Queensland has become the first state to speak out against the Federal Government’s proposed carbon tax, with the state’s peak tourism body saying it fears the levy will hurt an already struggling industry. Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) chief executive Daniel Gschwind points out that Queensland is still trying to recover from a spate of natural disasters.

They want to attract tourists back to their beautiful area.

He says that while it’s not yet possible to put a bottom-line figure on the carbon tax, the effect will be negative as its impact on energy costs will force up the cost of doing business. This will hurt tourism businesses already struggling against the high Australian dollar.

I have a note here from a friend in Albany who has just returned from Hamilton Island saying that they could not believe that when they were staying there last week only half the accommodation was full and there were no overseas tourists. They felt that this was very bad.

Having just been up to Broome for a Senate inquiry on the live export industry, I spoke to a number of tourism operators and local taxi drivers. The difference in Broome now that the height of the season is over is that they have about a third of the people that they normally have booked in. That is going to be very difficult to cope with. My colleague Senator Macdonald spoke about the high cost of energy and the use of air conditioners in those northern areas. It is something that you have to use; you cannot go without it. Consequently, the hotels are struggling to get people to come and work for them and also struggling with the prices that they have to pay.

For Western Australia, which is so close to Bali, the low cost for travel to Bali without having any carbon tax apply to the airfares—unlike the cost to go to Melbourne, Sydney, the Northern Territory or Cairns, which were quite popular destinations for Western Australians—means that Bali is attracting three-quarters of the people heading to holiday destinations. It is so much cheaper to go there. The carbon tax is certainly going to have a huge impact on that particular industry.

My colleague Mrs Nola Marino, the member of parliament for the seat of Forrest down in the south-west of Western Australia, is very concerned about the Margaret River and the Busselton-Bunbury area, because they were attracting a number of people from the eastern states straight into their district but unfortunately they have had quite a large downturn as well. Those tourism operators in the south-west are battling to manage to keep their staff. Once this carbon tax comes in it is going to be even worse. We are very concerned in Western Australia about the tourism dollar. Albany is another tourist destination that is definitely seeing a downturn at the present time. People are choosing to go up to Bali rather than come down to an area in their own state. It is very disappointing that the tourism industry is being completely and utterly isolated on this particular issue.

I would like to say something about Victoria. Senator Kroger has just joined me, so I will mention the Victorian tourism industry. I have a comment here from Victorian Tourism Industry Council Chief Executive Todd Blake. He said that the federal government's planned carbon tax has the potential to devastate Victoria's tourism industry, a sector already struggling with recovery from natural disasters and a high Aussie dollar. He has also said that a price on carbon would not only significantly increase the cost of doing business for operators but also impact on visitor numbers. This weekend, with Western Australians travelling over to Melbourne, it will not be quite so bad. But later on it will not be good. He also said that while the federal government is telling taxpayers that they will be compensated, disappointingly most Victorian tourism operators, being smaller enterprises, will not be eligible for compensation under the proposed arrangements. This will have a huge effect on Victoria's tourism industry, which is worth $15.8 billion to the state's economy and employs around 184,800 Victorians. The planned carbon tax will potentially have a significant impact and the tourist industry organisation is calling on the federal government to outline how it intends to counteract that.

I want to finish with the comment that the government is saying that the tourism industry is making misleading and alarmist claims. A spokeswoman for the federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, denied that there would be significant job losses, saying that the impact on the industry will be manageable. I will certainly be watching very carefully to see just how manageable this is, how many tourist operators go under and how many people in the tourism industry lose their jobs. It is a case of 'watch this space'. I will certainly be watching what Minister Combet does to make the impact on the industry manageable.