Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Regional tourism is such a core part of our tourism success. Forty-three cents in every tourism dollar that's spent is spent in Australia's regions. Across each and every state and territory, we see Australians and international visitors touring around and, in large amounts, spending those dollars in those regional towns and communities.

Critically, a big part of that is that older Australians and older visitors—over-65s—account for 16 per cent of all overnight travel, with 16.9 million trips in the year ending in March 2019. These Australians, as well as Australians who are receiving tax cuts from the coalition government, will have more money that they can invest and spend in regional tourism when travelling around our country, supporting and underpinning those jobs. they will have far more than they would have had if those opposite had come along with their tax slugs on retirees and on people's savings, which would have hurt our economy and suppressed our tourism industry, which is instead growing strongly, thanks to Liberal-National policies.