James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know the year has been filled with challenges that have affected all Australians in so many ways. This virus has disrupted so many parts of our lives in ways that seemed unimaginable just months ago. Sadly, the very nature of this virus means it has hit certain people, certain industries and certain businesses harder than others. One of the hardest hit is also one of the biggest employers in my home state, and that is tourism and hospitality. While travelling around Queensland, I have seen the incredible resilience of many small and medium businesses to pivot around coronavirus, to adopt COVID-safe practices to sustain their businesses and to keep their employees on the books, largely, in many instances, with the support of JobKeeper.

As we turn our minds towards how best to support the sector, we need to consider every measure we can to ensure we aren't providing a handbrake on this critical sector as we rebuild our economy. This rebuild should include consideration of duplicated regulation and impacts of taxes such as the fringe benefits tax. We must do everything we can to encourage and incentivise Australian businesses to support each other. The Australian Hotels Association and Tourism Accommodation Australia have proposed that the fringe benefits tax on entertainment expenses—for example, meals, beverages and accommodation—for all businesses and employees should be suspended for the next three years. This initiative would benefit businesses and employees—tradies, builders and hairdressers. For example, it would allow an employer to shout their staff, their team members, a meal, a few drinks or maybe a weekend away for the employee of the month. So I strongly support the FBT being suspended on entertainment expenses for the coming three years.

This is about jobs and stopping more businesses going to the wall. This initiative will encourage businesses to reward their staff in the hospitality, accommodation and tourism sector, which needs it most. At the same time, it would be supporting the retention of over one million jobs. This would be a win for employers and employees alike at relatively little cost to the government.

Apparently, I'm a 'noob'. This a gamer term for a newbie when it comes to video games. While I might be a noob, I know the Australian games industry has proven remarkably resilient through the coronavirus pandemic. The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association found that 44 per cent of game developers have reported either stable or increased sales revenue, with 84 per cent saying they are not planning on making any reductions in staff in the immediate future. During the pandemic, many Australians have turned to the games sector as a source of entertainment or mental stimulation. There was seemingly a global shortage of Nintendo Switches, and electronic shops around Australia were being swamped with shoppers. This shows the level of resilience within our video games industry and the potential for Australia to harness this to increase our export revenue.

Based in my home state of Queensland are the creators of Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick Studios, whose app has received more than one billion downloads—a great example of Australian and Queensland innovation. There are also a number of Australian sporting game developers, such as Big Ant Studios, the creators of high-quality titles such as Don Bradman Cricket and Rugby League Live. And there's Tru Blu Entertainment, which has published many Australian football video games. These games expand on Australia's sporting culture and encourage young people to stay engaged with their favourite sporting codes when they can't play on the field.

While I might be a bit of a noob when it comes to video games, there are a number of policy levers we can utilise to support our games industry more than we currently do. Something Australia should do, and I strongly support, is introduce a 30 per cent tax offset for video games to grow a new information based export industry, attract millions in foreign investment and create thousands of jobs. In many other countries, there are tax incentives for game development. These exist in Canada, where there is a 35 to 40 per cent offset, in Singapore, where there is a 40 per cent offset, in France, where it's 30 per cent, and in the UK, where it's 20 per cent. Australia already has tax offsets for the film, TV, post-production, digital and visual effects sectors but lacks this same support for domestic game development. Without stronger incentives to invest, our games industry risks getting owned by other countries.

Shamefully and wickedly, we're told there will be in Queensland a hard border closure no matter what. We've seen multiple sad, horrible and cruel stories of families who are struggling to get exemptions to access medical care. There is no compassion and no common sense from the state government in Queensland. Yet, late last night, we saw 400 people fly in from Melbourne ahead of an announcement that the AFL grand final will be held in Brisbane this year—an announcement I support. Parents who have been begging this state government to allow them to see their own children who have been in boarding schools are now watching the red carpet being rolled out for Eddie McGuire and his friends in the AFL. Media reports suggest these AFL bigwigs and officials won't be staying in government mandated hotels; they'll be quarantined in an industry hub on the Gold Coast. But, if you've had brain surgery and you return to Queensland, the state Labor government makes you stay in a hotel, gives you some Panadol, and says, 'You'll be fine.' If you know someone in George Street, you'll be fine and you don't have to stay in a hotel.

Surely, if the Queensland state government can work with the AFL to fly CEOs and football personalities from Melbourne for a media announcement, they can work with the families whose children are effectively locked away in boarding schools. If they can find exemptions for people who construct boxing rings for Jeff Horn, they can reach out through the Isolated Children's Parents' Association and come up with a plan to deal with the children who are locked away in boarding schools. If they can provide medical exemptions for TV celebrities to quarantine in Gold Coast mansions, surely they can find exemptions for people who have gone through brain surgery and provide exemptions for mums who need to go to maternity hospitals. No, not this state Labor government. Surely they can engage with these boarding schools in the same way to find a solution to this mess that doesn't leave parents separated from their own children or students forced into isolation.

Premier Palaszczuk, I join with the Isolated Children's Parents' Association to beg you to show some compassion to these children and to their parents and give us some consistency, some certainty and some compassion, Most importantly have some common sense when it comes to exemptions for your so-called hard border.