Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise in my capacity as the representative of the shadow minister for tourism, Bob Baldwin, from the other place—and I will talk more about Mr Baldwin later on. The interesting thing about the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2012 is that it is completely different to the one first introduced in the other place by the government following the budget.

Before I turn to the specifics of this legislation, I think it is worth taking some time to consider in full the government's complete and utter lack of interest in the plight of the tourism industry in this country. In doing so I am reminded of the words of Ronald Reagan when he said:

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.

Certainly in relation to this government those are very accurate words.

The real issue for the tourism industry is that it is continually harmed by a government that is concerned with the jobs of its leaders as opposed to the jobs of the one million tourism industry employees across Australia. In just five days we will have a toxic carbon tax, based on a lie, that will further impact on this sector. It is important to remember that 90 per cent of tourism and hospitality small business owners are worse off under the tax. The remarkable figure in relation to the tourism sector is that 90 per cent of tourism businesses employ fewer than 20 employees. They are already suffering under a mountain of red and green tape that has been imposed on them by this government and other governments, and they simply cannot take any more. If you add the toxic carbon tax to the increased passenger movement charge, this is a sector that, if it is still moving, is barely crawling, and all the while the government continues to tax it, regulate it—but not, it would seem, compensate it. As I said, the government has introduced a tax that is based on a lie.

The interesting situation facing the Great Barrier Reef is, I think, worth repeating. While I am sure tourism operators will welcome the fact that the government has reduced the Great Barrier Reef visitor levy to offset the carbon tax impact on businesses operating reef tours, I am sure that will be very small compensation for those small business operators up there. The utterly remarkable part of this is that the government has cut funding to the very body that is charged with researching the impact of climate change on the reef. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, GBRMPA, has faced a budget cut to pay for the carbon tax assistance program. So Labor is effectively cutting off its nose to spite the Barrier Reef's face.

It is absolutely fascinating that day after day in the other place we saw Minister Garrett, and day after day in this place we have heard Minister Wong, regaling us about the need to price carbon to save the Barrier Reef. But we have this duplicitous situation whereby funding to the body that is providing research on the impact of the climate change they are referring to is actually being cut.

I also want to talk about other sectors of the economy that have not fared so well on the carbon tax compensation front. Take the people of Tasmania, for example, who will face higher costs to get from Tasmania to the mainland as a result of the toxic carbon tax. The ferry between Tasmania and Victoria will cost $3 more per passenger per journey after Sunday. It will cost $6 more per vehicle on the ferry after Sunday. With Tasmania's economy so heavily reliant on tourism and the necessity of moving goods by sea, this decision is deeply troubling.

But I do not hear anything from the Labor senators in this place about this matter—not a single word. And what about the following members from the other place—the member for Bass, Geoff Lyons; the member for Braddon, Sid Sidebottom; the member for Franklin, Julie Collins; and the member for Lyons, Dick Adams? Where are they in relation to this issue? Why aren't they sticking up for their state? Why aren't they acknowledging that the cost of a ferry ticket will increase by $3 or that the cost of a car on the ferry will increase by $6? Where are they in relation to this matter? They are absolutely absent from the debate.

Further, air travel will be more expensive after Sunday, with ticket prices set to increase by $3.50 for Qantas and $3 for Virgin—another impact on the tourism sector. A family of four travelling to Queensland on Sunday to enjoy school holidays will be paying an extra $24 for their holiday than if they had gone this week. Businesses will face higher costs in other parts of the country as a result of the impact of the carbon tax, and that will impact on the tourism sector. Small and medium businesses will receive no compensation for the cost of freighting goods by air and face increased costs as a result of that. Guess who will ultimately pay for these increased prices? You and I know who that is: the Australian consumer. This toxic tax will touch every aspect of the lives of Australians come 1 July.

I now want to again refer back to the passenger movement charge bill. As I said earlier, this is not the same bill as that originally introduced by the government. Why did that occur? I know exactly why. The shadow minister for tourism, Mr Baldwin, and the shadow minister for justice, Mr Keenan, who both sit in the other place, moved heaven and earth, in conjunction with the tourism sector, to take one of the more insidious parts of this bill out of the original legislation. All power to them and congratulations, along with many thanks to the tourism sector, for the enormous amount of work that they did on that matter. As part of Mr Baldwin's campaign in relation to this passenger movement charge, he reiterated the fact that, as the shadow minister, he has launched the 'staycation' initiative. The website is www.staycation.org.au, for those who might be interested. The aim of that initiative is to encourage Australians to stay in Australia. But every time we see increases such as this then the high value of the Australian dollar kicks in and tourism in this country suffers.

Page 11 of Budget Paper No. 2 says the following:

Passenger movement charge ...

The Government will increase the passenger movement charge by $8 to $55 per passenger with effect from 1 July 2012, with the charge to be indexed annually by movements in the Consumer Price Index thereafter. The measure is estimated to increase revenue by $610.0 million over the forward estimates period.

Barely seven weeks later, after extraordinary pressure from the tourism sector and from Mr Baldwin and Mr Keenan from the other place, the government backed down and we now have the bill that is before us, which we will be supporting.

The increase in the passenger movement charge makes the Australian departure tax the highest short-haul departure tax anywhere in the developed world. The Senate may not be aware that, since coming to office, the Labor government has increased the passenger movement charge from $38 to $55, a $17 increase. In the life of the Howard government, the passenger movement charge increased twice over a 13-year period, by a total of $11, and those increases were linked to specific programs, such as the See Australia campaign and defending Australia from biohazards such as foot-and-mouth disease.

I want to give my colleague Senator Nash the opportunity to make a more substantial contribution than time would otherwise allow, but I want to again say that this is a government that does not care about the multimillion-dollar tourism industry or about the one million Australians employed in it. It has no understanding of what the 90 per cent of tourism businesses that employ fewer than 20 employees are facing at the moment and no compassion for them. The circumstances facing them are quite dramatic. We know full well that the tourism sector is under enormous pressure at the moment. Why this government would be doing anything to add to that pressure is beyond comprehension.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2012 as amended. The Australians Greens welcome the changes made to the bill in the other place to remove the indexation element. The bill now only increases the passenger movement by a one-off $8 amount. Modelling shows that an increase in the passenger movement charge has a detrimental impact on the tourism industry. The Greens have heard loud and clear the concerns of the tourism industry about this bill, in particular from the Tourism and Transport Forum. I am pleased to say that, through negotiation with the government, the Greens have helped to remove the indexation of that charge.

We have also secured additional funds for the tourism industry from the increase in the charge. As well as the $48.5 million over four years for an Asia marketing fund, there will also be a further $48.5 million for a new tourism industry regional development fund. Both of these initiatives are very welcome. We recognise the importance of the Asian tourism market and the potential for growth in this area. In particular, we welcome the regional tourism fund, which will go to attracting visitors to regional Australia. That will support regional communities and local economies. We look forward to more ecologically sensitive walking trails, art works, camping sites and exhibits in nature parks funded through this initiative.

I would like to make some remarks about the importance of tourism to our economy and the Greens' proud support for this sector. Tourism is a global force for economic and regional development. According to Tourism Australia, it generates $94 billion in spending. As a sector, tourism contributes $34 billion in GDP. That is a very impressive 2.6 per cent of Australia's total GDP. It is our largest services export earner. According to the Tourism and Transport Forum, tourism supports almost one million Australian jobs. That is double the number in the mining and the automotive sectors combined. Most importantly, 90 per cent of tourism businesses are small to medium enterprises with fewer than 100 staff. Tourism plays an important role in the economic development of regional Australia, with 46c in every tourist dollar spent in regional Australia. Australia's many natural attractions make it one of the leading providers of nature based tourism in the world, attracting over 5.6 million Australian visitors in 2009. Nature tourism refers to the whole range of tourism experiences that have some interaction with nature, whether it be whale watching, hiking or visiting a national park, for example. Nature based tourism continues to grow at a faster rate than the overall tourism sector, and ecotourism alone is growing globally at 20 per cent per annum, compared with just seven per cent for tourism overall.

In Queensland, home to five of Australia's 19 World Heritage areas and over 450 national parks, marine parks and state forests, ecotourism is one of the state's fastest growing tourism sectors. The UNESCO World Heritage List identifies heritage that is of outstanding universal value, which of course means they are often key tourist attractions. The jewel in the crown is our World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, which brings in $5.1 billion to our economy annually and employs more than 54,000 Australians. It is a very important and beautiful area that I would encourage all members to visit.

Australia's reputation as a premier snow and ski tourism destination is also growing. We had 42,000 international snow and ski tourism visitors come to Australia in the year ending December 2010. Compared to 2009 that was an increase in overnight visitors of 48.1 per cent.

The Greens will support this bill. We are pleased to have supported the industry in dissuading the government from indexation of this charge and in ensuring further hypothecation of the revenue raised going back into supporting regional tourism. On that note, I wish all MPs a regional holiday in our gorgeous country, supporting the tourism sector during the winter break.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments today on the bill before us, the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2012. In looking at this piece of legislation, it is interesting to note the comparison between the rates of departure tax, or departure-type tax, for Australia and for the rest of the world. We see a very striking contrast between Australia and other nations. The decision by this government to raise the passenger movement charge by $8, from $47, takes the departure tax to $55 per passenger. When we compare this with other countries, we see a stark contrast, with Australia being taxed far greater than other countries. The Australian dollar equivalent charge for travel outside the European Union is $10 in France and $34 in Germany. New Zealand has a $19 charge and the US has a $14 arrival tax. Here we are in Australia, with a population of roughly 22 million people, we are looking at a passenger movement charge tax of $55, which is really quite extraordinary. It just shows this government's absolute addiction to tax. There is no doubt that this Labor government simply cannot manage money. Whenever we see the government scrambling around trying to somehow manage the economy, they are diving straight to—yes, you guessed it—yet another tax.

The contrast in this area between the coalition and the government is also very stark. Under the Howard government the passenger movement charge only saw reasonably modest increases. From 1996 to 2007 the passenger movement charge rose by only $11, from $27 to $38, which was a rise of only 35 per cent over those 11 years. In contrast, in just five years, this government has increased the passenger movement charge by $17, from $38 to, with this extra increase, $55—a rise of almost 45 per cent. That contrast just cannot be ignored. This government simply has no idea what to do to manage this economy, to run the country, without diving for yet another tax. This year alone there is a 17 per cent annual increase, and that is compared to an expected CPI increase of only 3.25 per cent. We will get to the CPI a little later. That is extraordinary.

As my very good colleague Senator Ronaldson said earlier, the government has simply no regard for the tourism industry—absolutely none whatsoever. Why on earth would you place an impost on an industry to make things tougher for it? We have heard a lot from this government over recent years about the impact of the global financial crisis and how difficult things were in this country. Well, why would they do something to make it harder for tourism? It is simply stupid. Like so many other decisions that we have seen from this government, it is simply stupid.

I digress for just a moment: we now have the Treasurer telling us how well we are going as an economy and how tremendously we are going on the world stage, and the Prime Minister telling people overseas how brilliant our economy is and giving them a finger-wagging talk about what they should be doing—which is quite ridiculous. What the government is not doing is talking to people in the street, in the businesses, in the towns, in their homes. I can tell you what, Mr Acting Deputy President Fawcett, as I know you know full well, people out on the ground in our communities, particularly our regional communities, are doing it very tough. So it is all very well for the Treasurer to say, 'Oh, it is fine; we are all going brilliantly'—he is not talking to people on the ground. He is not talking to hardworking everyday Australians around this nation who are coming to me and saying, 'It is tough.' There is no confidence in this government and, particularly in regional communities, money has stopped moving and they are doing it very tough. So here we have another example of the government making a stupid decision to impose something that will directly affect the tourism industry, which needs help, not hindrance—which needs the government to respect and understand what sort of environment the industry is faced with and to do things that help, not make it more difficult. But this, again, shows the complete ineptitude of this government to properly communicate with industries and with people on the ground to determine what it is that they need to do in terms of policy. Again, this is yet another stuff up.

We will not be opposing this legislation today, as much as we want to. We on this side of the chamber understand what we need to do to ensure a sustainable economy. We understand what we need to do to be fiscally responsible, unlike this government, which has put us in a situation where we now have a debt of around $239 billion. Labor just cannot manage money. Not only can it not manage money; it cannot make a sensible policy decision in the best interests of the Australian people. Here we see that again today.

This government's level of ineptitude is just extraordinary and breathtaking. I know you, Senator Birmingham, understand this very well. Why on earth would the government tax an industry that is doing it tough and that needs assistance? We know why. It is simply a cash grab, because the government has no ability to run the economy. I know I have said this before—and you will get sick of hearing me saying it and I am sure that others will say it after me and have said it before: the Australian people understand that this government has no ability to run the country.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They know how to spend, though!

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They do know how to spend. Thank you very much, Senator Birmingham; I will take that interjection.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And they know how to borrow!

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I will also take the interjection from my good colleague Senator Williams. They know how to spend and they know how to borrow. It is a downward cycle. I am sure that, when people on the ground are looking at this piece of legislation, they will be saying, 'What on earth are the government doing?' Hardworking everyday Australians are out there in their homes, balancing their budgets, making ends meet. Quite a lot of them are giving up things so that they can do other things. Contrast that with the Labor government, which is in this shambles of borrow and spend, as my good colleagues here have just indicated through their interjections. It is no wonder that the Australian people are tearing their hair out, saying, 'Please, will you give us an election so we can have some grownups run the country, who can make some sensible decisions in the national interest?' But it is simply not happening under this government.

I found it quite extraordinary when I realised that, on 2 March, 2012 there was a National Tourism Alliance meeting and out of that came the communique from the Minister for Tourism's roundtable. I want to quote to you from the section on passenger facilitation: 'Industry raised concerns regarding the cutting of the passenger facilitation budget in the context of increasing passenger movement charge collection over recent years.' Again, I quote:

The Minister informed the meeting—

that is, Minister Ferguson, the Minister for Tourism—

that he had heard of no proposals to raise the passenger movement charge in the upcoming budget.

On 2 March the minister had heard of nothing to increase this passenger movement charge. He is either completely inept or he was not being completely honest with those at the roundtable. It has to be one of those two things. Because, surely, as the minister responsible in March, he would have known that this passenger movement charge increase was on the table. If he did not, it just shows (a) that he was completely inept or (b) that it was policy on the run, which we see so often from this hopeless Labor government. The alternative, (c), is that he was being less than honest with the people at the roundtable. Any way you look at it, it is simply unacceptable.

Here we have the minister saying, on 2 March, that he had not heard of any proposals to raise the passenger movement charge. What do we see in the budget? An increase of $8, from $47 to $55. This has a familiar ring to it: before the budget we were told that there will be no passenger movement charge increase. After the budget, what did we get? A passenger movement increase of $8. It sounds familiar. I wonder what it is tweaking my memory about. Let me see. It may well be the carbon tax. Before the last election, the Prime Minister said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' After the election, what did we get? A carbon tax. In a few very short days, on 1 July, we are going to have a carbon tax.

This is a common thread in the government. Whether it is the Prime Minister saying, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead' and giving us a carbon tax or whether it is the Minister for Tourism just a few months ago saying, 'I haven't heard of any proposals to increase the passenger movement charge,' they are true to form. What do we see in the budget? An increase in the passenger movement charge. The Australian people no longer trust the Labor government under any leader. Who knows who the next leader will be? Mr Kevin Rudd might be having a few chats at the moment. It does not matter who is leading the Labor Party; they simply are not trusted anymore by the Australian people. Is it any wonder that the Australian people have no trust when they are constantly being told one thing by the Labor government and by the current Prime Minister—'current' in capital letters—Ms Julia Gillard, and then doing completely another? They are sick of it. This might just seem like a piece of legislation with an $8 tax increase, but this is about the heart and soul of Labor and their inability to be honest with the Australian people. This is about them not being straight with the Australian people. This is about their complete inability to formulate any decent sort of policy that is in the best interests of the Australian people. They simply cannot do it.

It is no wonder the Australian people are completely fed up. The ineptitude of this government—again shown through the Prime Minister—is absolutely gobsmacking. I will quote the Prime Minister on ABC Brisbane on 14 June when she was asked about the passenger movement charge and the increase. The Prime Minister said:

… first and foremost, we are not taxing Australian tourism through the increases in the Passenger Movement Charge. People will pay that increased Passenger Movement Charge if they are going to an airport to fly out of the country to take their money overseas and go and spend it in some overseas tourism destination, you know, anywhere round the world that people might want to go to …

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So tourists to Australia never leave the country?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Birmingham. So, tourists to Australia clearly, according to the Prime Minister, never leave the country. Well, there are some people who try to come here and never leave the country but that is a debate for another day.

If this were not so serious it would be hilarious. The Prime Minister of the nation is effectively saying: 'Gee, people coming here are never going to leave and pay the departure tax. And people leaving here and paying the departure tax are not going to come back and go somewhere.' It is just extraordinary. All of the people, particularly those out in the regional areas, whom I so strongly represent, would be shaking their heads at this. Does the Prime Minister think that international travellers coming to the wonderful destinations in Australia, particularly our regional destinations, are just never going to go home? Does she think they are going to stay here forever?

When they leave the country they will pay the departure tax. It is called a return ticket. They will go home from whence they came and they will pay the departure tax. And here is a news splash for the Prime Minister: those travelling to Australia will actually take that into account. So, for the Prime Minister to indicate that these people are just going to come here and never go home is just extraordinary. Clearly, if they are coming from their home nation there will be a return journey.

Again, more shambolic policy from this Labor government. Perhaps the Prime Minister was tied up in knots, because she clearly had no idea what she was talking about. Clearly she has no idea of what this piece of legislation involves. Otherwise, why would she say something so stupid? I do not know how many times I can use the word inept; I am going to have to come up with some new words.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hopeless will do.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Williams, I will take that interjection. This government is hopeless. It is sad when we see this wonderful nation of ours being run by a collection of such hopeless parliamentarians in the Labor Party, led by a hopeless Prime Minister. We saw the government back down on linking the increase to CPI, which is one of the very few intelligent decisions—or maybe it was more to do with saving their bacon—the government has made.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Their hand was forced by the industry.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was coming to that point. Thank you, Senator Birmingham. It is one of the less stupid decisions the government has made, but the government was forced to do it by the industry, strongly backed by the coalition. I have to commend my colleague Mr Baldwin, in the other place, who is working in this area. They were forced into a backdown. The fact that the Labor government was even considering linking the CPI to this was just stupidity.

How many times does this government have to whack industries across this nation? I think the Australian people would be absolutely thrilled if this government could just once get something right. It is not just a question of us standing on this side of the chamber railing against this bad government. It is actually true and the Australian people recognise that. I really feel for all the people in the tourism industry, particularly those people in regional areas. We have some of the best holiday destinations in the world. I love this country, and I know that so many Australians do. All Australians do. We think Australia is the best place in the world, and why wouldn't we? But the people who are out there working hard in the tourism industry, many of them in small businesses, woke up the morning after the budget to find that they had had yet another whack, all because the Labor government cannot manage money and they needed another tax grab to try to shore up the coffers.

Just look at the waste and mismanagement. In the Home Insulation Program $2.5 billion was mismanaged, with at least $500 million to be spent fixing the mistakes. Computers in schools had a $1.4 billion blowout and it is way behind schedule. The $175 million Green Loans Program was mismanaged and eventually dumped and then replaced with the $130 million Green Start Program, which never started. And my personal favourite: the government sold the parliamentary billiard tables for $5,000 and then spent over $102,000 determining whether or not they got value for money. They wonder why the Australian people get so angry when we see yet another tax hike, when the government simply cannot manage money. That is only the tip of the list—and there is around $239 billion of debt.

So, here is the government whacking the tourism industry to try to scrabble some money back out of them, and they are one of the industries least able to withstand a whack. It just shows this government's complete disconnect from the tourism sector and with what is right for the Australian people. With this piece of legislation we have seen yet another shambolic tax grabbing policy from this appalling, inept, hopeless Labor government.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to follow Senator Nash in this debate on this appalling piece of legislation, the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2012. Senator Nash has highlighted so many of the flaws in this proposal and just how much these flaws are a result of the hopeless management of this government. In this legislation we see, as we saw in the budget that was handed down last month, the chickens coming home to roost for this government. This Labor government has created the ultimate vicious cycle: a vicious cycle of wasteful spending funded by borrowing that ultimately, when all is said and done, can lead to only one place. That is a place called 'higher taxes'. All the wasteful spending in the world can only be funded by all the borrowing in the world for so long. Eventually the rubber hits the road and taxes have to go up. The only way to pay for wasteful spending, the only way to be able to pay back government debt, is ultimately to tax Australians more—to increase the tax base.

That is what this government has sought to start doing in this budget. We see it on a grand scale in some areas, with the carbon tax and the mining tax, but then we see it on a sneaky scale in other ways, and this is a sneaky tax grab. This is a sneaky tax grab by a government that is addicted to wasteful spending and that can no longer fund its wasteful spending just out of its borrowing but has to now fund its wasteful spending by stuffing its pockets full of taxpayer dollars any way that it possibly can.

This tax slug on Australia's tourism industry comes at the worst possible time for the tourism industry, when it is facing perhaps the greatest mix of cost pressures that that industry has seen for a long period of time. It comes at a time when the industry is dealing at home with higher labour costs and higher input costs around energy, water and key supplies in transport and other sectors, all of which, of course, will be added to by the carbon tax coming in just a few days. But the industry is not just grappling with that. It is also grappling with a very high Australian dollar, the highest it has been for a long period of time, which of course makes Australia a less competitive destination internationally. This is the worst possible time in the world to have decided to start increasing costs on tourism, increasing taxes and making Australia a less competitive place for international tourists to choose—which is what the government is doing through its actions.

The tourism market is one in which people are very choosy. We know from all the market research that has been undertaken that people around the world love the idea of visiting Australia. Why wouldn't they? We love the place and we know what a great place it is. We welcome tourists to this country with open arms. But the biggest problem Australian tourism has and has always had is not getting people to like the idea of visiting Australia but converting them from having that sense of wanting to come to Australia to actually deciding to come to Australia. What impacts on conversion? There are some practical things that have always made it difficult for Australia, like our distance from any key markets, but then of course there are some key competitive aspects which go to the quality of the facilities available and to the cost of coming here.

This legislation will directly increase that cost. There is no getting away from that, no matter how many stupid, idiotic or senseless the Prime Minister's comments makes, comments to which Senator Nash referred to earlier. Prior to coming into this place, I spent most of my career working in industries associated with the tourism sector. I spent about five years working with the wine industry, a sector that has cellar doors in states right around the country. Many members from across the parliament celebrated with the industry last night its successes and noted its challenges. It is an industry that is very much reliant on tourism spending to support many of its smaller businesses. I notice Senator Whish-Wilson in the chamber at present, and I look forward to his maiden speech later today, and I note that, as someone with a background as a small winemaker, he of course would acknowledge the significance that the tourism industry has for the wine industry and small winemakers in particular and the correlation that exists between those small winemakers and our tourism industry. Prior to that, I had worked with the hotel industry for a couple of years. Indeed, even when I was working as an adviser and chief of staff to a couple of different state ministers, they happened to be tourism ministers. So I have some background in this industry.

Nothing astounded me more than hearing Senator Nash quote the Prime Minister as saying, 'This tax will only impact Australians who choose to go on holiday overseas.' What a remarkably stupid thing to say. How could the Prime Minister of Australia, imposing this significant tax grab on our tourism industry, a tax rise that is a 17 per cent increase in the passenger movement charge, get it so ridiculously wrong? How could she fail to recognise that every inbound tourist who comes to Australia also ultimately gets on a plane, in nearly every circumstance bar perhaps a few, and leaves Australia as well, and when they leave Australia they have to pay this passenger movement charge as well?

This budget was not just a hit to the tourism industry and it was not just a double whammy; it piled pain upon pain upon pain. It increased the passenger movement charge, which has up dramatically from the $38 it was when Labor came to power. It will be $55 after this legislation passes. This budget reduces Tourism Australia's budget. It passes on the additional costs of AFP security in airports, which will flow through to higher ticket prices. And it cuts the number of Customs staff, potentially increasing waiting times for people coming to and from Australia and reducing the quality of their travel experience. So, all up, there are multiple slugs and hits that the tourism industry takes from this budget. If I return to where I started—I am sure it is not that this government have it in for the tourism industry, rather it is that this government are incapable of getting their wasteful spending under control, incapable of getting their addiction to debt, deficit and borrowing under control. Ultimately, as a result of that, they have come back to the only thing they know and that is to go for a tax grab—and, in this case, a very sneaky tax grab—that is hitting our tourism industry at a time when they can least afford it.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for consideration of this bill has expired. The question is that the bill be read a second time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.