MORRISON ABANDONS AUSTRALIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY

The Morrison-Joyce Government is casting Australia’s tourism industry adrift while the COVID-19 storm still rages.

Speaking at the Centre for Aviation Conference this week, Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Dan Tehan threw cold water on the idea of any further government assistance, saying: “As we come out of the pandemic, government has got to get out of the way.”

Translation – ‘we’re not doing anything to help you’.

If the Minister would listen to hospitality businesses and tourism operators still struggling just to survive, he would know that the end of the pandemic seems a very long way off for many still dealing with the immediate, ongoing impacts of restrictions.

Hospitality businesses across the country are still fighting uncertainty, skills shortages, and capacity restrictions.

Tourism operators are still reporting mass cancellations because of uncertainty that lingers because of Scott Morrison’s complete lack of national leadership.

This leadership vacuum left state and territory governments to fight the pandemic themselves, predictably resulting in a patchwork of support and restrictions.

Life-saving wage subsidies, only implemented after a concerted campaign by Labor, employers, and unions, were then ripped away from struggling businesses and operators by a government only focused on itself.

If this is Scott Morrison’s support for Australia’s tourism industry, and the millions of jobs that rely on it, he might as well be back on a beach in Hawaii.

No one is suggesting the sector should be supported forever – assistance should be targeted and accessible for those that need it.

But jobs, skills, businesses, and livelihoods are still being lost – all because of a lack of national leadership.

One million workers previously employed across more than 300,000 tourism businesses, and many more that rely on tourism, all deserve so much better.

The Morrison-Joyce Government must not cast tourism adrift at such a pivotal point in the industry’s fight back against the impacts of the pandemic.