E&OE..................
Well thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. The peripatetic behaviour of political leaders in election campaigns brought me to Hobart last night. On learning that there was going to be this marvellous conference here and having seen some of it reported on television last night and knowing that the Coalition';s tourism policy was about due for release, the conjunction of the events was irresistible and so I sought the indulgence of my colleagues in the tourism industry to say a few words.
May I first and most importantly welcome visitors from overseas to Australia and to Hobart. The tourist industry in Australia is a strong, proud, fundamentally critical industry to the economic future of our country. Australia is a wonderful safe welcoming friendly place to visit. We have wonderful people, a great environment a very strong economy and wonderfully enthusiastic group of people who are active in the industry. So my fundamental message to you this morning is one of enormous optimism and enormous enthusiasm about the future of the industry here in Australia and those Australians present will know also the critical importance of the tourist industry to the state of Tasmania.
I don';t need to tell you that this conference comes at a difficult and challenging time for the tourist industry. The impact on your industry of the attacks in New York and Washington on 11th September, the near paralysis of parts of the American domestic travel and tourist industry, the effect, the frightening effect that';s had on the travel plans of millions of people around the world have of course cast a very long shadow so far as your industry is concerned. And that is of concern to us because tourism has contributed mightily to the growth of the Australian economy over the last twenty years and the people who work in and represent the tourism industry in Australia have been very successful in building new markets overseas and taking Australian tourism to the rest of the world.
Now this of course has not happened by chance. The industry has built a reputation for quality and dependability combined with the many advantages of Australia';s unique attractions. The Australian tourist industry proved how stunningly capable and sophisticated it was in the outstanding contribution it made when Australia hosted the hugely successful Olympic Games in Sydney last year. They were recognised throughout the world as a triumph not only of Australian sporting prowess but also a triumph of Australia';s technological sophistication. Most importantly of all it put on display the easy, affable, friendly, open character of the Australian personality. And that really was the greatest single, the most prized asset that came out of the Olympic Games.
The industry is facing a big challenge at the moment. The aftermath of the 11th of September has been compounded by some subsequent events overseas and also the impact of the Ansett shut down here in Australia. And I know that you are legitimately, whether you come from overseas and more particularly those here from Australia are very concerned about the future of your industry and the government shares that concern and it has tried in a number of ways to associate itself with that concern and to respond. I attended, along with my minister Jackie Kelly who is with us this morning, the tourism summit in Canberra in September and it was decided then that an industry working group would be formed to monitor the impact of recent events on the tourism industry and report back to the government. That working group handed across its report on the 12th of October and because the election campaign had begun, the report was provided to all political parties here in Australia. I want to thank the members of the working group for their work and for their thorough comprehensive report. In particular I thank Andrew Byrnes who along with Jackie Kelly were co-chairmen of the working group. The report not surprisingly found that much of your industry was doing it tough here in Australia as is the case in other parts of the world.
So as a result of that I want to announce today four commitments involving some practical measures worth in all about $45 million in response to the difficulties faced by the tourism industry. Three of these commitments pick up on key recommendations of the working group report and I can therefore inform you today that a re-elected Liberal government will one, provide additional funding to the Australian Tourist Commission of $24 million over five years including an additional $6 million in this current financial year and a further $6 million next financial year for additional promotion in international markets. We will provide additional funding for the ‘See Australia'; domestic tourism promotion of $8 million over four years. We will provide increased funding to the regional tourism programme of $8 million over four years and we will make a one-off contribution of $5 million to be paid this financial year to the travel compensation fund to be matched by state and territory governments which have primary responsibility for travel agents'; licencing. This is to be a once only payment in recognition of the exceptional nature, the causes of the current downturn in tourism.
This package of measures worth $45 million builds on the policy initiatives already in place that are assisting the tourism industry. On 8 October the government announced a $20 million tourism assistance package, most of which is to help small businesses in the tourism industry directly affected by the collapse of Ansett as well as to assist in the downturn following the terrorist attack. It includes $15 million for small business that honoured components of holiday packages for which they were not paid in order to keep faith with their customers. It is to be made available in grants for small businesses as a contribution for losses borne. $5 million has been provided for the travel industry to provide incentives of $150 for every holiday package purchased with a total value excluding airfares of $750 or more. The total commitment therefore in direct help to the tourism industry is $65 million.
In addition, the Coalition government has assisted the tourism industry both directly and indirectly by providing a number of guarantees and loans to enable Ansett Mark II and regional services around Australian to resume flights. The steps the government took to assist with the resumption of air services, particularly in regional Australia was very important to the tourism industry.
The Deputy Prime Minister has already announced in the election campaign, almost $12 million worth of commitments to boost regional tourism. The Coalition has also given a commitment to extend the diesel fuel rebate scheme to include small retail hospitality businesses that produce their own electricity from diesel. This is worth $80 over four years and will greatly assist tourist operators in many of the more remote parts of Australia.As you know the Government introduced a ticket levy as a means of ensuring the proper funding of the entitlements of Ansett employees which we have guaranteed. It was not a measure that we enjoyed introducing and I understand that on its own it is not a particularly attractive measure. Levies on industries never are and I have been in politics long enough to understand that and I very freely acknowledge it. So I do want to repeat to you this morning a commitment that I made to the tourism summit in September which was perhaps not as widely reported at the time as it should have been, so I take this opportunity of repeating that commitment. That if at a future time we recover the funds from those legally responsible for meeting the entitlements of the Ansett employees, then any revenue collected from the ticket tax, not therefore needed for the entitlements, will be returned to the community and in particular in the process of returning it to the community we will ensure that a significant proportion of that return goes to the tourism industry.
There are just one or two general observations I would like to make about the economic and industrial climate that effects your industry. I';m sure I don';t need to remind a consumer sensitive audience such as this that the general health of the Australian economy is quite crucial to the future of your industry as is the general health of the world economy. The world economy has taken a very heavy knock following the 11th of September. The American economy at that time was stagnating. The optimists thought that other things being equal it would begin to grow again in the first six months of 2002. The events of 11th of September changed that and it';s now fair to say that the American';s stagnation will continue somewhat longer. Although I have always had a more optimistic view about the recuperative powers of the United States economy than many others. That economy is so big, it is so lightly regulated and so flexible and so entrepreneurial in character that it has a capacity to bounce back like none other any where else in the world and despite all the challenges the Americans face, all the heavy burdens they face, all the natural domestic uneasiness that Americans experience, their capacity to bounce back is very real indeed. The good news for Australia is that our economy is in better shape than just about any industrialised economy in the world. The indicators have held up longer, the growth has stayed longer, employment rates are still very strong, investment is still pretty strong, retail sales yesterday fell by a tiny fraction as a result of the impact of the September quarter, they were predicted to fall by much larger amounts. The stimulatory measures we took in the housing industry have helped enormously and I can report to you that the Australian economy is in pretty fine fettle and the indications are that that will continue. And the reason it';s in pretty fine fettle is that we have over the past few years undertaken some major reforms, some of them weren';t easy, some of them weren';t popular, some of them would have been criticised by people at this gathering, I know that. There are aspects of tax reform that weren';t popular and now that it';s been introduced the last thing we want to do is start fiddling with it at the edges and rolling it back here and there would only create boundless confusion for no real gain.
Tax reform was needed, it';s given us a stronger revenue base, it';s helped our exports, it';s given us lower personal tax and lower company tax and lower capital gains tax and it';s been a very important reform and I want to continue to maintain it in all of it';s details.
The other great area of reform of course that is very important to your industry is workplace relations. If ever there';s an industry that needs a capacity to work out deals at a workplace level free from undue union interference it';s the tourist industry. The essence of your industry really is effective, flexible working groups and individual enterprises, with people having a fixed view of a common goal, of making the business work, having a happy, dedicated staff, paying them well, encouraging them with incentives and if you succeed making sure that they share in some of the success. It is the ultimate service oriented entrepreneurial part of our economy and I';ve always felt that it';s the last part of our economy that can be benefited by unduly restrictive industrial relations practice.
So I do want to say to you, incase any of you are giving any casual thought over the next week or so as to how you might cast your vote, you know time';s running out, I would like you to just bare in mind as far as your own industry is concerned that one of the things that really will be a threat if the other crowd get in is the more flexible industrial relations of the last five and a half years. Really I assure you, they might run around saying they';re not going to touch this, we';re not going to touch that, but they';re going to roll back industrial relations big time because that';s something that means a great deal to a government with that political culture, it has a great trade union history and links. There';s nothing wrong with trade unions, providing they don';t try and run enterprises, they don';t have any of their employees and or any of their members, they don';t try and force people to join unions, they don';t try and charge non unionists for benefits that they say they';ve got for them and they don';t start pushing small businessmen around and also I remind you of course we';ve been working very hard to get those very foolish unfair dismissal laws abolished all together, we';ve made some progress, we';re gonna keep trying, because they are a real impediment to employing additional staff in small business and we going to of course keep age-based wage rates that we think are very important to employment.
What you need in your industry, more than in most is to have complete flexibility in relation to employment conditions. You want guaranteed minimums, sure, nobody wants or would tolerate exploitation. But you want flexibility, flexibility of hours, you want flexibility of the remuneration arrangement, you want a capacity to talk to your staff without interference from outside and to work out the best arrangements that suit your business. And of all of the differences that exist between the government that I';ve been very proud to lead over the last five and a half years and my opponent that bear upon your industry is of course in the area of industrial relations.
So ladies and gentlemen it';s been very kind of you to allow me, because of the circumstance of my being at the hotel at this particular time to drop in and say a few things about our tourism policy. We have tried to listen. When I went to that meeting in September I listened to a lot of people and they had very genuine case, you are doing it tough. You have been hit by a double whammy and that';s not easy. We understand that, we have tried to respond in a specific way. I hope the practical measures that I';ve outlined today will be of help. I might also interpolate that I';m going up to Launceston now and I';m going to be releasing a series of policies of particular relevance to Tasmania and I should indicate that those policies will contain some further individual measures of support to the tourism industry here in Tasmania. So it';s been a good day I hope for tourism, not only in Australia but most particularly here in Tasmania.
Can I conclude by saying to all of you, I think you belong to one of the great success stories of Australia over the last 20 years but I think back at what life and attitudes was like 25 or 30 years ago in Australia and how people';s attitudes and tastes have been transformed during that period. I can';t think of a greater change than in the whole area of entertainment and hospitality. It was something that many Australians did not naturally take to a generation ago and in that short period of time their attitude has been transformed and we are as good, and if not as good – better than any in the world in providing high quality entertainment in providing friendly affable and efficient service and in providing congenial and safe surroundings in which people can enjoy their leisure. Tourism has given mightily to the Australian economy over the last few years and it will continue to do so and Australia will grow in its appeal as a likeable, safe, desirable destination for international travel.
I thank you very much for the contribution that all of you';ve made to the Australian economy and the image there is of Australia around the world which is so very positive.
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