Dear ScoMo, please pay to save tourism – Australia can afford it

Borders have snapped shut across Australia, again, and our travel sector is the biggest loser, again. Here’s what needs to happen.

Another week, another frustrating lockdown of state borders in response to a fresh handful of COVID-19 infections.

Who in their right mind would want to book interstate travel right now? At any time you can find yourself in quarantine in another city with no idea when you’ll be getting home.

Border lockdown roulette is heartbreaking for the travel industry, which has been pleading for a JobKeeper extension to prevent an estimated 60 per cent of its jobs being wiped out.

Our international border is closed indefinitely. And our state borders continue closing at very short notice.

JobKeeper wage subsidies are set to end late next month, and if the government doesn’t extend this program it should do something else to save tourism, which is usually a $45 billion export industry.

The only beaches Aussies can run on is their own, if they’re lucky. Picture: Tourism Australia

If Prime Minister Scott Morrison – a former Tourism Australia boss – lets the sector collapse we will lose a huge amount of experience and expertise and be unprepared for the eventual rebound.

I reckon he’ll come to the party with an assistance package in the coming weeks.

Australia certainly can afford it. Despite our ballooning national debt, repayments are still relatively cheap thanks to record-low interest rates.

Our economy is doing better than first feared. Our unemployment rate is lower than first feared. We’ve managed the pandemic better than most countries on the planet.

The Federal Government has done a great job controlling COVID and keeping the economy afloat, and it would be a huge shame to neglect one of our strongest export industries that is suffering through no fault of its own.

No industry has suffered more than tourism. Sectors such as education are doing it tough too but still have paying students.

Other businesses are booming, sending extra tax dollars our governments. That money should be used to keep the tourism sector alive until the border closures stop for good.

There will always be critics of government handouts, but you can’t blame the tourism sector. They are getting the rug pulled out from under them, again and again and again.

I’ve vowed not to travel interstate this year after getting burnt twice in 2020.

First, a two-week Himalayan trek in early March became seven weeks stranded – including four isolated in hotels in Kathmandu and Brisbane. Next, a short Queensland holiday was hit by multiple delays and cancellations after SA’s November COVID outbreak, but other families have had much worse experiences.

COVID lockdowns are eating the precious few dollars tourism operators could earn. Picture: Tourism SA

Since November there have been major lockdowns and border closures in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, Brisbane, and last week’s latest Melbourne cluster has put trigger-happy state health ministers on high alert again.

Aussies love to travel, and we’re renowned globally for our wanderlust.

But we can’t wander internationally until who knows when, and the gamble of trying to holiday domestically has become too risky for many.

An increasing number of people are leaving their suitcases at home for rest of 2021, so let’s not leave one of our best industries out in the cold.

@keanemoney