Cairns JobKeeper end: Ocean Freedom calling for targeted extension to wage subsidy

Tour operators believe until international tourists return to the Far North, JobKeeper is a must for their survival, with one Cairns businesswoman outlining how she would revise the subsidy.

A GRATEFUL Cairns tourism operator who labelled JobKeeper “an absolute lifeline” is preparing for life without the subsidy she believes should be maintained through a more targeted approach.

Ocean Free and Ocean Freedom owner-operator Taryn Agius said her long-term business has been running without profits and in survival mode for about a year — a period she did not initially anticipate.

With JobKeeper set to stop at the end of the month, Ms Agius said she’d hoped it would continue after a year of “changing goalposts” that hadn’t really allowed her and husband Perry Jones’s business to return to full swing.

“We’re grateful for every lifeline we’re given — all the relief from the port authority and GBRMPA (waiving) fees and rent — it has all collectively helped us survive but assistance in wages has meant we have been able to at least maintain a skilled core staff and operations,” she said.

Owners of Ocean Freedom and Ocean Free Perry Jones and Taryn Agius are anxious about the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, and are eager to see the benefits of the Queensland Government's travel vouchers program and interest free loans. Picture: Brendan Radke

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“So from the start of the COVID crisis, we initially lost the international market, then we had interstate border closures, followed by intrastate and finally total lockdown. Every time we marketed to get the right demographic, the parameters were shut down on us.”

Ms Agius said she believed Cairns would return as a popular international destination, but felt there was still about a year before that happened.

She said she welcomed the federal government’s recent $1.2bn support package announcement, but hoped it would consider a wage subsidy extension due to ongoing border changes.

“Aviation absolutely has to survive, so we’re happy that aviation has been given a leg-up, because Cairns is heavily reliant on it,” she said.

“The goalposts keep changing but our goal at the moment is to be operating three days a week and keeping our crew happy and giving them enough work. We haven’t made any money, but our aim is to try and survive and keep the core crew operating.

“I think there could be a very targeted wage assistance for those people who are doing the right thing with it.”

White water rafting on the Barron River in Cairns, Far North Queensland. Picture by Sean Davey.

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The looming end of the JobKeeper initiative on March 28 has many in tourism circles fearing an industry Armageddon amid predictions up to 25,000 Queenslanders in the sector alone could lose their jobs.

An owner of a Cairns adventure company which has already lost access to the JobKeeper subsidy has a dire warning for the tourism industry when the scheme is terminated next week.

Roderic Rees, whose Cairns Adventure Group runs Foaming Fury and Raging Thunder rafting operations at Barron Gorge, has already felt the impact of losing JobKeeper after changed criteria made his workers ineligible at the beginning of the year. With his workforce virtually halved, he had a blunt warning for others in the industry fearful of what might happen once JobKeeper winds up.

“There’s a cliff face coming, make no mistake about it,” he said. “Get ready to start haemorrhaging money.

“All your subsidies and your safety nets are gone. I’m going to watch a lot of my friends’ businesses go broke.

“Ending JobKeeper is signing a death warrant for our industry.”

He said he would try to hold on to as many staff as possible and was hopeful Easter and beyond would be more positive.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “You need people so that when it gets busy again, which it eventually will, you are ready to go, but you can’t tell all your staff to just sit around getting a couple of shifts a week when they might have other opportunities in other industries.

“We’re already in a crisis and ending JobKeeper is only going to make it worse.”

He said measures targeted specifically at tourism, such as the state government’s travel voucher scheme and the half-price flight initiative of the federal government were a good start, but only the return of international travel would allow the industry to rebound.

Originally published as Cairns JobKeeper end: Ocean Freedom calling for targeted extension to wage subsidy