Bulletin’s Open letter: Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response

Debate continues to rage on over the Bulletin’s open letter to PM Scott Morrison and whether he’s doing enough to support Gold Coast’s struggling tourism industry. WHAT DO YOU THINK? VOTE IN OUR POLL >>>

AS Gold Coast firms continue to bleed, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office says it is open to working with the state government on relief measures for the city’s tourism industry.

The Bulletin on Thursday published an open letter to Mr Morrison on behalf of the Gold Coast, urging the government to step in and offer financial assistance to the city’s shattered tourism industry.

The letter, sent to the PM’s office on Wednesday, reiterated calls from tourism, business and political leaders for a wage subsidy to help tourism business survive rolling lockdown and border closures.

A Morrison Government spokesman told the Bulletin: “The Morrison Government is open to working with the Queensland Government on support for businesses affected by ongoing health restrictions like we have done in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The Morrison Government had supported the Gold Coast including $2.6 billion in JobKeeper payments for more than 120,000 people, $1 billion in CashFlow Boost payments to 24,300 businesses and a tourism and aviation package which “directly and significantly supported the Coast”.

Mr Morrison came under fire in federal parliament yesterday from Labor who questioned why he was unwilling to revive JobKeeper which was wound up in March.

The Prime Minister talked up his government’s financial help to NSW which remains crippled by its growing outbreak of the Delta strain.

The tourism sector was bouncing back from the first year of the pandemic, with traffic at Gold Coast Airport at 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels in May. But two successive lockdowns with Sydney and Melbourne left the airport with no flights in or out on Monday and Gold Coast businesses facing closure without customers.

Organisers of a further $120 million worth of events already booked through December 31 are now weighing up cancelling them entirely.

Madison's Cafe owner Lincoln Testa. Picture: Melanie Whiting

Gold Coast business owners say they desperately needed financial assistance with tourists not returning to the city.

“The accommodation is still empty and the Brisbane day-trippers are not coming down,” Maddison Cafe owner Lincoln Testa said. It was “impossible” for most small business owners to survive until Christmas.

“What they said the first time was, we’re all in this together. Bulls--t, it’s only small business bearing the brunt.

“What’s happening is the people haven’t come back. I can control labour costs, I can control food costs. What I can’t control is the rent percentage.

“What we need is some form of help like what the Morrison government did during the first (wave of) Covid.”

“The tenants need rent reductions, the landlords need some sort of tax offset or something to balance what they're’ missing out on in rent and the banks need to be looked after for what they’re losing from the landlords.

“The only people that are hurting in this is small business.

“If small business collapses, the whole country will collapse after it.

“I’m fine here because I’ve been here 22 years, I’ve got a big local base but I’m talking retail in general.”

WHAT READERS SAID

DEBATE continues to the Bulletin’s open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and whether he’s taking enough action to breath life into Gold Coast’s embattled tourism industry.

Here is what you said on Facebook.

Ronald Maxwell

Maybe, is the end result of putting all your eggs in one basket? There is no construction as such, no manufacturering. The gc was, is a holiday destination, obviously not anymore?

Anthony Cleaver

In tourism? … this aint over for at least another year. Get another job … yes there’s your solution … work it out.

Peter Randell

How about getting off your backsides and getting fully vaccinated. That is the only way the tourism industry will bounce back. And why not plead with Palace Chook for more funding? After all she is responsible for most of the lockdowns and she is responsible for stopping people of all ages from getting the AZ vaccine which would have put Qld in a much better position by now.

Stew Cossar

Don’t panic, very shortly ScoMo will send you all some of his famous but useless “thoughts and prayers” which he thinks solves all the world’s problems.

Brian Johnson

Here have some coal

Barney Hunter

Odd headline/article. I only read what is shown in the pic but is seems someone is complaining to ScoMo that although we have a covid epidemic happening there should be more tourists flying into the GC. 100% Labor voter right there …

Tayler Wade

We should be allowed access to our super again.

Chris Furey

ScoMo is very busy organising the construction of some much needed car parks in LNP and marginal seats in VIC.

Alex Rouse

Love how everyone is looking to the Feds. The Feds are looking after the employees who have lost jobs and hours. It is the state governments who are supposed to be supporting businesses.

Put the blame fairly and squarely when it should sit at Annas feet.

Andrew Fagg

How do you blame him? He didn’t make any of our lockdowns? Look to local government … stop reading social media … just more sheep blaming someone who has no control of this situation …

Dan Fandango

the reason we had to lockdown was because covid spread here. If he had actually done his job and rolled out the vaccinations properly, there probably wouldn’t have been an outbreak.

Glenn Emerton

Boo hoo Qld. I would love to come up and have already cancelled two holidays this year alone because I am not allowed to come up from NSW. Victoria and NSW are also struggling and have been in more lockdowns then you would even understand. Let all get vaccinated and hopefully we can all travel again and spend money ??

Keith Harding

Stop blaming ScoMo look at the Palaszczuk gov they are the problem

Cate Warren

Mr Morrison is all smoke and mirrors, he will be voted out at the next election.

Cameron Way

Keith Harding Im a long term liberal voter and must say the Feds & more particularly the PM have been absent with a lot of this and allowing States premiers become PM’s running their own show is a National disgrace. Would John Howard have been this absent?

Adam Flier

How about we ask our wonderful so call Premier what she is going to do? Oh besides travel the world and spend more money the state clearly doesn’t have.

Donovan Powell

$550 million that’s nothing, … take it out of the $5 billion dollar waste of money tram line., that we don’t want …

Andrew Ni

Qld govt is providing the least amount of business grants and assistance as a percentage of GSP in Australia. Blame the chook not Morrison

Anne Nalder

Sadly it is small business that is doing the heavy lifting with virtually no financial assistance since the end of March 2021 yet no MP or public servant has lost one days pay. They have no idea and are out of touch. 2021 is tougher because savings are exhausted, there is uncertainty due sudden border closures and there are double standards by the authorities, plus confidence is disappearing. Long term damage yet with good planning and the right financial support this could be avoided.

Chadd Small

You realise there are businesses suffering beyond hospitality and tourism.

Rachael Ahrens

How about instead of propping up airlines we demand some assistance for the hundreds of families displaced recently with the current housing crisis?! Sadly seems a lot of gold coasters value profits and travelling over the welfare of other people.

Brian Bunn

You really think ScoMo is going to do something?? The only thing he will do is give himself a pay rise and tell the world he deserves it.

Chadd Small

You realise there are businesses suffering beyond hospitality and tourism.

Julie Richards

We went to surfers yesterday to spend some money to help

Some businesses. We were so saddened by what we saw. So

Many places closed that have been open for years. The amount of homeless around. I felt depressed walking around there. We

Need our tourists back for sure.

Click360Tours

Everyone blaming a guy 1500 kms for your problems.

Stop looking to a random man to fix things for YOU

Jackson Carter

Need to look at your premier before anyone else.

Richard Holliday

Thanks Gold Coast Bulletin for all you’re doing to assist the city’s struggling economy.

Daniel John

The economy needs a correction … Not more BS to prop up the values further

Greg Neal

Someone needs to drag Scott Morrison out from under the bed and stand up and lead.

He was MIA during the Floods, Fires, Aged Care Crisis, Banking Debacle, Climate Denial and now during the Vaccine rollout failures.

He is no leader – just a pathetic social media influencer scamming his way through giving Margaret Court hundreds of thousands in relief funds because she aligns with his church.

He has gone to ground again hiding from his responsibility – such a disgrace.

Nikki Archer

You can stop hiding behind tourism to demand action. It’s unnecessary to be constantly whinging over one industry to demand action.

We are ALL on our knees. We ALL needed the PM to kick into gear looooong ago.

Ronan Ryan

We need to open up the international arrivals again. Covid certificates a must.

David Andersen

There is no ‘other side’ of this thing. This is it!

Aaron Wilson

Good luck with that.

I got declined help and I live in a hot spot of Sydney.

BULLETIN’S OPEN LETTER TO PM

Dear ScoMo, The Gold Coast is on its knees. We get things are tough everywhere right now, but our city isn’t in lockdown – it’s in meltdown.

On Tuesday, Gold Coast Airport had zero flights in and out. Zero. Wednesday wasn’t much better, with just three arrivals.

While the Delta outbreak is wreaking havoc in NSW and more lately Victoria, it’s crippling us here, too. Yes, we don’t have any cases on the Glitter Strip but the economic impact of the east cost lockdowns should not be discounted.

We know you know how important tourism is to our city. As a former Tourism Australia boss who oversaw the famed ‘Where the bloody hell are ya?’ campaign, you’ll understand the important of bums on airline seats. And yes, you did leave the city off that campaign, but please don’t leave us out again.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison addresses the media at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Thanks for the 800,000 half price tickets earlier in the year to stimulate interstate travel. And for extending that to November. Hopefully things are a bit more open by then.

Despite coming out of lockdown, the Coast is still technically a declared hotspot. We’re scratching our head on that too Prime Minister – given we’ve had a handful of exposure sites and no active cases in the community. Costs are mounting. Tourism is normally worth $6 billion a year to the economy. For July and August the economic hit from tourism losses will be $550 million alone.

Those tourists who come for our world-class beaches, which are open, and our world-class theme parks which only plan reopening on Friday, also start their day in our cafes, dine in our restaurants and drink in our bars, not to mention booking our accommodation which a few weeks ago was sitting at a miserly 20 per cent occupancy.

The place is made of tough stuff – small business drives the economy – but right now even some of the locals are feeling hesitant about getting out and supporting local business.

Lockdown has lifted on the Gold Coast but small businesses continue to suffer. Picture: Glenn Hampson

You bailed out the airline industry. What about the tourism industry? Wouldn’t it be just as vital to have a tourism offering for people when they step off those planes again. Coast industry figurehead, the Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa, last week said in the lead up to the eight-day lockdown, the city wasn’t in lockdown, it was in “meltdown” – such was the impact of major states being shut. He’s yet to reopen his attractions and re-engage his staff of 4000. He’s just one example.

On Wednesday, the city started building a $5m dive site attraction. It would be nice to have some people coming in to be able to use it at some point.

We know you have a four-phase reopening plan and must be thinking about this stuff 24-7. But at the moment, the Gold Coast needs you help to see you on the other side.

Sincerely, Gold Coast.