Open borders ‘more essential to tourism’

Annastacia Palaszczuk says the extension to the international border closure means JobKeeper must be continued.

Targeted assistance for tourism operators and the aviation industry is being considered by the federal government in the place of JobKeeper. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The tourism industry has failed to back calls by the Queensland Premier for JobKeeper to be ­extended on the back of the federal government’s decision to keep international borders closed until at least June.

In a statement posted on social media, Annastacia Palaszczuk said in normal times Queensland welcomed 2.7 million overseas tourists a year, worth $6bn to the state’s economy.

“Thousands of tourism jobs and businesses rely on those international visitors,” said the Premier who has repeatedly closed Queensland borders.

“If the federal government cuts support now, businesses will be shattered and jobs will be lost. I’m urging the Prime Minister: extend JobKeeper for these affected industries and save Queensland jobs.”

But Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said members had ­accepted JobKeeper would not be continued beyond March 28 and were hopeful of a “clear run on borders” now that the COVID-19 vaccination rollout had begun.

“What we really need is for people to have greater confidence to travel,” Mr Westaway said.

“If states in particular do the right thing on border arrangements moving forward, that’s going to help a lot.”

He said the industry would like to see a “bridge built” ­between the end of JobKeeper and the broader recovery, in the form of targeted, short-term assistance.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has already hinted a targeted package is being looked at for the aviation industry, which continues to struggle.

A public hearing of the Senate committee examining the impact of COVID on aviation heard Qantas and Virgin Australia came close to grounding their fleets altogether last year.

“There was a time last April when Qantas and Virgin came (to us) and said ‘there will be no planes’,” Infrastructure Department deputy secretary Christine Dacey said.

“International traffic had dropped 99 per cent and we were told that as of Good Friday, ­(Qantas and Virgin) would stop flying domestically.”

The complete halt to flying was avoided by the establishment of assistance packages that subsidises hundreds of routes to keep Australia connected, Ms Dacey told the committee.

“You would have seen nothing outside of the Golden Triangle of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,” she said. “(Since then) we’ve had a lot of false starts. Until we have an enduring domestic bubble, airlines are in great strife and our response has to be flexible to match.”

Treasury officials told the committee Australia’s aerospace industry had effectively shrunk 10 per cent in terms of its workforce. First assistant secretary Matthew Brine said 31,000 ­aviation workers received JobKeeper in the final quarter of 2020, at a cost of $250m.