Scott Morrison open to more support for troubled tourism sector

Scott Morrison has left the door open to further support for the travel sector as he toured recovering drought areas in Queensland.

Scott Morrison feeds a lamb during a visit to the Tully family’s Bunginderry Station sheep and cattle farm outside Quilpie in southwest Queensland. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has left the door open to further taxpayer support for the travel sector as he began his working year with a tour of ­recovering drought areas in ­regional Queensland.

In his first day on the road in 2021 after returning from holidays this week, the Prime Minister said “we’re getting through this together” as he lauded the ­nation’s effort for dealing with ­unforgiving weather and the ­ongoing pandemic.

“While things have improved, there is still a long way to go. And I think that’s the story of our country — things have improved,” Mr Morrison said on a sheep farm in Quilpie.

With Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy predicting international borders would remain closed throughout the year, Mr Morrison said the government would consider extra assistance for the travel sector if necessary.

He said Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten was “playing politics” by calling for JobKeeper to be extended for the travel and tourism sectors past the March expiry of the subsidy scheme.

“We have demonstrated that we are serious about ensuring that all Australia gets through this in the best possible way,” he said.

“So our record speaks for itself. Where we need to make targeted investments — proportionate and commensurate with the challenge — well, we have done that. That has been our way of doing things. So we will assess those things as we go forward, as we have up until this time.”

Mr Morrison said the timeline of international borders reopening could change depending on the success of the vaccine rollout.

“The decisions we are taking around international borders, all of it has been based on the information and advice that has come through. And the same will be true when we make decisions over the course of this year, ­particularly when we get to the other side of vaccines being used in Australia,” he said.

He also noted that the drop in international travel had led to more domestic tourism spending.

“Domestic tourism industry accounts for about 70 to 80 per cent of the overall tourism industry in Australia, or thereabouts,” he said.

“Some areas in the country are more dependent on international tourism than others. But the bread and butter of the tourism industry in Australia has always been the domestic tourism sector. And in this unusual time, Australians, who are big overseas travellers, are increasingly in a position and will want to more and more see their own country. That is going to have its own impact.”

Mr Morrison’s four-day tour of Queensland began at the Bunginderry Station in Quilpie, 10 hours west of Brisbane, which he visited three days after becoming Prime Minister in Aug­ust 2018.

The station’s owners, Stephen and Annabel Tully, said rain over Christmas ensured the “seeds of recovery (are) under way”, compared to the “place of dirt” their property resembled when Mr Morrison last visited.

The Prime Minister also visited a ­cattle saleyard in Winton and had dinner with locals in Cloncurry, in the state’s northwest.