Tourism’s $8bn bid to stay afloat after JobKeeper

Australia’s tourism sector has demanded nearly $8bn in wage-subsidy payments for more than 100,000 of the worst-affected businesses once JobKeeper ends in March.

Cairns Aquar­ium marketing executive Grace Walker says ‘Cairns, perhaps more than anywhere else in Australia, has ­relied heavily on JobKeeper’. Picture: Sean Davey.

Australia’s tourism sector has ­demanded nearly $8bn in wage-subsidy payments for more than 100,000 of the worst-affected businesses once JobKeeper ends in March, warning that without a replacement scheme there won’t be an industry left.

Unveiling its proposal after Tourism Minister Dan Tehan asked the sector to justify any further assistance with hard evidence and suggestions, the Tourism and Transport Form pitched a nine-month, $7.74bn program starting in April that it estimates would help 77 per cent of the industry’s businesses.

Those that suffered a 30 per cent to 49.99 per cent downturn in the June, September and December 2021 quarters compared to the March 2019 quarter — a year ­before COVID-19 hit — would ­receive $1000 fortnightly payments for employees.

Businesses with a turnover ­decline of 50 per cent or more would be handed the original JobKeeper rate of $1500 a fortnight.

Dubbed the “tourism ­employee and asset maintenance”, or TEAM, wage subsidy program, TTF chief executive Margy Osmond said the proposal was not JobKeeper but a similar scheme was the simplest way of supporting the industry.

“If the government puts in place something like we’re suggesting, the industry could be back up to 75 per cent of its aggregated full-time positions by the end of the year,” Ms Osmond said.

“If it doesn’t, between April and December we will lose ­another 318,000 full-time jobs and then we won’t have a tourism industry by this time next year.”

Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison have ruled out extending the $90bn JobKeeper program, but are considering targeted assistance for industries decimated by COVID-19.

The TEAM program would support about 395,000 employees, with Victorian businesses ­receiving 27.5 per cent of the payments, NSW businesses receiving 26.8 per cent and Queensland businesses receiving 24.7 per cent.

The TTF estimates the tourism sector has already been paid $16.7bn in JobKeeper funds, averaging $1.4bn a month, and the new scheme would cost the government roughly $860m a month.

The group is also working on extra sub-sector-specific support packages as part of a separate pre-budget submission that would help give tourism attractions money to maintain infrastructure, temporarily relocate major international events from COVID-­affected countries to Australia and retain and attract new staff.

Australians choosing to spend more than $1000 on leisure holiday activity and companies that encourage their employees to travel for work would also be ­offered tax rebates, while stood-down aircrew would be retrained with government ­support.

“For the tourism industry, in that I include the creative industries as well, no one is as affected by the failure to put some certainty into a state border closure or is so affected by there being no opening of international borders,” Ms Osmond said.

“It does make us a special case and it does require the government to think about us differently. Just a program of grants and low interest loans is not going to cut it.

“The Victorian Tourism ­Industry Council has just done a survey: 67 per cent of their members are still on JobKeeper and in excess of 13 per cent don’t think they’ll be there if JobKeeper goes.”

In far north Queensland, which is heavily reliant on international visitors, Cairns Aquar­ium marketing executive Grace Walker said tourism operators faced a grim future without JobKeeper. “March is definitely too soon (to end the payments),” she said. “Cairns, perhaps more than anywhere else in Australia, has ­relied heavily on JobKeeper because of the loss of international and many interstate visitors. Without JobKeeper many people would have had to leave and look for work elsewhere.”

Ms Walker said the aquarium was preparing for the end of JobKeeper by reworking rosters to try to give everyone enough work each week to get by. “We’ve ­already had to reduce operating hours from 9 to 5 to 10 to 3 daily,” she said. “The problem for us is our overheads are very high ­because all the animals need high levels of care.”

According to TTF analysis conducted by Stafford Strategy, the tourism industry lost $6.8bn between December 24 and January 31 due to state lockdowns and border restrictions during the peak holiday period.