Australia risks being the “lost kingdom” of the South Pacific, according to tourism bosses who are angry about a lack of support in the Federal Budget.
The 2021/22 plan left the tourism sector high and dry with nowhere to go until at least the middle of next year, Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said.
The industry wanted a clear calendar for when borders would open, she said after Tuesday’s budget.
“No timetable condemns us virtually to being the lost kingdom of the South Pacific when the rest of the world is opening up,” she said.
“We will see more job losses and we will see many many business failures.”
International borders are closed and domestic travel remains in jeopardy amid COVID-19 leaks from hotel quarantine and people fearing domestic borders snapping shut.
Australian Chamber-Tourism chair John Hart said budget funding for zoos and aquariums, consumer travel and Tourism Australia would fall short without a plan to open Australia.
“It is vital for the government to begin a staged opening as soon as possible, given the stimulus measures (in the budget),” he said.
“Businesses need certainty and this is especially important after state border lockdowns battered the sector in 2020/21.”
Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said the Morrison government’s $1.2 billion tourism package would help support operators and workers.
Half-price airfares have given a much-needed boost to 15 domestic tourism areas across Australia, while also supporting the aviation sector, he said.
The $94.6 million zoos and aquariums program will be extended by six months to maintain animal populations where tourism revenue has been affected by travel and social distancing restrictions.
“We’ll be lucky to have a tourism industry to welcome international tourists back into the country,” Ms Osmond said.
Vaccine rollout
After a sluggish start, the Morrison government is banking on all willing Australians being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of the year.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declined to set a target completion date for the vaccine rollout after AstraZeneca-linked blood clots forced a reset.
But the 2021/22 budget, handed down by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday night, assumes the program will be finished before 2022.
“The vaccine is likely to be rolled out by the end of this year to all those Australians who want that vaccine,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“There is the assumption they will get two doses by that time.”
That will require the weekly pace of the rollout to triple, with just 2.7 million doses administered so far.
Mr Frydenberg noted the prediction was based on “those who seek to have the vaccine” rather than the entire Australian population.
Treasury also expects international travel to “remain low” through to mid-2022 after which a gradual recovery in international tourism is assumed to occur.
The cautious travel approach comes as the government revealed it would spend an extra $1.9 billion over the coming year to boost its COVID-19 vaccine supply to 170 million doses and speed up the rollout.
The budget papers also confirmed a plan to investigate domestic manufacturing of mRNA vaccines, although an exact funding figure was not divulged due to “commercial in confidence sensitivities”.
The Northern Territory’s Howard Springs facility, which is housing Australians returning from overseas, is slated to cost $487 million over two years as it expands to 2000 places.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley used the case of a Melbourne man who tested positive after completing hotel quarantine in SA to again push for the federal government to fund its own purpose-built quarantine site.
“We cannot continue to have a situation where it is the states disproportionately bearing the load in this quarantine process,” he said.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton strongly suspects the man picked up the virus in the Adelaide hotel, not in India where he travelled from before it was outlawed.
Although India repatriation flights are set to resume from Saturday, Liberal National Party Senators Matt Canavan and Gerard Rennick crossed the floor on Tuesday to support a Labor motion against the ban.
The urgent motion called for the Morrison government to help – not jail – stranded Australians return from India and “fix” the nation’s quarantine system.
