David Alexander and John Hart hold doorstop about the future of Australian tourism
Transcript: 30 June 2026
David Alexander:
I'm joined today by John Hart, who's the Executive Chair of Australian Chamber of Tourism. Today we're releasing a report on Australia's national tourism settings. Our key finding in this report is that our settings lack ambition and they lack coherence. Tourism is a major industry in Australia. It contributes around $80 billion to national GDP. It employs more than a million people in tourism and it supports around more than 300,000 businesses. Today we're going to release that report. Our plan elaborates on pathways to achieving greater ambition and greater coherence in the programme So to elaborate on that, I'm going to hand over now to John Hart.
John Hart:
Thanks, Dave. Thanks everyone for being here. Australian tourism used to be the goose that laid the golden eggs for our economy and it can be again. We've made a great start on that by moving from our recovery phase into a phase of growth and getting back onto a growth trajectory. Business spending is rebuilding. International markets are strengthening and the states and territories have bold well funded programmes and strategies for the future. That's the good news. Our national strategy, however, has not kept pace. Thrive 2030 was the right plan for the pandemic recovery. It did its job, but the 230 billion target will now be reached on the basis of baseline growth alone without any intervention.
What we need to have is an action plan that has ambition and reaches a further target and gives us something to aim for something to achieve. Consider this. Our three largest states alone have a target of 220 billion by 2035. The national target is only 230 billion and therefore our national target will be outstripped by the target for our states. So today Australian Chamber Tourism is calling for a successor strategy, one built for growth, not recovery. We propose extending the horizon on the 2030 report to 2030-35 with a genuine stretch target of 280 to $300 billion a year. We propose treating inbound tourism as the export industry that it is. We propose a national workforce strategy through to the 2032 Olympic Games and we propose investigating the reinvestment of the passenger movement charge money travellers already pay back into the sector that earns it. None of this is radical.
We've done a benchmarking of five countries, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, and Singapore to frame this strategy. They are already investing in growth and we need to do the same. Our industry employs more than a million Australians and holds up entire regional communities. We deserve to have a future where we reach our potential and where we have a strategy that will allow us to do that in good shape. We released today our report from Thrive 2030 to a new national tourism strategy. This calls for real interventions but real ambition. Thank you.
Journalist:
Actually I do have one on tourism. Separately though the fuel excise is changing tomorrow. Are you worried about tourism over the sort of Winter break and the impact on family road trips?
John Hart:
Well, we've seen a really strong recovery in regional tourism as fuel prices have come down and as consumer confidence has increased. So I think we've seen the bottom of the curve and we're hoping for a strong winter season, particularly in drive destinations because they're the ones that are really important at this sort of time and hour out of capital cities. So we're optimistic.
Journalist:
Fuel is about to go up by a fairly significant amount. Are you worried that will be hard on tourism?
John Hart:
I think when we saw the downside some months ago, it was really the confidence that went with it that was more the problem than the actual price of the fuel. And I think we're now on an upward trajectory which will continue.
Journalist:
Excellent. Thank you. David.
David Alexander:
Yes.
Journalist:
The greens (inaudible) of the superannuation teen workers, why should people not get paid the same?
David Alexander:
Yeah, so we're very concerned about this proposal, which would have very significant consequences for the small business community and the broader business community. The proposal is sometimes put as though it's free money. We would like those proposing it to specify where is the money coming from for this. Is it going to hit small business? Please answer directly who is going to pay for the cost of this proposal.
Journalist:
Why don't young people deserve superannuation contributions?
David Alexander:
Yeah. So we would say that you need to be clear about who's going to pay for this. So in the past we've seen that businesses are wearing a lot of costs these days. Right now we've just had legislation passed in the parliament putting up capital gains tax. They're looking to put up tax on trusts. There's a minimum wage mandated payment coming in on July one. All of these imposts are weighing down on business activity. They are really suffocating business' ability to thrive and innovate into the future. So we would say, please come clean with who is going to bear the cost of this measure.
Journalist:
There's some very large generations (inaudible).
David Alexander:
So businesses of any size, if they are going to wear the impact, then that's going to impact on their ability to run their businesses properly, thrive into the future, provide jobs and wage growth into the future. So small businesses are obviously, if they are going to wear the cost of these, small businesses employ a lot of under 18s and so potentially there's going to be a very serious impact on those businesses.
Journalist:
A lot of young people under the age of 18 work for big companies such as McDonald's, Coles. It's often their first job. Do you think it should be a stipulation that those workers are paid super, even though they're often treated as cheaper labour?
David Alexander:
Yeah. So we're concerned that this is going to be an impost on business when all of the economic indicators suggest that business is struggling. Productivity is at historic lows. Standards of living are at historic lows. Part of that is because burdens are being placed on business, whether it's new taxes, whether it's industrial relations laws or employment laws, all of these factors are weighing down businesses. So people need to think about cause and effect. Why are businesses so unable to provide that wage growth because they're being weighed down with various imposts from the government.
Journalist:
Obviously July one changes coming in tomorrow. What are your reflections on that from the business community?
David Alexander:
Yeah, we're very concerned. The number of the measures that are coming in on July one. We have a government dictated minimum wage increase coming in above inflation. We have payday super compliance requirements, which are quite a cost for businesses to get across. There are, as I said, coming up, the capital gains tax changes and also the taxes on discretionary trusts, which are going to be a big impact on....
Journalist:
That's not tomorrow though.
David Alexander:
No, but that's coming down the pipe.
Journalist:
Just back to the question around Coles, Woolworths, McDonald's, these big corporates who still don't pay superannuation. There's other corporates who pay superannuation to young people like Bunnings, JB Hi fi, Priceline. They clearly have decided that they can afford it. So why can't these big corporates who are certainly not going to be going under anytime soon? Why can't these big corporates pay that extra to a 17 year old who's just trying to get their way in the world?
David Alexander:
Yeah. So what's being proposed is an extra impost potentially on small business but beyond them to medium and large businesses. So whenever you're going to put an impost on business of any size, you're going to impair their ability to employ and provide wages growth into the future. So that's going back to the original point. There's no free money. Where is the penalty going to fall? So those proposing it, the onus is on them, to be very clear, you can't go to these under 18s and say someone else is going to pay for it and then go to the small business community and suggest, "Oh no, that's going to be self paid by the employees." You need to be clear with everyone. Where is the money coming from?
Journalist:
I have this question, where is the money coming from? Where would you be happy for that money to come from or what would you accept? Would there be any world where you would agree to some sort of deal here?
David Alexander:
I couldn't quite hear the question, but in the broad, we just think that there should be less burden on business because that will allow them to thrive and employ people and that's when you get sustainable wage growth. When businesses are thriving, that's when you get natural sustainable wage growth. So that's the best outcome that we can see.
Journalist:
Doesn't it seem unfair to you though, or unfair to the young people?
David Alexander:
It's unfair that so many burdens are being put on small business, new taxes, new burdens, new red tape, new compliance. It's weighing down on their ability to provide jobs and higher living standards.
Journalist:
So you don't think that's unfair to young people?
David Alexander:
We think that small businesses need to be part of the consideration here. So are the proposers admitting that small businesses are going to be penalised for this measure? So we say come clean with who's going to bear the burden.
Journalist:
These young people are often not paid very much to begin with. Surely the extra in the cost of their wages is not going to be that significant.
David Alexander:
So the question is why should businesses, small businesses be weighed down with these extra burdens? Are the proposers suggesting some other offset so that businesses aren't going to be hit? It's unclear, but again, that's one for the proposers to answer. They shouldn't be putting it about that there's some free money that's around. They shouldn't be misleading the public, but there's such a thing as a free pot of money. Outline, where is that money going to come from? Thank you.