Tourism Industry

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (16:17): Usually when there is a call to action it comes at the end of the speech. This is so important that I am going to say it at the start: Premier, our tourism operators need you to go to national cabinet and advocate and fight for them.

Who could ever have imagined that we would have a rally of tourism operators out the front of Parliament House? These are businesspeople who have invested their blood, sweat and tears and who are on their knees. They are out the front of parliament because they feel like they are not being heard. They want our Premier to make sure he is hearing how desperate they are. They are fighting for their survival, and they feel like they are being ignored and are falling through the cracks.

When New South Wales and Victoria go into lockdown our tourism operators, our hotels, go into shutdown. Even today some of them said to me, 'Do you know, we would be better supported if we were in lockdown.' That is the reality of what we are facing. There is no equality in Australia for businesses that need support.

We know that some businesses have done well during this time, but many businesses have taken the deepest cuts and had the deepest impacts of COVID, and they are saying to state and federal governments, 'Help us because when COVID ends—and it will end—and tourism comes back, if you don't support us, we will not be here.'

When I talk to tourism operators and I talk to people running hotels and owning hotels, it is their staff they talk to me about—staff who have trained and worked for them for a long time, staff who are committed and experienced and skilled, but they have to let them go. One hotelier told me that this week he was making 40 people redundant because they are seeing occupancy rates less than 30 per cent and it is unsustainable for their industry.

What they are calling for is targeted wage support and what they need is something similar to JobKeeper. In New South Wales, there is JobSaver, which supports companies and supports businesses to keep their employees on board. Because of the lockdown in New South Wales and Victoria, our tourism operators and our hotels are virtually shut down.

Let me give you some quotes from people who have been talking about this over the week. Some of them were there today and some have spoken on radio. The organiser of the rally and owner of Taste the Barossa, Dallas Coull, said:

It's pretty simple... when the borders are closed our businesses aren't viable and that's right throughout the whole industry and… all we're asking for is exactly what other places in Australia are getting.

If you're in New South Wales you're getting a weekly payment that gets your staff and your business through to the other side of this pandemic. We're not getting anything. That's just untenable. That's just outrageous really.

On radio, John Culshaw, who owns the Majestic Hotel, said:

We own quite a big hotel in the city. Our occupancy is 23 per cent... throughout South Australia with hotels, generally you need 63-65 per cent occupancy in normal times to break even.

Many other operators have echoed these sentiments: Steve from Cellar Door Tours, Innez from Adelaide's Top Food and Wine Tours, Chook from Chook's Little Winery Tours and Hassie from Australian Wildlife Adventures. These are small family businesses fighting for their survival. Premier, help them survive. We know how important this is to our economy. These are jobs for South Australians and these jobs are going unless you do something about it.