Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member opposite asks, ‘How?’ and we will come to that. Local communities like Glenelg can continue to benefit from the tourism dollar. The Labor government has done its bit by retaining tourism marketing and funding for tourism across Australia across the forward estimates.

But that is not the half of it. Australian governments, excluding local councils, spend more than $500 million annually on tourism marketing. This directly contributes to the strength of our tourism industry, an industry which grew by 3.2 per cent in 2010 to contribute an extra $34 billion to Australia’s GDP. The tourism industry has received direct relief and recovery support as a result of the Queensland floods and cyclone, including an exclusive sector-specific $10 million tourism support package—$5 million has been provided by the federal government and $5 million by the Queensland government.

The majority of the funds will be used to support immediate marketing initiatives to reinforce the message that the majority of Queensland’s iconic tourism destinations are open for business, and to counter negative perceptions resulting from that extensive national and international reporting of the floods and Cyclone Yasi. A proportion will also be spent on industry development measures.

And let us not forget that industry benefits from the extensive Commonwealth government support provided beyond Tourism Australia. This government has committed $660 million to improve workforce skills, education and training. This is an area that was absolutely neglected by the previous government, and this will benefit the 500,500 people directly employed in tourism. The employers in the sector have also benefited from improvements to workplace relations laws. After over 100 years of fragmented workplace relations laws this government has delivered a single national system for around 96 per cent of the private sector, and that includes tourism. That was done by reducing almost 4,000 complex outdated awards into 122 modern instruments. We have provided a net benefit to Australian businesses of around $4.83 billion over the 10 years.

Through our $660 million investment, the Gillard government recognises the tourism industry’s need for a highly skilled and educated workforce. Developing the workforce is at the very heart of this government’s plan to build an economy that will meet the challenges of the future. Skilling the nation’s workforce and addressing any emerging skill shortages are critical to Australia’s prosperity in the long term. That is why this government is boosting the skills of Australians and has embarked on one of the most ambitious reform agendas to reshape the apprentice and training sector. Perhaps we would not be in this position had the former government actually done something about skilling Australia’s workforce.

To achieve this, the government is investing heavily in the skills of the current and future workforce by providing practical help—

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