Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2026
Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (10:44): I rise to oppose the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment Bill 2026. I oppose it because this is another tax increase from a Labor government that seems to believe the answer to every problem is to make Australians pay more. This government is addicted to tax.
They're chasing Australians down the road for the last $2 in their pocket. I remember what Kerry Packer once said: 'Why would you give the government any more money? Look at the way they're spending it.' I think that applies equally to the Albanese Labor government.
This particular tax will hurt an industry that's enormously important to Australia and absolutely vital to regional Australia. That's tourism. Under this bill, Labor wants to increase the passenger movement charge—effectively Australia's departure tax—by another $10, from $70 to $80, from 1 January next year.
That represents another 14.3 per cent increase, just 2½ years after the last rise. If this bill passes, the charge will have increased from $60 to $80 between June 2024 and January 2027. That's a 33 per cent increase in little more than 2½ years.
And what's Labor's justification? The government expects to collect another $745 million over the forward estimates. That tells you what this is really about.
It's a revenue grab and it's another toxic tax. Australia is already an expensive country to reach. We are a long-haul destination for most of the world, and international visitors already face significant airfares.
At $80, our passenger movement charge will sit at the very high end of international departure taxes. Countries including our near neighbour New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and France all impose substantially lower charges. The people who know the industry best are warning the government about the consequences.
The Australian Airports Association has warned about the impact on price-sensitive travellers and Australia's tourism competitiveness. The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia has criticised the increase, the lack of consultation and the impact on international airfares. The Tourism & Transport Forum says the industry was blindsided, while Cruise Lines International Association Australasia has also raised concerns about Australia's competitiveness.
Please, government, listen to these authoritative bodies, because, when our international visitors decide Australia is too expensive, the loss doesn't stop at the airport. It reaches the motel, the cafe, the pub, the cellar door, the tour operator, the caravan park, the restaurant—small businesses in communities right across Australia, right across regional Australia.
I know just how important that is because I represent one of the most beautiful parts of the country. The Lyne electorate takes in extraordinary parts of both the Barrington Coast and Port Macquarie-Hastings. The Barrington Coast has more than 190 kilometres of coastline, 15 national parks and 38 rivers.
We have Forster-Tuncurry and Wallis Lake, the Manning River and Manning Valley, Seal Rocks and the Myall Lakes, Harrington and Crowdy Head— A government member interjecting— Ms PENFOLD: I'm coming to our border area, Member for Hunter, don't worry—the historic Dungog, Stroud and Gloucester. Beyond Gloucester lies one of Australia's great national treasures, the World Heritage listed Gondwana rainforests of the Barrington Tops.
And, yes, I share a border with the member for Hunter, and I have the magnificent Luskintyre: part of the Hunter Valley vineyards—Tranquil Vale, a wonderful vineyard—and also the home of the Tiger Moths. They're in Luskintyre as well. It's a great— A government member interjecting— Ms PENFOLD: Yes, they're on my side of the boundary there, Member for Hunter—and then I've got the Camden Haven, Laurieton, North Haven and Dunbogan.
Pristine beaches and waterways: Diamond Head, Kattang Nature Reserve, Perpendicular Point and the spectacular view from North Brother Mountain. Port Macquarie-Hastings describes it simply as 'uncrowded bliss', and I reckon that's a pretty good description. This is the tourism magic that regional Australia offers.
I have to add: Mount Seaview Resort on the Oxley Highway up the road towards Walcha. I was up there only last week, talking to Cliff. It's a fantastic facility.
I actually went there as a school kid and stayed, and it's a wonderful place to stay on the way up to Walcha on the Oxley Highway. We deliver in regional Australia, and my area, Port Macquarie-Hastings, where I live, delivers serious economic benefits. Across the Port Macquarie-Hastings local government area alone, there are around 1.8 million visitors a year, generating some $759 million in tourism spending.
We should want international visitors to discover places like these, but to do that we need to make Australia competitive, promote regional destinations and ensure visitors can safely get there. That's another area where Labor is letting regional tourism down. The Pacific Highway is a tourism artery of the New South Wales Mid North Coast.
Under the former coalition government, the Commonwealth funded Pacific Highway upgrades on an 80-20 basis with the NSW government. Labor's reduced the Commonwealth contribution to 50-50. That means less Commonwealth support for the infrastructure regional communities depend on, which makes it harder to deliver the remaining safety upgrades.
Two intersections in my electorate demonstrate this problem. The intersection of the Bucketts Way and the Pacific Highway is the gateway to Gloucester and the magnificent Barrington Tops. It needs a grade-separated interchange, and so does the intersection of Houston Mitchell Drive and the Pacific Highway, the gateway to the Camden Haven.
High-speed highway traffic, heavy vehicles, caravans and growing local and visitor traffic make these important safety projects and tourism projects. My community has called for action. I've called for action.
Yet we still don't have the funding needed to deliver them. There is a contradiction here. Labor says it wants regional communities to attract more tourists and grow their visitor economies, while making it more expensive for international visitors to come to Australia and failing to adequately invest in the roads they need to safely reach our regions.
And roads aren't the only example. Cellar doors bring people into regional communities, where they stay in local accommodation, eat in local restaurants and spend money in local businesses. Yet Labor has decided to pause the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program for two years at a time when Australia's wine industry is already facing extraordinarily difficult conditions.
Then there is tourism marketing. Tourism Australia does important work internationally, but where is the recent major investment specifically promoting regional Australia to international visitors? Where is the campaign saying: 'Don't just visit Sydney Harbour; travel further.
Come to the Manning, come to Gloucester, come to the Barrington Tops, come to Forster Tuncurry and come to the Camden Haven. Stay an extra night, eat in a local restaurant and spend money in a regional community.' We know it can be done, because a former coalition government did it. We targeted working holidaymakers because they stay longer, travel further and support regional tourism, hospitality and agriculture.
When bushfires devastated tourism communities in 2019 and 2020, the coalition delivered a $76 million tourism bushfire recovery package, including domestic and international marketing and support for regional tourism events and attractions. Then, as regional communities confronted the devastation of COVID, the coalition delivered $250 million for a regional tourism recovery package.
We also launched the Holiday Here This Year campaign to get Australians travelling again and supporting tourism businesses. That is the difference. We understood that government should help bring visitors into our regions, not put more costs in their way, and that brings me back to this bill.
If passengers are going to pay another $745 million, what exactly are they getting for it? The aviation industry has called for the passenger movement charge revenue to be reinvested in better border infrastructure, more smart gates, more border technology, improved passenger processing and properly resourced Australian Border Force operations. Yet this bill contains no guarantee that the additional revenue will be spent on any of those things.
Passengers pay more, the government collects more and that's it. Tourism is an export industry. The difference is that, instead of sending our products overseas, we bring the customer here.
And when they arrive, we should want them to stay longer, travel further and spend more, particularly in regional Australia. The coalition supported the previous increase in the passenger movement charge, because the charge had been frozen for seven years and the increase broadly reflected accumulated inflation. But this increase, the one that the Labor government is proposing, is completely different.
Labor wants another $10 increase just two and a half years later, an increase substantially above inflation. There is no convincing policy justification, there's been inadequate industry consultation, there is no guarantee the additional revenue will improve border infrastructure and the tourism and transport industries are warning it will make Australia less competitive.
In my electorate we have the destinations, we have the natural beauty, we have the tourism magic and we have the small businesses ready to welcome visitors. What we need is a government that helps get visitors there and that cares about regional Australia.