4. National Submission by the Australian Hotels Association
3.3 Supporting businesses dependent on foreign visa workers Foreign visa workers are an essential component in meeting the workforce needs of the Tasmanian hospitality industry. Not only do these workers help meet the needs of a critical shortage of quality trained staff in Tasmania more generally, in areas such as Tasmania’s East and West Coast they fulfil an even more critical role due to the difficulty in attracting Tasmanian staff to these more remote locations. Feedback from the industry demonstrated how difficult it was during the lockdown to retain these foreign visa workers, particularly as many were simply not eligible for government support. The loss of these employees to the industry and the state will be more acutely felt as business such as those at Cradle Mountain, Freycinet and Strahan and in the regional areas more generally look to re-open and the government needs to ensure that the policy settings are supportive of the industry’s efforts in re-recruiting foreign visa workers. 3.4 Continued marketing of hospitality industry/Welcome Back campaign The Tasmanian Government’s investment in promoting the hospitality industry through the “Welcome Back” campaign is not only welcome but is essential in being able to encourage Tasmanians to reconnect with one another and their local hospitality venues. However this campaign has only been funded for a limited period of time (up to three months) and the recovery phase for the hospitality industry is expected to take twelve months or more. The need to encourage Tasmanians to patronise their local venues is all the more important with the ban on interstate and international visitors and this will have a major impact on hospitality venues for a considerable period of time. For these reasons, continued funding for the “Welcome Back” campaign needs to be considered, potentially until the middle of 2021, particularly if international and some interstate visitor bans remain in place. 3.5 Freight and supply of goods in regional area The cost and access to freight services, particularly in the more remote and regional areas of Tasmania, has long been an issue impacting on hospitality businesses. This issue has been exacerbated as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and is even more critical now as venues look to re-stock and re-open their doors. As a significant cost to their businesses, and as an issue of the reliability of supply, the Tasmanian Government needs to look at ways of addressing these freight handling issues, such as providing a subsidy on freight charges during the re-opening phase. 3.6 Ongoing Review of Restrictions on Venues The need for the social distancing restrictions and bans on interstate and international visitors is fully recognised and supported. However, these restrictions are having a major impact on the capacity of Tasmania’s hospitality businesses to have the confidence to re-open and for these reasons these restrictions and bans should be under constant review and be reduced or removed as soon as it is safe to do so.
The following is a summary of the stimulus proposals lodged by the Australian Hotels Association with the Australian Government on 17 June 2020. These details are provided here so that the Tasmanian government is familiar with the details and can lend its support at the National Cabinet meetings for those measures that can assist in rebuilding Tasmania’s hospitality industry. JobKeeper Extend JobKeeper for all hotel businesses until at least 31 December 2020.
Fringe Benefits Tax
For the next three years, all businesses should be allowed to: claim a tax deduction and GST inputs, together with the suspension of fringe benefits tax (FBT) on entertainment expenses Excise Freeze the twice yearly CPI excise increase on beer and bottled spirits for at least three years.
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