Submissions

The new meaning of casual employment within proposed Section 15A is a fundamental shift away from the valid and legitimate participation of casual works in our workforce. As drafted, Section 15A unfortunately ignores the fact many casual employees prefer a regular pattern of work, want to retain flexibility to reject shifts, and want to be paid casual wage loadings.

The accommodation sector is at the core of the visitor economy, employing over 110,000 Australians. Like other sectors connected with tourism, accommodation businesses have suffered through a difficult three years and have not yet fully recovered the ground lost during the pandemic. In particular, the sector is still being negatively impacted by the fact that international tourism has not yet fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. As this submission makes clear, improved aviation access from international visitor source countries to Australia is of critical importance to the accommodation sector. Decisions taken through the Bilateral Agreement process need to balance the needs of aviation as well as the tourism industry and travellers in order to achieve a sustainable competitive market.

The accommodation sector is at the core of the visitor economy, employing over 110,000 Australians, down from pre-COVID level of around 127,000. Economic value-add to tourism of the accommodation sector at $4.5 billion in 2021-22 is also showing some recovery but still considerably short of the $6.2 billion in 2018-19.

Under a banner of addressing the supply of long-term rental accommodation, a bed tax is being considered by the Victorian Government. A ‘bed tax,’ or ‘tourism tax,’ is a government-imposed levy, added to the cost of short-term stays in both traditional regulated commercial and unregulated accommodation. There are important reasons why this proposed tax should not be implemented.

Thank you for the opportunity for Accommodation Australia (AA) to comment on the proposed annual work plan process for Jobs & Skills Australia (JSA). Overall, the proposed process looks comprehensive and appropriate to the important task given to JSA. Our reflections on what is proposed are outlined below for your consideration.

The Accommodation Association (AAoA) and Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) are pleased to provide the following submission to The Treasury and Australian Trade and Investment Commission’s consultation process into Online bookings – restrictions on tourism and accommodation providers setting prices. This submission reflects the views of our smaller and independent accommodation providers and has been created by the Associations to provide our views on the specific issues around ensuring smaller and independent accommodation providers can set their own prices.

Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Accommodation Association of Australia (AAoA) welcomes the opportunity to make a pre-budget submission for 2023 - 2024.

The Australian accommodation industry is facing its greatest ever challenge as our members slowly recover from the pandemic. This is especially the case with Queensland’s accommodation businesses who have been heavily impacted by the lack of available workforce which contains to drastically curtail operations. This is not a situation which is going to improve any time soon unfortunately.

On behalf of the Australian Hotels Association (ACT Branch) and the Accommodation Association, and representing the interests of over 70 accommodation providers in the ACT, we make this joint submission to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission’s price investigation into prices of the fixed sewerage charges price from 2023-2028.

Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Accommodation Association welcomes the opportunity to make a pre-budget submission for 2022 - 2023.TAA and the Accommodation Association recognises the importance of working with Government departments and stakeholders and we have a demonstrated history of achievement in working with Federal, State and Local Government, law enforcement agencies, educators, universities, and other organisations, never more so than over the last 24 months.Prior to COVID-19, tourism had been identified as the super-growth sector of Australia’s transitioning economy, with a total tourist consumption of $143 billion, which saw $57.3 billion in GDP contributed to the economy (comprising 3.1% of the national total), and employment of 646,000 persons (5.2% of the Australian workforce).1 Confidence and investment had supported the recent strong performance of the sector which has outpaced national growth rate for the last three years.