Hospitality NT CEO Cathy Simmonds on concerns about proposals to cut longer-stay tourist visas

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, as we were just discussing with the Minister for
Tourism and Hospitality, we know the federal government is looking
at making these cuts to longer stay tourist and working
holiday maker visas in an effort to reduce the official
headline net overseas migration figures. Now, joining us on the
line to talk more about this is the CEO of

(00:20):
Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, Cathy Simmons. Good morning, Cathy.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Morning, Katie.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Now, how important are working holidaymakers and longer stay tourists
to the Northern Territory's hospitality industry?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Vitally important. They're our best customers as well as our
best workers. It's really, really, this could be really devastating
for the Northern Territory's economy.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Cathy, can you give us a bit of an idea,
like quantify for us, you know, what sort of percentage
of our workforce might be reliant on these working holidaymakers?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's Very seasonal here, as you know, but so many jobs,
all of those jobs that you see uplifting in the
peak season, like they're all, none of them are locals,
like they're all visitors, working behind the bar, running tours,
you know, operating our hotels, being our managers, bartenders, chefs,

(01:16):
like these are all many of them are visitors. Like
we have very few local workers providing that uplift. This
is work that Australians kind of don't want to do.
We might lose, this is ATIC data, the Australian Tourism
Industry Council. They've been working to put together this petition
that we're talking about. They've done some research on the

(01:37):
potential impacts of this. We might lose more than $ 80
million from our economy each year from these changes, hundreds
of jobs. And that's their data. I actually think those
numbers are really conservative. This is going to be devastating
for outback communities. Here's another number, okay? As of June 30,
there were 225,000 working holidaymakers in Australia. That's down from

(02:00):
260,000 or thereabouts in March. Over three months, that's 30,000,
more than 30,000 fewer backpackers just in Australia in our
peak seasons. That's 30,000 people. They haven't just gone from
12 months to six months. They've gone from 12 months
to zero months. They're not coming.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Cathy, what are some of our Northern Territory businesses, some
of our, you know, hospitality industry reps saying to you
at this point in time as, you know, as more
and more discussion really happens around these changes and people
become more aware of them?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, it's bizarre. It's bewildering, you know. Like, even if
you do think net migration is too high. In my view,
that's a problem for down south. That's not a problem
for here. The regions are... The Minister was dead right.
The regions are being thrown under the bus to fix
a Melbourne and Sydney problem. But even if you do
think it's too high, net migration means people who arrive

(02:59):
minus people who leave. Tourists leave. But if you stay
more than 12 months because you're on that second or
third year of your visa, obviously the number clicks up
for the year that you arrive and the click down
doesn't happen until the person leaves. But They're temporary. They
don't have a pathway to permanent residency. They don't take
up housing. I've known backpackers to sleep three or four
to a room. They're compliant with local laws. They work hard.

(03:22):
I don't get it. And my members are saying they
don't get it either. This is not the solution to housing,
cost of living, whatever they think this will fit. The
most rabid anti-immigration advocate isn't kicking out against backpackers and tourists.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
I'm reading this as an overreaction to, like, One Nation's
increasing popularity in suburbs down south, but the consequences of
this are going to be really damaging for the Northern
Territory and the more regional or remote the community, the
harder it is.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Well, and it's just such a different, you know, like
it's such a different space to what, you know, like
to what other people are concerned about in terms of
you know, the impact on housing and that kind of thing.
It's so sort of different. You know, you're talking about
backpackers coming here to the Northern Territory or here to
Australia and working in our pubs. And as you touched
on right at the start, various different locations and industries. Cathy,

(04:13):
in terms of, you know, and again, I know I
sort of touched on this at the start, but like
how big an impact could this have for some of
our hospitality venues that are very reliant on on this workforce?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I mean, as everyone I think in the top end
particularly knows, you know, and Alice Springs as well, like
they're heavily dependent on these visa holders. The working holidaymakers
who do come to Australia, if they love it so
much they apply to stay a little longer than 88
days or even if they transfer to a different visa
and they stay forever, they're the hardest workers. They're the bartenders, chefs,

(04:52):
venue managers, like, you know, they're doing all the work
that Like I said, locals just don't want to do
this work. Yeah. And they stay and they transition into
careers in healthcare and education, public service, whatever. They contribute.
And working holidaymakers are under 35 or under 30 even
when they arrive. They have the best working years of
their lives ahead of them. We should be doubling the

(05:13):
allotment to this visa type.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Have you spoken to our federal member for Solomon, Luke Gosling,
or any of our other federal representatives, either Liberal or Labor?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
No. Yeah, a member of my board reached out to
him yesterday with the petition. So we've also... Hospitality NT
has followed Tourism Top End's lead and ATIC's lead on this.
I want to quickly acknowledge Sam Bennett at Tourism Top End.
She tirelessly works to represent the Territory at that national level,
and she's a bloody legend. We've followed their lead and

(05:46):
sent that to our members as well and said, like,
this is... Let's all work together to advocate on this.
It's really important to.
Everyone we have as representatives in Canberra to hear us.
One of my board members forwarded this to Luke yesterday
to say, like, you know, please help. Like, you have
to help us. You know, economically speaking, we're going to

(06:07):
be in the longest wet season of our lives if
we let tourism go like this. And also speaking of
wet season, no backpackers, no mangoes. None of the mangoes
or the madness. The farmers are all over this as well. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Hey, where can people, you know, if people do want
to sign that petition, where can they head to?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
That's a great question. I'll find out. I'll find out.
I'll send you a text if you like. So the
Australian Tourism Industry Council is absolutely taking the lead on
this at a national level. There's, you know, over thousands
of signatures so far. We're really keen to get as
many people on this as possible who recognises this isn't

(06:47):
just a, This is a serious economic issue. It's absolutely
going to gut regional communities.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's bizarre to me. I get the concerns that people
have in some of our capital cities when it comes
to migration and their concerns around being able to get
into a home and that sort of thing. But for
us here in the Northern Territory, it's such a different story.
particularly when you are talking about working holiday makers, you know,

(07:15):
and being able to work here for a bit of
their trip and being able to contribute, you know, while
they are in Australia. It just feels odd to me
that this is the path that the federal government's taking.
And I really do think that they need to sit
down with industry and hear the concerns that you've all got.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, I think that's right. Like, you know, if there
is a holder of a particular visa subclass that is,
you know, taking up the country's resources, you know, in
the cities or in the country, you know, whatever it is. Like,
look at the actual problem and who is causing that
and how it's being caused and solve that. Like, you know,

(07:55):
migration policy is diabolical. Everyone knows that. But it needs
a proper solution, not knee-jerk 11th hour weird changes like this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Have they even been talking about doing this for, Cathy?
It sort of seemed like it's just come up out
of the blue, but that could be for us because
we're not in the industry.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Well, it feels like this one has kind of crept
up on us. Like there's always, there was a threat
a couple of years ago, sort of before I started
at Hospo, like that there was going to be a
cut to visa holders and then that was stayed at
the time. And, you know, because it's silly. But, you know,
we'll certainly be working to make sure that this doesn't...

(08:33):
It isn't a policy that applies. We can't take an
NT exemption. Like, we've got the NT Dharma, we've got
some good migration sort of deals with the feds, but
this is not something that we can fix with an
NT exemption. So many of our backpackers, our working holidaymakers,
all international tourists, most of them, like the vast majority

(08:54):
of them, they don't start in Darwin. They go to Sydney,
they go to Melbourne, they go to Brisbane and they go,
you know what? I really want to see Kakadu. I
really want to see Uluru. I want to have that
big trip up the guards and go, you know, up
to Stuart. And six months, which is, you know, two
visa types, tourist visa types, these people aren't even working,

(09:15):
but they plan to also cut those from 12 months
to six months so that it doesn't impact the net
migration figure as much. And a lot of those people
are just, more than half, they're just not going to
make it to the top end anymore. They're not going
to make it to the Northern Territory anymore. Yeah, that
is a real worry. There is no doubt about that.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
It's a real worry. Well, Cathy Simmons, CEO of Hospitality
here in the Northern Territory, always appreciate your time. Thank
you very much for having a chat with us about this.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Thanks, Katie.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Thank you.