Opposition to backpacker tax changes
So the Government has finally bowed to pressure from farmers, tourism operators, the Nationals and Country Liberal MPs and changed its contentious backpacker tax.
Under the change announced this week, the tax rate has been cut from 32.5 per cent between income levels of zero and $80,000 from January 1 to 19 per cent on earnings up to $37,000.
And to recoup some of the money, the Passenger Movement Charge will be increased by $5. That charge was introduced in 1995 and is now set at $55.
But with backpackers representing 25 per cent of the rural workforce, critics say the damage has been done with farmers now struggling to recruit workers.
There are also criticisms of the increase in the passenger departure tax and the $10 million fund for the tourism sector to market backpacker jobs.
The Labor Party still has to indicate whether it will support the change but Tasmanian Labor MP Brian Mitchell fears it might have come too late for fruit growers in his state.
"Now, if we can get backpackers in for this season, fantastic, but the advice I'm getting is that farmers need people on farms now, not next week or in two weeks, they actually need to be picking fruit and vegetables now, and as I say hopefully this has come not too little, too late," Mitchell told the ABC.
The changes have also come under fire out in the west with Tourism Council WA chief executive officer Evan Hall saying the increase in the departure tax would put off people coming here.
"Every lost international visitor results in a loss of $2,560 in visitor expenditure," Mr Hall told Fairfax Media.
"If 0.5 per cent of people who would have travelled to Australia are put off by the higher airfares, it would result in a loss of 4,400 visitors, $11 million and 80 jobs per year".
AHA chief executive officer Bradley Woods said Western Australia had been hit hard by the proposed tax, citing evidence that the number of people travelling to WA on working holiday visas had dropped by more than 11 per cent in the past year.
"Western Australia's hospitality and accommodation industries' reliance on working holiday makers would have been substantially damaged without the changes made,’’ Mr Woods told The Age.
by Leon Gettler, September 28th 2016
