Bruce Hedditch
Bowen
The industry that needs support is Tourism. If the future Federal Government is sincere in their attempts to assist the Tourism industry, and particularly small business, they will create incentives to assist the sector to grow and unburden the shackles of red tape applied by the three tiers of government.
It needs financial support to actually allow tourism businesses to grow and expand.
The next Federal Government should consider creating a Whitsunday Special Tourism Economic Zone that will provide special support to tourism businesses in our area.
We are always told small business is the leading employer in the nation, then the time has arrived to actually support small business in Tourism.
Mike Muller
Cannonvale
I feel Tourism needs the most attention from the Government moving forward. Mining and Agriculture have for the most part had little set back from the past two years of the Covid pandemic.
Tourism has been savaged by Covid and has yet to come back to pre-Covid levels, especially when looking at the overseas market. Airlie Beach’s economy has been primarily focused on the backpacker market over the years and they are yet to return.
I feel the Government could help this by lending support to marketing and directly targeting the backpacker market to try and attract Backpackers back to Australia.
This would greatly help the Airlie Beach economy get back to pre-Covid levels of overseas visitors. This would also greatly help both the agriculture and hospitality sector with finding employees. There are acute labour shortages in both these sectors around the country.
Jamie-Lee Bishop-Kinlyside
Cannonvale
I think that, between the three, agriculture is the one that needs more love. We need to grow food more than we need to grow more cafes or better service. We shouldn’t be looking at mining either, because we should be planting trees and planting fruit and vegetables, not digging up big holes for whatever it may be that we mine now or in the future.
I think they could do with some tax-free benefits in agriculture, especially for when they’re buying new farm equipment. Farmers are the backbone, so we should incentivise their work.
Paying less tax on whatever their tax would be for the year could be one way. The things they need are grants, too. For them to be able to buy feed, grain, equipment, more land – they need government grants for those.
Tony Barbagallo
Cannonvale
It’s hard to split them because they’ve all got their importance. I was brought up in the agricultural area of the Burdekin and we spent a lot of time here [In Airlie Beach], and obviously tourism is critical. And mining, I’ve got many, many people I know who rely on mining – family members, clients, etc. So, it’s very hard to split them.
Tourism was the one that has been greatly impacted [by Covid], so it’s the one that really needs to fire up. It’s very hard for small businesses here in this region that need support so they can do that.
Things to help them get on their feet, like grants because they’ve probably gone out and borrowed as much as they can in those two years. I think, with a grant, if they were able to expand their business or market reach, that would be something that would be a direct benefit.
Karen O’Donnell
Cannonvale
Mining. I think it gives a bit more [economically] to the community. A lot of the little country towns are struggling – the mining towns – and they keep taking things away from them. We used to make all our own steel and now we get rubbish from China instead. I know [mining] isn’t really good, but they should be helping those communities.
Helping out those towns in general, even if that means transitioning out of mining, but just helping them out in some way. Really, they’re the backbone of the country.
You see all the little mining towns are struggling so much with everything being taken away from them. I think the government should be helping those places with doctors and hospitals and things like that. I know the environment gets a lot of attention, but these little country towns need help from our government.
Adam Downton
Airlie Beach
Tourism, especially after lockdown. It’s vital to get tourists back on the ground to help the local economy. I think that, from my experience staying at the Mirage recently, the place is fully booked but they’ve got fewer staff than they would normally. That’s not different anywhere around town.
The staff shortage is a big issue, I think. I know there are people around here struggling for work and it’s easy to say, ‘well, be more adaptable.’ I think people need to be incentivised to look at these different industries if they haven’t worked in one like tourism before. The pay might not be as good in tourism and I think that’s where a government can help out in things like training and cost of living.
