YOU wouldn’t blame a young adventurer for skipping Australia and heading straight to New Zealand.
Treasurer Scott Morrison is determined to push ahead with the backpackers’ tax, despite worries from tourism and farm sectors that travellers will think twice about embarking on an Aussie working holiday.
The deactivation of the tax-free threshold means any overseas working holiday arrivals since January 1 have effectively already lost a third of their income.
The 32.5 per cent take from pickers and farm hands is tipped to put an extra $135 million into the government’s coffers a year for the next four years, which, while a handy injection for treasury, could be damaging to regional communities.
Backpacking is big business in Australia.
We get about 600,000 annual working visitors – at least 40,000 of whom put in a shift on a farm.
Each backpacker spends an average $5295 while here – a $3.2 billion annual contribution to our economy and 13pc of our total tourism income.
But now $5000 of the $15,000 average backpacker earnings will go direct to government.
Regional MPs are probably thankful travellers can’t vote.
Even if the tax doesn’t significantly dent the number of visitors coming to Australia, it will limit the spending power of those who do decide to come, diverting money from local businesses and communities.
What’s more, concerns remain over seasonal labour shortages.
The National Farmers Federation fears the tax will cut the number of bodies able to help out during peak harvest times.
Sadly, local labour appears unwilling or hard to find.
And while the government can be applauded for expanding the overseas seasonal worker program to include all agricultural sectors, it is baffling that we would not capitalise on a large, readily available pool of young workers who are likely to put cash back into our country and spread the word about how great a place it is to visit.
Ultimately, we’re sending a message to young travelling workers that they’ve had it too good for too long.
We might be saving $135 million a year, but there could be big brand damage for international travel.
It’s arguably one of the best New Zealand tourism campaigns in existence.