SPECIAL EDITION 13 March 2019 CEO MESSAGE

Last Friday TTF hosted our Federal Leadership Summit for 2019 and what a great success it was. It is my great pleasure to present this special edition of the TTF Circular today - a summary of the Summit – held at PWC’s fabulous new offices at Barangaroo.

From the feedback we have had to date, I am sure we all took something away from some of the thought provoking panel discussions, debates and speeches that were delivered.

The program assembled for Leadership 2019 was particularly diverse and delegates were treated to innovative and informed commentary by our decision-makers, leaders, media commentators, but also a touch of controversy courtesy of the Warringah candidates debate.

To coincide the Summit, we also released some data which focused on ‘what Australians want’ when it comes to the tourism and transport sector. Our poll conducted by Nielsen found that Aussies think kindly of international tourists and believe they make Australia’s economy stronger.

78% of those surveyed believe tourism bolsters the economy, while 57% believe that the government needs to invest more money to promote Australia overseas. 65% of participants felt that it is time for the government to focus more on the tourism sector and 69% believe there needs to be more taxpayers’ dollars spent promoting regional tourism.

And interestingly 79% of Australians are unaware that every person leaving Australia pays a compulsory $60 passenger movement charge (PMC) and that over half of the $1.2b raised each year goes into the government ‘piggy bank”.

In the field of transport, we saw that 76% believe that public transport in their capital city is average or better, which is a great result.

84% believe that the Government should invest more in innovation in transport infrastructure and services and 64% of Aussies surveys are ready to embrace the future where people and goods are transports by autonomous drones.

The survey results are important, they make it crystal clear that Australians understand the value of the tourism and transport industries to our nation. The industry and voters seem the be in sync about what is important.

In our recent Federal budget submission, TTF put the following issues at the top of a Government “to do” list:

- Further investment into Australia’s destination marketing agency, Tourism Australia

- A review of the Passenger Movement Charge and the level of over- collection

- Additional and improved visitor infrastructure, and

- Further investment in airport to city rail connectivity and regional rail networks.

TTF is committed to ensure that our ties with both sides of politics is strong, and that we deliver results. We strive to continually to highlight the importance of tourism, aviation and transport to all Australians.

I hope you all enjoy this edition of the circular and I would like to extend a huge thank you to those who made the day so great.

Especially to our event partner The Star Entertainment and event sponsors PwC, Newgate Australia and Queensland Airports.

Thanks for coming along.

Cheers

Margy

Margy Osmond

TTF CHAIR ANDREW MCEVOY

In his first major event since taking over as TTF Chair last November former Tourism Australia Chief called on Governments of the future to place tourism, aviation and transport at the heart of our economy if it is to continue to prosper and support the quality of life that has made Australia the envy of the world.

Mr McEvoy said there was no question about the importance of Australia’s visitor economy, with TTF polling released on the day showing how important Tourism and Transport Industry is to the everyday Australian.

Mr McEvoy said it had never been more important for tourism to be a government priority and called for Visa processing reform to speed up the current process in key tourism markets such as India and China which with the average length of time to obtain a visa to Australia increasing while visas to other destinations have quickened.

He acknowledged that while the evidence was anecdotal, at the very least there was a perception problem.

Mr McEvoy told delegates TTF and the industry had practical, constructive suggestions to move it forward and it was an issue TTF been taking up with both sides of politics.

HON MP

If elected, a Labor Government would set up an authority to work on the development of high-speed rail linking key cities and would also revitalise Infrastructure Australia, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development and Shadow Minister for Tourism Anthony Albanese told delegates at Leadership 2019 last week.

Mr Albanese said the Coalition under former PM had shifted focus away from priority public transport projects such as Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, the Melbourne Metro and the Perth Airport link, to more roads and motorways.

In good news for the tourism industry Anthony Albanese confirmed a Labor Government would maintain the Passenger Movement Charge at its current level and freeze it for their first term of Government.

WARRINGAH CANDIDATE PANEL

The second session of the day at Leadership 2019 proved to be the most controversial and newsworthy of the day with former Prime Minister and Member for Warringah ‘backflipping’ on his previous position that Australia should withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change.

In an at times heated debate with the other candidates for his seat leading Independent Zali Stegall, fellow independent Susan Moylan-Coombs, Dean Harris from Labor and Kristyn Glanville of the Greens, Mr Abbott made the surprise admission that he now supports the climate targets he himself agreed to in 2015 and then subsequently withdrew support for.

When quizzed by the TTF Summit’s moderator leading Sky Political correspondent David Speers as to whether his change of heart was linked to no longer being Prime Minister Abbott replied: “We had an emissions obsession that needed to be broken and it’s now changed. We believe that we can meet our Paris targets without significant additional costs on the economy.”

While the discussion on climate change was prominent in the debate the candidates also covered key local issues such as the Northern Beaches tunnel, which divided candidates, Ms Stegall supported the project but first wanted to first see the business case, while Mr Abbott’s view was it just needed to get done.

SAM DASTYARI

Sam Dastyari nominated current Shadow Minister for Finance Dr as the up and coming Labor figure to watch in a potential Shorten Government, outside the senior Shadow Ministry, saying “Jim will be running things”.

On the Coalition side, Dastyari said that current Treasurer is the one that everyone in Canberra thinks will become Leader. Dastyari also believes Tony Abbot will put his hand up for a leadership position again if re-elected and quipped that self-belief has never been wanting in politics.

Dastyari’s major political observation was that due to leadership instability from both sides, long term stable periods of political stability enabling significant reform is long gone and the new normal is brief periods of stability followed by ‘short term craziness’, which he sees as the new norm.

SENATOR THE HON

The Foreign Minister commended the tourism industry on its work in recovering from various natural disasters and nominated a recent highlight as attending the official naming of the new Western International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport.

Minister Payne put on the record the pivotal role that the tourism and transport sectors played in the economy and said that the future was bright, with aviation bringing in record numbers of tourists and tourism is supporting the many small and medium sized business operating in every city, town, and region across the country.

The Minister highlighted the record 9.2 million international visitors who came to Australia in 2018, spending $43 billion dollars in the year ending September 2018 and providing employment for many hundreds of thousands of Australians.

There was a focus on India’s importance to Australian tourism and the point was made that by 2035, the number of Indian tourists to Australia is expected to increase four-fold to 1.2 million annually. The Government was preparing for this growth by laying the groundwork via air service agreements to increase flights between Indian and Australian cities.

HON MP

According to Chris Bowen, the Opposition has used its time wisely over the last six years and comes to this election with the most comprehensive policy agenda of any Opposition over the last twenty-five years. There are risks that come with presenting a wide policy platform including the opportunity for scare campaigns, but overall it is worth it as in his view the country needs a certain policy agenda and a stable team.

Mr Bowen discussed the importance of having an agenda to fall back on in the face of challenges that all governments experience, like good days, bad days, and events outside of a government’s control that it must manage. Mr Bowen made the point that senior members of the Labor Shadow Ministry have all been in the same roles over almost six years of Opposition and that the majority of the Shadow Ministry have also experienced Cabinet Government previously, providing much needed experience if they came into Government.

He outlined Labor’s plans for increased Asian engagement particularly with countries like Indonesia and India. Mr Bowen made the point that unfortunately there were more Australians studying Indonesian at school in 1972 then there were today, even though Indonesia is forecast to be the fourth largest economy in the world by 2050, and are next door to Australia but not in its top-ten trading partners.

Mr Bowen also said that when it comes to immigration the biggest challenge is ensuring that the infrastructure can keep up and briefly mentioned the ongoing place for a temporary skilled visa system in Australia.

MARK TEXTOR

Mark Textor suggested that over the last five years, both the behaviour of politicians and the process of politics is near the front of people’s minds when they go to vote, rather than policy issues in years gone by, like wage issues in the Hawke days or immigration and border protection in the Howard days. He called it the ‘New Idea’ version of politics.

He outlined how politics had become two speed, with commentators in the fast lane wanting to dissect everything quickly, while punters wanted to understand issues in a more gradual fashion, as they were not as highly tuned into everyday political events. INDUSTRY PANEL

In a general discussion between industry leaders on policy an the election, Uber's Global Head of Policy (Future Work), Amit Singh highlighted how Uber has managed the change from being a major disrupter dealing with significant regulatory challenges to where the company is today, operating in 65 countries where it has developed deep and ongoing relationships with partner cities, including 40 towns and cities across Australia. Amit also made the point that an interesting new development like ‘flying taxis’ shouldn’t be considered in a vacuum but linked into other policy areas.

Chris Mills from Queensland Airports Limited highlighted the importance of aviation policy as passenger numbers and passenger capacity were critical to the economy. Ongoing policy challenges that need attention from his perspective included the Passenger Movement Charge cost impost as well as security upgrade cost issues and visa cost and processing delay issues.

In assessing the mood of the electorate, Brian Tyson from Newgate said issues like border protection and leadership changes would be some of the contributing factors and how momentum is pivotal. PETA CREDLIN

High profile political strategist and former Chief of Staff to Tony Abbott both when he was Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, turned Sky News Presenter, Peta Credlin told delegates the upcoming election will be very difficult, particularly for the Coalition which is coming from behind in the polls.

In an insightful discussion with moderator David Speers on the prospect of the two major parties at the upcoming Federal election Ms Credlin said she expected recent ministerial retirements to have a negative impact on the incumbent Coalition Government as well as electoral redistributions, which she said will already cost the government three seats before anything else is considered.

Ms Credlin assessment of Labor’s political machine is experienced, professional, highly organised and well- funded. She believes Opposition Leader has significantly lifted his campaigning game in recent years and now appears a lot more natural on the hustings. In contrast, campaigning comes a lot more naturally for Prime Minister a former State Liberal Party Director.

Labor’s strategy to put wage growth at the centre of their campaign as it is the one area of vulnerability for the Coalition when it comes to economic management she said. Ms Credlin said the Coalition needed to simplify its political message in the leadup to the election rather than try and press ahead on too many separate issues.

And in a final message to delegates Ms Credlin said that business needs to step up it’s role in the political process by being strong advocates for their sector in the media. MEDIA PANEL

Studio 10 presenter and news.com.au Editor Joe Hildebrand, Lanai Scarr Senior Writer for News Corporation Australia and Phoebe Bowden Network Ten Federal Political Correspondent joined TTF CEO Margy Osmond for an entertaining discussion on the ups and downs of covering political campaigns.

The panel lamented the increasing short termism and instability creeping into the political process and also discussed the rise of social media and the role that it plays in the day to day tactics of campaigning.

The panel covered the changing role of media during campaigns and agreed there was increasingly less interest in policy coverage and more in TV friendly gotcha moments.

SENATOR JANET RICE

In a keynote address which promoted the Greens position of more funding for public transport their Transport spokeswoman Senator Janet Rice called for increased community involvement and transparency in transport planning policy.

Ms Rice said she was hoping for an increased Greens presence in the and potentially the balance of power to enable them to prosecute their policy agenda.

Just five days earlier Ms Rice had announced the Greens policy on High Speed Rail saying they saying they would fund the project in full with the first step being to create the Australian High Speed Rail Authority and make an initial equity investment of $1.6 billion for the first stages of planning and land reservation.

HON MICHAEL MCCORMACK MP

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development highlighted recent government action across a range of areas including most recently a $4 million commitment for programs to encourage more women to enter the aviation sector as engineers and pilots.

Mr McCormack outlined the latest developments and challenges with respect to the which he described as a game changing project for Australia. When it comes to further funding urban rail Mr McCormack said ‘watch this space.’

Mr McCormack also promoted the need for fast rail on existing lines which would further develop regional Australia outlined the Government’s $9.7 million investment in an Office of Future Transport Technologies.

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2019 PHOTO GALLERY

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