Passenger tax grab

Australia’s major political parties are risking a backlash from travellers as research by the main tourism industry lobby reveals massive public ignorance about tax gouging by the Australian government on foreign visitors and Australians heading overseas. 

Because the governmment’s so-called $A55 Passenger Movement Charge (PMC) is collected by airlines and is unseen by travellers as they pass through airports, a staggering 85 per cent of Australians are unaware that it exists, according to a poll commissioned by the Australian Tourism and Transport Forum.

And when they’re told about it, they’re angry that three-quarters of the $1 billion the PMC raises every year is just a tax grab by the federal treasury in Canberra when it was originally designed only to pay for the $250 million a year it costs to run the customs and immigration service.

 According to the survey of 1000 people nationally on June 10 by market researcher Pureprofile, more than 80 per cent of respondents say the holiday tax should be slashed or invested directly in the tourism industry to support economic growth and more jobs rather than fill the government’s coffers.

With campaigning underway for a July 2 federal election in Australia, more than a third of people (36.4 per cent) say political parties should commit to reducing the cost of travelling to and from Australia, while a quarter (25.1 per cent) say they would support a political party that commits to not increasing the PMC.

Yet the major parties are stonewalling, with neither apparently willing to give up the tax – a position that threatens to further erode the primary votes of the two major parties, already at record lows collectively with minor parties capitalising on the increasingly poor image of the traditional groupings.

“We want them to cut the PMC or, at the very least, freeze it, but they have given no commitments,” says TTF spokesman Chris Taylor. “We understand both major parties have policies on the issue but, with just two weeks to go, they haven’t released them.”

The TTF has been campaigning hard on the issue for more than two years  and is frustrated that, with federal government spending at record levels, travellers are seen only as cash cows to be milked.

“The Passenger Movement Charge is a hidden holiday tax on every Australian and overseas visitor travelling through our international gateways and does nothing to support the growth of the industry and creation of more jobs,” says TTF CEO Margy Osmond. 

“Tourism has been identified as a super-growth sector of the future but the hidden holiday tax continues to be a handbrake on the industry.”

In fact, Australia’s PMC is now the world’s biggest travel tax for journeys of up to 3000 kilometres, eclipsed only by Britain’s hated Air Passenger Duty that gouges £73 ($A143) from every long-haul traveller entering or leaving the UK.