Priorities
At a national level, the AHA represents the interests of its members on a variety of issues such as gaming and alcohol policy, trade practices matters, taxation, workplace relations, tourism, music licensing and business regulation.
The AHA works on behalf of more than 5,000 member hotels to:
- Gain greater access to overseas workers for hotels facing chronic labour shortages.
- Pursue a fair and equitable workplace relations system.
- Mandatory Pre-Commitment for Electronic Gaming Machines.
- Ensure the significant economic and social contributions made by hotels are recognised by governments, particularly employment
- Promote the continued development of the Australian hospitality and tourism sector .
- Promote and encourage new investment in the hotel industry.
- Protect the interests of the hotel sector against harsh or excessive regulation.
- Work to ensure hotels are able to operate and compete on a level playing field, with fair access to the products and services required to meet customer demands.
- Ensure the hotel industry offers a viable career opportunity for young Australians
Key Priorities
Ensure a pipeline of Skilled Migrant Workers[1]
Issue
• The hospitality industry currently relies on 5,000 permanent migration places and 5,000 temporary migrant places each year.
• Where a skilled Australian worker cannot be found, hotels rely on skilled workers from overseas to fill the gaps.
• The Accommodation and Food Services (AFS) industry is predicted to grow by 59,400 jobs or 6.3% over the five years to May 2028, and 118,100 additional jobs in the ten years to May 2033.
• Skilled migrants, both permanent and temporary, are necessary to fill gaps in the workforce of an industry which is diverse geographically as well as in style of property and cuisine.
• Outstanding issues being progressed through the Migration Strategy are causing concern including the potential to lose access to sponsorship of key skilled occupations such as chef, cook, pastry cook and hotel and restaurant managers.
Solution
Where gaps cannot be filled by skilled local workers, the government should ensure that the hospitality industry can sponsor key skilled occupations for both permanent and temporary migration in numbers similar to the current per annum sponsorship being:
• 5,000 permanent migrant places
• 5,000 temporary migrant places
Ensuring a pipeline of Australian apprentices[1]
Issue
The accommodation and food service sector are suffering a shortfall of Australian skilled workers such as chefs, cooks, restaurant managers, and hotel managers due to:
• A drop in the number of food trade apprentices in training from 7,685 as at September 2019 to 6,900 by September 2023(-10%) and commencements in the year to September 2023 fell by 27% compared to the same period in 2022.
• Hospitality traineeship commencements decline by a staggering 51% to only 6,735 in the year to September 2023 and will fall even faster once employer incentives cease on 1 July 2024.
• Government-funded tourism, travel and hospitality VET students fell by 17% to 64,960 in 2022 compared with 2019.
Solution
As part of a targeted approach to incentives, employer and apprentice incentives for hospitality apprenticeships should include:
- Payment to employers of food trades apprentices of $2,000 per quarter across the first year, plus a $4000 completion payment
- Payment to apprentices of $4,000 to be paid directly to the apprentice/trainee during the first 18 months – $5,000 completion incentive paid on completion of the qualification
- Put hospitality traineeships on the apprenticeship priority list and re-introduce employer incentives at $1,500 per quarter for six months plus $2000 completion incentive
Increase medium-term and long-term rental housing[1][2]
Issue
- Technological disruption has caused the residential and commercial accommodation sectors to be out of balance, with major knock-on effects.
- Our hospitality workforce is suffering from a lack of available and affordable medium to long term rental housing; and our regulated commercial accommodation sector is having to compete on an uneven playing field with an unregulated disruptor.
- Over 160,000 dwellings are unavailable to Australians as they in the short-term rental market only, e.g. Air BnB, Stayz.
- Australia is suffering from the lack of an enforceable, sustainable, nationwide plan agreed between the Commonwealth, States and Territories, and local councils
Solution
Negotiate with State and Territory Governments, and local councils, a nationwide framework for regulation of short-term rental accommodation (STRA) including:
- Mandate a cap of 90 days for un-hosted short term rental accommodation, and enable lower caps such as 60 days at council level
- Mandatory registration and fees for all properties being made available for short-term rental
- Ensure STRA platforms enforce compliance and establish large fines for owners of non-compliant properties
- Establish a national enforcement fund available to local councils to ensure compliance
Outcome
- Canada and New York saw an 83% drop in short-term rentals after implementing similar solutions.
- If Australia achieved a similar 83% drop to Canada and New York, it would free up 132,800 homes for medium to long term rental
[1] https://aha.org.au/submissions/
[2] https://accommodationaustralia.org/Portals/1/Documents/Advocacy/2024%20Submissions/2024%20AA%20PBS%20Final.pdf?ver=2024-01-23-125846-253
Reduce liquor excise[1]
Issue
Australian consumers pay the third highest liquor taxes in the world. Consumers are awake to this hidden tax and are demanding relief so that a visit to a pub does not become out of reach for everyday Australians.
Solution
Any beverage poured into a glass creates a job. Therefore, we propose:
- Using a methodology approved by the ATO, a 40% discount on the excise rates currently paid for spirits and beer sold “on premise” in licensed venues such as pubs, bars, and clubs.
- The discount would not apply to any excisable liquor sold “off premise.”
Cost to budget
- Our modelling on the budget impact is $91m for beer and approximately $78 for spirits – therefore a total of $169m, or 2% of spirits and beer excise collected.
- This proposal will substantially reduce the number of glass bottles used, which reduces costs and is a win for the environment.
Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)[1]
Issue
The current structure of FBT:
- Stifles expenditure in hospitality businesses, thus suppressing employment in the hospitality and accommodation sectors – sectors hard hit by COVID
- Favours large scale businesses which have had the expertise to devise work arounds aimed at defeating the intent of the FBT scheme
Solution
The AHA recommends the Coalition enable all taxpayers who carry on a business:
- Be allowed to claim a tax deduction and GST inputs on meal and beverage entertainment
- Together with allowing a credit for the related GST and not requiring any FBT for the business owner or their employees.
Outcome
The potential direct costs are estimated by EY to range from $171m to $286m, but would deliver the following positive impacts over three years:
- Impact on GDP – ranging from $539m to $850m
- Impact on employment FTE – ranging from 3,844 to 4,230
- GDP per dollar of cost to government – ranging from $1.89 to $3.25
[1] https://aha.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Pre-Budget-submission-FBT-FY22-23.docx.pdf
Card surcharges
On 15 October 2024, the Federal Government announced it is prepared to ban debit card surcharges – subject to further work by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and safeguards to ensure both small businesses and consumers can benefit from lower costs.
The cost of electronic payments for business is significant and the AHA is already engaged with the RBA on this issue. The electronic payments system is complex and involves many parts – including for example, consumers, merchants, terminal providers, Point of Sale providers, banks, and debit and credit card companies. The AHA will work with the RBA and Government to ensure that if debit card surcharges are banned, costs are not simply shifted to other parts of the electronic payment supply chain.