Tourism Fact Sheet 1 - Australian Government Supports $41 Billion Tourism Industry 

$5.5 million to establish National Tourism Accreditation Framework

$4.1 million to ensure continuation of the China Approved Destination Status Scheme

Maintenance of Tourism Australia funding for domestic and international marketing across the forward estimates.

$4.0 million over two years to continue support for staging major national and international events that facilitate the exchange of information and promotion of Australian agricultural products.

$58.7 million over three years to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth in 2011.

A further $661 million to improve workforce skills development through better education and training systems, including:

$152.1 million to increase opportunities for employment and economic development for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by focusing on employer needs and providing support for Indigenous business development.

Indigenous Land Corporation (operates Home Valley Station- tourism property in Kimberley) From 1 July the Indigenous Land Corporation will receive a regular funding stream set at $45 million per annum from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Account.

The Government will provide up to 168,700 places in the 2010-11 Migration Program, unchanged from the 2009-10 planning level. The composition of the Migration Program will be shifted towards the skill stream in order to focus the program more on Australia's economic needs and help to alleviate emerging capacity constraints. The 2010-11 Migration Program will comprise 113,850 skill stream places, 54,550 family stream places and 300 special eligibility places.

The Government will implement reforms to the eligibility criteria for the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program in response to the review of the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL).

The Government will expand the Work and Holiday visa program (Subclass 462) to include new participant countries.

$14.7 million for quarantine IT system upgrades.

$75.7 million towards $127.4 million industry reform package for export certification services. $32.5 million to fund development and trial of risk based intervention, improved governance arrangements, continued development of new legislation, finalisation and implementation of an intergovernmental agreement on biosecurity.

$69.4 million over four years to introduce a biometric-based visa system for certain visa applicants. From 2010-11, visa applicants in ten overseas locations may be required to submit fingerprints and facial images, which would be matched against the biometric databases of Australia and partner countries.

$1.4 million in 2010-11 to allow the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Customs) to study the feasibility of using the Australian and New Zealand Governments' investment in the SmartGate automated border processing capability to streamline travel between Australia and New Zealand.

$996 million for rail upgrades including:

$8.5 billion for nationally significant transport infrastructure projects. E.g. $488 million to upgrade the Bruce Highway from Cooroy to Curra.

$5.6 billion over a decade for a new ongoing infrastructure fund for the states and territories to commence in 2012-13 with an initial contribution of $700 million.

A further $14.5 million to develop, extend and refurbish cycling infrastructure across Australia including off road bike paths (including mountain bike trails), on road bike lanes and bike parking facilities.

$355 million in funding for rural and remote councils through Roads to Recovery Program providing funding for road works in regional areas.

$14 million over four years to amend the current Airservices Australia Enroute Charges Payment Scheme to support regional operators to have their enroute navigation charges fully refunded by the Government across the network.

$25.1 million to integrate infrastructure and service delivery components through consolidation of remote aviation support programs into the Regional Aviation Access Program.

$8.5 million to jointly develop with NSW Government an Aviation Strategic Plan for the Sydney Region.

$5.9 million over 2 years to upgrade 19 remote air strips.

$12 million over two years for Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s baseline funding, measures to improve the outlook of the Reef, repair and upgrade critical infrastructure.

$11 million to improve commercial fishing, industry infrastructure, water quality, flood mitigation, construction of jetty and foreshore facilities.

Continuation of $8.1 million to finalise planning in all marine regions around Australia including starting process for declaring networks of new Commonwealth Marine Reserves.

$17.7 million over 4 years has been allocated to the national Historic Sites program. This initiative is to assist owners and managers in maintaining and preserving historic sites of national significance.

$250 million to roll out 6,000 kilometres of regional fibre links, for 100 regional locations on route to six priority locations as part of the $43 billion National Broadband Network.

More than 93 percent of tourism businesses are small businesses. They will benefit from the immediate writeoff of assets valued up to $5,000. Businesses can take advantage of this deal to upgrade IT and point of sale equipment to help with their online marketing and distribution.

The tourism industry will also significantly benefit from the reduction in the company tax rate from 30 to 28 percent with a headstart from 2012-13. This is expected to deliver an annual indicative saving of $94 million to the accommodation and food services sectors alone.

$14.4 million over four years to maintain TradeStart program. Austrade will assist small and medium businesses to compete in international markets.

$125.2 million over five years to continue implementation of a seamless, online registration system for Australian Business Numbers and national business names.

A further $110.9 million to assist regions including infrastructure for major events and festivals, and community leisure activities.

$2 billion for local government financial assistance grants including $1.35 billion for rural and regional councils.

$15 million for RDA committees to support growth and development of Australia’s regions.

$4.5 million for a structural upgrade of the High Court of Australia’s ceremonial forecourt and surrounding precinct.

$8.8 million over three years to construct a multi-purpose extension for the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

$7.0 million over four years to extend the National Museum of Australia’s administration building.