Tourism, trade poised for takeoff

Air travel opening up

International air travel out of Australia has taken the first steps to resumption, with flights – without quarantine – set to resume to New Zealand. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a safe travel zone between Australia and NZ would significantly boost tourism: pre-Covid 19, in the year to January 2020, more than seven million passengers took the trans-Tasman route. The PM confirmed that the government was looking at countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Japan as potential candidates for the safe travel zone.

Tehan steps up drive for Asian trade diversification

Trade Minister Dan Tehan has urged a united approach from business and government to build and diversify trade relationships in the Indo-Pacific region. In the wake of Chinese bans on a range of Australian imports, Mr Tehan said business and government had to identify barriers or blockages to trade and investment in targeted individual countries. Releasing a major report of the Business Council of Australia and the Asia Society, the Trade Minister nominated opportunities such as agriculture in Vietnam, higher education in Malaysia and investment into India.

IMF upgrades growth forecast

Australia’s economic recovery has been given an upgrade by the International Monetary Fund, with the global agency tipping that the domestic economy will grow by 4.5 per cent in real terms over 2021. That forecast aligns with the growth projections of the Federal Government’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook issued in December. The IMF also said Australia’s inflation rate would be 1.7 per cent in 2021, well up on the 0.9 per cent recorded in 2020. Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the IMF’s latest projection was a full percentage point above its interim outlook issued in January.

Tasmania’s May Day election

Tasmanians go to the polls on 1 May, after seven years of Liberal Government, and the first under Peter Gutwein as Premier. Mr Gutwein called the election a year earlier than scheduled, citing the government’s minority status after the defection of a Liberal MP. The Liberal government won 13 of the 25 Lower House seats at the 2018 election. Tasmania operates under a form of proportional representation, with five MPs elected for each of the five electorates.

Federal push to revive service exports

The Federal Government has released an action plan to build service exports beyond the education and tourism industries. Trade Minister Dan Tehan cited services ranging from architecture, engineering and legal services to health and financial services, digital, communications and logistics as sectors where Australia could export its expertise. Meanwhile, international trade in services remains well below pre-Covid 19 levels. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded $4.1 billion in imports of services for February, still more than 50 per cent below the $8.8 billion import of services recorded in December 2019. Service credits (exports) were $5 billion, well under the pre-Covid 19 monthly export level of $8.8 billion.