South West WA to hurt if backpacker visa rules change

Changes to tourism visa rules limiting backpackers to one year in Australia would heavily impact the South West according to the State’s tourism industry body. The potential shift comes from a proposal to the Federal Government from an independent review, suggesting the change to target unfair work conditions of travellers. The changes would remove the incentive to work regionally with no option for extension for employment purposes. Currently backpackers coming from 40 participating countries can get a 12-month Working Holiday visa with the option to apply for another year if they’ve completed at least three months of work. They can then apply for a third year under similar conditions. The work specified includes horticulture and mining as well as tourism and hospitality in northern Australia. Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said the changes would hurt WA especially because backpackers would limit their time in Australia to the east coast. “It’s actually hard for us to identify just how many backpackers we would lose,” he said. “We would lose the backpackers who start off on the east coast and run out of time to get to WA. “We’d also lose the backpackers who just don’t bother coming to Australia at all, because they wanted to see all of Australia but have worked out that with a one year visa, they wouldn’t have enough time and have decided to head off to other countries like Canada instead.” According to Mr Hall, backpackers make up 8.2 per cent of of international travellers in the State, compared to just 3.1 per cent nationally. Tourism Council WA estimates backpackers spent $360 million in the year ending in September 2023 and generated 255 jobs. Mr Hall said backpackers made an especially great impact on regional communities due to the timing of their trips. “The best thing about backpackers is that they want to come at the right time,” he said. “They’ll obviously get up to Broome in the winter, Exmouth during whale shark season and they’re obviously heading into the South West, particularly during the summer tourist season to work in vineyards.”