Industry stalwart Penny Spencer has joined calls for the government to release the remaining $74 million of the COVID-19 Consumer Travel Support Program after it was decided the funds were not needed.
During a Senate Estimates hearing for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade on 17 February, an Austrade official said the original $258 million fund was an overestimation of how many businesses would be part of the program ad what the income would be.
“You’ll recall these payments are based on income, and we had imperfect data sources. We overestimated the number of businesses and their income, which meant that at the end we have $74 million from the allocation that hasn’t been needed,” the offical said.
According to…