Advocacy Update 12 February 2026

POLICY & ADVOCACY UPDATE

Issue #64, 12 February 2026

From the AA CEO James Goodwin
AA in Canberra this week
Overseas arrivals December 2025
Government launches Thrive 2030 action plan
Capital city performance in January 2026
Text message rules are changing
HOSTPLUS payday super webinars

From the AA CEO

The Federal Parliament has been sitting the past two weeks but we’re still far from being back to a normal situation.

At the time of writing, the Liberal and National parties have reformed the Coalition under Sussan Ley and David Littleproud but will continue in a “caretaker” type period until 1 March 2026.

However, the leadership rumblings remain and Ley's leadership remains under threat. A spill of the leadership positions has been called for tomorrow morning and its likely we'll end the week with New South Wales MP, Angus Taylor, as the Opposition Leader.

What does this mean for our sector? Well, unfortunately it means everyone involved in politics is preoccupied with these machinations.

The Labor Government is not going to waste time and energy on announcing new policies or set a reform agenda because it simply won’t get traction in the media or amongst the electorate. It has also meant they haven’t faced the expected scrutiny on matters such as rising inflation and the increase in interest rates. Even Senate Estimate hearings this week have been subdued, meaning the public servants haven’t faced the tough questions they normally would.

Rest assured though, Jenny and I have used the time to brief a range of stakeholders as the minds of the decisionmakers in Canberra turn to the Federal Budget in May. More details below.

James Goodwin

Chief Executive Officer

AA in Canberra this week

As a follow up to our substantial submissions last month with a Pre-Budget Submission to Treasury and also our submission on Skilled Migration, AA this week held a series of meetings to press home our key issues and concerns. On Tuesday we met with the office of the Assistant Minister for Immigration to table our ideas on improving the skilled migration scheme, as well as reinforce the importance of changes needed to the working holiday maker scheme to broaden the regions where WHM's can undertake hospitality work to qualify for second and third year additional visitor visas. On the same day, we also caught up with the office of the Minister for Trade and Tourism where we raised concerns about the fall in funding for Tourism Australia, particularly in the three years from 1 July 2026 (see below). In our PBS, we called for an increase in TA funding to $200 million plus $20 million for events in order that the real marketing value of the funding is restored and that Australia takes better advantage of the opportunity that major and business events bring to our visitor economy. We also updated the office on the ongoing impact of short-term rental accommodation on supply, and recent approaches to regulation.

Yesterday, AHA and AA held a very valuable meeting with senior officials in the Department of Home Affairs to discuss our recommendations for change to the migration system with the aim of ensuring the system is more responsive to industry needs, not just in the area of skilled migration, but also for working holiday makers, international students and tourist visas. We also spoke about the difficulties being experienced with application processing including increasing delays and recent refusals that have caused concern. There was a joint commitment in the meeting to look at ways to better educate the department on industry issues, and members on how to improve their applications to give them a strong likelihood of success.

We also met yesterday with the office of the Minister for Training and Skills to express concern about the drop off in apprenticeships. The government seems set on its course of prioritising construction and energy trades to the detriment of sectors such as ours. We stressed that even those sectors need to be fed and accommodated and that the economy is interconnected.

Finally we engaged with the Shadow Treasurer to ensure our issues are heard by all the major parties. In particular, the Coalition's policies on migration are of concern to us. For reasons outlined by James (above), their leadership machinations put the effectiveness of this engagement at this time in a more negative frame.

Revised budgets for Tourism Australia see a fall in funding

Treasury and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have published revised portfolio budget statements for DFAT including Tourism Australia. In the context of pressure on the Federal Government to reduce government spending, TA has not escaped the cuts imposed across all of the federal public service. Compared to an initial budget for 2025-26 of $174 million, TA's budget this financial year has been reduced to $169 million. The real impact comes in the forward three years, where the annual drop in funding is over $11 million each year. Unlike most government departments where savings have been sought in areas such as external contractors, TA's funding decrease is likely to hit marketing activity. Given the direct impact that TA's promotional activities have on international tourism visitation, this reduction will likely lead to a negative outcome for economic contribution and more specifically taxation receipts for government. AA is mounting these arguments directly to government, although past experience has shown that Treasury rarely links expenditure cuts to taxation receipts in their thinking on where savings can be found. We will continue to advocate on this issue, including working with other industry stakeholders to ensure there is a consistent message of concern.

Overseas arrivals December 2025

According to the ABS data released today, there was a pleasing increase of 9.7% in short-term visitor arrivals in December 2025 to 1,036,660 compared to December 2024. This is the third highest monthly arrivals figure on record, only being bettered by December 2019 and the same month in 2018. Holiday arrivals were up 15% compared with December 2024, but still not at levels seen in Decembers 2016 to 2019. New Zealand was the largest source country for overall short-term arrivals in November 2025, accounting for 142,420 or 13.7% followed by the UK (138,610 thanks again to the Ashes series) and then, pleasingly, the USA coming in third with 102,590 visitors. The UK visitation was the highest monthly total from that country on record. Of the top ten origin countries, the UK, USA, India, and South Korea, all had arrivals greater than December 2019.

The 12-month rolling total arrivals tell a more useful story, illustrating the recent improvement as well as the difference with pre-COVID visitors, particularly for holidaymakers. In the 12 months to December 2025, there were 8,937,390 arrivals up by 8.1% on the year to December 2024, with holiday arrivals at 3,916,820, up 9.8% on the previous year. Holiday arrivals historically peaked at 4.48 million in the year to December 2019. If holiday arrivals grow in the remaining 6 months of 2025/26 similar to the growth in the last six, then total year holiday arrivals will be over 4.3 million for the year to June 2026. The graph below shows rolling 12-month totals for total short-term arrivals and holiday arrivals.

THRIVE 2030 Action Plan launched

At a Friends of Tourism function in Parliament House last night, the Assistant Minister for Tourism, Senator Nita Green, launched the action plan relating to the government's THRIVE 2030 tourism strategy. The government stated that the THRIVE 2030 strategy provides a roadmap to grow visitor markets, embrace leading-edge business practices, deliver unique experiences including highlighting the offering of First Nations communities and operators, grow a resilient workforce and improve data and insights. Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said that “The THRIVE 2030 vision is bold, as it should be. My ambition is for a tourism industry that provides world-leading services and experiences, while generating well-paid jobs and opportunities across Australia, including for First Nations, regional and rural communities.” The action plan can be viewed here. In response to the release of the action plan, AA CEO James Goodwin welcomed the whole of government approach to tourism. He also emphasised the importance of action on workforce issues, including training, apprenticeships and migration, as well as the need to maintain strong funding to TA. Our media release can be found here.

Capital city hotel performance in January

Preliminary capital city CoStar data for January 2026 shows that hotel performance was more mixed across the capital cities with Canberra and Adelaide the strongest performers in terms of occupancy compared with January 2025.

Sydney experienced an average occupancy of 76.8%, up 1.3% compared with January last year, with ADR up 6.6% to $294.15. Sydney Centre's occupancy was up 0.9% to 80.5% and ADR up 8.1% to $345.29;
Melbourne's occupancy rose 2.6% to 75.1%, and ADR up 5.9% to $261.66;
Brisbane occupancy was down 2.1% to 66.7%, and ADR also down 2.9% to $218.71;
Adelaide started the year well with occupancy up 6.1% to 74.0% and ADR up 3.4% to $201.00;
Perth occupancy slightly down 0.2% to 75.9% but ADR solidly up 7.8% to $254.06;
Hobart occupancy up 1.2% to 88.0% and ADR up 8.3% to $260.14;
Darwin occupancy down 4.0% to 33.7% but ADR up 2.4% to $147.55;
Canberra occupancy up 6.1% to 65.1% and ADR marginally up 0.1% to $181.01 and,
Gold Coast occupancy went down 5.3% to 74.4% but ADR up 6.4% to $385.89.

Text message rules are changing

This week AA received a timely reminder from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) that regulation relating to SMS text message is changing. Members who use text messaging to customers have until 30 June 2026 to contact their telco or messaging provider to ensure you have a Sender ID. As of 1 July, sender ID's will appear at the top of text messages to help customers identify valid messages from scams. Although messages from businesses can be sent without a Sender ID, the message will have the word "unverified" at the head of the message. For further information on the registration process, see here.

HOSTPLUS payday super webinar

The introduction of Payday Super represents a significant shift for employers. Although these changes do not take effect until 1 July 2026, our superannuation partner Hostplus wants to help members prepare early by providing access to an informative webinar. In the complimentary webinar, experts will break down the changes, what they could mean for your business, and the practical steps you can take now. Join Hostplus on Thursday 19th February at 3.00pm VIC, NSW, ACT and TAS / 2.30pm SA / 2.00pm QLD / 1.30pm NT / 12.00pm WA. To register for the webinar click here.

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Register on eeger to build your employer profile
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List your job vacancies on the site that has been developed for industry by industry

Drop me an email at policy@accommodationaustralia.org or give me a call on 0418 277 919 if you have any national policy issue that you think AA should be following up. If you know an AA member who is not receiving this advocacy report but wants to, then encourage them to email me and we can add them to the distribution list. Back issues of the fortnightly advocacy updates can be found here.

Kind Regards

Jenny Lambert OAM

National Policy Director

Accommodation Australia