Sky News host, Tom Connell: Ninety-three Australians landed in Perth last night. They say their Emirates flight was only half full. Follows criticism from the federal government. Airlines are raising the price of tickets. Joining me to hear more on this, Labor Senator Assistant Tourism Minister Nita Green, thank you for your time. I'm sure you work with airlines a bit. Speaking with someone I know that was over there, basically said that flights were getting canceled so much. Bills were building up on the credit card and you'd have to rebook each time. Could the government have leaned on the airlines more? What was happening here behind the scenes?
Senator Nita Green: Look, I think there's two parts to your question. And first of all, of course, we've got our crisis support teams who are now on the ground, working very closely with people trying to make sure that we know who wants to go home and trying to get them there when there becomes a flight available. Of course, we need to do that in the most safe way possible. I think more broadly, we are working with the airlines and having conversations with them, not just about getting people home, but more broadly about the travel industry and the disruption uncertainty that it's seeing at the moment. We're encouraging people to- [BROADCAST CUTS OFF]
Connell: Apologies. Nita and I were chatting away there and we were told we were just talking to ourselves, not that there's anything wrong with that. So Nita Green Assistant Tourism Minister, I was asking you about whether tourism has already been affected because it might not just be this reason, but knock on flights. Has that happened so far? What's the situation?
Green: Yeah, we're still having conversations with the tourism industry and I spent the weekend with them talking about this. We're going to be doing some work through Tourism Australia to find out what the level of cancellations is right now. But I'm also keen to understand what the capacity is in Australia. We've got a really resilient tourism market. We're a safe destination. When you think about business events, not just holidays, people will be wanting to come to Australia in the next couple of months and years.
Connell: So we might get people shifting to here rather than elsewhere? If they can get here.
Green: We saw that in COVID, Tom, where people decided to travel domestically more. So there was actually a spike in domestic tourism. The issue is really where you've got a market dependent on international tourists, which Cairns where I live, is highly dependent on international tourists. But we've been working as a government to diversify our tourism markets. We've been doing that in conjunction with Tourism Australia.
Connell: No better place than Cairns from about April to October, I reckon.
Green: All year round.
Connell: Yeah, no. Well, I've been there in December, January. It's a bit hot for someone like me. So what about though, what's happening right now in Iran and what that could cause regarding obviously inflation? Is it all the more important for the government to actually tighten its belt? Is this a live discussion ahead of the budget? You go, "Well, we really need not to be a big spending government right now."
Green: Look, even before the outbreak of this conflict, we were very conscious that we need to manage the budget responsibly and we need to do that so we can manage inflation, but also ensure that we're delivering the services that Australians need. So that's the conversation we have going into every single budget. This has obviously put some uncertainty into our budget management, but we are managing it very carefully. We're watching what's happening around the world. We know that Australia has a really resilient economy. We've shown that through periods like COVID and the most recent inflation increases. So we're hopeful that we are keeping a watch on what is happening and we'll be very mindful of that coming into the budget.
Connell: Your other hat is Pacific Minister or Pacific Affairs.
Green: Yeah.
Connell: Is this a concern right now, the US, there's obviously Ukraine ongoing. They've just had Venezuela, there's Iran. I mean, the Indo-Pacific is fairway down the totem pole at the moment, isn't it?
Green: Yeah. I mean, the US is a vital partner for us in the Pacific. And I was in Honolulu two weeks ago meeting with US officials and leaders about how we can use US investment and economic development to strengthen the region. We all want a peaceful and prosperous Pacific, and we're doing that together with the US.
Connell: There must be a sense that it's not its priority right now.
Green: Well, I had some really good conversations with US officials about the way that they seek to engage with the Pacific. We're encouraging all of our partners to approach the Pacific the way that Australia does with Pacific priorities in mind. And the conversations we had in that room with US businesses as well as US government officials was encouraging to my mind about how we're going to be engaging going forward.
Connell: I'm interested, so many endless predictions on AI, the last one from Goldman Sachs, maybe a quarter of jobs or job hours could go as a result of AI, and more quickly than it's happened in the past. Change has always happened, but even more quickly than the Industrial Revolution. You, like many of your colleagues have a union background. Is there like a task force or a group within Labor going, "Well, if this hits, what's going to happen to the average worker? What are we going to do? This could be utter chaos for employment."
Green: Yeah, there's two things we're doing specifically in the government. We've released a national AI plan and that's looking at three different goals, which is finding the opportunities, making sure the benefits are spread around, but doing it in a safe way. And part of that conversation will be working with unions and businesses to ensure that workers are part of the conversation. I know that there is a lot of concern about what the future holds for workers around AI. But just recently, I was with the tourism industry, we were having this exact conversation. And the thing that we need to recognise is there's some jobs in Australia that will never be replaced by AI. You can't replace a Master Reef Guide on the Great Barrier Reef with AI. So there are some industries that will become more productive using some of these innovative tools.
Connell: All right, Nita Green, appreciate your time today.
Green: Thanks, Tom.