Australian travellers can expect yet another tax to be forced on them as a parliamentary committee report, backed by Labor, the Coalition and the Greens,
said they should pay a new travel levy to meet the rising cost of fellow travellers getting into trouble overseas. The number of consular cases has soared by 50% over the past five years to about 200,000 a year.
The report calls for a combination of increased passport fees and an indexed travel levy to pay for consular services with a lower levy for people who had travel insurance.
Committee chairman Nick Champion said the levy “could add as little as $3 to $5 to every airline ticket”.
