If you're planning to leave Australia anytime soon, budget accordingly. The country is hiking its Passenger Movement Charge (PMC), the fee tacked onto airfares for departing passengers, by AUD $10 starting in January 2026. That pushes the cost from AUD $70 to AUD $80 for nearly every traveler over 11 years old, whether you're Australian or just visiting.
Before you shrug this off as a minor inconvenience, here's the sting: Australia raised the PMC from AUD $60 to AUD $70 less than two years ago in July 2024. Three increases in under three years means a 33% jump in what it costs to leave the country. For families of four or five, that adds up quickly.
Graeme Hughes, an academic at Griffith University who studies this stuff, doesn't mince words. "The speed of these increases really stings," he told reporters. When you're booking a family holiday abroad and suddenly your departure costs have climbed a third in as many years, it changes the math on your entire trip budget.
The Money Mystery Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here's where things get awkward for the Australian government. The budget papers promise this tax will haul in AUD $755 million over five years. That's real money. But the government has been cagey about how it plans to spend it. Officials won't say. Critics point to crumbling infrastructure like aging arrival cards, outdated airport processes, and facilities that desperately need upgrades. The tourism sector wants answers, not vague promises of "border modernisation."
The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) didn't hold back in its response. The industry is already recovering from the pandemic while facing pressure from rising fuel costs affecting global travel, and now the government is making it harder for people to afford Australian holidays. Peter Shelley, ATEC's managing director, warned that cuts to Tourism Australia's marketing budget combined with this tax hike could seriously damage the country's ability to attract long-haul travelers who are already cutting costs.
Nobody Asked the Tourism Industry First
The cruise industry is equally unimpressed. CLIA Australasia called the hike "yet another burden on travellers at a time when the tourism community is working hard to overcome challenges." But the harshest criticism came from the Tourism and Transport Forum, which says it was completely blindsided by the announcement. No industry consultation. No transparency. Just a tax increase out of nowhere.
Margy Osmond, CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum, put it bluntly: "It is not good enough to just slap an additional tax on the travelling public and the tourism industry without improving the conditions that those travellers will be experiencing when they cross the border." In other words, if you're going to charge more to leave, at least make the airport experience better.
The Government's Defense Falls Short
Trade and Tourism Ministry spokesperson Don Farrell dismissed worries that the fee would scare travelers away. He pointed to the last PMC increase as proof: after jumping AUD $10 in a previous round, Australia actually saw short-term international arrivals grow by 5% year-on-year, from 7.97 million to 8.40 million visitors. His argument is that small fee increases don't move the needle on travel decisions.
That might be technically true, but the context matters. Those earlier numbers came during a strong rebound period when people were hungry to travel again after pandemic restrictions. Today's travel market is different. Consumers are more price-conscious. Long-haul trips to Australia are expensive to begin with. Stacking another tax increase on top of rising fuel costs and accommodation prices could be the final factor that makes someone choose a cheaper destination instead.
The government remains committed to modernizing the border, according to Farrell, but without details on how that AUD $755 million will actually be spent, it's hard for the travel industry to get behind the plan. Australia has a world-class tourism product to offer, but at this rate, getting there and leaving might start to feel like an unnecessary luxury tax.
