Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Thursday that her government was all about protecting Australian industries and the workers benefitting from them as she shot down suggestions that federal authorities neglected specific sectors to save preferred ones.

Ms Gillard was reacting to an ongoing ads campaign on Australian dailies that says the Labor government has extended too much assistance on specific industries while at the same time overlooking the needs of other struggling sectors.

The print ads, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP), were funded by the Tourism and Transport Forum, Flight Centre, Australian Federation of Travel Agents and the National Tourism Alliance.

The campaign took a jab on the federal government for hiking the country's departure tax from $47 to $55, which it argued could further discourage tourism activities from within.

The group behind the newspaper ads also questioned the government's rescue plans that were extended to steel and car making industries that run to hundreds of million dollars while Ms Gillard approved measures that would add more burdens to Australian tourism.

"The travel and tourism industry is united in its opposition to these new taxes and changes, and call on you to block these tax increases and to support Australian tourism," the group said in the running ads campaign as reported by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

However, Ms Gillard insisted that her government was not favouring any sectors on its economic policies, stressing that her priorities were for the domestic economy to remain competitive and for Australians workers to keep their gainful employment.

In an interview with Seven Network on Thursday, the Prime Minister stressed that she has been consistent in pushing for economic growth, which entails the preservation of as many local jobs as possible.

"Right across the economy we are working to protect jobs ... and we did that during the days of the global financial crisis, and we are still doing it now," Ms Gillard said.

She clarified that among other issues besetting the country's tourism industry, the most pressing of which is the rising value of the Australian dollar, which "makes it cheaper for people to go overseas."

That reality has prompted many Aussies to take advantage of the present condition as recent government data showed that record numbers of Australians have travelled abroad due to the considerable spikes on their purchasing power, Ms Gillard added.

She admitted too that the current high value of the local currency has led to serious economic concerns that were being felt industries-wide and the tourism sector was only of the many that were presently struggling.

"We will keep working with the tourism industry to see what we can do," Ms Gillard assured.

The Prime Minister explained too that the increase in departure tax was meant to price Aussies who elected to travel abroad and spend their dollars elsewhere instead of exploring the country's internal tourism attractions.

Ms Gillard said she figured such policy will not hurt the local tourism industry while at the same time should add up revenues to the federal coffers.