Page 285 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
realise that it will be an important attraction here, and one which will be slightly different from attractions that we have had to date, but it is not the only issue. We need to put it in perspective and look at some of the other tourist attractions and tourist potential that exist here, some of which have been referred to already.
I would like in particular to point to the existence of the Namadgi National Park. Forty per cent of the ACT is national park. It is an exceptionally beautiful national park. I believe that it is very much undervisited and that it has the potential in its own right to be an enormous attraction to the ACT. It is a national park that forms part of a regional national park arrangement of alpine parks, in effect, so it is not something that you could see in Queensland or in the Northern Territory. It is unique to our region, and that is a very important attraction.
I believe we should also look at particular groups of tourists who might want to come to the ACT. Mr Jensen has spoken very eloquently about the need for school children to come here, and I believe that it is essential that every school child in Australia should visit Canberra.
I would like to look at some of the other groups. If we look at the kinds of sports facilities that might be available in the ACT, again a whole new market could open up there - not just for Australian sports events, but perhaps for international sports events. It is a very important market and one that has broad appeal.
The other market that I am particularly interested in looking at is the question of older people visiting Canberra. I know that very often this group is overlooked as a tourist potential, but it is a growing market and a sector of the population with some leisure time. I think there are particular projects that we should be promoting to appeal to that market. Some of them are the cultural types of projects that already exist, but there are also things like the Floriade and so on which would have great appeal and which we could exploit further.
The final point that I would like to make is the need for the ACT to look closely at its position in the region and in particular to some degree of regional cooperation. I would like to inform the Assembly that I intend to take up with the New South Wales Government and local councils in our region quite a range of regional economic initiatives, which of course would include tourism. Some of the important issues that face us in the ACT do have a tourism aspect to them, and the very fast train project is one of them. Those issues do need to be taken up at a regional level, and I will be very happy to keep the Assembly informed of any initiatives that I take.
MR COLLAERY (11.38): Firstly, I would like to declare a possible conflict of interest, so that my friend Mr Whalan does not find out first. I act for a travel agency in
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .