Page 286 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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Canberra, and I simply declare that. I do not believe I have any conflict with standing order 156. If you wish to rule on that, Mr Speaker, you may. I will make my points short so that I cannot be accused of promoting a client.
The distillation from the debate so far still leaves me with the impression that we are yet to include the smaller tourist operators in the deliberations and decisions of the Canberra Tourist Bureau, or whatever its successor may be. The fact is there is substantial pressure from the smaller tourist operators, as I am sure some other members will agree, for involvement in the decision making of the Tourist Bureau. Apropos of the Deputy Chief Minister's comments and focus to some extent on the casino, let me say that the issues are far broader than that issue. In the Rally's point of view, the appointments and staffing of the future tourist commission, by whatever style, should not be dictated by essentially ephemeral issues, such as whether we are going to have neon lights and some legs kicking out over City Hill.
The aim must be to include the smaller tour operators who will wholeheartedly endorse the concept of providing for Canberra as a destination for family visitors and school visitors. I hope that Canberra will get to the stage that Washington has reached in terms of tourism. Those of us who have been to Washington have seen the constant influx of people who visit that city to see their national legislature and their national monuments. The interaction in the overall strategy must take into account the disgraceful state of the national road network into the ACT at the moment. There must be coordinated action with State and Federal authorities under the national transport strategy, and we must see this minority Government put effective and strong pressure on the Federal transport Minister to come good with the promised allocation of $1,000m for a proper transport upgrading nationally, but in particular in the areas contiguous to the ACT.
We do need, as other speakers have mentioned, an upgrading of the employment and training facilities at TAFE. Those of us who were at the graduation ceremony recently noticed the strong interest amongst young persons in the courses relating to the tourist industry.
I would personally like to endorse the comments made by Mr Humphries aimed at encouraging language training for those youngsters. We should look to giving concessions and real inducements for language capacity among the young persons at TAFE and elsewhere who are working in our tourist industry. They will be the people who will manage our national hotels and our other star attractions in the ACT. It is not good enough at the moment that we do not have, as we have in all of the five-star hotels nationally, language speakers, particularly Japanese language speakers, at hotel desks. We do in some parts of the ACT, but it is not a feature that appeals greatly to the tourist industry at the moment.
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