Page 287 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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The fact is that we are not providing real incentives at the training base in the ACT out of TAFE for language training for our people working in the industry. That must happen. Hopefully some members of the Assembly might take those courses, too, just to show that they are really serious about bilingualism in our multicultural society.
The other problem which is evident to tour operators is the problem of shopping hours in the ACT. Where do you take a bus load of visitors who have got some shopping to do before they head off to Alice Springs or somewhere on a Sunday or in the evening? It is well within the capacity of the Government to designate, in consultation with small business, certain areas for extended shopping hours, after full and proper consultation with the retail industry.
Finally, let me say that the Rally has never opposed the Yarralumla brickworks as a tourist and resort centre or the casino proposal per se. The Rally is not against developments that would have tourist potential. The Rally wishes to indicate to this Assembly that hopefully one of the future national monuments here will be some monument to the fact that alternative government started in the ACT on 11 May 1989. People will come to see a monument to the Residents Rally in what they have done. That will be a national attraction itself.
The role of a national capital is an exemplary role. Let us hope that the tourist proposals that the Deputy Chief Minister puts together will not be parochial, but that we will provide an exemplary program as a base for tourist development throughout Australia. We can provide a national example of a coordinated strategy within a community. We do not want to sell off our Yeppoons, we do not need our neon strips, and certainly we do not need to have a stacking of tourist bodies with casino-oriented people which will ultimately stunt this city in its growth as a wonderfully planned and beautiful visionary environment, a bush capital of this nation.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.44): I think that the Deputy Chief Minister hit a winner when he brought this matter up for debate as the debate indicates that there is no disagreement whatsoever with the general propositions that he has put forward in his motion. It has been well debated, and I do not want to traverse again all the ground that has been covered. There are just three points that I want to refer to, and I will do it quite quickly.
The first is the question of marketing. If you went to any capital city anywhere else in the world, there would be very few people who would recognise Canberra as being a part of Australia. They know about koalas, kangaroos, platypuses, they know about the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock and that is probably where their knowledge of Australia ends. They may even know about Sydney or Melbourne. This indicates to me that our marketing
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