Page 3172 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 11 September 1991
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The Canberra Tourism Development Bureau 1989-90 marketing strategy outlined the connection between tourism and the health of the tourism industry and shopping hours. Its report indicated, under a heading "Shopping Hours", the following:
Shopping is a primary holiday activity for both domestic and international tourists. The attractiveness of Australia as a destination will be enhanced where the retail shopping sector provides a range, price and quality of goods and services of a standard at least matching those available in other countries. Currently Australia fails to match the shopping experiences offered by competing international destinations.
Those of us who have been to places like Hong Kong, and even European cities, will know how true that is; particularly in the United States.
Mr Speaker, there is no reason for us to preserve an antiquated regime of shopping hours. We have acknowledged that we and other major centres in this country are moving away from that by deregulating the shopping hours by ministerial action. I believe that it is time for us to follow that through with action at the legislative level. The comments made there about the national competitiveness of Australia in the tourist market, because of our shopping hours, apply very aptly to the ACT, within the national market, because clearly we find ourselves having to compete in that market very much for tourists. In the last 24 hours or so we have had released a report on trading hours in the Australian Capital Territory. It is a report prepared by ACIL Australia Pty Ltd for the Economic Development Division of the Chief Minister's Department.
Mr Moore: That was lucky timing.
Ms Follett: He has pre-empted the consultation, though. Shame!
MR HUMPHRIES: It was very lucky. It is extraordinarily good timing that this happened to come out before this debate. I hear Ms Follett say across the chamber that we have pre-empted the consultation. Not being able to see this report made it very hard to consult about the report. I assume that other people would have been in much the same position.
Mr Berry: Well, it is out. You can have a look at it.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it was not out; it was released only the day before yesterday. It has just now been released. How you consult on a report which has not even been put on the table, in a public sense, is very hard to see. Perhaps Mr Berry can contribute to the later debate on this and explain this extraordinary notion of consultation without knowing his facts.
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