Page 3454 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I believe that I have responded to that question. I believe that the Commissioner for ACT Revenue is quite correct in wishing to safeguard the tax records of everybody who has come before his office. I do not think that it adds anything to the current debate for us to speculate on whether or not there are current actions proceeding. I have made it quite clear that there are great difficulties in collecting the tax.
Tourism Commission
MRS NOLAN: My question is also directed at the Chief Minister. I would like to refer the Chief Minister to her budget speech yesterday, in particular to where she said:
The ACT Tourism Commission is restructuring its activities ...
The key objective is to streamline operations.
What is the reduction in the tourism budget in real terms, and how many jobs have been lost or will be lost as a result of that streamlining?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mrs Nolan for the question. I am sure that Mrs Nolan is aware that the streamlining of the Tourism Commission has been going on for quite some time. When the commission was initially created, one of the prime objectives was, in fact, to streamline the entire operation and to enable the commission to concentrate the vast majority of its efforts on marketing. I believe that there is general acceptance that the correct primary purpose of the commission is actually to market the ACT.
The commission has been examining its entire activities for quite some time, and certainly during the life of the previous Government. There have been some decisions made, which I think are in the public arena, and they include the decision to close both the Sydney and the Melbourne offices of the ACT Tourism Commission. Clearly, there are some job losses involved there, although not a great number. But, Mr Speaker, the closure of both of those offices, I think, is well and truly warranted when you look at what it costs to keep them open and the return that is made on them. The rents in both Sydney and Melbourne are extremely high and I do not believe warrant the maintenance of those offices when there are other and better ways of marketing in both of those centres.
Mrs Nolan has asked me about the tourism budget overall. I think it is fair to say that the one-off funding that the Tourism Commission had enjoyed in the previous two budgets - the new policy money - is no longer there. They received a specific payment in both of those years which they will not be getting this year. If their restructuring is maintained and if they achieve the objectives that they have set out to
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