Page 4371 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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Tourism Commission Funding
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Chief Minister in her capacity as Minister for tourism. The Government has stated that it is actively promoting tourism and also supposedly creating jobs in that industry in the ACT, yet I notice that you have closed a couple of major tourism shopfronts, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne. Can the Minister explain why a busload of tourists coming to Canberra cannot even buy a drink, let alone souvenirs or more substantial refreshments, at the Jolimont Centre on the weekend because the cafeteria is closed? How many jobs previously needed to man that cafeteria have now been axed due to the ALP Government's funding cuts to the Tourism Commission?
MR SPEAKER: Did you get all that, Chief Minister?
MS FOLLETT: I may have the gist of it, Mr Speaker; but I should say that it was very difficult indeed to hear. Mr Stefaniak raised the question of jobs in the Tourism Commission, as far as I can gather, and related that to the closure of the Sydney and Melbourne offices of the commission. There is no doubt that the closure of those two offices will result in some small number of jobs being lost, but it is a small number. At the same time, the Tourism Commission will be taking action to make sure that the marketing effort in both of those centres is preserved and is carried out much more efficiently.
I think that that issue, with all due respect to Mr Stefaniak, is really unrelated to the question of whether you can buy a drink in the Jolimont Centre. It is extremely regrettable if tourists arriving at the Jolimont Centre are not able to get some sort of refreshment, but I very much doubt that it is under the direct control of the Tourism Commission. I will make inquiries into that matter and try to ascertain whether there was any particular reason for the kiosk not being open; but I suspect that the answer is that it was a commercial decision by the operators of that kiosk and one which it would be very difficult for any government to influence, let alone to make a direction upon.
Boxing Control Legislation
MR COLLAERY: My question is to the Chief Minister. I should like to address it to Mr Berry, but he is not here. Your Government's legislation program, which was tabled in this house in June, if I recall, dropped the boxing control legislation from a similar legislation program left by the Alliance Government. In view of comments in the media recently by a spokesperson for the Sport and Recreation Office that the Bill is in the process of going to Cabinet, I ask whether the Boxing Control Bill has been restored to your Government's legislation program and will be introduced in the life of this Assembly.
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