Page 5084 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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recognise that staff in the commission are trying to do a good job, but I think it is very important that the industry's views are finally reflected in the appropriateness of that legislation. I urge all members to support the Bill when I introduce it at the next sittings.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.32), in reply: I would first like to thank Mrs Nolan for her very supportive remarks about the statement I made on the Tourism Commission. I think it is important that members express confidence in the Tourism Commission. It is a confidence that I certainly have. I believe that the commission and its staff are working extremely well to bring about the kind of efficiency and streamlining in their own operation that will be very much to the benefit of tourism in the ACT.
The newly appointed commission already have some runs on the board, and I think that is pretty impressive. For a body that had a pretty rough time when it came into being to achieve something early on indicates to me that they are working very well, and I thank Mrs Nolan for acknowledging that.
On the funding issue, we have been through that before. I simply remind members of what I said yesterday about the remarks of the chairman of the commission on marketing expenditure. Mr Brown said that the commission will spend a minimum of $1.6m on marketing this year. We have to bear in mind that $1.6m is what they spent last year, which indicates that they are making the efficiencies they need to make and obviously are managing to focus on their prime function - marketing the ACT.
I wonder whether Mrs Nolan has given any thought at all to the possible impact of Dr Hewson's GST package on the tourism industry. I wonder further whether that package has been in any way relevant to Mrs Nolan's desertion of the Liberal Party. If it was related, I would certainly forgive her for that. There is no doubt that Dr Hewson's package will be a disaster for the tourism industry, particularly in the ACT. If you look at just a few components of what he is offering, that becomes abundantly clear.
The most obvious impact is that all goods and services will have to pay a 15 per cent tax. In an industry such as tourism, which has a very high service component and a compounding service component, a 15 per cent impost would put a great many of the goods and services out of the reach of a large number of the prospective buyers. I think that is becoming more and more obvious to people within the tourism industry. Any advantage that they may get from the proposed abolition of payroll tax, which I remind you is only 7 per cent, would be very much outweighed by the imposition of the 15 per cent GST.
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