Page 2168 - Week 08 - Thursday, 10 September 1992
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The South East Economic Development Council has done a number of studies that have to do with the development of tourism within the area. They have been looking, for example, at the road system in the area. They have made some recommendations to the effect that the road system needs to be upgraded, not just to facilitate tourism. It would draw together all of the things that Mr De Domenico spoke about so that Canberra can become a destination for tourism in its own right and can exploit the hinterland, rather than just being on the periphery. Places like Sydney and Melbourne are tourism destinations and we are just on the outskirts. If a tourism operator sees fit to put some of those foreign tourists into a bus that comes down to Canberra for 24 hours or so, that is okay, but that is not enough. We should be a tourism destination in our own right.
That involves such things as upgrading the Canberra Airport to a point where it can take international flights. It is perhaps not widely known that international flights of a charter nature have come into Canberra Airport. It has not been unknown. There is a general view abroad, perhaps, that Canberra Airport is not sufficient to handle international traffic. This is not so. It can do so, and it has done so. There is a lot of development to be done to encourage overseas tour operators and charter operators to come into Canberra instead of going into Melbourne or Sydney. Perhaps that is something that the Government should be taking on notice as part of its tourism marketing campaign. Get the tourists here first.
I think that the sort of work that Mr De Domenico and his committee are doing is excellent. It brings forward more and more knowledge about the resources that are out there. It brings on public discussion about how we can bring them together, not only for the benefit of us people who live in the ACT but also for the benefit of people who live out there in the region, many of whom are in desperate economic straits. I will not say that the ACT is yet desperate, but our economic situation is not all that good. If we could improve our tourism dramatically it would - - -
Mr Berry: It is because we have a Labor government. That is why it is doing better.
MR KAINE: Nothing has happened under this Labor Government yet. You just took $1m out of the tourism budget; so do not talk to me about your Labor Government, Mr Berry. I am suggesting that the Labor Government ought to get some strategies and figure out how it is going to deal with this - not just sit up on the fifth floor and do nothing, as it has been doing. We need a strategy to deal with it and part of that strategy is to get the airport upgraded, if necessary. That may even require the input of a little bit of money.
Mr Berry has lots of money for some projects that are dear to his heart, but I do not see too much going into the development of tourism or the development of the ACT economic infrastructure. I think it is time that we had some action from this Government. Stop talking about abortion and drugs and prostitution and circuses - all of those things that you have been absolutely obsessed with over the last five months - and let us look at some economic strategies. It will be fascinating to see, Madam Speaker, whether this next budget, which is to be
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