Page 3216 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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Commonwealth Games - something that is near and dear to my heart, as some of you people would know. We know that Mrs Kelly does not believe that we should go for the Commonwealth Games, and so what? I say to that: So what? Once again Ms Follett, in her statement, raved on about the wonderful sporting facilities that the ACT has, and how right she is. We have magnificent sporting facilities in the ACT.
Mr Kaine: Good enough for the Commonwealth Games.
MR DE DOMENICO: Very well said, Mr Kaine. They are good enough for the Commonwealth Games. What are we doing about that? We are doing, as I understand it, very little. We are doing something, I know; but this has been on the drawing boards for over two years now. It was a wonderful idea, by the way, when it did not come from a member of this Assembly who happened to be on the other side of the house. As soon as politics gets involved, though, it is on the backburner.
I am saying: Let us look to the future. Let us look at the potential and let us try to do something about it. Let us not just talk about it. Let us talk about it and do something about trying to get more Indonesians into the ACT. There are more millionaires in Indonesia than there are people in Australia. What are we doing about tapping the South East Asian market? I am glad if we are doing something. It is fantastic, and so we should.
Mr Kaine: Seventeen million millionaires; boy!
MR DE DOMENICO: That is right; 16 million millionaires.
Mrs Grassby: Is that a fact?
MR DE DOMENICO: It is a fact. There are 16 million millionaires. What about South Korea? What about Taiwan? We all know also that an international tourist will spend five times the amount of money that a local tourist does. So, we can talk about things like that in the future.
Mrs Grassby mentioned fishing facilities and what we are doing in the region. What we have to do is go out and promote the region as having one of the best environmental aspects of any city in this world. We have the best trout fishing facilities - I am sure Mr Lamont will agree - at Eucumbene. We have the snow.
Mr Lamont: The best in the world, Tony.
MR DE DOMENICO: They are the best in the world, are they? He interjects, quite rightly, that they are the best in the world. Madam Speaker, all things seem to be rosy in the tourism industry, but let us not concentrate on just tourism per se. Tourism comprises hundreds of thousands of small businesses. So, if you really want to enhance the plight of tourism, let us look at what you are doing in terms of business regulation and so forth.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I have been full of praise from time to time this afternoon; but let me give you as an example something that happened to me yesterday. This is a true story, Madam Speaker, as reported to us by one of my constituents. First, look for a number in the telephone book. It is the Tourism Commission that you are trying to ring. It is under T in the ACT Government section, in small print with no bolding. You ring the number. Unfortunately,
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