Page 3218 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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Customer service, awesome service and outstanding service are the buzz words of today's successful businesses, and tourism, as I said before, Madam Speaker, is a big business and the Tourism Commission should be part of today's corporate climate. Having to make a dozen calls to book accommodation is not adequate. Fortunately, no-one disagrees with me. Even the Tourism Commission was so concerned about this incident that it took the trouble to ring our constituent and apologise for the - - -
Mr Kaine: Runaround.
MR DE DOMENICO: Runaround. I have another word here, Mr Kaine, but I cannot use it. So, there are the beginnings, the blossoming of changes, but how tough it can be. I wonder whether the public service and government are the right formula for running a commission which moves so closely with private enterprise? I believe that it does not work well enough, and a different formula may have to be adopted. Perhaps an example will illustrate my point. What if I want to be a basketball player? I work really hard to develop excellent ball-handling skills. I am fast and defensive. I can shoot from way back down the court and score. I am a team player and an excellent motivator. In fact, I have almost everything to be a first-class basketball player. There are just a few essential, unchangeable fundamental things that cannot be changed. I will never be tall enough to be a basketball player; and the Tourism Commission, in its present structure, will never be able to perform as well as we know it can.
More than $8m were poured into the Tourism Commission last year to make it successful. I do not believe that money is necessarily the most important ingredient to achieve success. Many businesses grow from nothing but the desire to succeed, fostered and motivated by the incentives of great financial gain. There is no such incentive for a public servant working behind a desk in our visitors centre, no burning desire to increase visitor numbers and keep customers coming back, because, in the end, that public servant's job does not depend on the whims of the tourists or the quality of his or her service as an information and service provider. While I am proud, justly, of the improvements made by the Tourism Commission, I have reservations about its direction. Madam Speaker, I have a lot more to say, but I will not. I will talk again on Ms Follett's statement.
MR LAMONT (3.46): It is propitious that we are discussing this question this afternoon. While Mr De Domenico has indicated that there have been a number of other announcements about the tourism industry recently, I believe that it is appropriate that we draw the attention of the Canberra public to what the Government and this Assembly have done in relation to the promotion of tourism and what we are going to do. I do not believe that it is solely a function of government, or the Tourism Commission, or any individual business to promote ACT employment through the tourism industry. I believe that it is an obligation on every member of this Assembly. I make that comment at the start, because in my concluding remarks I wish to address a particular issue which causes some jocularity to the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as we well know, tourism has become a major economic force in Australia in recent years, with the potential to make even further significant contributions to the national and local economies. The tourism industry is performing well above many other industries and is a major employer. Mrs Grassby indicated the types and numbers of people employed and the contribution that the industry is making to the national and local economies.
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