Page 2667 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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Madam Speaker, there is a third difference, which is that, in both Senator Richardson's case and Senator Cook's case, I presume that they were visiting as individual Ministers, not as the head of a government. To the best of my knowledge, neither of them has ever been head of a government. So, Madam Speaker, there are differences in the nature of the delegation. The delegation which I will be leading will include representatives from the Government and business representatives who will be paying their own way.
I would like to say to members that the costs that we expect to incur on the delegation include promotional material and promotional activities. It is, after all, a promotional visit. There will be materials that we need to take and activities that we need to undertake that perhaps you would not need on another kind of visit. It is also a fact, Madam Speaker, I am told, that a delegation such as this, on behalf of the Government, requires a level of reciprocal hospitality in the course of the visit, and that is all expensive.
Madam Speaker, I would like to say to members opposite that I have had an advisory group working to finalise the details of the delegation. That group includes a number of people from the Canberra business community. Madam Speaker, they are providing me with advice on the most effective way to hold such a delegation, and that is advice that I respect. It includes members, for instance, from the Chamber of Manufactures, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Canberra Business Council, a number of firms in Canberra such as Sly and Weigall, and so on. They are all working on this advisory group, and I respect their advice.
Mrs Carnell: They said that it was not going to cost them that much.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, Mrs Carnell, who is showing an increasing propensity to try to be on all sides at once, informs us that the business people have told members opposite that it will not cost them as much. Of course it will not. It is the Government that is doing the promotional activities and the hospitality activities. Madam Speaker, I would like to repeat that I find it strange indeed that Mrs Carnell continues, in this matter and in many others, to try to be on all sides simultaneously, whatever the debate. I distinctly recall Mrs Carnell, in her first television interview after she was elected Leader of the Opposition, promoting the idea that this Government should be visiting overseas countries, promoting the ACT, promoting business in the Territory. Now, of course, Mrs Carnell - on all sides simultaneously, as usual - is putting the opposite view.
Members may be assured that I will conduct this delegation with the greatest efficiency possible and at the least cost possible; but I am advised that Japan is an expensive place, that the nature of the activity that we will necessarily be undertaking does involve a cost, and I expect it to be worth while. I would like to say, however, that I am undertaking this delegation at the urging of the Canberra business community in the form of the tourism association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Canberra Business Council and so on. Madam Speaker, should that support not be maintained in the light of this political attack, should the members opposite in fact try to sink this initiative, as seems clearly to be their wish, then I am afraid that they will probably get their wish.
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