Page 3412 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 11 October 1994
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Mark Phillips, who wanted to take people to Namadgi. He had a four-wheel drive vehicle. Because of various hindrances put in his way, which I think he probably would not find in other States, which would be keen to develop their natural resources for tourists, it took some four months or so for him to get his vehicle registered to enable that to happen.
Only recently we saw a long fight which lasted many months, perhaps even longer, involving Canberra Wine Tours, who operate a seven-seat bus. Finally, as a result of pressure from the Opposition, they extracted a promise from the Chief Minister to bring the ACT into line with New South Wales in terms of registration fees for that type of bus. They were paying the same price for a seven-seat bus as for a 60-seat bus - some $600 or so extra per year. No wonder they and other small tour operators, if they had not already done so, were considering going to New South Wales to register their vehicles. That certainly is not good in terms of promoting tourism for Canberra; that certainly is a big obstacle in the path of promoting ecotourism, which Canberra is ideally situated to provide as it has some wonderful natural resources, as Mr Berry correctly identified.
There is one area that we do need to look at in terms of overseas tourists. Many tourists from Japan and the Pacific Rim come to Australia for a limited time. This applies, I think, to any overseas tourists. One of the typical tours for people who come to Australia for a short period, especially from the Asian market, is the 10-day or two-week lightning tour. They might arrive in Melbourne, go to Sydney, spend one day in Canberra, shoot off to the Gold Coast and then go back home. We need to keep people here longer. I think this point has been highlighted since this Assembly started. I have met quite a few people who have come to Australia as tourists, often for more than 10 days or two weeks. Quite often people might be here for four or five weeks and they will go through Australia without seeing a lot of our native flora and fauna.
We had some Welsh friends stay in 1987. I was amazed that they had gone from Perth to Melbourne and then up to Canberra and had not seen a kangaroo in its natural habitat. I put them in the car one afternoon and took them to the Cotter and around to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. We did not have time to go in; but just near the turn-off to the tracking station, which is a bit past the turn-off to the reserve, there was a kangaroo and an emu, believe it or not, about 50 metres off the track, facing each other just like on the coat of arms of this country. I had never seen that, and they took a photo of that. As well as that, there was a mob of about 50 roos feeding in the Tidbinbilla area. It is not very difficult for people to see such things while going through the ACT. Foreign tourists especially will not be able to see some of our native animals on a trip through Australia unless they come here. It is an ideal way to assist in promoting Canberra. You will find that very many tourists will not see any kangaroos or such native animals, except perhaps at Taronga Park Zoo. That is just one aspect. Also, of course, they do not have a chance to see other natural beauties such as can be found in the Namadgi National Park. Mr Berry at least is correct in highlighting the immense tourist potential for Canberra of such things as the Namadgi National Park. I would commend to the Government my comments in relation to that.
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