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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 670 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

tourism and hospitality industry. There are two or three tiers of industry behind that, many small businesses which support the tourism industry and the hospitality industry, all of whom derive a benefit when there is a quantum leap in the number of tourists that come to Canberra.

Mr Corbell asked how we are going to get the money from the private sector and who is going to benefit. The answer is that we have to change our approach. We have to encourage more people in the private sector, who, in fact, are beneficiaries of the tourism industry today but so far have made no contribution. One of the functions of the Tourism Corporation will be to go out there and find additional sources of funding, because it is those people who benefit directly at the end of the day.

A key focus of any marketing for Canberra has to be our natural environment, and I welcome comments by Assembly members that our natural environment must be a focus of the new corporation. I totally agree. The Government has only recently issued its strategy for nature-based tourism, for example, which the corporation will pursue with our parks and conservation managers. There is a resource out there that has not been particularly well exploited in the past, and it can be, provided the proper management arrangements are in place first and provided the proper infrastructure is put in place to prevent that environment from being damaged by an influx of tourists. So it is both an exploitable resource and a constraint, if you like, on what we can do, and we have to balance those two and get the best result. Tourism in the ACT does need to be ecologically sensitive, and consultation and encouragement of tourism activities which highlight and protect the ACT's natural beauty can only be encouraged. I support the amendments proposed by the Greens to ensure that that is achieved.

The Bill and the subsequent business plan that has to be developed under the Bill when it becomes an Act allow for transparency, for accountability, and for consultation with industry and other community stakeholders to ensure not only that environmental issues of tourism in the ACT are addressed but also that all issues related to making the ACT a top tourist destination are focused within this one entity. It is a focusing of resources and the establishment of one place where the business of tourism can be advanced. The legislation is in fact about marketing the ACT. The central core function of this body will be to market Canberra, so that we can be competitive with other tourist destinations. It is about creating a responsible focal point for tourism in the ACT. It is the ACT's one-stop shop, if you like, for selling the ACT as a tourist destination locally, nationally and internationally.

I would like to come back to some of the points that have been made. Mr Corbell and others made the point that this will not fix it, and I concede that alone it will not. As I said, it does provide a part of the infrastructure, a part of the machinery through which we can attract more people to Canberra. However, the crunch has been addressed by a number of speakers; that is, the big issue in enhancing tourism is spending more money on marketing. We know that; we do not need anyone to tell us. Recent studies have shown that for every dollar you put into the tourism industry you potentially get back $10. That is a nationwide figure, but it would apply broadly to Canberra. Why would we not put more money into marketing Canberra if we can get back $10 for every dollar we put in? The answer, and the only answer, is that we do not do it because we do not have the money.

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