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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2099 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, on yet another point - the promotional strategy - the Government has set aside half a million dollars to promote Canberra. They have said that they are promoting Canberra in terms of its interest not only for visitors but also for business, for sporting groups, for people interested in its arts and heritage, and so on and so forth. But you would think that, if this was about promoting Canberra, if the Government was so serious about promoting Canberra, it would be giving this money to the organisation that is here to promote Canberra - the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation. But, again, this is not the case, Mr Speaker.

Instead of providing the half a million dollars to Canberra Tourism - which, I would have thought, is there as the expert organisation with the knowledge, the ability and the contacts to effectively promote Canberra interstate and overseas - they kept it in the major part of the Department of Business. They kept it in the department, after they had made a big "show and tell" about dividing up Canberra Tourism, splitting it away from the Department of Business and making it a separate entity. It just does not make sense. It is a muddle-headed approach. I think that is a very legitimate concern that the Labor Party has also.

Mr Speaker, I now want to take a broader overview of tourism in the ACT, and I want to make one very important point about strategy. This Government does not appear to have an overall, coherent tourism strategy as part of its economic development plan. The reason for this is that it does not have an economic development plan. It has not developed any sort of strategy itself. What this Government has done is put in place, or claim as its own, the Australian Capital Region Development Council's strategic plan, and it has said, "This is our economic development plan".

Mrs Carnell: No; it is an economic development plan.

MR CORBELL: No; you claimed it as your own, Chief Minister. You claimed it as the ACT's development plan. But it is not. It was not developed by this Government. It was developed by the Australian Capital Region Development Council, which is funded partly by this Government and partly by the New South Wales Government and which has the involvement of the various shires in the Australian capital region. But to stand up in this chamber and suggest that this is the Territory's development plan, I think, shows a lot of gall an abhorrent amount of gall. To claim someone else's work as your own when you have failed to do it in government, I think, shows an appalling amount of gall. This is just another point that we want to make in terms of tourism, the strategy for tourism and the muddle-headed approach of this Government on tourism, like its muddle-headed approach on economic development overall. (Extension of time granted)

Mr Speaker, I would like to make one last point on promotion and marketing. Over my time in this place and for a longer period of time, the Labor Party's position consistently has been that we have to get really serious about our promotion. Improving tourism infrastructure in the town is important. But at a time when occupancy rates are falling, when takings are falling, when visitor numbers are falling, when business visitor numbers are falling because the Prime Minister does not live here anymore - at a time when all those things are occurring - surely our major effort must be in terms of attracting visitors to our town. Yet, when you compare our marketing and promotion budget with the marketing and promotion budgets of States with

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