Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2867 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

a bottomless pit of money to put into tourism or anything else. We have to apportion it across a range of priorities. To put nearly $900,000 of additional funds into tourism, over and above what the Labor Government could find, and then to be criticised for it, I think, is a bit rich.

Yet despite these positive initiatives we have an Opposition that is bogged down in the trivialities of administrative arrangements - "You have the money in the wrong place", whatever the relevance of that is. Never open to taking a bipartisan approach on any issue, the Opposition seeks this Assembly's support for a motion which serves no purpose and reflects a total misunderstanding of what is, in essence, a logical, progressive and cooperative approach to marketing Canberra, both nationally and internationally.

Mr Corbell seems to have a very simplistic and tunnel-vision view of what marketing Canberra entails. He clearly views tourism in isolation from all other sectors, such as business, culture and sport, and simply cannot seem to grasp that in marketing they are interrelated; that they are not all tourism. The simple fact is that more than one in three visitors to Canberra are here for the purpose of business. Without putting too fine a point to it, I would have to say that attracting people to the ACT for any reason is good for tourism. Yet Mr Corbell cannot comprehend the fact that marketing and promoting Canberra as a cultural, business and sporting destination is all good for the tourism industry at the end of the day, and this is despite the fact that he is also the Opposition spokesman for business. He still does not seem to understand that. Mr Corbell's implication that the Government has failed to honour its funding commitment in relation to this initiative is perhaps the clearest indication that he is out of his depth; that he just does not understand how the marketing campaign works.

The most exciting and innovative element of this coordinated marketing and promotion campaign will be the potential role of the private sector, in terms of both driving and funding the campaign. (Extension of time granted) I thank members. In keeping with the partnership approach that this Government continues to embrace on a range of matters, the campaign has been designed to maximise input from all sectors, including the tourism industry itself. For this very reason, the administration of the marketing and promotional campaign sits logically, as I said before, with the department with the policy responsibility across all the relevant sectors that the marketing campaign touches upon. However, this does not preclude the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation from having a significant and ongoing role in the implementation of this initiative and having access to the funds provided in the budget for marketing Canberra. If they have a project and they can get dollar-for-dollar funding from the industry, they can get money out of this $500,000 over and above the nearly $900,000 that we have put into them already.

Whilst the Opposition fixates on process issues, this Government will continue to focus on outcomes and on creating jobs for Canberrans. While Mr Corbell directs his energies towards an extremely narrow definition of what he considers constitutes marketing Canberra, this Government will rigorously seek to extend our horizons with integrated but carefully directed marketing initiatives wherever we can get the best advantage. Despite the rediscovered misgivings of Mr Corbell and his lame attempts at political point-scoring, this Government continues to deliver on its commitments to the Canberra community. I say "rediscovered", Madam Deputy Speaker, because on 25 May this year in the Estimates Committee Mr Corbell pursued the same line that he is pursuing today,

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .