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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2915 ..

we note that there is an additional $7.8 million—call it $8 million. The outyear budget already contained $12 million, which was a reduction when the V8 money ran out. So if you add $8 million we get a figure of about $20 million. That is still well short of the commitment that the Liberal Party have said they will put into tourism.

We understand how important tourism is. We have been trying to say to the government, but they seem to be refusing to listen, that the opportunity is there when you have surpluses to actually build the future—to buy a future, as it were—not simply to squander the money. We welcome the additional $7.8 million into tourism marketing and promotion but it is well short of the $12 million that the Liberal Party has offered. You only had to listen to any of the presentations made by Trevor Mules, Brock Cambourne or Gary Watson to know the sort of opportunity that exists in the ACT.

Finally, after many years—and I acknowledge that both governments have for many years been working with the NCA and with the national attractions—we now seem to have a spirit of cooperation to move forward together, and that is important because one group cannot do it in isolation from another. What we need to do is make sure that the money is there now to capitalise on that opportunity. There is growing domestic tourism and we are getting some of it. However, I am not convinced we are getting our share of it and I am not convinced that the government is really backing a winner here, in the way they quite easily could and should.

We will keep an eye on tourism marketing and promotion. What we do not have is an answer to some of the dead spots in the Canberra tourism calendar. Recently, of course, we had the Queen’s Birthday long weekend and I understand the accommodation numbers for the weekend were quite flat.

There has been some argy-bargy in the papers lately about the question of whether tourism is flourishing. Some of the attractions are saying, “Yes, we are doing very well” and, based on that, the minister for tourism has gone out and said tourism is flourishing. But if you look at the hotel sector you will see that, firstly, the numbers are probably flatter than expected; and, secondly, the actual take has been flat for several years. So the profitability of the accommodation sector is not what it should be, and that is an indication that the market is not as rosy as the Treasurer would paint. There are still some problems. There are things that need to be addressed but we do not see where this is happening in this budget. We do not see the sort of leadership from the Treasurer that tourism should be getting.

I think the same can be said for the small and micro business programs. A figure of $3.395 million is listed in the budget papers for these programs. There is a knowledge fund, export growth, a small business program, and mentoring assistance. Much of it is simply rebadging or an extension of existing programs. Again, it is hard to see any money there that really says, “We are committed to the white paper”; it is hard to see any ideas that actually say, “We are committed to small business in this jurisdiction.”

The problem for the Treasurer then is what does he do? He has got a white paper but they almost seem afraid to use it. It may be a flaw in the white paper; it may be that the white paper is just so much flim-flam that it is not worth funding. We have got some ideas, we have got lots of gloss, but what we do not have is a solid core of what it is you can do to promote business and grow new businesses in the ACT.

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