Page 2022 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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Wherever you look at these comparisons, you will find reasons for the numbers. The problem for us is that we have a small population, which inflates the figure that you have to spend just to get to the critical mass level. But you have to do that if you want to run campaigns, if you want them to be successful and if you want the dividend, and the dividend is the contribution to gross domestic product, the dividend is the consumption of locally produced goods and the dividend is the jobs, about 11,300 of them in 2003, that the ACT benefits from. How many of us started work or have a daughter, a son, a nephew, a niece or a cousin whose first job was as a barman or barmaid or something to do with bussing tables and making coffee? Certainly both of my daughters did and it was good for them. They worked hard and got a benefit from it and we as a community get a benefit from it.
The second point is that it is illogical to cut tourism and destroy the independence of the tourism body when we are about to spend $30 million on upgrading the National Convention Centre. We are going to upgrade the convention centre, but we are not going to tell anybody. We are actually going to cut the funding. We are going to let fewer people know that we have actually got a better facility. I compliment the government on upgrading the facility. I have not done it yet as I am giving him time to settle in, but I will seek a meeting with the minister to talk about the convention centre because it is incredibly important that we get it right as well. But it is illogical for us to be cutting our funding at a time when the convention industry is looking for different locations. That must affect the convention centre and it must affect the general perception of Canberra. (Quorum formed.) That is really quite illogical when you are going to upgrade the convention centre, in particular the lead time.
There was a top-secret meeting one weekend recently to which no government minister turned up and no government member turned up. Nobody gave a speech on behalf of the government, but they sent Mr Hawkins to give a speech. I went. I always go. It is a fabulous weekend. You are talking to organisations that are working on their conferences for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and, if you cut the funding now, you will be having the effect over the next four or five years of not being able to compete. To have the ability in the short term, to get people here quickly, you have to do it at a discounted rate or you have to cut such special deals that you lose the economic benefit. That is the next problem with what the government is doing now.
The independence of the ACTC allows it to react to conditions, whether they be the Asian meltdown, the collapse of Ansett, the September 11 incident, SARS, international terrorism or whatever. You have to be flexible and, let’s face it, that flexibility is not present in departments. We are going to create a larger and larger gap between what we are doing so that we will have to compete harder and harder and spend more and more to catch up.
Let’s go back to the Northern Territory. Yes, the Northern Territory is the largest expender per capita on tourism. Guess what it did in its last budget? It upped it again. The Northern Territory put more money into it; it did not cut it back. The Northern Territory realised that the market is getting more and more mature and the competition is getting harder and harder and it intends to compete, unlike our Chief Minister, who has given up the ghost on this one.
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