Page 2908 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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Mr Barr: I am sure you will ask me every day until it is finished.
MR SMYTH: I will ask constantly, because I know that you will avoid doing it for as long as you can.
In the recommendations of last year’s estimates report—sorry, it was in the dissenting report; that was the superior report last year written by Mr Seselja and me—to support the tourism industry, we asked for a plan for attracting new tourist-based attractions, tourist-based events and accommodation. The government did not agree to that; in fact, they did not even bother to respond to our report. They were speechless, quite clearly, at the quality of the report. But it forced the Assembly, in October, to direct the government to table those three strategies in this place by February this year.
The government dropped a flimsy document on the table. Even Mr Barr was surprised when the then Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, stood up and said, “I have got this report in response to the committee,” and then sat down and dropped it on the table without a word. One of the biggest private sector industries in the territory, and it did not even get a word. All it got was tabled. And Mr Stanhope walked away. I would have done the same. I would have been embarrassed to table it. It was not a plan. It was just a shilly-shally of stories and random facts tied together, expressing the fact that they were unable to table what the Assembly wanted because they did not understand what the Assembly wanted. Come and ask if you do not understand it. Bar that, go and read it.
The problem was that we did not get a plan for any of those three sectors, three very important components of the tourism industry. This estimates report has now also recommended—recommendations 88, 89 and 90—a plan for new tourist attractions, a plan for new tourist events and a plan for accommodation. Surprise, surprise! The three of them are noted. Clearly the government does not have these plans. I am particularly amused by the response to recommendation 90, where we asked for a plan for accommodation. The government says:
Noted.
The Government will continue to release accommodation sites as appropriate and report on land release for accommodation purposes.
That is not a plan. Tell me the underlying planning that is being done to come to those sites. Tell me how it fills the gaps in the sectors. Tell me how it assists the tourism industry to deliver the potential that it has so that we are all better off in the ACT. Just to say, “I’ve got some sites for sale”—
Mr Barr: Doesn’t the market determine that, though?
MR SMYTH: It does not say that. The minister says, “Doesn’t the market determine that?” In a way the market will determine it. But you will help shape the market by telling people what your plan for the industry is. You need to tell people where you are going, what sort of tourism industry you want. It does not have to be particularly
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