Page 3466 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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Australian Capital Tourism is in the process of developing an ACT specific Tourism … strategy. With the current five-year strategic plan due to expire in 2013, commitments under … 2020 will guide the development of ongoing strategic priorities for the Government and industry.
I have to say that is welcomed, but I certainly hope it is better than the strategy that was put out in 2008, which was really quite flimsy and I suspect has not led to a great deal. It will be interesting to see if the government actually does a review of the 2008 to 2013 strategy because I suspect there would not be a great deal to review.
But it does somewhat miss the point. What the Western Australian government have done, with their planning authority and with the industry, is to go and pick sites, to develop the framework across the CBD of Perth, to ensure that they are putting away sites that may be needed for future accommodation, for future attractions, for restaurants or whatever it is—all the ancillary things that one requires to support the tourism industry.
Mr Barr: Their equivalent of the territory plan?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr, thank you.
MR SMYTH: No, it is not their equivalent of the territory plan. It is a glib answer from a glib minister. It is not the equivalent. It has actually gone out and looked at the various sites to determine what their functionality could be in regard to the wider tourism industry. It goes well beyond the concept of a territory plan in that regard because the territory plan will, of course, have many uses for sites that are suitable for tourism facilities.
It is about commitment. The level of commitment that the industry see from this government is not what they want. A number of them have spoken to me about what it is that the WA government is doing and how long-sighted it is because it does really look forward regarding the needs of the industry, not just in the next five years but in the next 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, which is how we as a city should be planning.
It is important that economic development is treated appropriately and it is important that we make sure that we get it right. Under economic development we also have things like sport and rec. Of course there is the active kids challenge that came up in sport and recreation. It is interesting that when it was inside government it was funded to some $200,000 a year. It dropped to $110,000, then $75,000 and $50,000 in the coming years.
If we are concerned about issues like obesity, if we are concerned about keeping our kids fit and healthy and if we are concerned about reaping the dividend that fit and healthy kids reap for themselves personally in education and of course for the society that they live in, one of the ways of doing that is supporting groups that do have a record of achievement but are finding it tough in raising sponsorship. One of the reasons they are finding it tough is that sponsors say, “Well, how much is the
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