Page 4009 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the International Congress and Convention Association—
2012 World Wide City Rankings, Canberra is ranked 264—well below cities it should be competitive with, such as Washington DC (46), Cairns (134) … and Ottawa (142).
Destinations that have decided to invest in new convention centre facilities, such as Adelaide, Ottawa and Auckland, are reporting increased investment in hotels, international air services and other associated infrastructure, as well as an increase in jobs during and after construction. Canberra continues to miss out on these economic benefits.
That rests fairly and squarely at the feet of the Treasurer. Let me say that again: “Canberra continues to miss out on these economic benefits.” It is a shame, Mr Assistant Speaker, because it would appear that everybody is in favour of a new convention centre but it is not very high on the government’s priority list. And you have to question: why isn’t it high on the priority list? This is actually a piece of business infrastructure, essential business infrastructure, that will bring revenue into the territory. Everything else that the government is proposing, whether it be the new stadium or the train set, will cost revenue. There will be outlays every year to maintain that—recurrent revenue to maintain those positions.
The problem is that the convention centre does not have a champion inside the government. There is not an officer assigned to it inside the bureaucracy. Unlike the money that is being filtered and funnelled into doing work on the stadium, the pet project of the Treasurer, there is not that sort of influence being brought to bear for the convention centre. That is why this motion calls on the government to establish a trust so that that trust can put together the work that needs to be done to enable this to go ahead. It also has a time frame attached—that the trust is set up by June next year, and that they complete the investment-ready plan by June 2015, so that we can capitalise on these benefits that Ernst & Young and other business firms have said exist and that we miss out on.
It is interesting to note the number of cities or countries that are far ahead of the ACT in this regard. The government of Rwanda have just announced that they will build a convention centre. There is no announcement from this government that they will build a convention centre. Azerbaijan have announced that they have set up a convention bureau. Why? So that they can get the benefits as well.
Mr Barr: Are you suggesting we don’t have a convention bureau?
MR SMYTH: No, I did not say that. I am just pointing out the fact that everybody is getting into this game but we lag behind because the Treasurer will not drive this project.
Convention centres are now essential pieces of business infrastructure. They allow business to happen, they allow communication to happen, they allow people to come together to conduct their business. They add to the prestige of a city. For instance, an academic at the ANU may be able to invite his colleagues from around the world to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video