Page 3418 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 September 2015
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(c) Chinese students form the largest international student group at Canberra campuses with approximately 5500 students enrolled in our education system; and
(d) Chinese tourists have a high awareness of Canberra and a strong desire to visit our city, which is supported by Tourism Research Australia data that indicates Canberra received around 29 000 Chinese visitors in the year ending December 2014;
(2) notes the Chief Minister’s statements that:
(a) the sister city relationship Canberra shares with Beijing has been a highly collaborative, beneficial and rewarding relationship throughout its 15-year history;
(b) each time an ACT trade mission travels to Beijing we are provided with enormous hospitality and access to Chinese officials at the highest levels as a result of the Canberra-Beijing Sister City Agreement; and
(c) the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) presents major trade and export opportunities for the ACT in tourism, education, healthcare and professional services sectors; and
(3) calls on the Government to:
(a) affirm the motion presented by former Chief Minister Kate Carnell in 2000 to establish the Canberra-Beijing Sister City relationship;
(b) continue to progress the Canberra-Beijing Sister City relationship to foster trade, education, cultural and tourism opportunities between our two cities; and
(c) support ChAFTA as part of the ACT’s high level priorities of transport reform, ongoing urban renewal and continuing work to build Canberra as Australia’s premier knowledge capital.
It is a great pleasure to move this motion and speak to something I believe has been a great success for the entire ACT community. I am reminded of the words of Tim Fischer who said that Canberra had trumped Sydney in strategically aligning itself with the Beijing Olympic bid. He commented in a Canberra Times article that we will be smelling the roses in Canberra for the next seven years, and I think he was right. But it has not been just the past seven years; it has been the past 15 years. We need only look to the Chief Minister’s statement on his recent ministerial delegation to Beijing, where he said:
The sister city relationship Canberra shares with Beijing has been a highly collaborative, beneficial and rewarding relationship throughout its 15-year history.
Chief Minister, I agree. For those who do not know the history, on 7 September 2000 the then Chief Minister, Kate Carnell, moved a motion that this Assembly agree to the
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