Page 5203 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 29 November 2017
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Madam Speaker, I guess you could say that Canberra’s popularity is soaring, thanks to these international flights. Not only do they provide convenience for Canberrans hoping to enjoy a holiday but also they improve our tourism numbers and boost our economy. All we need to do is look at the figures. As the Chief Minister outlined just two weeks ago, visitors contributed $1.9 billion to the ACT economy in the last financial year alone. By 2020 we are hoping that this figure will be $2.5 billion per year. In terms of the number of visitors, Canberra attracted 208,000 international visitors in the year ending December 2016. This was just a few months after Singapore Airlines began to fly to our city, so we are very excited to see what is to come in terms of tourism numbers.
These new flights come not a moment too soon. Just a few weeks ago we saw Canberra gain recognition as the third best place in the world to visit, according to Lonely Planet. What I find interesting is that while Lonely Planet makes mention of our various national landmarks, it also mentions Canberra’s growing trendiness. Restaurants like Akiba, cafes like Mocan and Green Grout, Barrio or indeed the entirety of Lonsdale Street and the Kingston Foreshore precinct, are mentioned as places worthy of international visitors’ attention. These places, which did not even exist five or 10 years ago, are now some of the major attractions for people who visit our city.
Many people are still coming to Canberra on coach trips to see our national landmarks. People are also coming to try Canberra region wine, to visit our burgeoning cafe culture and to visit Canberra-hosted events such as Enlighten. At present the tourism industry supports 16,000 jobs in our city, and I can only see this continuing to grow as more people consider Canberra a great place to visit.
Whilst we are on the topic of growth, there is a lot that our city has achieved in this space in recent times as well. Our economy is consistently outperforming other jurisdictions. We have achieved the strongest 12-month period of growth since 2010. The difference between now and then is that in 2008 the ACT was riding high on a large expansion of the Australian public service in the wake of the federal government’s stimulus package, yet we are now doing so while the federal government is cutting APS jobs to the bone, particularly in my area, in Woden. In other words, in 2010 we were growing in part because of federal government decisions. Since 2014 we have often been growing in spite of federal government decisions. Indeed, while national growth has been decreasing the ACT’s growth has been moving upwards, in the opposite direction.
Our economy is growing and so is our population. The 2016 census showed that our population now well exceeds 400,000 people and we are on track to reach half a million people by 2032. The ACT was the fastest growing jurisdiction between 2011 and 2016, at 11.2 per cent. While this growth comes with challenges, as more people use our transport system, our roads and search for places to live, many Canberrans want to move into our new suburbs, into greenfields developments, and the reality is that more and more people want to live in close proximity to their workplace or to entertainment precincts.
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