Page 1889 - Week 09 - Thursday, 19 October 1989
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very major part of the new tourist facilities has been provided by the private sector without the need for any government assistance.
Tourism generates each year $4m in turnover and the industry directly employs about 8,000 people. It is Canberra's second largest private industry. Civic is being established as the focal point for visitors to Canberra. It is the location of the Convention Centre, it contains a substantial number of the hotel and motel rooms, and it will soon offer a more extensive range of shopping facilities. The tourist industry is labour intensive.
Mr Collaery: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is question time and this is another ministerial statement. Some of us have only asked one or two questions. I think I have had more than anyone else. What are we going to do about this Minister, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Minister, would you please proceed, but be brief.
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, there have been times in the past when I have been attacked by this very person over here, this senior lawyer, for making my answers too short. Now, when I try to give a substantial answer to a very important issue on tourism, where tourism has been misrepresented as an employer in this town, when everybody in this chamber supports the thrust of the growth of tourism, Mr Collaery seeks to interrupt and to deny us the opportunity to speak on it. Be consistent, Bernard.
The tourist industry is labour intensive and will provide substantial job opportunities spanning full-time, part-time and casual employment, which are particularly attractive and available to young people and women. Tourism covers a broad range of industry activities and visits are stimulated by physical attractions such as Parliament House, by festivals and events such as Floriade and the Canberra Festival, by conventions, by private and government meetings and even by the more routine visits of friends and relatives.
It is, therefore, broadly based and not limited to short-term factors such as interruptions to airline services. Though the latter has had some effects, surveys show that about 80 per cent of Canberra visitors arrive by car and thus the ACT has been less affected than other States. There is a clear trend showing long-term growth in visitor numbers to the ACT. Canberra visitors currently exceed one million annually. Tourism is clearly a substantial, permanent and growing industry in Canberra.
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