Page 5863 - Week 18 - Wednesday, 11 December 1991
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Mr Moore: It is just your blatant political opportunism in introducing it today when it has no chance of getting up.
MR COLLAERY: We acknowledge, of course, that Mr Moore will not have the opportunity to contribute to this. Nevertheless, we believe that the Government should accept these amendments in the good faith in which they have been presented. If the Government were minded to adopt them in consultation with its own treasury and finance advisers, we would support that move. Given the Chief Minister's responses in question time yesterday when she conceded that the matter was under active review, given the fact that her Government has recognised the potential problems in this area, and also acknowledging that this Assembly rises in a few days, we could hardly, as a Rally, be said to be hijacking a government agenda which we will assist in developing.
We commend the Bill to the house. We trust that the Government will provide the non-government parties with scope to debate and pass the amendments next week during government business time. Failing that, we hope that the non-government parties will support a move for sufficient extra time, against the background of severe unemployment stress, particularly in the youth sector, and put these much-needed amendments through the Assembly before we rise.
Debate (on motion by Ms Follett) adjourned.
TOURISM COMMISSION BILL 1991
MRS NOLAN (10.41): I present the Tourism Commission Bill 1991. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
It is rather ironical that prior to the 1989 election I, as a member of the Liberal Party, put together a tourism policy which had the support of the tourism industry as it reflected the views of that industry. It was welcomed by almost all, even, I have to say, the Canberra Times editorial, when announced. That policy included a Tourism Commission for Canberra which involved the revamping of the then Canberra Tourism Development Bureau into a statutory authority. That is what the industry thought they were to see established; that is what the policy was supposed to achieve.
However, somewhere along the way things went very wrong. When the former Alliance Government established the Tourism Commission in 1990 they merely put in place an advisory committee. What a terrible mistake! The Tourism Commission was also buried in amongst the rates, rubbish and roads portfolio - urban services. I have to say,
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