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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 668 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Shortly, the ACT Chief Minister will bring down the budget, and I would expect, if she wants to do something about the recession we are in, that there will be a whole range of measures to encourage expenditure in the ACT. One of those measures has to be more money for promotion of tourism. I was disappointed in the last budget, for example, that part of this wonderful thrust the Government claims was expenditure on capital works for the new Tourist Information Centre. That is no doubt very good, but we have to do something to get the tourists to drive down Northbourne Avenue before they can utilise that facility.

I want to pay credit to Canberra Tourism. I think they have done an excellent job. They have tarted up our image very nicely. They have removed, for example, the old staid logo and have a new logo that I think will influence people. As part of the work Canberra Tourism has done, they have produced some very good advertisements - print and television. I have seen them, I respect them, and the research was pretty thorough. I believe they would help to bring tourists to Canberra, but they simply have not been promoted enough. We should have those advertisements beamed into Sydney, the South Coast, the North Coast and central New South Wales. The major areas from which people come to Canberra should be seeing as much of our advertising as they see of Tasmania, the Hunter region, the Gippsland region or the Northern Territory, and it simply does not happen. The Government has not provided the money to back up that very good material. I make a plea ahead of the budget: I hope it is not all locked up. There must be money there to promote what is good in Canberra. We have the material to do that promotion. Let us put the resources into it to encourage those people to come into Canberra as one step to help us out of this recession.

MR MOORE (11.53): Mr Speaker, this is very interesting legislation for me. I have been very much of two minds as to whether to support it or not. On the issues that were raised by Mr Corbell - Is it necessary, and do we not have in place the systems that allow these actions to take place? - I had briefings from officers of Mr Kaine's department just after he became Minister, and I appreciated those. I suppose, in the end, my support for the legislation comes back to the approach I have taken that, if the Government is keen to do something and I have not found a very good reason to prevent them or to act to the contrary, it has been my practice to support the Government, and that is what I will be doing in this case.

I have looked at the amendments put up by Ms Tucker, and I consider those to be very sensible. The modifications by Mr Kaine are acceptable to me. However, let me say that the whole issue of tourism is one that does require much more effort to ensure not just that we get many more tourists but also that we are very careful in terms of the style of tourism we want for Canberra and how it can enhance not only people's understanding of the role of Canberra and why Canberra is here but also our economy. The two should be running hand in hand. I hope the legislation will provide a boost for tourism and give the people who are involved in this corporation a sense of corporate identity and the people who are involved in tourism throughout the Territory a sense that they are going to move ahead. If it provides that and if Mr Kaine, as the new Minister in this area, can give a sense of something fresh and vital, then we should see an improvement.

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