Page 2751 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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dropped in the laps of government. That they put the money towards it was a good thing, because it actually got Mr Barr and Mr Stanhope saying, “Investing in tourism got a return for the territory.” So they finally understand that investing in tourism gives you a return. I welcome that—it has taken nine years for them to get to that—but it does expose the new autumn event. We have got two years gestation and there is still nothing of a general lasting concept, still nothing to compete with what could have been, for instance, a world-class balloon festival. What is this new event, what are we getting for our $5 million and how is the broader community from the ACT going to be involved?
The interesting thing is that one of the statements made about it was that it would generate overnight stays. That is a good thing, if it does, but we are yet to have any evidence to present that it would. I asked the question, therefore: would we need extra accommodation? The response was, “No, we’ve got enough extra accommodation for this sort of event.” But then, when we talked about the minister having an accommodation strategy, his strategy was just a list of sites thrown out there willy-nilly. There is one in Watson, there is one at EPIC, there is one at Stromlo and then he drops the two sites on Northbourne Avenue, both of which were passed in, because the market is not ready for them.
But having a list of sites is not a strategy. A strategy tells you where you want to go and tells you how you get there and then out of that you have an action list, which might be the sale of sites to meet that need. But where is the analysis? Where is the consultation with the community? Where is the direct link with the new convention facility? Indeed, Minister Barr said: “Well, that’s a private sector thing. We’re not connected to the new convention centre.” Yet the Chief Minister, in his infrastructure report, says that they are actively working with the Canberra Business Council on delivering the new convention centre.
So who is right and who is wrong? This government is confused on tourism. I asked the minister where his attractions strategy was. He said, “We don’t have to have an attractions strategy; that’s for the federal government to have.” Why have we got a tourism minister? If you are not going to look at developing attractions, what are we going to do?
For instance, the National Museum, Mr Assistant Speaker—and you have heard me say this before—was conceived in 1980. It took until 2000 for it to arrive—20 years. If we are going to wait that long for another significant attraction, we will be in desperate straits. We have seen no interest in new attractions from the current federal government—the Labor government.
We have seen upgrades to the major attractions—the National Museum and certainly the National Portrait Gallery—and I can rattle off a long list of other upgrades and things that the previous Liberal government did. The previous Liberal government actually had an interest in developing the nation’s capital and its attractions. From the current federal government, all we get is cuts to the attractions, efficiency dividends, pressure, which the chief cheerleader over there for these cuts, Mr Barr, thought was a good idea, because we would cut travelling exhibitions and then he thought people might come to Canberra instead. But we do not have a coherent attractions strategy.
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