Page 4753 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 20 October 2010

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Paragraph (2)(a) is slightly different from what I have in my motion. It says that the government set out by February 2011 what actions they will take to respond to the findings of the Loxton report. That is not as much as I would have hoped. I would have hoped that they would have the events and festivals strategy in place by February 2011. The work has been done. The minister has the work. He told the estimates committee that he had the report on his desk. It is before the government. It should not be hard, in the light of the Loxton report, to have that on the table by February next year. In that regard we will accept Mr Rattenbury’s amendments. I think they enhance the motion and for that I thank members.

MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (3.57): I thank Mr Smyth for bringing this motion before us today and I feel quite disappointed that this motion has to be raised. But after nearly 10 years of this Stanhope government and its litany of failures across various sectors, here is yet another report that delivers some hard messages, messages that highlight the failure of the Stanhope government and Minister Barr in particular in the leadership that he has provided to the tourism industry. As Mr Smyth has stated, under the Stanhope government and its musical-chair-playing ministers, it is becoming increasingly evident that this government has failed the tourism industry and, through this failure, the Stanhope-Gallagher government has also failed the ACT community.

An editorial on page 9 of the Canberra Times on 12 October stated:

The recent Loxton review of ACT events and festivals says the Government’s funding and scheduling decisions “lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination.” “This has led to inconsistent, uneven funding and support from a variety of agencies based largely on ad hoc or historic arrangements.”

These are strong words in anyone’s language, and it is quite instructive to re-examine some of the words from the report:

…“lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination.” “This has led to inconsistent, uneven funding and support from a variety of agencies …”

These words can also be used, and in fact similar criticisms have been made, about a number of Stanhope government projects; similar words: “lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination”. The GDE, the ACT prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, and so on all come to mind. But these words, “lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination”, are fast becoming synonymous with the Stanhope government.

Mention the Stanhope government and what springs to mind? “Lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination.” Mention “lack vision, policy direction, strategy and coordination” and what comes to mind? The Stanhope government. One follows the other. It is becoming very synonymous. These words and stronger ones have been used about this government’s handling of and contribution to the ACT tourism industry.

The Loxton report says, at page 8, overview point 5:


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