Page 2900 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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Mr Barr: Brendan wants a convention centre.
MR SMYTH: The business community want the convention centre. They have done a lot of work towards it. They have done the financial analysis. What they need now is some leadership to make it happen. Let us see if there is any leadership here. I suspect that we will be talking about this for years to come because of this government’s lack of interest in the infrastructure that should occur.
Yes, I am interested in a new convention centre. It is the same as 12 years ago. We had plans for Civic—our city, building our city, delivering our city. There was the OECD report that we got done on revitalising Canberra—the Canberra renaissance, I think they called it. Mr Corbell got that in 2002 and really has not acted on it; we will see what happens there.
We have covered economic policy and business development. We get to tourism. Yes, there is increased funding for tourism in the budget, which of course is welcome, but we are yet to see the government capitalise on tourism. We have had a bump in the numbers because of the centenary year; we are getting close to where we were back in 2002 and 2003, but it has been a long haul. It has been a very long haul.
Again, I must put on the record that I think the federal government have let us down significantly in regard to the celebration of the nation’s capital. It is primarily their responsibility, I would have thought—well beyond our responsibility. The government have put a lot more money in than their federal Labor colleagues, and well done to them for that. They have lucked into their centenary gift by having the arboretum; when it started, there was no mention of it being a centenary gift, but it is now launched as the centenary gift. That is good.
If you really look at this budget, you have to ask yourself: “Is this the budget for a centenary year? Is this the budget that sets the city up with a vision for the next 100 years?” Not really, no; it is just not there really. It is bitsy. There is no clear vision enunciated about where the city will go in the next 100 years. You can see it in the budget. It really is a budget that is cobbled together in many ways.
There is still a lot of potential in tourism that we are not realising. On page 39 of the dissenting report there is another fine recommendation:
… that the ACT Government develop specific strategies for the Tourism industry for:
• accommodation;
• events; and
• new attractions.
I note—
Mr Barr: I am sure you did not mean to say “the dissenting report” there, but—
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