Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am comparing the New South Wales budget with the federal budget and its impact on tourism in my electorate. In my electorate, over $100 million in tourism revenue is generated in the Blue Mountains and, equally, in the Hawkesbury, and 6,400 direct jobs and tens of thousands more jobs are generated indirectly. I am appalled that the New South Wales government cut spending on tourism from $56.9 million in 2002 down to $50 million last year, and it cut it even further this year. The federal government are doing our part to promote tourism and jobs in regional areas such as mine, and the New South Wales government is undermining that at every turn. I ask the parliamentary secretary whether he is aware of what the New South Wales government is doing in tourism and how we might put pressure on it to take its responsibility seriously so that it does not undermine the very positive benefits of the federal government’s budget in this respect.

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