Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

It is a long wait to become a minister if you represent the Gold Coast. You have missed out yet again, my friend, despite a Queensland vacancy, so I will take the smile off your face if you keep intervening. I would like to remind you of your failures, despite your intense lobbying, to actually gain that front bench opportunity. More seriously, I think it is about time the minister for tourism hounded these rogue operators out. I know the member himself has serious concerns as he goes around the industry about the performance of the minister, whispering in their ears.

There has been more than the odd media report of dishonest schemes. One of the worst I have heard of involved a group of four South Korean tourists who were charged a total of $440 for the privilege of walking on the Surfers Paradise beach, a pleasure that Australians and all international visitors normally would have a right to enjoy free of charge—and I am sure the honourable member would have done it at half the price.

These claims, if true, are outrageous and are the last thing the industry needs when it is experiencing underperforming international visitor numbers. I believe a solution to the problem has been identified by the Queensland government, and it is about time that we had better cooperation at state and federal levels to pursue some of those realistic policy options. There are obvious efficiencies in having a national system of accreditation so that we demand a quality performance by those involved in what is a very important industry for Australia from the point of view of jobs and export earnings.

I call on the federal government, in association with the ministers through the ministerial council, to actually get serious about maintaining the integrity of the industry. It is important, as Australia needs to build a quality brand. Tourism Australia has had a challenge in the past on this front. If we are to develop a new product with new experiences then we have to make sure it is a quality product based on integrity and not on unsuspecting tourists being ripped off by rogue operators. This effectively means that we cannot take the ball off the industry with domestic tourism either. It is the mainstay of the industry, and in many cases regional Australia depends on it, especially given the recent drought and bushfires in many areas of regional Australia.

Despite increases in domestic tourism yield, the goal of getting more Aussies to take a break and travel in their backyard has proven troublesome, a matter that I raised at the commencement of this speech. The latest industry figures show a slightly healthier domestic tourism industry when compared with the same time last year, but the unfortunate fact is that 2005 was one of the worst years on record. So there is obviously room for improvement off a low base.

There is still a long way to go to actually develop a robust domestic industry. I refer to the December 2006 national visitors survey, which showed a four per cent increase in the number of nights Australians spent away from home compared with those in December 2005, when numbers dropped to the second lowest since reporting started. It is perhaps a sign of busier lifestyles, the availability of cheap international airfares, a reluctance to take annual leave, a failure to actually manage a business and a trend towards purchasing home entertainment systems that people are not taking holidays. They are the challenges that confront domestic tourism in Australia. Unfortunately, they have also encouraged some of our operators who were previously strongly focused on domestic tourism to turn their attention to the international market and direct their attention away from pursuing an increased slice of the domestic market.

I simply say that tourism is important to Australia. It is a complex and challenging industry, and it is the responsibility of government to actually work with the private sector in all aspects of tourism—from aviation to the bus and coach industry and to the tourism providers and the theme park operators—to actually make sure we try to fix the difficulties that confront the industry in Australia at the moment and to guarantee proper commercial focus and flexibility in a complex environment.

I note that the Uhrig review did suggest some operational amendments that will bring Tourism Australia’s governance arrangements more closely in line with best practice. Those amendments included the removal of the position of the government member on the board and a requirement for ministerial endorsement of the cooperative and operational plans rather than ministerial approval. These are sensible amendments, particularly the removal of the government member from the board, as it eliminates the potential for any conflict of interest for the government member while ensuring that the monitoring of Tourism Australia’s operations remains at arms length. More worrying are the amendments that allow the minister to terminate appointed board members and the reduction in the threshold for ministerial approval of contracts from $5 million to $3 million.

You do not have to cast your mind back far to remember the numerous media reports surrounding the sudden departure of Tourism Australia’s general manager, Scott Morrisson, in August last year. Media reports hinted at a personality clash between the minister and Mr Morrisson—whatever the reason, Mr Morrisson was not talking and the whole episode cost taxpayers $500,000, the staff at Tourism Australia four months without a boss and a completely unnecessary interruption to operations at the statutory authority at a critical time of the launch of its global campaign. The only saving grace is that the amendment does necessitate that the minister provide established reason for sacking a board member, to avoid any further capricious terminations. For that reason, I move:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:“whilst not declining to give the Bill a second reading, the House expresses its concern at:

(1)

the industry’s current poor health;

(2)

the need for greater collaboration between Federal and State Government; and

(3)

the need to heed caution in accepting a broadening of the Ministerial powers regarding the termination of Board members”,

This amendment highlights the need to heed caution in accepting a broadening of the ministerial powers regarding the termination of board members while also highlighting the industry’s current static growth and the need for greater collaboration between federal and state ministers.

I ask that the government seriously take on board some of our criticisms. It is a very important industry, as our representatives from Queensland know, not only the south-eastern division of Queensland but also the whole state of Queensland. We have to make sure that we get the Tourism Australia advertising campaign right. We have to refine it, learn from some of our past mistakes and try to do whatever we can to work in association with industry to grab a better share, a growing share, of a burgeoning international capacity and also to try to encourage Australians to take a holiday. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context