Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Batman and ‘robin’ the taxpayers—that is what it is all about, Member for Fisher. In my electorate I have an enormous number of people who come from places like Taiwan and China, and the family visits that come into our part of south-east Queensland add an enormous amount to our local economy. Sure, they go off to Australia Zoo and Lone Pine but they spend a lot of time in local restaurants around Sunnybank and in spending a lot of money building our local economy. Thirty years ago we had the Oasis and the Acacia Gardens at Station Road in Sunnybank. They were the beginnings of a lot of the great theme parks we now enjoy at the top end of the Gold Coast. They have gone now, and we no longer have busloads of people from all over south-east Queensland visiting those wonderful old swimming pools. There are all houses in those areas now. But one thing is for sure: what has not changed has been the quality of the infrastructure, and what has not been improved has been the quality of the facilities for visitors.

If we get further big athletic events at the QEII stadium, the Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre at Nathan, the infrastructure in my area will not cope. Tens of thousands of people will come to Australia and they will see all the failings of state governments, in particular, to invest properly in these sorts of things. That is the sort of message that I think Tourism Australia have to deal with, no matter who is on the board and no matter what other tasks they may happen to have at hand.

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