Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for his question and I congratulate him on the hard work that he does as a member of parliament in bringing the tourism industry and other industries together as a cohesive force so as to have a low unemployment rate. That is well done, and it comes about through the ability to bring people together and give them an opportunity to have a job. It has been well heralded in this place. Our industrial relations reforms have contributed massively to the reduction in unemployment. I point out to the member that the amount of money that is being spent on tourism funding—$193 million—is directly on the back of the money that has been expended and will continue to be expended for this coming financial year from the tourism white paper. Ministers Hockey and Bailey are adamant about providing long-term support for our tourism industry, putting our best foot forward, approaching markets in new ways and refreshing ideas to get more people to come to Australia.

Of course, our ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign has been a great success in markets. But some expect that you advertise today and the benefit is there directly tomorrow; some ill-informed people think that you run your ad in England today and tomorrow people are booking. The flowthrough effect of these ads is in the long term. But one thing that is interesting is that, in tourism expenditure, the Queensland state government have barely kept pace with inflation. So, in real terms, in the last seven years we have seen an increase from the Queensland state government of only some $7 million—and they call themselves the tourism state! We say that they should be expanding their investment in tourism, as indeed should all states.

I will give you an example of a state that has. Western Australia has taken its investment in tourism from $31 million in 2000 to $52.8 million in the coming financial year. The Northern Territory is also doing a tremendous job. For a territory with a population of just over 150,000 people, its spending has gone from $26.7 million in the year 2000 to $38.3 million now: an increase of nearly 30 per cent. So they understand that tourism brings dollars to town. Queensland does well from tourism by sheer virtue of the natural asset it has there in the Barrier Reef, but more could be done. Through this government, we developed the ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign. The question that I ask members to consider is: can you imagine what the slogan would be if Dean Mighell, the head of the ETU, was put in charge of Tourism Australia? I will leave you to ponder that.

We have also seen an increase in investment in the Australian Tourism Development Grant Program. Some of the areas of outback Queensland are also affected by drought and we have seen an increased investment in drought tourism packages. These are there for people to apply for and take advantage of to increase their tourism opportunity. The one thing that we know as we move around to talk to various groups in the tourism industry is that if you do not keep refreshing your ideas, your attitudes and your approach then your market share will diminish. That is why we had to take a very bold and brazen step and put a wake-up call out there internationally by developing the ‘So where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign. I believe, as do many people in the tourism industry—who are providing their own support and investment funding through their own advertising on the back of the Brand Australia advertising—that this program will deliver in bounds. The ‘Throw another shrimp on the barbie’ campaign was outstandingly successful. I believe that this program will take tourism awareness internationally for Brand Australia to the same heights.

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