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

No, you have asked the question and now you are going to get the answer. If I look at where tourism has grown and developed, it has been where money has been spent on roads to provide safe access to those regions. It is a pity that your mates in the state government of New South Wales cannot wake up to that, because they seem to be spending all of their money in the heart of Sydney but very little in regional and rural areas. The member for Batman has heard me say before in my own electorate that the Bucketts Way, which has had $20 million of federal government money spent on it, has improved tourism. How much did we get out of the state government? Let me tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, the amount given by the state government was absolutely zero. So there was no money for tourism infrastructure, as the member has just alluded to, in the way of roads, but this government is committed not just with the money it has already spent with AusLink, not just with the money it has already spent under Roads to Recovery with council, not just the money it has spent on black spot road funding but to the $23.2 billion that we are going to spend on AusLink 2 to make sure that we have safer roads. Safer roads increase tourism opportunities. It is a pity state governments do not wake up to that.

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