Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question also relates to investment for tourism development. As the Minister for Tourism would be aware, being quite familiar with the area of Parramatta, we earn less than one per cent of our GDP from tourism, which is well below the Sydney-wide average, yet we have within our borders an extraordinary range of tourism assets. In fact, we have more heritage buildings in Parramatta than we have in The Rocks, and most of those are within walking distance from the river which connects Parramatta to Circular Quay. We are also about 20 minutes from the Olympic site of Homebush and on the way between the Sydney CBD and the quite popular Blue Mountains. So there is extraordinary opportunity to grow local tourism business in Parramatta. Could the minister inform the House and the people of Parramatta how the budget enhances the capacity of the Parramatta region to develop as a tourism portal for Western Sydney?

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