Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for moving this motion on tourism and small businesses. She made some valid points, but there are others that she overlooked which I will concentrate on in a moment. It is important that we understand that the tourism industry in the Northern Territory revolves around iconic sites, all of which are in my electorate. It revolves around the fishing, all of which is in my electorate, including in Darwin Harbour. Whilst it is very important that the institutionalised tourism relating to the arts and craft, the museum and the work of the hoteliers and restaurateurs in Darwin is acknowledged, it is important to understand that, primarily, when people come to the Northern Territory they want to visit Lingiari and all of its attractions, including most importantly engaging with Aboriginal people.

The latest visitation figures supplied by Tourism NT are from March 2015. Sadly, they tell us there has been a decline of 4.8 per cent in tourism visitation over the previous year. Tourism is the single largest employer in the NT economy, accounting for more than 15,000 workers both directly and indirectly employed. Those figures are from 2013-14 and roughly equate to 12 per cent of the total working population. Tourism income from the same year amounted to $1.61 billion, gross value added. There are many small businesses active in the tourism market in the Northern Territory that are working their guts out—figuratively and literally—on a daily basis to increase the Territory's share of the declining tourism market. They are often family owned and run initiatives that work to show visitors the best the NT has to offer.

There has always been high demand for Indigenous tourism experiences—I know this from my own work with the Central Land Council in the 1980s, when I was involved in working with the tourism industry and undertaking what I believe to have been the first tourism survey of visitors to Uluru. Eighty per cent of international visitors are seeking an Aboriginal tourism experience. Large Indigenous-owned organisations like Katherine-based Nitmiluk Tours and the Ayers Rock Resort at Uluru are leading the way in developing new products like Nitmiluk's new culture cruise that explores the history, culture, art and stories of the Jawoyn traditional owners. The new Wintjiri Arts and Museum at Yulara in the Ayers Rock Resort will enable visitors to learn more about Anangu culture and to interact with artists and artisans from the nearby Mutitjulu community.

However, it is the smaller family- and community-owned and operated Aboriginal tourism experiences that have the potential to have the greatest impact on regional development and employment across the Territory. Twenty different Yolngu communities have united behind a plan, Lirrwi Tourism, to create a thriving tourism industry that will foster economic independence, strengthen cultural traditions and help Australia's tourism profile internationally and domestically. Djawa 'Timmy' Burarrwanga has a vision of as many as 50 new Aboriginal-owned businesses in Arnhem Land. The Yolngu tourism masterplan has been developed with the help of former Tourism Australia managing director, John Morse, who believes that Arnhem Land has the potential to become Australia's next tourism icon. He says:

Arnhem Land is one of the most extraordinary places in Australia—a land with a deep spiritual significance where you can make a personal connection with the world's oldest continuous culture. It will never be a mass tourism destination, but it has the potential to be a very high-value destination that helps define Australia internationally and contribute a great deal to our national identity.

Despite the best efforts of hardworking tourism operators, they are being badly let down by this current government. This government and the CLP representatives in Canberra have vacated the field as far as promoting Australian tourism is concerned, at the most important time for job creation. There is no designated tourism minister—merely an afterthought to the trade ministry. The Abbott government has cancelled all domestic marketing funding. The withdrawal of funding has meant that there will be no Australia Week in China 2015, potentially our biggest tourism market. There is no Australian stall at the world expo in Milan this year. More than 120 countries will have stalls, but sadly we will not. Vanuatu will. The Abbott Government has withdrawn our membership of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

These are serious matters. As the mining boom declines and the Australian economy shifts towards service provision, we need to promote employment growth in other sectors, particularly in tourism. I say to tourism operators in the Northern Territory: despite the ridiculousness of the way in which this government is approaching tourism, tourism operations and tourism marketing, you know that you have our support—that is, the Labor Party's support—to go on and do your jobs and to provide good tourism experiences for all those who wish to visit, including the grey nomads who go up and down the Stuart Highway, as well as overseas visitors.

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