Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for the question. Certainly, when it comes to tourism, I know she is very committed, as indeed are many on this side of the House, to growing Australia's tourism industry, because we see it as a super growth sector for this country. Indeed, international visitors going into South Australia have grown by some 18 per cent in the past three years. But not only are more tourists visiting South Australia; they are also spending more, with spending by international tourists up some 41 per cent since 2013, to now reach some $970 million.

The fact is that this side of the House is putting record funding into Tourism Australia. This side of the House has been responsible for a tourism boom into this country. That is an important point of contrast with the Australian Labor Party, who, of course, did achieve a record for tourism, and that was record tourism taxes. The fact is that, under the coalition, we have seen a growth in numbers, we have seen a growth in length of stay and we have seen a growth in the average spend.

But I hear the member for Boothby asks: are there any threats to the jobs that are being created in the tourism sector? And I am afraid to say that there are threats to those jobs in Australia's tourism sector—and you cannot go past the electricity policies of the Australian Labor Party. In a recent news.com.au article, Jane Govey, of the Bridge Hotel at Langhorne Creek, said that she had to turn away paying customers. That is what the Labor Party delivered—a situation where businesses had to turn away paying customers. She said:

We had 20 in for dinner and probably turned another 15, or 20 away. If this had been the only power outage I’d probably not be quite so upset but this is the fourth one in three months that we’ve had.

The simple fact is that, without electricity, hotels and restaurants miss out on paying customers and that means fewer jobs.

But I am pleased that there was actually power on in South Australia yesterday, because it meant that they could broadcast the Oscars. I have to say that there were a few envelope stuff-ups yesterday. Let me just give a quick recap. There is no doubt that the Oscar for Best Special Effects should have gone to the former Treasurer, the member for Lilley, for the way he made his surplus just disappear. We could also say that the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor should have gone to the member for Grayndler for his role in 'Get Shorten'—sorry, I mean Get Shorty.

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