Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to reflect not just on the tragedy of the deaths at the Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld but also on the challenges the industry has had moving forward, growing and getting back on its feet, and reflect on some of the challenges that local businesses are feeling and experiencing. As we know, quite a number of months ago, four people were tragically killed at Dreamworld on one of the rides. It was a freak accident, an accident that has not been able to be replicated, on a ride that had had over 30 million people go through it. But it was a tragic accident, nonetheless. It was the darkest day for Dreamworld in its 30-year history and it cost the lives of Canberra visitors Kate Goodchild, 32, her brother, Luke Dorsett, 35, his partner, Ruzbeh Aragi, 38, and Sydney's Cindy Low, 42.

The theme parks are struggling to move on from that. Substantial safety audits have occurred right across the Gold Coast theme parks, at Dreamworld, Wet'n'Wild, Movie World, Sea World, Paradise Country—and the list goes on. What we've seen from all of those safety audits is that we have some of the safest theme parks now in the world. But, unfortunately, tragedies like that remain strong in people's minds. Visitor numbers are down 36.7 per cent on the corresponding period in the last little while at Dreamworld alone. Unaudited revenue is down 34.3 per cent. For the theme park Movie World, a $43.9 million profit in 2014-15 dropped to a $15.7 million profit in 2015-16. In the financial year just passed, it was a staggering $67 million loss—not at Dreamworld but at Movie World. These are challenging times for the biggest employers on the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast is an incredible place, an extraordinary place. People like to give us a hard time, talking about white shoes and the like—those who've come from Sydney! But remember that in the 1954 census the Gold Coast had 19,000 people. Today it has over 600,000. It is the fastest-growing city in the nation. My electorate, on the northern Gold Coast, is the fastest-growing electorate in the country. I'm just about to mail out to 3,000 new voters to say, 'Hey, welcome,' because of the growth in Coomera, Pimpama and the northern areas. It's a city that's built on the beach, it's built on tourism, it's built on theme parks and it's built on fun. The Gold Coast is a place to come for fun. The theme parks are the biggest employers. There is no corporate industry. There are no government departments. There's no heavy manufacturing. When Dreamworld and Movie World employ over 1,000 people, it puts them in the top 5 employers. You need to go to the Queensland state department of health to find a bigger employer. Tourism is a lifeblood of the coast and the tragedy we saw happen at Dreamworld has affected it.

My great plea to our nation is: continue to turn up to the Gold Coast as the place of fun. Spring is upon us and we're moving into summer. We've had a glorious winter on the Gold Coast. I dreaded coming to Canberra with its temperatures of below 10 degrees when on the Gold Coast you can hang out at the beach at the beginning of July in temperatures of 20 degrees plus. The Gold Coast is a glorious part of the world to come to.

Part of the growth coming through in the Gold Coast has to be from inbound tourists. I took this up with the Speaker in China recently. We sat down in the Great Hall of the People and had a very straight dialogue with Zhang Dejiang, who is the head of the National People's Congress, and No. 3 in the Politburo Standing Committee, and I made the point to him and his senior Chinese government officials that there are 154 flights coming from China into Australia each week; that needs to double. We need greater inbound tourism numbers. Last year, 1.2 million Chinese came and visited Australia, but 455,000 Australians visited China. If we took population on par and looked at visitor numbers per capita, the Chinese would need to have 18 million visitors coming to Australia per annum to match, on a per capita basis, our 455,000 Australian visitors going to China. We need to double the number of Chinese tourists coming to Australia, especially to the Gold Coast.

There are 157,000 Chinese students studying in Australia. Education is one of our great export earners. Again, we need to look to double that, to bring that source of wealth into Australia. We are a great nation that can educate and train young people, especially young Chinese people.

Currently Chinese visitors to Movie World account for eight per cent of those going through the turnstiles. We need to double that.

Tourism is the lifeblood of the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast also happens to be the small business capital of the nation, per capita, because lots of people come to the Gold Coast to retire, for a change of life, a sea change, and get involved to some degree in some type of small business. It is an extraordinarily eclectic city. But we need to build those tourism numbers coming through, especially when it comes to inbound tourists from overseas, especially from Asia.

Can I say publicly: I back the mayor's push for a cruise ship terminal on the Gold Coast. I am agnostic as to where it should go. There are people better qualified than anyone here to determine where one should build a cruise ship terminal. But the idea that the Gold Coast doesn't have a cruise ship terminal is unacceptable. We need to get one. We need to get an anchor tenant—a great cruise ship company that can come and anchor itself at the Gold Coast. Shanghai can now home-port four vessels. Sure, it's a city with a population of 25 million people, but it's not a city with a prowess when it comes to cruising. So surely the Gold Coast can do this.

It's this sort of vision that the mayor is driving now that we need to embrace and grow. We need to look at the next series of projects for the Gold Coast, post the Commonwealth Games. The next major sporting event globally will be the Commonwealth Games. All eyes will be on the Gold Coast, and it's a great Australian city for all eyes to be on. But vision is about looking five and 10 years forward and developing our city, making it livable, making it as high-tech as it can possibly be, and growing its source of economic life, of which tourism is a big part.

So can I reach out across our country and talk up the merits of my great city on the Gold Coast, the theme-park capital of the nation. New rides are coming in. Next month, Movie World will open the HyperCoaster—over $30 million worth of investment; a ride of over a kilometre in length; the only HyperCoaster of this size in the Southern Hemisphere. These companies—Ardent Leisure, through Dreamworld; Village Roadshow, through Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild—are investing. Wet'n'Wild is something like the seventh or eighth largest water-park in the world. They are investing in terms of fun. The Gold Coast is the capital of fun.

Can I encourage everyone holidaying to come along and get involved at some of the safest theme parks, now, in the world. We don't hide from tragedy. We acknowledge it. But we build on it, develop from it and ensure that the great places of fun can continue to be that, not just for Australian citizens but for the world's tourists.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned and resumption of the debate will be made an order for the next day of sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19: 30