House of Assembly Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS The Hon. P.L. WHITE House of Assembly Taylor INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS The Hon. P.L. WHITE (Taylor) (14:32): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Mr Venning interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Schubert! The Hon. P.L. WHITE House of Assembly The Hon. P.L. WHITE: How will Adelaide benefit from hosting the 15^th International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists? The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH House of Assembly Adelaide Minister for Education Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister for Tourism Minister for the City of Adelaide The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:32): It is important to recognise that this area of conference activity fulfils several targets and aspirations for the state government in terms of encouraging women to be involved in science, acknowledging their involvement in engineering and also bringing a dollar value to the state in terms of tourism and activity. I thank the member for Taylor, who was instrumental in bidding for this conference because she is, in fact, a member of this organisation—and an active one. It is worth remembering that all of us in our day-to-day lives, whether we are involved in an organisation, a club or a sporting activity, and whether our businesses are multinational with involvement around the world, have an opportunity to bring delegates, conference goers and meetings to our own town as a way of promoting tourism in South Australia. The member for Taylor has been very effective in winning this large international conference, which will be represented at its 15^th annual iteration in 2011 in Adelaide. Of course, our city is no stranger to large events of this sort. We recently hosted the International Bushfire Research Conference, with 1,200 delegates, and we have been successful in winning the bid to host International Surgery Week in September 2009 and the International Tang Soo Do championships in November 2009. The conference that the member for Taylor has described represents incredible value for money for the state in terms of return on investment. ACTA (the body responsible for bringing conferences to Adelaide) is a very effective way of bringing visitors, because it is cost effective in its bidding and produces tourism arrivals that are high expenditure individuals. Indeed, a national conference delegate contributes $524 to our state's economy. Even more impressive, every delegate from an international destination represents $1,200 in expenditure. As I said, ACTA is cost-effective and effectively takes less than $10 a head per night to get delegates into our state, whereas other interstate bureaus would be spending in excess of $20 and up to $50 to get a conference delegate here. The 15^th International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists has been held every three years since 1964, and the last conference was held in Lille, France. We expect that the number of delegates will amount to between 800 and 1,000 people. They will be staying for at least four days and will contribute at least 4,500 bed nights to Adelaide hotels. It is expected that this number of people will inject $3.4 million into the state's economy, so I thank the member for Taylor. This win would not have been possible if the state government had not worked not only with ACTA but also with the co-hosts, Engineers Australia and the International Network of Women in Engineering and Science. This body has been funded by UNESCO as part of a global network of organisations promoting women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The formal bid, however, would not have been possible without the support of the Governor, the Lord Mayor, and most especially our own delegate, the member for Taylor acting in the role of chair of the Conference Advisory Board and who has been really significant in her efforts to attract this conference to Adelaide.