Grievance Debate

RUNDLE MALL TOURIST PRECINCT

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:23): I rise today to speak on an issue that I find perplexing. So far, debate in this house and the other side has been condemning of the concept to create Rundle Mall as a tourist precinct. To quote from Hansard, the Minister for Tourism stated—

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Point of order.

Ms SANDERSON: —if it is to say—

The SPEAKER: Order! A point of order.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: It is a point of order I made earlier in the week, and that is that the member for Adelaide is anticipating debate on a bill before the house, a bill that she has placed before the house. She is canvassing the merits of that bill, namely, Rundle Mall as a tourist precinct.

The SPEAKER: At this time, I will not uphold that point of order because I must admit that I have not been able to hear what she has had to say. However, the member does need to be extremely careful. There is a bill before the house, and you need to be extremely careful what you talk about.

Ms SANDERSON: To quote from Hansard, the Minister for Tourism said:

If it is to say that Rundle Mall is a particularly significant tourism area, I would ask rhetorically...why The Parade should not also be, why every other area should not also be.

Given this view, it is very surprising, that last Sunday, 20 February, the mall was given a special exemption by the Minister for Industrial Relations to open for an extra two hours, from 9am. Rundle Mall was always considered important enough as a tourist precinct by the government to be opened specifically for cruise ship passengers on the Queen Mary 2 and the Amadeus—

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, the member for Croydon.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Thursday 24 March, Order of the Day No. 1: Shop Trading Hours (Rundle Mall Tourist Precinct) Amendment Bill (No. 55)—adjourned debate on second reading.

The SPEAKER: Again, I am going to listen very carefully to what she has to say. It is straying very close and now there is some inference that this is being used to hold up. The member was given new time, so she needs to be very careful about her references there. I will listen for the next couple of minutes and if I decide it is not appropriate then she will need to sit down.

Ms SANDERSON: Okay. Whilst I commend the government's decision to allow the retailers to open why are tourists on two cruise ships more important than the tourists who visit on public holidays throughout the year? Rundle Mall has 23 million visitors per year with 85 per cent of visitors to the city of Adelaide visiting the Mall, and 75 per cent of cruise ship passengers visiting throughout the cruise ship season.

Did the Minister for Tourism insist that The Parade, Norwood—as he referred to in his speech—also be given special consideration and be able to open from 9am for tourists from the cruise ships? Did the member for Little Para ensure that his constituency, which includes the Elizabeth City shopping centre, geographically approximately the same distance from Outer Harbor as Rundle Mall, also be given special consideration by the government?

In short, the answer is no. Neither of these areas were given special consideration. I believe that is because the government now recognises that Rundle Mall is, in fact, a place of significant interest to our tourists and this position is supported by industry stakeholders and the wider community. The argument that tourists do not come here to shop can also be dispelled by the fact that busloads of cruise ship passengers flooded into the Mall.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I am sorry, but you are straying on to this bill. I think you will need to sit down. This can be reserved for when you bring up your bill.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Which the member for Croydon is not able to do. I call the member for Mitchell.