TOURISM COMMISSION

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): My question is to the Premier, in light of the answer he just gave to his own member. Why is the tourism industry such a low priority for the government that the tourism commission will only get a part-time CEO to replace Ian Darbyshire, and why is the government restructuring the Tourism Commission now and not five months ago when the Premier undertook departmental restructuring?

The SPEAKER: Minister, you are probably going to do the same point of order, but there was some—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Yes. To say it is a 'low priority' is to engage in comment, which is forbidden by standing order 97.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I was going to make the same comment. Leader of the Opposition, be careful about not being provocative in your questions. The Premier may wish to reply to the substance of the question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:24): Thank you, Madam Speaker. The simple truth is that tourism is amongst our highest priorities. The reason—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's right—fake laughter, noise, interjections.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: When we restructured the government agencies when I assumed this role, one of the things we chose to do was bring together the food portfolios with the regional portfolios as well as tourism. We did that advisedly, because a number of our significant tourism assets exist within our regions. It was taken on advice about the way in which the portfolio should be structured, and we thought that that was a rational way in which we could bring together a whole range of endeavours. I think our clean, green food agenda, which is very much connected with our capacity to market the image of our state, the work that is going on in Kangaroo Island at the moment that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —is being supervised by the Deputy Premier, all speak to the image that we are seeking to project to the world about our clean, green city, which grows food within that environment, which is a deeply attractive tourism experience for people who wish to come and enjoy South Australia. We take this very seriously. That is why we have taken those steps to restructure the agency in that way.

At the same time, though, all government agencies are looking for ways in which they can economise so that we can meet the pressures that exist on us to provide the services that the community demands. We know that there are massive demands for health services, education services, and people have strong views about public safety. All of those things require us to place very significant amounts of resources to meet community needs. That means that other parts of government have to make economies, and where they can sensibly do that and get good results, sometimes even better results by making sensible economies, we always request our agencies to involve themselves in all the processes.