Tourism and Multicultural Affairs

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. How has the government delivered on its election commitments in the tourism and multicultural affairs portfolios?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:44): I thank the member for Elizabeth for his enthusiasm for my portfolio areas, and I particularly thank him for representing me from time to time in the area of multiculturalism.

It has been a really huge year for both areas of my portfolio but, more importantly, this is an opportunity for us to reflect on the election commitments we took out to South Australians, asking them to support us to become the government. They did support us, and we were pleased to roll out these election commitments.

We know that it has been an incredibly difficult time in tourism. I have spoken many times in this house about how, while South Australians did discover their own backyard and enjoyed many of our regions, the uncertainty around border closures and different restrictions did make it an incredibly challenging time. We went to the election with some commitments and we delivered on those commitments: an additional $45 million over four years for marketing and $40 million for major events.

Of course, this weekend we are very excited to see the VALO Adelaide 500 rolling out. Lots of people are very excited about this, and people in my electorate still talk about it. They can't believe it's happening and cannot wait to be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There have been more recent announcements around the Magic Round and LIV Golf, and these are national and international head-turning events.

However, if you don't have industry with you, supporting you, you can't deliver, and there are challenges around skill shortages. That is one of the reasons we went out, with the Tourism Industry Council of South Australia, with an additional $1.6 million. That is increasing business capabilities for people to have just-in-time training to work on their business; more importantly, that $1.6 million goes towards attracting people into tourism and hospitality.

I was absolutely honoured to sign a historical agreement with the Tourism Industry Council of South Australia, a partnership between themselves and myself as minister. That shows a dedication to the industry not seen before. With that dedication we have committed to co-hosting round tables—we have had 11 this year in both our regions and here in the CBD—talking to people and engaging with people, advocating for what it is we want to see here.

I was also very honoured to host an Aboriginal operators round table, which was held in the Speaker's Dining Room, because the Tourism Industry Council wants to set up the first ever Aboriginal tourism operators association here in South Australia. We also launched the $2 million Experiencing Nature Tourism Fund, and I will be announcing the grant recipients for that in the next two weeks.

I can't go past the additional $16 million delivered for multicultural communities. We have an incredibly diverse community, with people here in South Australia born in more than 200 different countries. A key part of that was $4 million for community language programs; we now have 101 community language schools. I have spoken about two rounds of funding so far: case management and, just the other week, infrastructure grants for community language schools.

I was also pleased to reinstate a multicultural women's leadership training course at TAFE, which was cruelly cut by the previous government, and, of course, introduce the Multicultural Media Grants, which were well in demand.