Yorke Peninsula Ferry

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:44): I have a question for the Minister for Tourism. Has the government made any progress on enabling a ferry to transit between Adelaide and Yorke Peninsula?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:44): I thank the member for Narungga for his question. Yorke Peninsula tourism is going absolutely great guns at the moment. We know that during COVID people, particularly from South Australia, discovered their own backyard. It is worth $430 million a year. This is way above the 2025 target.

There has been quite a bit of infrastructure, particularly in areas like Port Vincent. Of course, we know people love to go there to fish, to swim, and to relax. We have also had some breweries that have been developed there and some fantastic distilleries as well. I have talked to SeaLink about the potential of having a ferry from Glenelg to Port Vincent. In fact, I am meeting with them—as I do regularly—and I invite the member for Narungga to join me to have that conversation with them as well.

Of course, any time you look for significant infrastructure we would be looking at a business case, we would be looking at private investment into this situation. However, we should be bold, because on this side of the house we are supporting tourism. We think it has a great future and, while we have already achieved our $10.2 billion visitor economy in the past year, we have ambitions to go further and further.

The Yorke Peninsula is one of those areas that has great opportunity. Just recently I have had roundtables, and I have had them in three different areas of Yorke Peninsula. We have seen areas like Moonta, with their Copper Trails and their bike hire, becoming more and more attractive to people. Of course, Innes National Park is a much-loved area of the Yorke Peninsula and we want to engage people to enjoy the national park more and more. That is why we have the Experience Nature Tourism Fund, which is $500,000 year upon year for tourism activities within national parks or accommodation adjacent to national parks.

We believe in tourism, we believe in supporting our regions. We know that there has been a fundamental change to tourism, with 46¢ or 47¢ in the dollar now spent in our regions, and the Yorke Peninsula got a really big increase in that area.

I am going to talk about regions and tourism more and more. Importantly, it is for us to look towards the future, to take these bold ambitions and bold opportunities and have those conversations.