Question Time

TOURISM COMMISSION

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Tourism a question about regional guides.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yesterday the minister inserted in Hansard a reply to a question that she was previously unable to answer. This was in reference to a breakdown of the $900,000 decrease in net costs due to the implementation of savings referred to in Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, and specifically to what are these savings initiatives. I will not go through all the savings initiatives, but one of the increased revenue items was an increase in revenue associated with the Shorts/visitors guides. Members would be aware that I embarked on a fact-finding mission on Eyre Peninsula last week and, of course, visited nearly all the visitor information centres.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, I was not riding a horse: there are not any horses big enough to carry me that distance. However, I visited nearly all the visitor information centres across Eyre Peninsula and was well received by most of the volunteers in those particular establishments. Some of them were concerned, obviously, about the very late publication of this year's regional guides. We know that, sadly, they have last year's in stock at present and, given that Ceduna especially is the gateway to our great state from the west, the publication they like to give them is this 96-page Eyre Peninsula visitor information guide, and it is very embarrassing for the staff of the visitor information centre when people discover it is last year's magazine.

We all know that the publishing of these guides has been brought into a city location and done centrally here by SATC rather than by the regions themselves. The regions often would keep the revenue from advertising, and such revenue was always spent back in the regions. I have been made aware that, while this guide is 96 pages, the draft for the Eyre Peninsula guide that has been seen by some members working in the visitor information centres is now 46 pages—some 50 pages less than the magazine they distribute now. My questions are:

1. What has been omitted from the regional guide to reduce it by some 50 pages?

2. How will the increased revenue of some $85,000 be achieved, given that the guides are up to six months late and, in the Eyre Peninsula case, half its normal size?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:25): I thank the honourable member for his important questions. Indeed, the regional visitor guides, as I have spoken about in this place before, are a very important part of the South Australian Tourism Commission's domestic marketing campaign. In the past the regional tourism committees and the South Australian Tourism Commission have individually contracted suppliers to produce various components of the annual regional visitor guides.

For this year's guides—and I have said it in this place before—the Tourism Commission tendered for a supplier to produce all the visitor guides as well as the Shorts brochures, and this was to enable economies of scale and consistency across all regional visitor guides. This was something the regions were very supportive of in principle—we should acknowledge this.

I know that at the moment they are not happy because they are late, but there was indeed in-principle support to go about improving efficiencies in the way they went about this. It was quite an impost for each individual region to have to do it, and they saw that there was the potential to be able to produce economies of scale and reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

I have said in this place before that this was the first time that this occurred. Indeed, there were a number of problems in implementing this new system which have resulted in most unfortunate delays; I have spoken about that in this place before. But we believe that we are consulting with the regions, and we are working through the issues of concern, and we believe that we should be able to iron out these problems and put in place a system that does work effectively and efficiently in an ongoing way.

In terms of the regional drafts, these are operational issues. What I am responsible for is to ensure that the regions are consulted with. Even the honourable member has indicated that the region was being consulted on the draft. My view is that, if they are not happy with the draft, there is an opportunity to input and make appropriate changes where possible—and that is exactly as it should be. Drafts go out, the regions get a chance to input and make improvements or changes where necessary. So, I would have thought that what the honourable member is reporting here today is a system that is, in fact, demonstrating that we are consulting and we are trying to improve what is going on.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway has a supplementary.