Question Time

ADELAIDE CONVENTION BUREAU

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Tourism a question regarding the Adelaide Convention Bureau.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The Adelaide Convention Bureau is the official organisation responsible for promoting Adelaide and South Australia as a national and international business meeting and conference destination. The bureau is a partnership between the state government and private enterprise. Just yesterday, less than 500 metres from here, 3,000 delegates from 35 countries were attending Australia's foremost oil and gas conference.

Many hotels are fully booked, and restaurant reservations have spiked. But, from next financial year, the bureau's funding will be cut by $100,000 and this cut comes on top of an earlier $100,000 cut, which started in 2011. Meanwhile, taxpayers are spending in excess of $350 million to upgrade the Convention Centre. My questions are:

1. Does the minister believe that the bureau can operate as effectively with a $200,000 funding cut?

2. If so, is the minister then accusing the bureau of having wasted $200,000 in the previous year?

3. Is the minister aware that the international tourist numbers have been dropping in SA, while the International Congress and Convention Association's country and city ranking report, released this week, ranked Melbourne number one in Australia for international conventions, ahead of any other Australian city? Melbourne was number 31 in the world and Adelaide, sadly, under this minister's stewardship, is ranked a long way down the list at 172.

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 very important questions. This government has made no apologies in regard to ensuring that we maintain a strong and viable economic state. In very dire economic times, we have seen the impact on those states, those areas, those countries, those cities that have failed to rein their spending into line. So, we have seen what has happened. There are many examples internationally where countries have failed to rein in their spending. We have seen them crash and burn.

We are very fortunate here in Australia with a very strong and responsible federal government which has taken significant challenging decisions to bring the budget into line, and so too has this government. Over successive budgets, in response to difficult economic times, we have also had to rein in our spending. We make no apologies for reining in our spending, and that has resulted in broad cuts across all of our agencies over a number of financial years. All of our agencies have had to make savings to some degree, so we make no apologies about that.

In terms of the Adelaide Convention Centre, it plays a very important role in terms of bidding for and attracting conventions and the like here to Adelaide. The moneys derived from that generate significant economic benefit to this state in a wide number of ways—through retail, through our hospitality, through accommodation. Of course, once visitors are here in our state, we encourage them to head off, visit other regions and enjoy other activities here in this state. We have been very successful in doing that, and I will come back to that in just a minute.

What we have said to the Adelaide Convention Bureau is that they will put forward on a case-by-case basis proposals for bids. So, if they come across an activity that they believe will have a significant economic impact and stacks up in terms of a good business case, I am prepared to take that to cabinet on a case-by-case basis. So, there is a provision there for activities to be considered by cabinet. I think that is a good way of moving forward.

In terms of tourism, South Australia has done extremely well. It is another success story—a huge success story—where we have increased our visitor expenditure significantly. If I remember correctly, South Australia's visitor expenditure stacked up very well with the national average. That is a real success story. Spending is up and numbers are down, but that is not surprising considering what our dollar has been sitting at and the very difficult economic times internationally. In spite of that, our strategy to target the higher yielding customers is paying out.

Although our numbers are down, our tourism spend has increased. It has increased to a degree that stacks up very well against the national average. As I said, it is another success story and a testimony to the hard work of the South Australian Tourism Commission, which does a terrific job and also, of course, our tourism operators. There are many hundreds of those throughout the state and they do a tremendous job, as well.