South Australian Tourism Commission

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): Supplementary question arising from the answer about international trade and marketing programs. Will such international trade and marketing programs form part of the New Zealand-led review of the minister's department?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:39): Is that a supplementary?

The PRESIDENT: I don't know why, but I'm going to allow him some latitude on that question. My compassion is overwhelming.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Yes, it will. It is interesting the new Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment—it is the Premier's and the cabinet's wish that we have a much more focused approach to our international engagement. Under the former government, it was sort of somewhat of a scattergun approach. There were bits and pieces all over the place and people not quite sure. A good example is, the previous government closed all our trade offices. We have one in Shandong, one in Jinan and one in London in Australia House, which is funded by DPC and report to DPC but not to me, so I'm not quite sure what is going on when it comes to trade and engagement.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: You are not quite sure what is going on? That summarises—

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, it is your question.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: You had the Leader of the Opposition's very, very good friend in the Hon. Martin Hamilton-Smith and he often spoke about his very intimate and close relationship with the Hon. Martin Hamilton-Smith. He was minister for trade. Then we had the former minister for tourism, his other very good friend, Leon Bignell. The three of them together are almost the Three Stooges or three wise men, I am not quite sure what you would call them. But, they didn't talk to each other. We are actually trying to have a much more unified approach: an outward-facing agency that engages with the world, so the left hand knows what the right hand is doing because all of the evidence we are getting is that it was a scattergun approach.

There was a massive amount of duplication across a whole range of agencies. You had the former minister for water—SA Water has an international engagement approach. You had the nature-based tourism activities that the former minister undertook. We have PIRSA doing international stuff. We have tourism doing international stuff. We have trade doing international activities. This review is to actually have a look at exactly how we need to structure. We have some pretty clear ideas. Look at New Zealand. They are the standout success story, in the last 15 years, of a modern economy—a little bit bigger than ours but much smaller that the national Australian economy—an agriculture and tourism-based economy, very similar to ours that has been an international success story.

I think it is a great opportunity to get them to come up with some fresh eyes just to have a look at our international and external engagement to make sure we get it right because, as you have seen, Mr President, over the last 16 years, we had 6 per cent of the population and 8 per cent of the exports. We now have 7 per cent of the population and not even 4 per cent of the nation's exports, yet the rest of the nation has grown. We have also grown, but the rest of the nation has grown faster than us. They are some of the answers that we want. We are happy to have the New Zealand inquiry and look at what we are doing. We have limited resources in both finance and personnel. We want to make sure those resources are put to the best possible use to grow our economy.

Again, I go back to the Hon. Mr Hanson—we want to go beyond $8 billion. We want to have a target well beyond that at some point in the future. We want to try to get back to our share of the national pie. I don't think it's unreasonable for a new government to actually aspire to actually do our fair share of the lifting. We are not doing that on all the metrics: international students, immigration, trade, tourism. We are growing, but we need to grow more and we will look at wherever we can get advice and assistance to make sure that our final position in our final approach to the world is the best possible one we can have.