International Direct Flights

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:12): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment regarding international direct flights.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The minister has spoken about the importance of direct flights to and from Adelaide, and after a lot of hard preparation and work from the former minister, the Hon. Leon Bignell (the member for Mawson) it is great to see that Adelaide has won the rights to host the world Routes Aviation Conference in 2019. My question is: with the global airline conference coming to Adelaide in 2019, why has the minister decided to cut funding from tourism development, and how much funding specifically has been cut to SATAC's airline attraction activity?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:13): I thank the honourable member for his question. It will be a great honour to host the world Routes Aviation Conference here next year. It was a fabulous event in Guangzhou when I was there. I will not get distracted and talk about the typhoon, because I know that you, sir, will sit me down if I talk about that. Nonetheless, it was a particularly good event and I am delighted that South Australia is hosting it. Interestingly, it will be at the Adelaide Showground because of the layout; they want a bigger area than the Convention Centre can present. The minister opposite would know that opportunity—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Former minister.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Former minister, I beg your pardon. I did see the other day that your good friend Martin Hamilton-Smith had a business card that said 'Former minister'.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: You had a business card that said 'Minister' when you were in opposition.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That is a lie. That is totally false.

The PRESIDENT: You only have a few minutes of question time left. The question was reasonable. Minister.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: They make an outrageous allegation. Never, ever have I travelled the world, or anywhere in this state, with a business card that said—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: You just told people. Did you tell anyone?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: No, no. The way I conducted myself they assumed I was a minister. You can take that whichever way you like. I could have been exemplary, or I could have been at the other end of the scale. You know how you performed. I get distracted, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: You are distracted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I'm sorry. Members opposite would know that regarding airline attraction, you only get an opportunity every few years when opportunities become available. We have the airport doing their expansion. They have made it very clear that they want to pitch for some new international flights. There hasn't actually been any money cut. We don't anticipate that this year we will be spending money on attracting new flights because the airport wants to wait until they have finished the expansion.

One of the reasons we had a cut in the Tourism Commission budget was that it was a final payment for an incentive the previous year. This government will be prepared to back new and more international flights when the opportunities arise, but this year, due to the expansion of Adelaide Airport, we won't be pursuing any new international flights.