Question Time

Explorers Way

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Will the minister advise whether SATC have recently used images of the Northern Territory in promotional material for South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:27): I thank the honourable member for his question. This has been an issue that's been canvassed in the media and on social media. What it is is a collaborative marketing campaign for the Explorers Way. I know the honourable member opposite is very passionate about the north of South Australia. I am sure he has driven on that road many times and he would have seen the billboards explaining the Explorers Way.

My advice from the South Australian Tourism Commission is that we have a memorandum of understanding with the Northern Territory tourism authority—their name escapes me at this moment—to promote the Explorers Way, driving from both Adelaide to Darwin and Darwin to Adelaide, and both the state and the Territory will use images from the other state. It is part of an ongoing promotion of the Explorers Way to drive more tourists into South Australia and, in relation to the Northern Territory, to encourage more people to drive to Darwin along the Explorers Way. Those images haven't been used without anybody's authority.

There has been a number of commentators in the media and a couple of people on social media, but this is part of the ongoing campaign to promote the wonderful driving opportunity of the Explorers Way. We have the Seafood Frontier, we have the Southern Ocean Drive and we have the Epicurean Way, which I announced as the Liberal opposition spokesman for the 2014 election. We were really pleased to see that the Labor government took up the option of one of our great ideas to embrace the Epicurean Way, but in this case this is just an ongoing promotion of the great initiative called the Explorers Way.