Government Marketing and Communications

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:42): Supplementary: is the minister concerned that many of the visitors that South Australia was anticipating coming here may well have ended up in Tasmania instead, given their tongue-in-cheek parody of the ad campaign?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for her question and a chance to talk about my good friend the Premier and tourism minister, the Hon. Will Hodgman, in Tasmania. I think imitation is the greatest form of flattery, that we had an 'old mate' campaign that got national coverage, that people were actually talking about South Australia on national TV—all over.

Tasmania are good friends of ours—a great Liberal government. If in the end a few tourists went because they grabbed our idea, good on them. We are in this together. In fact, we share a number of opportunities with Tasmania, in a triangular path with Melbourne, to try to attract people to the southern states. If Tasmania can leverage off what was a great idea and get a few extra tourists down there, good luck to them.

The PRESIDENT: One more supplementary, the Hon. Ms Bourke, and then we will move on to another topic.