Cruise Ship Strategy

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:13): I appreciate the minister will be speaking to his former colleague the current mayor. The question is: given that these visitors do not pay rates and they are currently not even paying any passenger ship landing fees, there is no source of revenue for local council to provide these services, so will the government step in and assist if the new infrastructure that is required is specifically required for the increased visitation caused by tourism visitors?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:13): You can arrive as a tourist in a number of ways—by a plane, by a ferry with the current SeaLink service or by cruise ship—so I don't think that to levy just the cruise ship passengers to pay for these services or facilities would be an appropriate way to do it. As I said in my answer a few weeks ago, that is a matter that is of ongoing discussion between the SATC and the local council. I think the tourism commission does spend—I don't have an exact figure—a couple of hundred thousand dollars providing services there.

Of course, there was well over $1 million spent by SATC for the tender facilities for the boats to come from the ships—the smaller boats to come into Penneshaw—so there has been a significant amount of investment, and those issues around passenger levies are an ongoing discussion. I'm sure at some point in the future, we will have some more clarity on that issue.