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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-22 Daily Xml
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Tourism Industry

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:35): Last week, the opposition was contacted by disgruntled tourism operators who contacted us because they had heard about a proposed tourism voucher from the Marshall Liberal government. Initially, I was delighted to hear that finally this government was taking notice of the need of tourism. We went out in June, talking about tourism vouchers, after seeing the success in the Northern Territory. We encouraged the government as a constructive opposition that we, too, should have tourism vouchers here in South Australia.

Why were these tourism operators disgruntled? Because this is a stingy tourism voucher. It is just for accommodation for hotels with more than 10 rooms, for $100 in Adelaide and North Adelaide and $50 outside those areas, including the regions. There are many things wrong with these vouchers. I have had many people call me to say, 'Why is the CBD getting twice as much money as the regions? Why is this voucher just for accommodation? Why isn't this for attractions? Why isn't this for experiences? $50 won't pay for my petrol to go to Port Lincoln. I really want to go and swim with the sea lions, but the discount does not provide anything for experiences or attractions.'

While we welcome this tourism voucher, I am shocked at the short-handedness delivered to South Australians. In the Northern Territory, their tourism voucher gave $200 matched with another $200 to get that voucher. It sold out overnight—$5.2 million in stage 1 of their tourism vouchers. In Tasmania, it was $100 for accommodation and $50 for attractions and up to $500 for a family of five. What this tourism industry needs is demand. It needs support. The vouchers could have delivered this, but what we have seen is a scheme that is simply not enough.

This was the second announcement for tourism by the Marshall Liberal government. Earlier in the week, they announced the Tourism Industry Development Fund. Once again, I welcomed this interest in tourism because we know tourism is doing it incredibly tough. We know that 94 per cent of tourism organisations are on JobKeeper. For many of them, overnight, in March, their business came to a halt. When I speak to tourism operators, they say they are just trying to survive. For many, they hibernated for the months when COVID had severe restrictions with the hope that they would come out on the other side, but they have a long way to go, particularly those exposed to the international markets.

But let us have a look at this fund, the Tourism Industry Development Fund. It is a $20 million fund to support people to develop new products and to develop infrastructure. However, first of all, you have to have the money to support this hand in hand. At a minimum, to get the $20,000 from the government you have to have more than $40,000 available for you to contribute—nearly $50,000.

In fact, a Letter to the Editor in The Advertiser stated, 'I don't have a lazy $40,000 lying around.' Another operator contacted me to say, 'These development grants really fall short'—and let's be clear, 90 per cent of tourism businesses in South Australia are small—'I've used up my cash reserves and paid my overheads during this difficult time. Only bigger more established businesses will be able to afford to take up this government's offer. I only have cash flow for another three months.'

We call on the Marshall Liberal government to extend this voucher to enable smaller businesses to be able to access the fund.

Time expired.

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