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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-24 Daily Xml
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Regional Tourism

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:46): Thanks, Mr President. When the chooks calm down, I can get on with it. My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister please update the chamber on his recent week of tourism workshops and industry engagement in the Flinders Ranges, the outback and Eyre Peninsula regions?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in the Flinders Ranges, the outback and Eyre Peninsula. It was a privilege doing what I love most: getting back into South Australia's regions. I had a week of travelling through the Flinders. I went to Marree, Coober Pedy, Southern Flinders Ranges, Upper Spencer Gulf and Eyre Peninsula. It was a rigorous program of seven tourism industry workshops, site visits and meetings with small and large operators in trade, tourism and investment.

I was excited by the new range of new activities and offerings throughout these regions, all encouraging visitation and contributing to South Australia's regional economy, which, of course, from a tourism perspective, is now at $6.7 billion in visitor expenditure. Our 2020 target of $8 billion is projecting that 44 per cent of that will come from the regions. It is important that the government continues to engage with regional South Australia as we already have been.

We had a great turnout at the regional workshops. Several consistent themes arose across them. I am heartened to see that the regional visitor strategy has really been effective in capturing those things. The themes included, for the members' benefit, getting visitors to stay another day and showcasing our national parks with new access and investment opportunities.

The Hon. Mr Hunter was the minister in the previous government, and I think he had a bit of a passion for some nature-based tourism, and the new government is taking it to even higher levels. Other key themes were acknowledging that tourism is a long-term career path and making the most of our rich Indigenous history and culture. I think that's something that South Australia really needs to focus on.

Roads and blackspots was also a theme. Of course, this current government is addressing the blackspot funding and trying to solve some of the spots from an information point of view and a public safety point of view. Unfortunately, the previous government did not do so.

Some of the other highlights were in Hawker. I would recommend Mr Geoff Morgan's Panorama in Hawker to anybody. Of particular interest, I went to William Creek with Trevor Wright and had a look at the beautiful Painted Hills at Anna Creek Station, which is something now, with that property leaving the Kidman empire and going to the Williams family, that they are going to open up for some tourism opportunities. I would suggest to all members in this chamber, if you can get to the Painted Hills of Anna Creek Station, you should. It is truly a world-class destination.

Another thing was Faye's underground home in Coober Pedy, which was particularly interesting. A trailblazing female miner and two of her friends developed a mine and had a particular influence on Coober Pedy's development. Another interesting place I went to was the Arkaba Station. I was able to experience a sort of safari. I have seen millions of galahs and millions of kangaroos over my journey. Sometimes I see people acting like galahs in here. But this African safari experience, looking at our South Australian wildlife, was truly exceptional. It took it to another level. It really made me realise that on our doorstep we have even more natural assets than I realised, and to showcase them the way Brendon Bevan does is truly spectacular.

Of course, we went over to Eyre Peninsula and through Whyalla and down through Eyre Peninsula. I was pleased to see Andrew Puglisi and his mussel operation now having mussels cooked in a bag. They now have a shelf life of over nine months and they can now export them to the world, whereas live mussels did not have that shelf life before. I think that provides some really good opportunities.

I went to Ceduna to the art gallery where the incredibly talented Indigenous artists are selling their products to the world and promoting South Australia's Indigenous culture. That, again, was spectacular, the quality of the work. I found that, the Arkaba Station and the Painted Hills the three exceptional things that I saw during that trip.

We had a lot of people engage with us. Every operator was passionate about what they do, trying to make a difference for South Australia, to grow the economy and employ people in local regions, and this government is proud of the work that we are doing to support those regional people. They will continue to grow their businesses and we acknowledge everybody in regional South Australia who makes tourism the industry that it is and grows our regional economies.

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