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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 (14:51): Supplementary question: minister, you mentioned that you visited Whyalla. How was the mood with tourism operators in Whyalla, given the difficulties that they have been through over the last couple of years?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his supplementary question. It was a mixed reception. There have been some difficulties, there is no question of that, especially with the problems with Arrium. There were some operators being a little more optimistic, but certainly those who entertained the corporate part of OneSteel were still feeling somewhat shaken from it all. But I think they are optimistic that Whyalla has turned a corner and some opportunities are there. It was a little bit tough.

I saw the Hon. Frank Pangallo's good friend, Tom Antonio, up there. He sends his best wishes back down to his friend in the chamber here. As people know, Tom is always up-beat. He was excited about everything, and maybe at that forum Tom started his mayoral campaign, too. He took the floor away from me for a few moments while he wanted to talk up his own achievements for the community.

I think Whyalla is still struggling but there are some really good opportunities and I think there are now people starting to look at the opportunities in the hinterland around Whyalla. So while it is still a little bit nervous—but even the aged-care providers there are saying that they want to make sure that they have tourism offerings regionally for when people come to visit their ageing parents and relatives, so that tourism is about the whole community. I think that is one thing that these tourism workshops demonstrated, that the whole community is interested in growing tourism in regional South Australia.

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