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PRIME MINISTER
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT FROM PRIME MINISTER'S ADDRESS TO THE
AUSTRAUAN TOURISM TASK FORCE LUNCHCON, SYDNEY, 11/ 6/ 93
"... Australia does have great things about it and I think it's very important that we
understand ourselves what we have and seek to protect it. John ( Brown) mentioned at the
table the importance now of the environment In tourism, and people coming to Australia
to ee something that they can't-we In any other part of the wodd... this is just about the
oldest part of the world's crust, the flora and the fauna here are different to everywhere
else in the world and people do come here to see SomethinS they can't see somewhere else
and it's Important therefore that we protect a lot of these thinp.
And I think that some of the things we did in the eighties, like preserving the wet tropics
area of north Queensland has been an important draw to the north Queensland community,
the work of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in preserving the Marine Park and
undcestanding It better the reef ecosystem better Is important to us, the declarations
of some of the wilderness areas of NSW and Tasmania have been important, the role of
the States themselves let me pay tribute to Neville in the period he was Premier in
declaring National Parks in NSW these things ar quite important and we have as a
country taken opportunities to preserve the natural environment in many key places.
We've not done as well with the built environment, and I think this lets a lot of people
down and It Is one of the things we have to concentrate on over the period, but it is
Important that places important to tourism are developed sensitively. Let me give you an
example say with Cairns In Queensland. Cairns is a place which has not been developed
sensitively. It's an important tourism place. There's no point in building 16 storey hotels in
the middle of Cairns when the building next door is a two storey warehouse or one storey
residential accommodation. You can double the footprint of these buildings and halve the
height and keep them more of human scale than just letting the developers dominate these
municipal or shire councils, or city councils trying to get their way.
And I think It's Important to take stock of places like Cairns to say, look,, if this Is one of
the attractions, let's keep It an attraction. If people come here to see it as a town in the
Queensland tropics, let's keep like a town In the Queensland tropica and let's not devclop
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It as a Miamil Beacb or Suifers Paradise or somewhere, else. In that wonderful hinterland of
Cairns across the river of that wonderful mountain and the mangroves, there is a
development proposal there, and It may well bt that that development could procced but
again, In those things, you're then playing wilh the actual attractions of the city Itself and
you notice It. I'll eive you San example, you cross into Douglas shire in Queensland no
building above tree height, the cnvironument and public access to the beaches and things
have a premium on them and of course the development of the wet tropics area which Is
within that shire all of those things go towards making a long term~ attracion for the
tourism industry.
I think the envirornent and the built environment beyond the capital cities amc very
Important to us as are the services We provide In the capital cities themsclves. And in
Sydney, which is of course the main port of entry for tourism, we tried to do things not
only has the city Improved dramatically over the pust ten years and again let me pay
tribute to Neville ( Wrmn) for developing a core in the City of Sydney, If you like, In these
key places like Darling Harbour and the Macquaric Street area and down by the Quayside
these are important things and T was very pleased to see John Fahey express
interest a week or two ago In knocking over the Cahill Expressway and beautifying the
wholo Quay-side area.
We've just done, a deal with the Sydney City Councfl with Frank Sartor, where we've now,
on a sixty year lease, eiven the City of Sydney the Customs House which we think will be
the key civic building of the Quay-side and can provide, itself, an important contribution
to Quay-side tourism and tourism of the city with so much of the maritime history which
the Quay represents being Involved there. And of course the buildings near the Opera
House which we've just signed an agreement with the City Council to see them sensitively
developed with proper height limitations to pay due and appropriate deference to one of
the world's greatest buildings, the Opera House, is again snother important thing in terms
of Sydncy.
As are things like the second runway which has taken so many years to bring to fruition
and yet we're seeing substantial and rapid progress on seeing that second runway form
Itself out there In the bay ind seeing it go Into place, ARl these things, I think, are things
the Federal Government's been involved in so Its more than just a bit of money to the
lb" 0ist Commission and something In the depreciation schedules, I think we've been
enuinely Interested tn the industry as a destination for people to come In these areas of
the capital cities and the services in the cities and beyond the cities in the remote areas, to
keep them as beautiful as we've known them to be and where. they have to be maintained.
That Is, there should be an emphasis on the environment and an emphasis on beauty. This
Is Dot a word which, in planning terms, ever Sor of cuts the mustard. Providing we're
always run by either developers or en~ gineers but not often enough by architects and the
reault is we are not beautIfying our capital citis. And if we ame not wise to that we won't
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attract people to this country to Come and see it. Why would you come and see something
you can go to seo down the west or cast cows of the United States when we're sort of
seeking to emulate or duplicate what they have when in fact we ca do something so
much better. So the enviroment I think does matter a great deal.
Airlines have been another important change in the One Nation package. One of the
important changes was for Qantas to acquire AustrAlian Airtincs so that we could develop
Arisett as a second International car-Ic You will have noticed In the last week or two that
Anscut are now flying to pants of south-cast Asia and will now qualify for some Important
schedule of flight Into Kansal Airport, Osaka Airport, service in Japan and this is an
Important development In our aviation history, to develop a -second Australian carrier and
to have It working out there is going to be very important to tourism.
Can I . also say that we ane having a dispute with the United States at the moment about
-Northwest Airlines and I think that Qantas as a corporate entity and its role in the world
has been Important to the Government and to all Australians but I don't want to sec the
Australia-Japan traffc dominated by just a couple of carriers where they are basically
litng an economic rent out of the travellers and diminishing the number of people
coming to Australia. These things should always be kept in balance.
Nor do we want to see Ameican carriers breaking their signed agreemnen-ts in terms of
their access. We can ha-ve access and people on these routes providing that they ant
negotiated ones but where the obj ective has to be that mom people visit Australia than not.
So In terms of what will guide our policy towards these things it will be the number of
people coming to Australia rather than which particular Airline is flying them, but I don't
in that sense want to give Northwest any encouragemicnt that is those who break
agreements can't cxpect to be treated well. But, again, Australia will have a balanced
approach towards airline policy both in and out of Australia arnd policy will not be made
exclusively for Qantas.
Now, we did well with Qantas and we'll do well when wc see It developed as a public
company where It's got a better availability of capital to it and can develop itself properly,
which It Wa not really beei able to do with a Govetnment guamatee and a lot of debt, and
I do look forward to that time and I think the British Airways purchase of. Qantas will
make a great " ea of difference to the operations of Qantas within a world system, and the
fit betuieen British Airways routes and Qantas routes was really quite an uncanny fit and
one which should be a partnership that works well. But, * gain, they'll only be a minority
holder in Qazitas and the majority, which will be the Australian public ought to be able to
turn Qantas Into a firt class carr ier with a good debt to equity ratio in the company, and
with people like Mr Pemberton as its Chair then the= 1' really no reason why we can't
develop an oiline company with already a substantial reputation can grow along in-Asia.
But seeing Azrsett grow along with it will be, I think, Important to us as well.
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When I was ccently In New Zealand with Prime Minister Jim Bolger we apeed on
facilitating trans-Tasman flying and we'll be flyiD domestic terminal to domestic
terminal probably by Christmas and this should make quite a difference to tourism across
the Tasman where you can go on to an Australian Airlines or Ansett flight and hop off in
Wellington or Auckland as the case may be rather than through the International terminals
and this is another change which came from the One Nation package. So the shift to the
acquisition of Australian by Qatas, the development of Ansett as a second carier, the
trans-Tasman flying this must augur well for the tourism industry In general in getting
more sewiblc uirlinc arrangements.
The other thing I think we need to do is to again focus on our cultural identity aud this is
why I think it is important not that we want to sign everybody up though we'd like
to not that wc can sign everybody up in the movement to an Australian Republic but
the fact is that it will help our identity as will cominS to terms with the aspirations of
Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal culture is now featuring much more in the culture of
Australia and in the culture of Australian tourism as it should. And as one of the signature
tunes of this country In terms of its art and what have you and of course the more we
progcss that isue as a country the better off we'll be, not only at home in our own
relations one to another, but In the view of the rest of the world which approves of
countries which can get their acts together and run themselves sensibly and at the same
time distinguishing our culture by what the Aboriginal community can bring to the culture
of Australia. So these things like our cultural identity, the environment, having a sensible
transportation policy, as well as all the other things, general promotion, tax incentives and
the like, I think arc important and that's why I have wanted to sec tourism as a Cabinet
ranked post and why we've set up a department of Tourism because it is an important
Industry and it can play an important role and I know in Michael Lec we have a Minister
who will take the Industry's interests to heart and barack for them sensibly and
appropriately In the places that matter." J.