❓ The question concerns the Tourism Minister's decision to engage with an overseas booking platform. The Minister defends the decision by highlighting the necessity of online presence and previous government's similar actions, accusing the questioner of hypocrisy.
AnsweredQoN 648Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TOURISM —
ACCOMMODATION — OVERSEAS BOOKING PLATFORMS
648. Mr D.T. REDMAN to the Minister for Tourism:
I have a supplementary question. I thank
the minister for his answer backing his Premier. Did the minister seriously
consider any other alternatives than to sign up to an overseas travel agent
based in Seattle in the United States?
ACCOMMODATION — OVERSEAS BOOKING PLATFORMS
648. Mr D.T. REDMAN to the Minister for Tourism:
I have a supplementary question. I thank
the minister for his answer backing his Premier. Did the minister seriously
consider any other alternatives than to sign up to an overseas travel agent
based in Seattle in the United States?
AnswerView source ↗
It might come as a surprise to the
member if he has not worked in the tourism portfolio, but I do not do the deals
and I do not personally structure them. In fact, that would be inappropriate,
as the member knows. I will say again to travel agents that they can rest
assured. Representatives of travel agents have met with me a number of times,
and they know they have met with the Premier, that he has their concerns at
heart and we are working on more to assist them. That aside, I am compelled to
refer to what has happened probably since 1996 when the internet became a thing. What occurred under previous
governments in Western Australia—I am trying to remember whether it was seven tourism ministers or whatever the number was—is that all
of them engaged by virtue of their agency in deals with online booking agents
by necessity, because they are part of the modern world. The demographic of the
member for Dawesville was mentioned by the Premier early on, but the vast
majority of people nowadays booking a hotel in the city go online as their
instinctive response, so we have to be in that space. We can encourage people
to use travel agents, and we will encourage people to use travel agents for
other travelling around the state. Undeniably, the previous government did
exactly this. There was a figure of $375 000 in, I think, 2012–13. We could go to any year and find a similar thing.
There was $375 000 in a partnership with regional tourism organisations .
I wonder who was promoting that one? The regional tourism marketing program was
a deal done with, amongst others, TRAVEL.COM and Wotif.com. It is undeniable
that we must be in that space. It has to be a component of whatever we are
doing, and the former government did it. This is just rank hypocrisy and it is
embarrassing that the member is exploiting the tragedy that people are
confronting in this manner.
member if he has not worked in the tourism portfolio, but I do not do the deals
and I do not personally structure them. In fact, that would be inappropriate,
as the member knows. I will say again to travel agents that they can rest
assured. Representatives of travel agents have met with me a number of times,
and they know they have met with the Premier, that he has their concerns at
heart and we are working on more to assist them. That aside, I am compelled to
refer to what has happened probably since 1996 when the internet became a thing. What occurred under previous
governments in Western Australia—I am trying to remember whether it was seven tourism ministers or whatever the number was—is that all
of them engaged by virtue of their agency in deals with online booking agents
by necessity, because they are part of the modern world. The demographic of the
member for Dawesville was mentioned by the Premier early on, but the vast
majority of people nowadays booking a hotel in the city go online as their
instinctive response, so we have to be in that space. We can encourage people
to use travel agents, and we will encourage people to use travel agents for
other travelling around the state. Undeniably, the previous government did
exactly this. There was a figure of $375 000 in, I think, 2012–13. We could go to any year and find a similar thing.
There was $375 000 in a partnership with regional tourism organisations .
I wonder who was promoting that one? The regional tourism marketing program was
a deal done with, amongst others, TRAVEL.COM and Wotif.com. It is undeniable
that we must be in that space. It has to be a component of whatever we are
doing, and the former government did it. This is just rank hypocrisy and it is
embarrassing that the member is exploiting the tragedy that people are
confronting in this manner.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.