Interview on ABC Northern Tasmania with Belinda King 

Subjects: Federal Government funding boost for the Freycinet

EO&E…………………………………………………………

BELINDA KING:

Good morning. Good to have you company on this shortened working week bit of a holiday weekend coming up what are you doing that holiday weekend nicking off down the coast.

Maybe you’re heading down to Freycinet Peninsula or maybe indeed you went there over the summer months. You know it’s become so popular that the existing infrastructure is struggling to cope with the number of visitors, so congested the Parks and Wildlife have been even suggesting to visitors to avoid visiting Freycinet Park at peak times to avoid traffic jams in the car park. The park is now set for a multi-million dollar infrastructure upgrade, we’ve got with us this morning the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham and he’s set to make some significant announcements today, he joins us this morning, Simon Birmingham, good morning.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Good morning, great to be with you.

BELINDA KING:

Now tell me exactly what have you got in mind how much money and what are we going to be spending it on?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well the Liberal-National Government is committing $7.2 million to support a number of upgrades that form part of the Freycinet Peninsula master plan, these include $5.7 million towards a new visitor gateway which will include a transit hub, with new road access, car parking shelter an information area and that’s really important to deal with some of those issues you just mentioned in terms of congestion, and traffic issues getting in and out of the key parts of the park, as well as $650,000 for an Indigenous education program and expanding the discovery ranger program, which will really help to lift the way in which Indigenous heritage forms part of the experience and understanding there, plus new support to for the Wineglass Bay lookout as well as the foreshore walkway, so all of it really trying to help to ensure that visitor experience at the Freycinet remains as incredible and brilliant as of course it is, and that’s what’s driven such huge growth some 14 per cent per annum over the last 5 years in the visitation to the price in a national park.

BELINDA KING:

The money will upgrade the infrastructure for tourists for the tourism industry but what about the locals what benefit might they see from this investment?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well of course we’ll be looking to make sure as we always do that wherever possible work is contracted in terms of local businesses, and of course is about ensuring continued support for the growth of tourism, and what we know is that locally there’s significant expenditure that occurs, that along the east coast of Tasmania tourists already spend around $185 million each year that’s growing as I say with 14 per cent growth in visitation annually to Freycinet itself, and what that means is local cafes, local bars, local pubs, local accommodation providers, other like local attractions all get to see increased visitation too.

BELINDA KING:

Where would this money come from?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

This is money that is budgeted, so when we released our Federal Budget just a couple of weeks ago now, we allocated funding for tourism icons around Australia, wanting to really drive that part of the economy, you know our key pitch in this election is to keep Australia’s economy strong because that’s what’s brought the budget back to surplus, that’s what’s allowing us to pass on tax cuts to hardworking Australians, that’s what ensures we can invest record sums in schools and hospitals, and so the tourism industry is a crucial part of our economy and especially of Tasmania’s economy, that’s why we’re doing undertaking this investment in Freycinet, it’s equally why we invested some $30 million into the Cradle Mountain cableway, why we invested recently $1.5 million towards a new light installation in Huon, as well as the huge upgrade in terms of international airport capability that will come through to Hobart to keep growing visitation, the tourism industry and that ensures a strong economy in Tasmania.

BELINDA KING:

Parks has recently suggested to visitors to avoid the area at peak times due to the traffic jams in the carpark, will this potentially be alleviated by this investment. But do you think there should be a cap on the number of tourist’s number of visitors in Freycinet national park?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

We back local parks in terms of their management of these types of natural facilities and assets that we have, it’s an incredible beautiful experience from tracking to Wineglass Bay look out, to the wonderful beaches and the breathtaking pink granite peaks, and what’s really important is that the visitor facilities live up to the natural beauty, this investment guided by the master plan should ensure that we can manage the visitor numbers more successfully in a sustainable way, so that the natural environment is protected, but also so that visitors themselves don’t find the experience is undermined because of things like a bad parking experience traffic congestion or the like.

BELINDA KING:

Simon Birmingham thank you for your time this morning.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

My pleasure.