TOURISM — MT
AUGUSTUS
1360. Hon ROBIN SCOTT to the minister representing the
Minister for Tourism:
I recently spoke to a constituent
named Don, who resides at Mt Augustus Tourist Park near the community of Burringurrah. Don advised that he was seeing many
more tourists since the ban on climbing Uluru came into effect.
(1) Is the
minister aware of any official increase in tourist numbers, and has his
department considered that tourist numbers were likely to increase following
Uluru's closure to climbing?
(2) If yes to (1), what is the
government doing to promote Mt Augustus as a tourist destination?
(3) If no to (3), why not?
(4) Given that
there is only mobile phone service in a radius of 1.5 kilometres around the
area, does the government have any plans to improve the communications
facilities?
(5) Does the government acknowledge that safety
measures generally should be increased around Mt Augustus to protect
visitors to that area?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
Unfortunately, I have not seen that question today. Alas, if he had asked me in
my capacity as Minister for Regional Development, I could have provided an
answer, but we will get onto the Minister for Tourism and find out what has
happened to that answer.