Ms BADGER – Could I just jump in here about clarity on that funding? The latest business case that was RTI’d in April 2023 said that costs were at $190 million for the cableway.
Mr ROCKLIFF – Correct.
Ms BADGER – There’s $61 million line itemed in the Budget. Am I recalling correctly, you’ve said you’re allocating $30 million, and have requested the remainder of the funding from the federal government, which would be $160 million, as of April last year?
Mr ROCKLIFF – It’s $30 million for most of the present time, and request still for $30 million to at least match that at this present time. Do you have any further information to that, Mr Limkin?
Mr LIMKIN – I understand that the Office of the Coordinator‑General is currently updating the business case at this stage. We do not have a confirmed plan or updated figure at this stage, but we are in the process of updating it based on the most relevant and recent information.
Ms BADGER – I wanted to touch on regenerative tourism again. It’s fantastic to see that the Islander Way regenerative tourism project on Flinders Island has been funded. That’s the only project that we can see. What other regenerative tourism projects are you investing in and are you investing in opening up niche markets – things like avian tourism or birding, we’ve touched on dark skies already, and things like geology tourism and even dam tourism, which have a low impact, but bring very high‑yielding tourists into the state.
Mr ROCKLIFF – Before I throw to Ms Pinto, can I say I am a big fan of regenerative tourism. I met with the then Flinders Island mayor a couple of years ago, it would have been when I first became tourism minister and Premier, about Islander Way. Not your direct predecessor, but the member for Braddon and I were on a unity ticket, would you believe, when it comes to the geo trail across the north‑west coast. He advocated very strongly for that, and I do believe that is a good strong tourism offering. There are other unique experiences, as you’ve highlighted, which fall into that experience tourism but are also low impact in terms of carbon footprint as well. Vanessa, do we have any further information for Ms Badger on the regenerative tourism opportunities?
Ms PINTO – The visitor economy strategy that was launched last year in about September has a really strong focus on positive impact. It’s looking at the positive impact for visitors that travel to the state, but also for Tasmania itself. A key part of that is looking at where we can seek to leverage and bring to the fore some of the elements in Tasmania that we’re all very proud of that fall into that positive impact space. At a localised level, if I can give you an example, the tourism industry council is working really closely with operators all around the state. That’s with the assistance of funding that’s come through from government as a part of the visitor economy strategy to help operators in the way that they manage their operations to reduce emissions and also in the way that they manage waste, for example. When it comes to specific opportunities, you were mentioning dark skies earlier. Wherever possible, we work really closely with our regional tourism organisations. Discover Tasmania South has also run with that as a part of Dark Mofo this year, positively encouraging local operators in Hobart to turn the lights off after a certain time in the evening to facilitate that. There are a lot of different initiatives that are being undertaken at the moment to look at supporting a position of Tasmania that has a positive impact, not just to visitors but also to Tasmanians.
