CORRECTED VERSION

RURAL AND REGIONAL COMMITTEE

Inquiry into rural and regional tourism

Geelong — 12 September 2007

Members

Ms. K. Darveniza Mr R. Northe Mr D. Drum Ms G. Tierney Ms W. Lovell Mr J. Vogels Ms K. Marshall

Chair: Mr D. Drum Deputy Chair: Ms G. Tierney

Staff

Executive Officer: Ms L. Topic Research Officer: Dr C. Hercus

Witness

Mr J. Cousins, chair, Committee for .

12 September 2007 Rural and Regional Committee 1 The CHAIR — We would like to welcome Jim Cousins to give evidence to the Rural and Regional Committee’s inquiry into rural and regional tourism. All evidence given here today is covered by parliamentary privilege, but any evidence that is given outside this hearing is not covered by parliamentary privilege. Before you start, if you could give us your full name and address and also the name of the organisation which you are representing. Then it is over to you. If you could possibly leave 10 minutes at the end for some questions, that would be appreciated.

Mr COUSINS — Jim Cousins, [detail removed], and I am chairman of the Committee for Geelong.

The CHAIR — Thank you, over to you.

Mr COUSINS — I must apologise for Peter Dorling who is laid very low. I have to stand in for him. I must say that he wrote the submission to you so I think it is probably best if I say I agree entirely with what he has written for a start — —

Ms DARVENIZA — Sounds safe.

Mr COUSINS — And just briefly outline my views to you and then ask you to question me. I think that is probably the better way to go.

As with lots of economies, tourism is one of the major features of this area, and a growing area. I have spoken at a number of functions in the last few days relating to what is about to happen in Geelong and surroundings. The people who will live for the next 30 years will enjoy the greatest ride in history, and part of that will be driven by tourism. The most important thing is that you look ahead and you plan the correct vision for this tourism. It really revolves around access to the area. We appeared before the Eddington inquiry here last week and it became quite evident that rail, road and Avalon are the most important components to deliver people to this area. As with all sorts of things, what happens is there are the constraints on the planning and the development of those areas and that is really the basis for the, I suppose, inactivity we have seen over the last decade or two. I think most of the tourism that has happened here has happened almost despite itself, except for the two major events that we have here, which are the airshow and Skandia. I think that also points to an inequity that the regional areas suffer in that they have had a lot to do with major events in . I think there is an inequity in the way that the funding is delivered to those major events. In terms of the per capita benefits derived for Victoria out of the two major events in Geelong, I think they more than outweigh the comparable events that are attracted to the city of . I think there needs to be a review of the way that money is handed out to regional Victoria because in terms of the number of people who come into this area it is probably the greatest percentage of tourists that go into Victoria as a whole. I think well over 1 million people go down the Great Ocean Road now, which is a very significant figure in terms of tourism to this state.

It is how to grow that. Obviously with the ring-road this will increase significantly, but the problem with the ring-road at the moment will be the access back into Melbourne or out of Melbourne when that road starts to operate. There is no way places like the are going to cope with it. For those of us who have to go to Melbourne almost daily, the journey is almost impossible at peak hour. In fact I go up the night before now, if I have early meetings, because I just cannot go through the nonsense that we have to go through. So there is no way you can grow tourism into this area without looking for alternative modes of transport. That is one area.

I think we do have significant areas of winegrowing, apart from the surfing industry. Looking at the surfing industry, we from the committee who deal with major business all the time can actually report that a number of the major surfing outlets have had to relocate because they could not grow their businesses in this area, because they were not allowed, through the planning system, to grow. Also I think in the wine industry it has been very difficult for many of the growers to expand their activities in terms of tourism, and that is because of the planning system again. That is a brief outline of what is hampering tourism in this area, whereas it should be growing at a much faster rate, because we do have these natural elements that we are gifted with. I do not think I should go on, because I will probably just confuse the situation. It is probably better for you to ask me.

The CHAIR — Thanks very much, Jim. In relation to the traffic, you say attempting to go up there on the morning of a meeting is a bit of a nonsense. Are you predominantly talking about once the traffic starts to congest around the West Gate Bridge?

Mr VOGELS — About 20 kilometres this side of it.

12 September 2007 Rural and Regional Committee 2 Mr COUSINS — It is probably from Werribee onwards now, and a lot of that is created by the growth in the Werribee-Wyndham area. But it is not only the mornings or the evenings; you want to try it on a Sunday evening on a hot day after they have all been to the beach for the weekend. It is simply impossible. The way around that is — and we are in all sorts of skirmishes with the City of Melbourne at the moment — obviously a ring-road to the north of Melbourne to connect the areas of Geelong, Ballarat, , the Tullamarine Freeway, the and Gippsland so that you can actually go around Melbourne. Not everyone wants to go into Melbourne, and that is what many people miss in the point. If you come from Gippsland and you want to go to the tourism areas here, it would be much easier if you could go around Melbourne rather than through it. I think the problem with the West Gate Bridge is that two-thirds of the people who go across the West Gate Bridge at the moment break off and go into the city, so it is impossible to provide more exits off that road to alleviate the problem. But if there is access right around Melbourne, it will free up the traffic to every area in Victoria basically and link all those tourist areas.

The CHAIR — Is there scope within the rail system for further volumes to get people off the roads?

Mr COUSINS — Unfortunately we have not got about 3 hours to spend on maps, but the first problem I see with the railway is that whilst I accept the fast train, the diesel train, at the moment, it would have been far better for the people here if it was electric and it was possible to get into the network. At the moment the diesel has to terminate at the old Spencer Street. I do use it myself occasionally, but invariably for where I want to go in Melbourne I have to get off at Spencer Street, and it is another half-hour to get somewhere. If I could actually link into the underground and the rest of it on an electric train, it would be far better.

Also there are problems with the electric train going further down. They talk about another 70 000 people going south of Geelong, but there is a tunnel between here and South Geelong that would be very hard to re-engineer, which makes it difficult to electrify that section of the line. I think the other impediment to the rail, of course, is North Melbourne; the suburban trains take precedence over the country trains in that area.

The CHAIR — Yes, that is a problem we share.

Mr COUSINS — I think it would be very good for this body to interview Rod Eddington. We talked at length about the rail, we talked at length about Avalon, and we talked at length about the port. All of those affect this area in terms of moving people, and moving people is the essential ingredient of tourism.

The CHAIR — You mentioned Skandia. What is that?

Mr COUSINS — Skandia is the yacht race weekend here. That is funded by the major events group, as is the airshow. They do not get a lot of money, and they fight for it every time, but in terms of the numbers of people who go to those two events I think you would find they are more significant than the grand prix, where you spend $50 million a year, or something like that, to keep going.

The CHAIR — Did we just lose the world championship triathlon event that normally comes to Geelong?

Mr COUSINS — It does. I am not too sure whether we have lost it or not.

Ms LOVELL — Jim, it was interesting that you talked about infrastructure problems with West Gate Bridge. It seems that Geelong has always faced infrastructure problems. It used to be on the Old Geelong Road that we would spend hours and hours and hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I grew up in Williamstown with parents who were dedicated to surf lifesaving, so many a weekend was spent in car parks on the Geelong road. The blockage was at this end in those days; it was getting through Geelong to get down to the surf.

Mr COUSINS — Exactly.

Ms LOVELL — I was actually really interested in your saying a lot of the surf industry people had had to leave this area because of restrictions. Can you just expand a bit on that, what sort of restrictions have been placed on them and why they have left?

Mr COUSINS — I think it probably relates to the council planning process and expanding the areas on the Surf Coast to allow these people to stay there. I can tell a story about the now Premier, who was unaware when he first came into power that this was the world headquarters for surfing, and a lot of people in the world are. But if you get overseas people here and they see the signs, they know more about Rip Curl, Quiksilver and the rest of 12 September 2007 Rural and Regional Committee 3 them than local Australians do. That is their headquarters. That is where they started. That is where they operate from now. But because of the huge growth in it, they just could not keep expanding there. Some of the activities are in Geelong. Oakley has moved out completely now.

Ms LOVELL — Are you talking about their manufacturing activities?

Mr COUSINS — Yes, manufacturing and distribution, because whilst there is not so much manufacturing here in Australia now, they do handle all the containers in and out of this area. The distribution is huge, and the number of staff they have is enormous. I think we have missed great opportunities as a state in promoting and nurturing these people. I know the operators of the companies very well. They do not like to ask. They are pretty avant-garde people who just go surfing, and it is just great that the business grows. But they are not going to go into battle with councils or government to worry about the planning process. They will just go and move, and there are plenty of people around the world who will accept their businesses. In California they have huge businesses now; in Mundaka in Spain; you name it, they have got huge branches now. It is really that they like to live in this area that they are still even here; it is not because of what we have done for them, it is because of just the general approach that it is a great area to live.

The CHAIR — Has Avalon’s being opened up for commercial use been a big impetus for Geelong?

Mr COUSINS — It is absolutely huge. As I was chatting to John outside, it is a very confusing situation. Today airports will only grow internationally of course if you have all the components that are needed: retail components, parking, hotels and the rest of it. There has been a move to put in a big box there. That was banged on the head inadvertently. I think there was a lack of research done by government.

The CHAIR — To put in a big — —

Mr COUSINS — A big box retail — —

The CHAIR — Like a DFO?

Mr COUSINS — Yes. I am not too sure whether the pressure comes from Tullamarine and Macquarie over the expansion of Avalon. Whether they see this from a jealousy point of view and looking after their own patch, but Avalon will grow whether you like it or not. The reason is there are 2000 hectares there, the landing fees are about a third of what they are at any other airport in Australia, and the access is relatively good — it could be better if we could improve the West Gate Bridge. We are fighting for a customs point at the moment. There is talk of an overseas operator starting over the next six months. This is something else you can address to Rod Eddington, if your group interviews him. He is so strong on Avalon that it will be the obvious second airport, and the growth will be exponential. It is a case of freeing up the planning process for Avalon to let it grow.

The other area I have been dealing with is Point Wilson, which is the old armaments unloading facility of the federal government. It is commonwealth land. It is important; it does have a by-right use. It has 2000 hectares that adjoin Avalon airport. It is 1 kilometre from the national rail grid. It is an obvious port. Ports throughout the world are moving out of cities, and if you do not prescribe to that, you will lose your ports in Victoria. Brisbane, , Perth and Darwin all have ports that are basically out of town now.

Into the future we see the port of Geelong growing at a huge rate. That will also add to the tourism potential here. It is just about looking down the next 50 years and having a good look at where things should go and how they should go.

Ms LOVELL — Is it a deep port here?

Mr COUSINS — It is about the same as Melbourne. This is getting off the point a bit, but the car-carrying capacity of Melbourne will wind down over the next five years, because the unloading at the mouth of the Yarra will have to be taken over by container unloading. The current number of containers in Melbourne I think is 2.5 million a year, and that is going to rise 7 million. There is not the land to actually unload containers. The other thing is that with front loading cars you need land to store the cars on, and that is on Footscray Road. It is now far too valuable to use as open storage for cars.

There is a movement within the car companies to re-locate car unloading to one or two points in Australia. One area is Brisbane, the other area is possibly Geelong, and one other is in contention. You can shift a car on the 12 September 2007 Rural and Regional Committee 4 national rail grid throughout Australia within three days. So the car companies do not care where they unload the cars. Each car comes into Australia with the same freight component on it. They add $10 to each car to shift it around Australia, so they could not care less whether it is unloaded in Queensland or Victoria, is it is a bidding game for Victoria as to whether it keeps it into the future after 2013.

The CHAIR — I would like to keep talking about this, Jim, but I am struggling with time. I need to get into the tourism inquiry! All this is important; it is interesting stuff.

Mr VOGELS — A few previous speakers, Jim, have talked about the importance of a convention centre for Geelong. The Committee for Geelong supports that wholeheartedly, no doubt?

Mr COUSINS — We support it, but personally I think that it is unlikely to happen in Geelong unless we actually initiate it from Geelong. What I mean by initiating it from Geelong is that I do not believe it is something that the government will turn around and give you the money for after it has spent all the money on the one in Melbourne. They will make sure that works first, so why spend another $100 million down here? I do not think that is important. The important thing about a convention centre is that the type we need here needs to have 1000 to 1500 seats and be housed within a hotel project, and I think that government and councils can stir up the process to provide a good block of land. That has been a problem to date — that is, getting the block of land to attract a hotel operator to actually put in a facility that can be the convention centre as well. You have got to remember that Crown Casino has coped with most conventions in Melbourne for the last 10 or 15 years.

The CHAIR — Thanks, Jim. We really appreciate your time and for stepping in for Peter in his absence. Thanks very much for giving us your time. We will make a copy of the text of today’s evidence available for you to peruse within a couple of weeks so that you can check up on any typographical errors that may exist.

Mr COUSINS — Sure, and leave out the port business!

Mr VOGELS — No, leave it in there!

The CHAIR — We appreciate your time.

Witness withdrew.

12 September 2007 Rural and Regional Committee 5