Portfolio Media

Nine months and $40,000 later, and still no boss for Tourism Australia

21 August 2009

Australia’s peak tourism marketing body, Tourism Australia, still has no permanent boss, after a nine-month search and $40,000 of taxpayers’ money, says Shadow Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo.

Mr Ciobo said the recruitment drive to find a new managing director for TA, the country’s peak tourism marketing body, had descended into a farce and was crying out for some leadership from the Rudd Labor Government.

“Here we are nine months since the recruitment process began, and the body marketing the nation to the world still doesn’t have a permanent managing director in place,” Mr Ciobo said.

“Following a Senate Estimates Committee in May, Tourism Australia advised taxpayers had already forked out a whopping $40,000 to the headhunters conducting the search – what for"”

“As the country’s tourism operators stand by and watch our international tourist arrivals continue to fall - down two per cent to 5.5 million arrivals for the year ending March – the body they depend on to market Australia to the world is rudderless and directionless.”

“Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson has presided over a debacle. This is clearly an unsustainable situation and so someone from the Rudd Government needs to step in and show some leadership on this issue.”

“It’s been 80 days since the Estimates Committee and the Rudd Government is still trying to find an excuse as to why Tourism Victoria boss Greg Hywood turned the job down.”

“Mr Ferguson, it seems, is too busy signing gas deals in China and dealing with the mega-portfolios of resources and energy to bother himself with his tourism portfolio responsibilities,” Mr Ciobo said.