Portfolio Media
Finally some certainty for Top End tourism operators
08 January 2010
Shadow Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo has welcomed a decision not to ban the climb on Uluru, saying it ends months of uncertainty for local tourism operators.
Mr Ciobo said the government’s announcement today rejecting proposals to ban climbing of the Rock was a common-sense move, but one which should have been made months ago.
“Since Environment Minister Peter Garrett came out in favour of a ban in July - and was promptly overruled by the Prime Minister – tourism operators in the Top End have had to endure almost seven months of uncertainty,” Mr Ciobo said.
Mr Ciobo said the issue first raised its head in July with the release of a draft Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park Management Plan recommending a ban on the climb.
At the time Minister Garrett responded he was: ‘not hearing many voices … saying that the climb should be kept open’.
“Within a day Minister Garrett was overruled and left sorely embarrassed by the Prime Minister who said: ‘my view has always been that people should be able to have appropriate access to Uluru’.
“They were very confusing messages to a part of the tourism industry which has been doing it tough. Tourist numbers in the region already fell by 7.5 per cent in 2008 – uncertainty over the future of the Uluru Walk, one of the country’s most iconic tourism activities, was the last thing the region’s operators needed.”
Mr Ciobo said while he understood the cultural sensitivities associated with the walk on Uluru, there was a risk that closure of the walk may have sent a message to the world that Australia’s Top End and Red Centre were no-go zones for tourism – the Northern Territory’s biggest industry and biggest employer.
“This is a positive and commonsense result for the industry and the region. Why not simply let visitors decide if they wish to follow the indigenous people’s request not to climb Uluru"
“Let them consider all the information about the cultural sensitivities and physical risks themselves and not have a nanny state tell them what to do.”