One moment we hear the Minister for Boosting Tourism boasting about the great new ads enticing people to travel here for the fun of it; or promoting yet more games, expos and car races.
Next moment we hear the Minister for Reducing Tourism telling how we will burn in global warming hell if we do not cut our production of carbon dioxide.
Has anyone told them that a major source of man-made carbon dioxide is the internal combustion engine that powers cars, trucks, boats, motorbikes, trains and planes that are the lifeblood of the Tourist Industry?
Are we expecting Asian tourists to arrive by sailing clipper? Will the grey nomads take to the roads on tandem bikes? Will bikie gangs start riding Clydesdales with studded leather breast-plates? And are Europeans going to drift over in hot air balloons?
Government tourism policies are schizophrenic. Both of the dizzy departments sending mixed messages to the travel industry should be abolished.
That should reduce the emission of hot air over Canberra.
Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition, has spent his life working in exploration, mining, farming, infrastructure, financial analysis and political commentary. He has worked for government departments, private companies and now works as a private contractor and farmer.
Viv has also been a guest writer for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Business Queensland and mining newspapers. He was awarded the “Australian Adam Smith Award for Services to the Free Society” in 1988, and has written widely on political, technical and economic subjects.
