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Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for taking the time to come to the opening of Mt Tamborine Glow Worm Caves.
As Minister for Tourism I have had the privilege of visiting every corner of Australia.
I have seen first hand the dedication needed to make a tourist attraction, to grow it from an idea or a passion, into a livelihood.
I have met hundreds of tourism operators.
I have seen many attractions ... but nothing quite like the one we open today.
It is one thing to find a natural attraction and capitalise on it.
It is quite another to create an attraction - the effort is quite extraordinary.
Which is why I gladly accepted the invitation to attend today's opening on behalf of the Australian Government, which has contributed $70,000 to this project.
This is a unique attraction. And that's important.
Tourism operators need to give people a reason to visit ... and a reason to stay in a region.
It's one of the reasons I have remodelled the Government's main tourism program: TQUAL Grants.
The new TQUAL Grants program will bring businesses together to work with a common purpose to maximise their region's tourism potential.
To attract visitors, you need to innovate and you need to compete.
And not just with other tourism destinations or businesses. The biggest competition comes from other activities competing for time.
In tourism, when you win the battle for time you win the battle for income.
Many of you will be aware of Tourism Australia's No Leave No Life campaign, which I launched earlier this year.
When you consider that Australian workers have accumulated an astounding 123 million days of accrued leave - worth more than $30 billion in wages - you realise that more has to be offered to get people exploring their backyard.
The Government has been very pleased to see how employers have partnered with Tourism Australia to change staff attitudes to leave-taking.
The No Leave No Life campaign will help convert these millions of days leave into Australian holidays.
And so too will new attractions such as that we are opening today.
It will give people a reason to spend their precious time in this wonderful part of the world, which has so much to offer.
I know this first hand.
In March I had the pleasure of opening the Tamborine Eco-Centre and Skywalk.
Government support helped make that project a reality too.
And Government support for a number of key transport related infrastructure projects is boosting tourism to and within Queensland, by making it easier for people to get around the State and become your customers.
The 2009 Budget included an investment of $1.5 billion in Queensland's road and rail infrastructure.
This investment will support local jobs and local businesses during the current global recession.
These projects drive money into the community by supporting local jobs, local services, and local tourist attractions ... like the Glow-worm Caves.
A project I wish every success.