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Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and thank you for taking the time to come to the Table Cape Lighthouse.
It was just over a year ago that Sid Sidebottom and I announced funding of $185,000 to upgrade the Table Cape Lighthouse.
That funding will support the work the Waratah-Wynyard Council and the local community to fulfil this historic site's potential as a tourist attraction.
It gives me great pleasure to see the Australian Government's contribution will fund important upgrades to this wonderful building, the walking tracks around it, as well as signage and fencing.
Importantly, marketing and promotional materials will also be paid for.
Together, these improvements will help establish Table Cape as a must-see destination on Tasmania's north-west coast.
With the addition of guided tours, the Table Cape story can be told - another chapter in the long history of this iconic location.
But at its heart, what the Australian Government is really funding is potential - it is time Table Cape met its tourism potential.
This is the thinking behind the Australian Government's TQUAL Grants program, which I launched in April.
This new program will help communities and regions enhance their tourism potential.
Through TQUAL Grants, up to $8.5 million is available to promote strategic investment in quality and innovation in the Australian tourism industry.
We want to fund and develop regions which take the initiative to see their tourism potential and then capitalise on it.
Increasingly, regions are discovering that cooperation is essential to tourism success.
As the state that really pioneered the fly - drive holiday, Tasmanians know this fact better than most.
Getting businesses working together maximises opportunities for your region.
Hotels and motels, service stations, supermarkets, restaurants, wineries and dozens of other businesses all grow when tourism grows.
Tourism creates economic activity and economic opportunity. It multiplies benefits throughout communities and creates real jobs.
It's just one of the reasons I have been urging Australians to spend their stimulus payments on tourism - few industries stimulate economic activity like tourism.
But you can't just wish this into happening - you need to give people a reason to travel, a reason to spend.
At the end of March I launched the No Leave - No Life campaign, the aim of which is to unlock the 123 million days of accrued leave.
It would be an enormous boost to tourism if some of those days were taken as leave on a Tasmanian holiday.
Importantly - Tourism Tasmania is partnering with TA on the No Leave, No Life campaign.
This includes special content and holiday offers on the No Leave No Life website to encourage Australians to use their stockpiled leave for a holiday in this beautiful part of Australia.
Tasmania has this week also been very strongly represented at the Australian Tourism Exchange.
Hosted by Tourism Australia - this is the biggest tourism trade show in the Southern Hemisphere.
Seventeen Tasmanian tourism businesses have taken part in Melbourne this week, where hundreds of international buyers saw what Australian tourism has to offer.
But the challenge still remains - tourism needs to offer attractive product that can compete with DVDs and flat screen TVs.
At a time of economic uncertainty, sectors such as tourism find life a little harder but you have shown through your dedication to improving the marketability of Table Cape Lighthouse that you understand the benefits tourism can provide communities.
I congratulate you on your hard work and am very pleased to be here to tell you that the Australian Government is doing everything it can to support your efforts.
I wish you well in the further development of this wonderful attraction.
Thank you
Si5d Sidebottom MP with the Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, at the launch of the refurbishment of the Table Cape Lighthouse on 20 June 2009