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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 112 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 22 March 2012 by Mr V.A. Catania

Parliament: 38 Session: 1

KIMBERLEY TOURISM — LORD ALISTAIR McALPINE

112. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Tourism:

I understand that the minister attended a special event in Broome last night, an event that was also attended by Lord McAlpine. Can the minister advise the house about the significance of Lord McAlpine's contribution to tourism in the Kimberley?

Dr K.D. HAMES replied:

Firstly, I acknowledge in the public gallery members of Perth Heat who won the Australian Baseball League competition for the second year in a row. Well done, guys!

[Applause].

Dr K.D. HAMES: As Minister for Tourism—with Tourism WA being one of the funders of the game of Australia v The Rest of the World, which, in fact, comprises players from other teams around Australia—I made the opening pitch at this game. There were quite a few Perth Heat guys there.

Several members interjected.

Dr K.D. HAMES: The good thing about making the first pitch is that there is no batter, and I had no chance of being hit for a home run! The pitch was waist height and straight over the plate. What more could members want? I hope other members can do the same when they are nearly 60!

I thank the member for North West for the question. I did a quick trip yesterday; this was not the trip to St John of God Hospital. We went to Broome, and I had the pleasure, with the member for Kimberley —

Mrs C.A. Martin: Thanks for the lift, mate!

Dr K.D. HAMES: No worries. With the member for Kimberley, I had the pleasure of attending a function attended by about 120 or 130 people from around Broome who are largely involved in the tourism industry. Lord McAlpine was also invited to attend the function. Lord McAlpine left Western Australia during the troubled times of the 1980s and the Ansett strike when income from his investments in Broome became extremely troubled. He is recognised as the father of tourism in Broome, which had been a sleepy little village before Lord McAlpine arrived in the 1980s and built Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa.

Interestingly enough, last night Lord McAlpine told a story about the construction of the Parmelia Hotel. After having been invited to come to Australia, and after having found a hotel, he ordered a cup of tea, as you do, in one of the better-class restaurants. The tea came with the milk already in it and a teaspoon standing up in the mug! That was at one of the best hotels in Perth at the time. He set about trying to build the Parmelia Hotel. The minister who is responsible for liquor licensing will find this a good lesson. Lord McAlpine met with the person responsible for liquor licensing to get approval to build the hotel, and the gentleman told him that he would need to have a library and a reading room on each floor, and outlined some other fairly anachronistic requirements, such as floor height and room sizes, and noted that the hotel should provide mostly single rooms because married couples do not go to Western Australian hotels. He also said, ''What's this five-star business? We don't have five-star hotels in Western Australia. The most we ever have is four. What are you thinking?'' Lord McAlpine went and saw Sir Charles Court and very quickly afterwards got his approval and went on to build the Parmelia Hotel. He is an amazing character to talk and listen to. His passions were not only building things like the Cable Beach resort, but also looking after community groups and keeping a lot of the old buildings in town. Many of the old buildings in Broome would not be there now if it were not for Lord McAlpine.

He was a passionate supporter of employment, particularly Aboriginal employment before it became fashionable. He was one of the area's biggest purchasers of Aboriginal art and artefacts. On any one day, a group of Aboriginal people would come along with artefacts to his office to sell. He would always buy them. He said that is was far better for Aboriginal people to be creating artefacts and doing work than it was for them to be getting into strife because of other issues. He was very much welcomed into Western Australia. Clearly, he greatly appreciated being back. We might see a lot more of him in the future.