Opinion

The decision by the Acting Minister for Tourism, the Hon Bill Johnston MLA, not to provide Parliament with information about State government costs for the Qantas Broome Discounted Fares Program (Program) was reasonable and therefore appropriate.

Background

In Parliament on 28 June 2018, the Hon Jim Chown MLC asked the Acting Minister for Tourism, the Hon Bill Johnston MLA, about State government costs for the program.

Parliamentary Question Without Notice 543

Can the Minister provide a breakdown of visitor numbers and State government costs, including, but not limited to, marketing and actual subsidies provided per traveller with respect to each of the listed tourism campaigns from their respective start dates to today –

(a)       the Rottnest Island admission fee exemption for children travelling between 3 April and up to today’s date, 28 June;

(b)       the Rottnest Island “Rotto from Day to Dusk” campaign, which offered discounted afternoon island admission during summer;

(c)       the subsidised Rex airline flights to Monkey Mia and Carnarvon announced this week;

(d)       the subsidised Qantas airline flights to Broome announced last month; and

(e)       the subsidised Aviair airline flights to Kununurra, Halls Creek and Balgo announced last week?

On 28 June 2018, the Acting Minister for Tourism provided answers to parts (a) and (b) and referred parts (c) and (e) to the Minister for Transport. The Minister declined to provide the information to (d), replying:

A breakdown of visitor numbers is not available until completion of the campaign, which runs a full year for travel from 17 August 2018 to 16 August 2019.

The Perth-Broome initiative is a trial and for commercial reasons, including not compromising future initiatives that may be explored on other routes with other airlines, the details are confidential. Its disclosure could cause commercial harm to the state and, more specifically, adversely impact on future negotiations with other airlines to reduce airfares within regional Western Australia. Accordingly, I will notify the Auditor General’s office and both houses of the Parliament that part of this question will not be answered as per section 82 of the Financial Management Act.

The Minister’s full response is included in Appendix 1.

On 17 July 2018, the Auditor General received the Minister’s notification of the decision not to provide the requested information in accordance with section 82 of the FM Act.

 

 

Key findings

The decision by the Minister not to provide the State government costs for the Program was reasonable and therefore appropriate.

The Minister properly sought advice from the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (Department) before responding to the request. The Department recommended the Minister not provide the information as it was commercially sensitive.

The Department’s recommendation was based on an assessment against its Release of Event Sponsorship Information and/or other Commercial Information policy and guidelines.

As we have found before, this document provides suitable criteria for assessing if information is commercially sensitive. The Department considered if the release of the information would compromise the State’s position by providing competitors with valuable financial information.

The Department concluded that the information has commercial value and its disclosure could cause commercial harm to the State and compromise future initiatives and negotiations with other airlines to reduce airfares within regional Western Australia.

We found the Department’s conclusion was sound, as:

• the State government’s investment in the Program is not publicly known
• the Department is looking for opportunities to work with other airlines on regional routes
• all jurisdictions actively compete for visitors with a limited number of cooperative travel partners. Other jurisdictions could use the information to gain a competitive advantage in future negotiations, or campaigns could become more expensive.

In our view, the Minister’s decision not to disclose the information is consistent with the public interest of protecting and reducing the risk of damage to the financial and commercial affairs of the State.