Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has taken a shot at the latest attempt by Australia to sell itself abroad. He said the idea of a committee of businessmen advising government on how Australia Inc markets itself abroad is doomed to fail.
"We have more bodies than we know what to do with. We have so many in the tourism industry, all of which I am sure are doing good work but in terms of having established a public or political priority, they have all dismally failed,'' he said.
Prominent businessmen such as Sir Rod Eddington, Geoff Dixon and James Strong are backing the establishment of a Brand Australia Council. They plan to present their ideas to the Prime Minister later this year.
But Mr Kennett said that the failure of Australia - and in particular its tourism chiefs - to consistently market the country as a tourist destination gave him little hope that the idea will succeed.
"Tourism would have been given much greater recognition by governments of all political persuasions if they had [succeeded] ... there's no point in having Australia Inc if you can't have a consistent approach of applying it ... We come up with a brand and say everyone has to use it - what then?'' he asked.
He said Tourism Australia's recent campaigns, namely "Where the Bloody Hell Are You" and the tie-up with the Baz Luhrmann film Australia were inconsistent and "a waste of money''.
Business leaders - many of them from marketing backgrounds - envisage the council coordinating how the country's major industries - from mining and education to tourism and food and wine - project themselves abroad.
For too long it has fallen to the tourism industry to carry the burden of promoting the country, they argue, and that if Australia is to succeed on a global level it must have a consistent approach.
The council's driving force, Christopher Brown, the CEO of Tourism & Transport Forum, said he hoped that the council would address that inconsistency in branding.
"I would like to think that he can be proved wrong. We are getting support for the idea and I've had quite a few people come out of the woodwork to lend their support.''
jlee@smh.com.au
SMH
