Doorstop

STEVEN CIOBO:Well,we're now seeing, of course, the reveal of Tourism Australia's latest campaignin North America. They're behind the new Dundee trailer that we've seen and theteasers over the past week or two have been an entr̩e into the release today,during the Super Bowl, of the new commercial from Tourism Australia. This ispart of a $36 million campaign over the next two years that Tourism Australiais running in the North American market. And, I've got to say, the earlyindications have been an outstanding success. There's the old marketing adagethat 'you sold the sizzle, not the sausage'. Well, what better way to do thatthan what we've done through Tourism Australia? You don't get much moresizzling hot than Margot Robbie, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Jessica Mauboy, ofcourse, Paul Hogan's back and Ruby Rose Рall of them coming together to helppromote this magnificent country, Australia, to America. And why are we doingit? We're doing it because tourism from North American is so critical forAustralia, we get around 750,000 North Americans that visit Australia eachyear, spending around $3.7 billion. Our tourism industry directly employsaround 600,000 Australians, we're deeply committed to making sure we cancontinue to grow visitation from North America. We want to, by 2020, see if wecan achieve $6 billion worth of expenditure from that North America market, andI'm just so delighted at the outstanding job that Tourism Australia and, ofcourse, these Aussie icons have played over the last week or two. We've nowseen this new campaign having the best traction out of any Super Bowlcommercial in North America. This campaign has had more than 400 million peoplethat have been reached on social media, we've had an estimated nearly 4,000news items on this campaign so far, in addition to that, we've seen incredibletraction on new platforms like social media, as well as traditional platformslike breakfast shows, and news and print media etc. So a really good campaignto boost Australia's profile in North America. We need to make sure we getcut-through, what better way to get cut-through than with Aussie icons, whohave been so generous with their time and helped support such a strong campaignin this very lucrative market. It's all about attracting more Americans toAustralia to spend more money while they're here and help to employ moreAustralians in Australia's tourism industry.

JOURNALIST: Minister,it's clearly been getting a lot of attention but what proof do you have this isgoing to be sold to more people -

STEVEN CIOBO: Thisad campaign has been getting excellent attention, more than 400 million socialmedia engagements already, more than $30 million worth of advertisingexpenditure, in equivalent terms, since it came into the market. And we know ifpeople are talking about it, that'll help to incentivise people to come toAustralia. Who could forget, of course, the original Crocodile Dundee moviethat Paul Hogan filmed? It got a buzz going about Australia, it got peopletalking about Australia, and that meant increased visitation. I'm veryconfident that with headliners like Russell Crowe, like Jessica Mauboy, MargotRobbie, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, these guys getting behind what has been anoutstanding campaign with great traction, we'll get more Americans talkingabout coming to Australia than we ever have in our history, and that's gonnamean more passengers and that means more jobs for Australians.

JOURNALIST: ThePrime Minister will be visiting the States this month, do you think that'll bea good opportunity to raise the TPP or CPTPP, as it's now known, with PresidentTrump, could that-[inaudible]

STEVEN CIOBO: CanI come back to TPP questions? I don't know if there's anything further on thetourism campaign.

JOURNALIST: There'sbeen so much interest now that the Northern Territory News has started acampaign for the movie to be real, what do you think about that?

STEVEN CIOBO: Well,I can understand. I mean, if anything, this just demonstrates the communityappetite there is for this. Especially, with an all-star line-up like that. Isuspect though, ultimately, there'd be a fairly substantial budget associatedwith those headline A-list actors but we'll have to see. Ultimately, these arecommercial decisions. If there was a studio willing to step up, I think that'sfantastic.

JOURNALIST: Minister,how much did this cost-[inaudible]

STEVEN CIOBO: Wellas I said, this is part of a $36 million dollar campaign over the next twoyears. It'd all about making sure we get great traction for Australia's tourismindustry and the 600,000 that are employed in the industry. In terms of whatgoes to the substance of your question, are taxpayers getting value for money,well the early proof is really strong. Over 400 million engagements on socialmedia, more than $30 million dollars equivalent advertising expenditure so far,just based upon the reach that we've had so far. It's a 36 million dollarcampaign with more than 20 partners that have come on board, we've got stateand territory governments that are on board as well. So on every level, thiscampaign over the next two years is going to be very successful, and that's thereason why I'd reinforce to you, this isn't about one advert. It's about a twoyear campaign to get more Americans to Australia.

JOURNALIST: Minister,what's the dollar value just for the Super Bowl ad?

STEVEN CIOBO: Well,what matters is the dollar value of the campaign. And the dollar value of thecampaign is $36 million over two years. And we've already got that back inspades. Not to mention the fact that we've got A-list actors like RussellCrowe, Margot Robbie, Chris and Liam Hemsworth. These guys, basically, did itfor the bare minimum fee, what they call the SAG minimum. Their participationin this campaign, which has saved taxpayers millions of dollars if they'd askedfor the full freight that they would normally get.

JOURNALIST: Minister,does Australia need to rely on stereotypes to sell ourselves to the world?[inaudible]

STEVEN CIOBO: Yeah,what matters in a heavily media-dominated market like North America is that youget cut-through. We have seen incredible cut-through with this Super Bowl adand laid out the campaign over the next two years, we'll maintain thatmomentum. This has been the most talked about advertisement out of all of theSuper Bowl commercials that people have been looking at. It's a great setup forthe next two years of the campaign. It picks up on what people love aboutAustralia in terms of North America. What we'll continue to do now is build onit. We saw, for example, is part of the actual advertisement the focus on ourpremium food and beverage. This isn't just about Aussie wine when they visit.It also about driving exports into North America as well.

JOURNALIST: Will you use another big event during the remainder of the campaign?

STEVEN CIOBO: Look,this campaign will continue to build over the months ahead. We will have anumber of different events in different capital cities across America, we'vegot more than 20 partners who are part of this campaign that will help to rollout activations, or in other words, encouraging people to sign up for a holidayto Australia, to come and spend some time down under, and they'll be rollingout their own market initiatives built around this campaign as well.

JOURNALIST: Justto go back to the TPP about the initiative itself? Should that be an issuethat's discussed with-[inaudible]

STEVEN CIOBO: Well,I'm not going to speak on behalf of the Prime Minister or the president.Certainly Australia is at the table. We're waiting now for the signing of theTPP-11, I've been absolutely delighted that we were able to secure agreement onthe TPP-11. The benefits for Australia are manifest. I'm very excited thatwe'll be able to go forward now with the TPP-11 agreement. It puts Australianexporters in an even stronger position than they were in before. Ultimately,it's up to the United States President, the United States Congress, whetherthey want to be part of a future agreement, but as of now we have a lot ofbenefits that flow just from the TPP-11, and we're going to maximize those.

JOURNALIST: Areyou able to give us an update on the progress towards a Free Trade Agreementwith Indonesia?

STEVEN CIOBO: Sure.Discussions around Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic PartnershipAgreement continue. I want a high-quality FTA with Indonesia. There's a lot ofgoodwill on both sides, we've got a very high level of engagement. We werehopeful of concluding before Christmas, we didn't get there, but you know what?We didn't get there because the deal wasn't right. I'm not going to sign up toany deal. I want a deal that's good for Australia, good for Australianexporters, a deal that produces win-win outcomes, so we're both putting ourshoulders to the wheel and I'm hopeful we'll be able to conclude a high-qualityagreement in the future.

JOURNALIST: Justquickly on citizenship, [inaudible] Opposition MPs in the High Court, how longwould you wait [inaudible] could it be weeks? Days?

STEVEN CIOBO: Youknow what we're really seeing here is a complete vacuum of leadership, frankly,by Bill Shorten. I mean, for months Bill Shorten ran around the countrypretending that Labor was a cleanskin when it came to this issue ofcitizenship. For months we've tried to propose workable solutions that Labordidn't want to be part of because they wanted to hide the fact that there werequestion marks over some of their members. We've now seen with David Feeney'sresignation that there are serious questions to answer. There are further referralsthat need to be addressed, so we just need to look at them, and frankly, whatBill Shorten needs to do finally, is step up and show some leadership.

JOURNALIST: As a Queenslander, do you think the LNP has a realistic chance of winning aby-election in Longman?

STEVEN CIOBO: That'sso far down the track, let's just see what happens with the high court decisionfirst. All right, thanks everybody.