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It’s a case of different day, different story for Tourism Minister Jane-Lomax-Smith who has contradicted herself on major events payments.
Last week Shadow Tourism Minister Terry Stephens said that South Australians should know how much the Rann Government has paid to have sporting greats Lance Armstrong and John McEnroe attend events in SA.
“In response to the Opposition’s claims, the Tourism Minister detailed that these costs cannot be revealed as other States will try to poach successful events such as the TDU*,” Mr Stephens said.
“Yet the Minister stated yesterday ‘we know other states would sniff around and would love to take this event away from us, but this event itself is owned by the South Australian Government and cannot be taken from us’.
“The Minister has stated she can’t reveal what Lance Armstrong is being paid as it would put the Tour at risk, then only days later explains it couldn’t be poached anyway!
“Ms Lomax-Smith is clearly in a spin on this issue and needs to explain if she’s been telling porkies to the South Australian public,” Mr Stephens said.
“The Tourism Minister appears to be pulling out any excuse she can to defend the fact that Premier Rann wants these payments kept secret.
“The Tourism Minister has been caught out and can now, in fact, reveal these costs – she should do so immediately.”
* “There are many people who would like to steal our major events and our sports and arts activities. We don’t want to help those people who are sniffing around by giving them an idea of how they’re managed.”
Tourism Minister Jane Lomax Smith, January 15, 2010.
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