Andrew Bolt: What’s behind Morrison Government’s bizarre Burnie ‘tourism’ choice?

Even this tired town’s biggest fans wouldn’t call it a “tourist area”. So why did the government add it to a list of tourism hot spots?

Why was Burnie included in the Morrison Government’s list of tourism hot spots?

I once spent a month working in Burnie. So I know the Morrison Government is treating us like idiots by including that tired industrial port in its list of 13 tourism hot spots.

Last week the government said it would spend another $1.2 billion of borrowed money to subsidise half-price airfares to “those tourist areas most impacted by border lockdowns”.

Fair enough, if this means getting Australians to go to tourism towns struggling to stay alive while international tourists are banned.

So Cairns, check. Gold Coast, check. But Burnie?

True, nice people in Burnie. It’s a shame that green bans destroyed so many forest jobs in that part of Tasmania’s north west coast.

But even its biggest fans wouldn’t call it a “tourist area”. Even the Tasmania.com website struggles to think of a single thing for tourists to do there.

It says this “industrial port” has had to reinvent itself as a “coastal gem” that “is full of makers”, with “the beating heart of this artistic community” being a “Maker’s Workshop which is part museum, gallery, workshop and arts centre.”

So if you snap up one of these half-price tickets to Burnie, you, too, can now “learn to make paper, blow glass, create ceramics, develop textiles or learn to paint, sculpt or draw”.

Even Burnie’s biggest fans wouldn’t call it a “tourist area”.

And, for a break, see some penguins.

And in the evening you can go “for an evening stroll along Emu Bay where you can look out over the Bass Strait and imagine the Australian mainland in the distance” – the place you just left and where you’re probably thinking you should have stayed.

So what is Burnie’s real attraction?

Well, on the night of his “miracle” election win, an elated Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave a shout-out to one of the candidates who’d pushed him over the line – a hello to “the Big Unit, Gav Pearce, down there in Braddon”, who pulled off a surprise victory in a marginal seat of which the main town is … Burnie.

In fact, Morrison had two critical wins in Tasmania that night, both in marginal seats he’s desperate to keep.

The other was next door in Bass. And, what a surprise!: That electorate’s main town, Launceston, is also on the list of “tourism areas” getting half-priced fares.

What a ludicrous rort.

Don’t believe me? Then book your half-priced flight to Burnie and see for yourself.