David Crisafulli says Queensland needs better Indigenous tourism offering

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says Australia has failed to tell the stories of its first people “as well as we should”, as he leaves the door open to building a new Indigenous cultural centre in time for the Brisbane Olympics.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and minister Steve Minnikin enjoy a pie after a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says Australia has failed to tell the stories of its first people “as well as we should”, as he leaves the door open to building an Indigenous cultural centre in time for the Brisbane Olympics.

Weeks after he axed Queensland’s independent truth-telling inquiry, tasked with gathering stories and evidence about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Mr Crisafulli said his state needed to do more to create Indigenous tourism experiences.

“One thing’s for sure, and that is that we as Australians, but particularly Queenslanders, have an amazing story to tell about Indigenous Australians, and we haven’t told that story as well as we should,” he said.

“I genuinely believe there is an opportunity with Indigenous tourism to take a product differentiation that nowhere else in the world can do – the longest running continuous culture – and yet we haven’t made a lot of it in our tourism planning, marketing and product development.”

State cabinet is expected to consider a detailed business case within weeks that recommends a new First Nations cultural centre be built in Brisbane’s inner south to showcase the art and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

A First Nations cultural centre had been promised for more than 20 years by successive state governments and sources told The Weekend Australian the business case had costed the project at under $300m.

The business case is understood to have recommended two potential sites: at the piazza in the heart of the South Bank Parklands or at South Brisbane’s Kurilpa Park, a traditional meeting place for Aboriginal people.

On Friday, Mr Crisafulli would not be drawn on whether his government would progress the project but he pointed to the way New Zealand and Fiji had “embraced their original inhabitants” in tourism offerings.

“We have to be realistic about the fact that as a state, for the better part of the last quarter of a century, we haven’t made enough of our natural environment and our natural story,” he said.

“I can think of no more authentic eco-tourism experience than immersing that story of 60,000 years of culture, I think we can do a lot better.

“In terms of whether or not the cultural centre is an important part of it, well let’s have a look.”

Cameron Costello, deputy chairman of the Brisbane 2032 Legacy Committee and head of the state’s First Nations Tourism Council, has said an Indigenous cultural centre could be “uniting” for Queensland after the failed voice referendum and axing of the treaty and truth-telling inquiry.

“The cultural centre could have exhibitions and perform­ances and there could be retail elements to it, art galleries and restaurants.”