Kat THEOPHANOUS : Along with my colleagues I rise to speak in support of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust Amendment Bill 2024, and I want to begin my remarks by commending the trust for its work over the years in steering a very important economic and cultural asset for the state of Victoria. In particular I acknowledge the leadership of the Honourable John Brumby, who was appointed chairperson of the trust in 2017 and who has brought an enormous level of skill and expertise and wisdom to the trust. I have had the opportunity to know the former Premier for many years across different intersects, including in his role as chancellor at La Trobe, and I know that his guidance has been key in elevating the standing of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) but also navigating the next exciting phase of the trust with the establishment of the Geelong Convention and Event Centre.
These two centres working together in collaboration will cement Victoria as a premier global destination for events and exhibitions, and that is what we are here to formalise in legislation. We are expanding the functions of the trust to meet the changing needs of Victoria’s tourism and events industries, we are modernising its governance and operational provisions and we are of course changing the name of the act and the trust to the much more reflective Victorian Convention and Event Trust. I will not dwell on the semantics of an event versus an exhibition; it is clear to me that the role and scope of the two centres is better captured by the broader umbrella of ‘event’. To me that makes sense.
What is more salient is the important role the trust has to play in our state’s economy and in Victoria’s presence nationally and on the world stage. As the body responsible for the development, promotion, management, operation and use of convention and exhibition facilities in Victoria, it provides a platform for our state to host a huge variety of events and showcase Victoria as a destination – and what a destination we are. Honestly, scarcely a week goes by in our great state of Victoria that we are not at the forefront of hosting enormously popular major events that bring excitement and prestige to our state. Whether it is the Australian Open, the AFL Grand Final, Taylor Swift, Always Live, the Pharaoh exhibition at the NGV, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, White Night, Formula One, the Rip Curl Pro, the flower and garden show or the mighty Eighty-Six music Festival in Northcote, there is always something wonderful happening in Victoria. We are the major events capital for so many reasons, but not least because of the continued investment across successive Labor governments into unrivalled infrastructure, like the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and the soon-to-be Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre.
Although I do not hail from Geelong, and there are others upon our government benches who will speak more directly to and more sensitively to the impact the Geelong centre will have on their communities, as a Victorian I am immensely proud that we are creating this huge, new event space to bring conferences, entertainment and live music to Geelong. The stats on this centre are actually quite remarkable. There will be a 1000-seat venue, two large exhibition spaces, meeting rooms, conference facilities and flexible event spaces. There will be retail for food and beverage, a large public plaza facing the waterfront, a hotel – it is going to be outstanding. Not only that, but the construction is supporting 1450 jobs, and once it is opened it will include 3700 square metres of event space and support another 700 jobs ongoingly.
We know from the success of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre how these sorts of investments in infrastructure have the potential to draw large-scale business events and the flow-on benefits that those events have for visitation, knowledge sharing, industry connections, profile raising and ultimately for our economy. In the year ending March 2024 Victoria’s visitor economy hit a record high of $39.3 billion, reaching the government’s 2024 tourism target more than a year ahead of schedule.
Business events play a big role in this. Our last budget invested again in the Business Events Fund to secure that pipeline of international business events which generate such valuable economic returns. Some of the events supported by the fund in recent years were the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2023, the International Congress of Genetics 2023 and the World Indigenous Cancer Conference 2024. These sorts of events put Melbourne and Victoria on the world stage and allow us to demonstrate our strengths across an enormous range of sectors, from science and medtech to public policy, agriculture and innovation. They fill hotels. They get people into our restaurants and bars and shops. They support Victorian jobs and elevate our profile.
But it is not just international events. Just a few months back I was able to attend the MCEC for the first Victorian Pelvic Pain Symposium, hosted by the Victorian Department of Health and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. It was a groundbreaking event, focused on understanding, treating and supporting women with pelvic pain. For a whole day it brought together experts and advocates in the field to share knowledge and drive better models of care for a very wide range of conditions – conditions that impact women’s daily lives. The venue and the spaces allowed for keynotes, breakout rooms, TED Talk-style presentations and a closing plenary, which I was able to contribute to as a speaker. The utter professionalism of the setting gave the event that added gravitas, and it set the stage for collaboration. Just like in the many, many schools that the Labor government has upgraded, the spaces meant that it was conducive to learning and to knowledge sharing. To have a government-owned asset like this is quite remarkable, and we are immensely fortunate to have it.
Just to cover off on some of the technicalities of the bill, I want to reiterate that we are contemporising the governance arrangements for the trust to bring it into line with comparable statutory authorities. Governments have a responsibility to modernise and strengthen corporate governance in entities like this to improve accountability and afford people engaging with the facilities or services of the trust better protections but also to bring the professional and ethical duties of the members of the trust into line with contemporary practices and community expectations. To that end, the bill will increase the maximum number of members of the trust from seven to nine part-time members to reflect the additional responsibilities of the trust as the operator of the Geelong centre. It will enable the minister to appoint a deputy chairperson or an acting chairperson to ensure better coverage should the chair be absent or unable to perform duties. It will expand the scope of conduct that may allow a member to be removed or suspended, including if the member fails to disclose a conflict of interest, and other sorts of provisions. The bill will also amend the automatic member vacancy provisions to reflect more appropriate terminology.
I think it is clear from what everyone has said already that we all value the role that events play in our economy and in our cultural life. Just last sitting week we had our wonderful Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events stand up and remind us about the packed winter calendar that we have. I think we all take a fair amount of pride in that and in being such an outstanding and sought-after destination for so many iconic events. Yet it is no secret that the events sector did take an enormous blow during the pandemic years and is still in the process of recovery. As the member for Northcote I did see this firsthand in the inner north, where large-scale music venues and event halls felt the real brunt of the public health measures. Northcote lives and breathes music. It is a major hub for culture and artistry, with more live music venues along High Street than I think any other street in the country. Every week we are buzzing with local, national and international acts, drawing crowds to our local businesses and generating jobs in the creative industries and other industries.
We are a destination precinct, and we know and understand the cascading impacts that can occur when these vital industries are put under pressure but also the immense benefits that can be imparted when they are supported to thrive. That is why, coming out of the pandemic, one of my immediate priorities was kickstarting our events again, so last October we hosted the Eighty-Six music festival, drawing an audience of over 29,000 and activating more than 200 businesses. These events demonstrate why supporting this bill and the events sector is so important. I commend the bill to the house.
