Grey nomad dreamers are told to hit the Outback
Older Australians who may be toying with the idea of becoming grey nomads have been told to “get off their arses and get out there” by a senior government minister.
The tongue-in-cheek comment was made by the Federal Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud, who wants more people to visit rural communities to help them to generate an alternative income after years of suffering from drought.
“It’s not just the government’s responsibility to help these drought-affected communities,” he said. “It’s each and every one of us.”
The Outback Queensland Tourism Association has welcomed Mr Littleproud’s statement.
“There’s a real appetite for coming out west and coming to the Outback with the average visitor spends about $153 a night per region, said the Association’s Peter Homan. “We’re looking at the traditional grey nomads, or what we call empty-nesters, so they might be away from anywhere between six days to six weeks.”
The ABC reports that the chief executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, Daniel Gschwind, also supported the ‘get off your arses’ push.
“I certainly agree with the sentiment, but I don’t know whether the marketing slogan would work,” he said. “I think the best way to keep a community alive is to support it through the expenditure we make as visitors when we go out there … it creates not only income but business opportunities which in turn creates life in those communities.”
Yes, been volunteering on properties around OZ since 2002, currently in the NT doing just that. It’s great
If the government got “Off Their fat Arses” and did something towards lowering the cost of deisel ,then more G/N would travel.I myself go north
every southern winter and do something towards helping the rural
properties.Fat arse polititians should try it sometime, instead of telling others. I for one cannot and do not spend any where near $153/day.My pension would dry up in a few days.
Well said Dave
You pollies love to tell the every day person to get out there how you lot in parliament get off your bloody arse for once and stop spending our money on yourselves and get yourself into the country and HELP the farmers the backbone of this once proud country and get your hand dirtyt
Don’t know where he gets his $153/night from. I wouldn’t be able to afford to travel at all if that were the case. Hopefully I get a site at between $0 & $20/night & of course I spend a few extra dollars in the towns I stop at. The big winners are the towns where I need to re-fuel.
Yes get told every day to get off my skinny arse and do something.But yes seriously like Dave just said a polititian telling us to get off our arse, I wouldnt mind some of the stuff he,s smoken. Cheers Stevo.
If it was not for a lot of us grey nomads then this county would be in deeper shit than we are in. Suggest a few fat arsed pollies take a leaf out of our book and get out of their office
Bring the price of fuel down so I and many others can afford to get of our arse and get out there.
Mr Littleproud & his parliamentary cohorts should drive their own cars over the roads they expect the GN’s to drive over. If they did , the roads would be repaired ASAP. Better roads in regional & rural areas would not only save damage to our rigs but create employment & bring more tourists, but the politicans & tourism bosses only concern is cities & the coastal resorts.