'Rank political opportunism': Barr defends Japan trade mission against 'junket' jibe

11-07-2025

"We're not doing anything that is out of step with any other jurisdiction. ... [We are doing] what every other government in Australia does with often 100 times the resources that we have. The team works incredibly hard and couldn't do what it does without the Austrade, Tourism Australia and DFAT network, and we are very, very lucky there are so many Canberrans who are working in those fields who help us."

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The bizarre inclusion in Tourism Australia's new ad for China

Sydney Morning Herald

an hour ago

Sydney Morning Herald

The bizarre inclusion in Tourism Australia's new ad for China

This week Tourism Australia launched the second phase of its global 'Come and say G'day' tourism campaign, starring CGI kangaroo Ruby and various celebrities from Gen Z's version of Paul Hogan, Bob Irwin, to British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, Indian influencer Sara Tendulkar (daughter of cricketing legend Sachin) and Chinese actor Yosh Yu. So far, so normal. The ads feature all the typical stuff you see in Tourism Australia campaigns – stunning landscapes, wildlife, the Sydney Opera House and a good dose of humour. But there's one attraction that I don't believe has ever featured in an Australian tourism campaign before and its blink-and-you'll-miss-it inclusion seems rather unusual. During the Chinese version of the ad (watch it below), there's a scene of Yosh Yu enjoying a spectacular display from the southern lights, or the aurora australis. It's true that the aurora borealis, or northern lights, are a major tourist attraction in the northern hemisphere and there's a good reason for that – seeing the lights is an incredible, bucket-list experience. ' Like seeing music ' is how I described one evening in Canada's Northwest Territories. But here's the problem – you can't always see the northern lights. Conditions have to be right. There needs to be clear skies, little light pollution and solar storms. The latter, solar particles that crash into the Earth's atmosphere and are pulled towards the poles, is what causes the phenomenon. And it is generally much easier to see the northern lights than the southern because the northern continents are much closer to the North Pole than Australia is to the South Pole. But even then, there are no guarantees. On a trip to northern Sweden a few years ago, I saw them only briefly on my first night. Cloud and snow rolled in for the next few nights. It goes to show that even in some of the best places in the world to see the aurora, there is no guarantee.