June 6, 2022 | By Bronwen Largier
Following the Liberal National Coalition loss in last month’s election, new opposition leader Peter Dutton announced his shadow cabinet yesterday, with a new face in the tourism and trade position.
Senator Kevin Hogan, elected in the regional seat of Page in northern New South Wales, with a 1.4 per cent swing towards him in the May federal election, will be the new shadow minister for tourism and trade.
His seat reaches from Sapphire Bay in the South to Nimbin in the north. Major towns within the electorate include Lismore, Casino and some of Ballina, but the electorate stops short of covering major tourism hotspot Byron Bay. The visitor economy, while a rising industry in the electorate, is not amongst its major economic drivers, the largest of which is manufacturing.
Hogan worked as a money market and bond trader from 1989 to 1998, before becoming a teacher at St Mary’s High School in Casino and, for a period, deputy principal.
From what micenet can gather, Hogan does not have any particular track record with the business events industry, so as micenet journalist Joyce DiMascio put it after the election, the industry will likely have work to do to educate the senator on the importance and impact of business events.