Hotels bugle Bradley Woods plays a new tune

Hotels and hospitality bugle Bradley Woods clearly believes the Liberal Party under Mike Nahan will be in the political wilderness well beyond 2021.

The Australian Hotels Association chief executive might not be alone in his thinking.

But when he took to the stage last week at the industry’s end of year ball and told almost 1000 well-lubricated guests that the State Opposition was nothing but an obstacle to progress it caused quite a stir.

Woods abused the Liberals for their recent criticism of the McGowan Government in light of the low international visitor numbers WA has been experiencing.

Nahan was sitting on a VIP table with AHA big-wigs listening through gritted teeth to every word.

Some of his frontbench MPs were also at the function and felt so incensed about Woods’ partisan pasting that they came close to walking out.

“He went on a bit of a rant,” commented one VIP. “It was quite contentious and Nahan obviously thought it was completely inappropriate.”

Whether Woods’ decision to drop the usual diplomacy and go rogue was a brain snap or part of a deliberate agenda is unknown, but he offered no public apology to the Liberals when quizzed a day later by this newspaper.

“I accept that I am a strong advocate for my industry and sometimes may come across forcefully, especially in a room of nearly 1000 excited people,” Woods said.

Then the experienced lobbyist said something that will leave him wide open to accusations of hypocrisy should he ever criticise a government’s approach to the hospitality industry in future.

“The hospitality sector is doing it tough and doesn’t benefit from being used as a political football,” he said.

What should be patently obvious to Woods is that by publicly bagging one side of politics over the other he has guaranteed his industry is precisely that — a political football.

Government ministers like Paul Papalia, Michelle Roberts and Bill Johnston were at the AHA event and must have been struggling to contain their mirth. One senior Liberal said Woods’ spray on the night was “bizarre” because it would make it difficult for him to work with the Opposition on any issues on behalf of the AHA.

Woods might not care because he has assessed the Liberals as impotent.

Maybe he wants something from Labor so he stuck the knife into their opponents. Or perhaps his appointment last year to the board of Tourism Australia was motivating his protectionism.

The following remark by Woods to The West Australian was particularly concerning.

“Negative political comments from any political party about the tourism and hospitality industry have significant implications on confidence in the sector and the way the investment community assesses risk,” Woods said.

Censorship might suit the government of the day or corporate self-interest, but it does not sit well within a democracy. If a government comes to power making all manner of promises to fix a problem, throws money at it and fails, then it should expect scrutiny not sycophancy.

Interestingly, Woods has had no problem kicking the political football over many years, which makes his new “off limits” approach to tourism and hospitality even more curious.

In 2012, he put out a media release demanding millions of dollars more to market WA’s “struggling tourism regions”.

“The State government has to make promoting our WA brand a priority in the upcoming budget,” he said. “Other State and foreign governments recognise the importance of their local tourism industry and the need to be continually promoting their brands to both domestic and overseas visitors.”

Three years later, he again attacked the Barnett government. “WA’s tourism potential is underutilised,” he said in 2015. “Tourism WA’s limited destination advertising budget needs increasing so as to allow WA to compete with other States.”

In 2016, Woods went after Tourism Australia and the State and Federal governments on the very issue he now wants the Liberals to keep quiet about.

“The latest international visitor data shows spending in Australia for the past year grew by 14.2 per cent, but in WA it declined by 0.2 per cent prompting a major re-evaluation of how Tourism Australia includes WA in its international marketing,” an AHA media release said. “Both the WA and Federal governments need to place more emphasis on travel opportunities to the West.”

WA’s Tourism Council, which represents operators in the sector, is continuing to make those arguments and will not be swayed by Woods’ sudden conversion on the road to Damascus.

“To watch all proceedings in State and Federal parliament and act as necessary,” is one of the AHA’s key objectives. Good luck in achieving that goal if the new mantra involves suppressing any commentary about hospitality and tourism that the AHA deems negative.