Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a significant milestone in an election commitment I made on behalf of the Rudd government to the community of Cooktown and surrounding communities including Hopevale, Wujal Wujal and Lakeland Downs. These communities have been working for over 10 years to secure funding for a community events centre and to have it located on Airservices Australia navigation beacon land. The former Cook Shire Council, led by Bob Sullivan, was active in working to this end, as have been the new mayor and council led by Peter Scott. In the lead-up to the last election, I was proud to have been the first to make a federal election commitment of $1.5 million towards this project. This issue of the Airservices Australia land, though, had never been able to be resolved by the former Liberal member.

One of the first things I did on getting elected was to contact the council and secure previous correspondence between the council, the former member and Airservices Australia, who owned the land where the community wanted the centre built. I set to work to understand what had happened in the past and began working with the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Mr Albanese, with Airservices Australia and with the Cook Shire Council to secure the land for the community. Following on from this there were very constructive negotiations between the council and Airservices Australia and the site was secured. This was a significant achievement as previous councils, federal members and Airservices Australia could never secure a deal, although there had been plenty of discussions and correspondence. I would like to thank Mayor Peter Scott for the constructive way in which he worked with me and Airservices Australia to secure the land for the community. I would also like to thank Minister Albanese, his aviation adviser Antony Sachs and Airservices Australia for the support that they have given to me and the community.

I was very pleased to announce this week that the beacon has now been moved so that work can begin on the centre. There was still a shortfall of money for the centre, so, working again with the council, we were able to secure another $1.5 million from the Rudd government’s Jobs Fund toward the project. In the search for more funding, both the mayor and I discussed with Jo Townsend, principal of the Cooktown State School, the possibility of the school becoming a partner in the project through a commitment of $2 million from the Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution funding. The site is adjacent to the school, and the school desperately needs a good multipurpose hall. I can now confirm that the Rudd government has approved this. The federal government is now committing $5 million towards this project: a $1.5 million election commitment, $1.5 million from the Jobs Fund and $2 million of funding from the Building the Education Revolution. The state has committed $3 million—and I congratulate the state member for Cook, Jason O’Brien, for the work that he has done on the project—and the council $1.5 million, bringing the total project to $9.5 billion.

I want to congratulate the community for the work they have done over the past 10 years to bring this project to fruition. It is a credit to past and present councils and the broader community. I would particularly like to pay tribute to Peter Scott, the Mayor of the Cook Shire Council, and his point person, Sian Nivison, who has been working for many, many years for the council to bring this facility to fruition. And of course I thank Jo Townsend, the principal of Cooktown State School, for becoming a partner in this project.

I am looking forward to the start of construction next year on a fantastic community facility. Cooktown and the region can finally have a world-class community facility that will be a multipurpose hall, training centre and cyclone shelter. It goes to show what can be achieved when all levels of government and the community pull together to work towards a shared vision.