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

I rise today to report on some very good news for Cairns, a real shot in the arm, with the announcement yesterday that a deal has been done between the Cairns Airport and Jetstar to see 300,000 new seats come into Cairns over the next 2½ years. I would like to congratulate Stephen Gregg, his team at the Cairns Airport and the board of Cairns Airport Pty Ltd, and also Bruce Buchanan and his team at Jetstar, for the work that they have done in bringing this deal to fruition. I also congratulate the state government, who I understand have provided some marketing support.

Aviation is a critical driver of the Cairns economy and has been a welcome shot in the arm for our local community. Last year we saw Qantas pull out a significant number of seats—more than 200,000 seats. This commitment of 300,000 in the next 2½ years will see an additional almost 100,000 seats come to Cairns. Tourism Tropical North Queensland in their statement yesterday said that this would inject an additional $220 million into the local economy in direct tourism spending and help to create up to 2,000 new jobs.

That is particularly welcome news because Cairns—as members would know because I speak about it regularly—has been hard hit by the global recession. We had unemployment hit almost 14 per cent a couple of months ago. All of the ABS statistics bounce around a bit, and we saw it drop significantly to 8.1 per cent, which was a positive sign. If you look at the three-month moving average, you are really looking at unemployment of around 12 per cent, which is still too high.

We are making commitments to support jobs in the local community through investments in infrastructure like the $460 million stimulus that is going to Leichhardt and Kennedy, and this commitment between Jetstar and the airport to growing the airport going forward is positive news. I have been working with Minister Albanese over the last couple of years on ways that we can look to improve the competitiveness of the Cairns Airport and encourage more international carriers into Cairns. Over the last 10 or 12 years, sadly, we have seen too many international carriers leave Cairns. I am hopeful that in the white paper that is due in the not too distant future the discussions that I have had with Minister Albanese will bear fruit. I am certainly looking forward to the white paper coming down. I know that the local tourism community and business community in Cairns are also looking forward to that.

I am very much committed to supporting jobs in my local community and tourism is a particularly important part of that. When Qantas pulled out last year, Minister Ferguson and the government committed $4 million to a tourism support package. That provided incentives for marketing. As a result of that we have seen Continental come back into Cairns with another 10,000 seats from Japan via Guam and we have also seen a number of charter operators come back into Cairns in the interim to provide support for the local community. We need to look at long-term support for tourism and the long-term future for tourism in Cairns.

Investments from that $4 million package also went into some market segments including in terms of what we can do in health tourism. We have a wonderful environment with the Great Barrier Reef, the wet tropics rainforest and great experiences. It is a place that you can come to and look forward to getting well. Health tourism is a segment that we think has opportunities going forward.

We are doing work at the moment in relation to what we can do as to food tourism. We have some fantastic seafood and some fantastic tropical fruits and produce. At the moment we are doing some great work in that area. In the last couple of days there have been meetings in Cairns in relation to a food tourism strategy continuing to happen.

Last week I launched Tourism Tropical North Queensland, a recently redeveloped website, after a $275,000 investment from our tourism support package, as a result of Qantas pulling out. It is a real portal into tropical North Queensland.

If members here are looking to go on holidays over Christmas or next year, I would encourage them to go to www.cairnsgreatbarrierreef.org.au. They will find great opportunities to go and experience the wonderful and friendly environment that we have up there. We are very much committed to working with the tourism industry. As I said, the white paper will come down soon. I am very hopeful that we will see some real benefits flow from that for the local tourism industry through aviation reform. We have also got Minister Ferguson recently bringing forward another $9 million in marketing support and I know that Tourism Tropical North Queensland and the local airport have also put in applications as to that package through Tourism Australia. I am hopeful that we are going to get some outcomes from the white paper and from that package and I will continue to work with the local tourism industry and Cairns Airport. I congratulate them all. (Time expired)