Mr BALCH - 2001-06-26
The Territory’s international air services are a vital part of our tourism industry worth in excess of $840m a year. What is your response to industry speculation that Qantas may scale back its daily flight between Singapore and Darwin?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, yes, there is industry speculation fairly broadly emanating from Queensland, South Australia and indeed in the Territory that with the introduction of their northern hemisphere winter schedules, Qantas will be announcing a reduction from daily services Singapore-Darwin to three services a week. That would have a dramatic impact on the tourism industry and, indeed, the business industry - as we see the gas province in the Timor Sea with gas coming onshore and the developments that are going to flow from that - in terms of access to the Northern Territory, certainly from Europe and Asia.
I would illustrate the cutbacks by demonstrating that, if it was to be assumed that the three services were to be undertaken with Boeing 767 equipment, it would result in a decrease in capacity from 1742 seats per week currently, to 684 seats. This represents a 60% reduction. When you consider that that would coincide with the Northern Hemisphere winter, which is the time when Europeans and our very strong UK market are coming to the Northern Territory for their holidays, it would impact very seriously on the number of visitors that we would achieve. It would flow directly in opposition to the strong marketing that we undertake in Europe and the UK, and one really does have to question the validity of it.
I asked Qantas if they can confirm or deny the industry speculation - that it is very important to us. We have not been able to get a particularly definitive answer at the moment which only makes us more suspicious.
I have written today to the federal Minister for Transport and Regional Services and Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, asking him to do what he can to ensure that where there is a demand for service – and when you take into account that the Singapore-Darwin service and the Darwin-Singapore leg are experiencing something in the order of 85% loadings, there is clearly a demand for service. In light of competition policy where services to meet demand are said to be required, then you would have to severely question the rumours that are suggesting that Qantas will cut back to three services a week on that route.
They will, in fact, be pulling out of the Cairns service altogether. The service, we understand, will be a Singapore-Darwin-Adelaide service and return. We think that is even going to be worse in terms of the potential loadings and will perhaps lead to even more serious implications later on. When you take into account that Cairns has already lost a number of services - I think they have lost Garuda, Cathay, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, JAL who I think pulled out of the service into Cairns - the international services into remote Australia are going backwards.
I have, together with the Minister for Transport and Works, my colleague the member for Karama, been conveying to the federal government - and done it personally in relation to speaking to Minister Anderson - a suggestion that when overseas carriers seek access for further flights into Australia, for example into Sydney or Melbourne, that they be given approval on the basis that those services enter via Darwin or Cairns or other like ports. So, we can use some influence in approving new flights to gain services to places like the Territory.
There is another important matter, that I have also raised in the letter to the Deputy Prime Minister, which is the question of cabotage. This relates, of course, to the ability for international carriers who land in Darwin to then pick up domestic passengers and carry them to their final destination in Australia. It is currently not possible for international carriers to do that, with the exception of Qantas. That is very anti-competitive. It works directly against our intentions in terms of bringing people into the Northern Territory - if they come, for example, by Malaysian Airlines, Royal Brunei or Garuda or whoever - and their ability then to stay a few days and then catch that service on to another port in Australia, and then exit back through Darwin to their home destination.
Given Qantas’ attitude, their lack of interest which is apparent if they are going to confirm these reductions in service in terms of providing regional areas of Australia with adequate levels of service, then they have to recognise that we, as a government, will be pushing very strongly to achieve some changes in the cabotage arrangements for us to be able to attract additional overseas carriers into Darwin to be able to fill the gap that Qantas is going to leave.
It is a very regrettable and a very serious situation that we face, and when you take into account the competitive nature of the tourism industry and on top of that the cut-backs that are mooted to be about to be introduced, we do face a very serious situation in terms of international tourism and indeed, business capacity to get into the Northern Territory, and to see the place develop in the way that we would want. We will be forcefully representing our views both to Qantas and the federal ...
Mr Palmer: If you take the ‘q’ and the ‘nt’ out of Qantas you get ass.
Mr REED: That is a reasonable point.
So we will be pushing that point very strongly with the Deputy Prime Minister and Qantas, for the interests of Territorians to be recognised.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, yes, there is industry speculation fairly broadly emanating from Queensland, South Australia and indeed in the Territory that with the introduction of their northern hemisphere winter schedules, Qantas will be announcing a reduction from daily services Singapore-Darwin to three services a week. That would have a dramatic impact on the tourism industry and, indeed, the business industry - as we see the gas province in the Timor Sea with gas coming onshore and the developments that are going to flow from that - in terms of access to the Northern Territory, certainly from Europe and Asia.
I would illustrate the cutbacks by demonstrating that, if it was to be assumed that the three services were to be undertaken with Boeing 767 equipment, it would result in a decrease in capacity from 1742 seats per week currently, to 684 seats. This represents a 60% reduction. When you consider that that would coincide with the Northern Hemisphere winter, which is the time when Europeans and our very strong UK market are coming to the Northern Territory for their holidays, it would impact very seriously on the number of visitors that we would achieve. It would flow directly in opposition to the strong marketing that we undertake in Europe and the UK, and one really does have to question the validity of it.
I asked Qantas if they can confirm or deny the industry speculation - that it is very important to us. We have not been able to get a particularly definitive answer at the moment which only makes us more suspicious.
I have written today to the federal Minister for Transport and Regional Services and Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, asking him to do what he can to ensure that where there is a demand for service – and when you take into account that the Singapore-Darwin service and the Darwin-Singapore leg are experiencing something in the order of 85% loadings, there is clearly a demand for service. In light of competition policy where services to meet demand are said to be required, then you would have to severely question the rumours that are suggesting that Qantas will cut back to three services a week on that route.
They will, in fact, be pulling out of the Cairns service altogether. The service, we understand, will be a Singapore-Darwin-Adelaide service and return. We think that is even going to be worse in terms of the potential loadings and will perhaps lead to even more serious implications later on. When you take into account that Cairns has already lost a number of services - I think they have lost Garuda, Cathay, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, JAL who I think pulled out of the service into Cairns - the international services into remote Australia are going backwards.
I have, together with the Minister for Transport and Works, my colleague the member for Karama, been conveying to the federal government - and done it personally in relation to speaking to Minister Anderson - a suggestion that when overseas carriers seek access for further flights into Australia, for example into Sydney or Melbourne, that they be given approval on the basis that those services enter via Darwin or Cairns or other like ports. So, we can use some influence in approving new flights to gain services to places like the Territory.
There is another important matter, that I have also raised in the letter to the Deputy Prime Minister, which is the question of cabotage. This relates, of course, to the ability for international carriers who land in Darwin to then pick up domestic passengers and carry them to their final destination in Australia. It is currently not possible for international carriers to do that, with the exception of Qantas. That is very anti-competitive. It works directly against our intentions in terms of bringing people into the Northern Territory - if they come, for example, by Malaysian Airlines, Royal Brunei or Garuda or whoever - and their ability then to stay a few days and then catch that service on to another port in Australia, and then exit back through Darwin to their home destination.
Given Qantas’ attitude, their lack of interest which is apparent if they are going to confirm these reductions in service in terms of providing regional areas of Australia with adequate levels of service, then they have to recognise that we, as a government, will be pushing very strongly to achieve some changes in the cabotage arrangements for us to be able to attract additional overseas carriers into Darwin to be able to fill the gap that Qantas is going to leave.
It is a very regrettable and a very serious situation that we face, and when you take into account the competitive nature of the tourism industry and on top of that the cut-backs that are mooted to be about to be introduced, we do face a very serious situation in terms of international tourism and indeed, business capacity to get into the Northern Territory, and to see the place develop in the way that we would want. We will be forcefully representing our views both to Qantas and the federal ...
Mr Palmer: If you take the ‘q’ and the ‘nt’ out of Qantas you get ass.
Mr REED: That is a reasonable point.
So we will be pushing that point very strongly with the Deputy Prime Minister and Qantas, for the interests of Territorians to be recognised.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016