Mr HAMPTON - 2006-11-30
Can the minister tell the Assembly how the Alice Springs airport upgrade is progressing, and can he advise where support for this project has come from?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for this question. I am looking forward to the Brolga Awards in Alice Springs on Saturday night. It is the night-of-nights for the tourism industry which employs so many thousands of Territorians.
Attracting more international flights and tourists is a key plank of the government’s push in building tourism across the Northern Territory. A very important part of that plank is establishing Alice Springs Airport to cater for international flights. We have been very successful to date with direct charters from Japan. I advise that JAL, the Japanese airline, is looking to send another 11 Japanese charter flights to Alice Springs next year. I was very pleased and proud that this government has delivered on an election commitment and has made available $200 000 to upgrade Alice Springs Airport to better cater for international flights.
That was done as part of a three way partnership, or we thought we had a partnership, with the owners of Alice Springs Airport and also the Commonwealth government. In the lead-up to the last federal election in September 2004, the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, promised, in Alice Springs, to match our $200 000 commitment. Our commitment was handed over to the Central Australian Tourism Industry Association, known as CATIA to everyone in this House, in June 2006. It is sitting in their bank account, but as yet, two years on, the federal government has still not honoured its election commitment.
I have written to successive ministers. I know my predecessor in the portfolio, the Chief Minister, pursued successive Commonwealth ministers. John Anderson flitted into Alice Springs, made a promise, flitted out of Alice Springs and there is no money to be seen. I have to ask why. The federal government is sitting on a surplus of some $15bn, and that surplus is projected to be at around that level in the out years and they cannot find a measly $200 000 to honour an election commitment they made to the people of Alice Springs. They cannot honour their commitment to the people of Alice Springs.
CATIA has been having countless meetings with federal government representatives, including one Nigel Scullion. I know that they have had possibly half a dozen meetings with him. All he can do is slink in a bit red faced and say: ‘I am really sorry. I am chasing around government ministers doors, trying to get them to honour their commitment, but I am so insignificant, no one is listening to me and I will keep trying’. CATIA has been trying, we have been trying. We made a commitment; the money is in the bank account.
We hear absolutely nothing from the opposition about what they may be doing. Given that two of their members hold seats in Alice Springs and that they are such apologists for the federal government and they have two members sitting in federal caucus rooms, they should be doing something but they cannot get the money.
Madam Speaker, through this parliament, which is probably the last place that I can do it, I call on the federal government to honour their election commitment to the people of Alice Springs, match our $200 000 which is sitting in CATIA’s bank account, and deliver on their promise for the people and the tourism industry in Alice Springs.
It would be great at the Brolga Awards in Alice Springs for CATIA to say: ‘Great news, industry! The federal government has delivered the $200 000’. Let us see them do it by Saturday night. If they do, I will be the first to applaud, even though it is two years too late.
Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for this question. I am looking forward to the Brolga Awards in Alice Springs on Saturday night. It is the night-of-nights for the tourism industry which employs so many thousands of Territorians.
Attracting more international flights and tourists is a key plank of the government’s push in building tourism across the Northern Territory. A very important part of that plank is establishing Alice Springs Airport to cater for international flights. We have been very successful to date with direct charters from Japan. I advise that JAL, the Japanese airline, is looking to send another 11 Japanese charter flights to Alice Springs next year. I was very pleased and proud that this government has delivered on an election commitment and has made available $200 000 to upgrade Alice Springs Airport to better cater for international flights.
That was done as part of a three way partnership, or we thought we had a partnership, with the owners of Alice Springs Airport and also the Commonwealth government. In the lead-up to the last federal election in September 2004, the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, promised, in Alice Springs, to match our $200 000 commitment. Our commitment was handed over to the Central Australian Tourism Industry Association, known as CATIA to everyone in this House, in June 2006. It is sitting in their bank account, but as yet, two years on, the federal government has still not honoured its election commitment.
I have written to successive ministers. I know my predecessor in the portfolio, the Chief Minister, pursued successive Commonwealth ministers. John Anderson flitted into Alice Springs, made a promise, flitted out of Alice Springs and there is no money to be seen. I have to ask why. The federal government is sitting on a surplus of some $15bn, and that surplus is projected to be at around that level in the out years and they cannot find a measly $200 000 to honour an election commitment they made to the people of Alice Springs. They cannot honour their commitment to the people of Alice Springs.
CATIA has been having countless meetings with federal government representatives, including one Nigel Scullion. I know that they have had possibly half a dozen meetings with him. All he can do is slink in a bit red faced and say: ‘I am really sorry. I am chasing around government ministers doors, trying to get them to honour their commitment, but I am so insignificant, no one is listening to me and I will keep trying’. CATIA has been trying, we have been trying. We made a commitment; the money is in the bank account.
We hear absolutely nothing from the opposition about what they may be doing. Given that two of their members hold seats in Alice Springs and that they are such apologists for the federal government and they have two members sitting in federal caucus rooms, they should be doing something but they cannot get the money.
Madam Speaker, through this parliament, which is probably the last place that I can do it, I call on the federal government to honour their election commitment to the people of Alice Springs, match our $200 000 which is sitting in CATIA’s bank account, and deliver on their promise for the people and the tourism industry in Alice Springs.
It would be great at the Brolga Awards in Alice Springs for CATIA to say: ‘Great news, industry! The federal government has delivered the $200 000’. Let us see them do it by Saturday night. If they do, I will be the first to applaud, even though it is two years too late.
Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016