Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Committee Act 1969, the following proposed work be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works for consideration and report: Multi role helicopter facilities.

We could not let this one go by, because this means more dollars for RAAF Base Townsville—which will not surprise you—as well as some other bases around the country. The Department of Defence proposes to provide a range of helicopter shelters, operational facilities, simulator buildings and maintenance facilities to support the introduction of the multirole helicopter. The proposed facilities and infrastructure will be located at RAAF Base Townsville, the Army Aviation Centre at Oakey, the Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera in Queensland and HMAS Albatross at Nowra in New South Wales.

The project will involve a mix of new facilities, refurbishment and the adaptive reuse of existing facilities. The estimated outturn cost of the proposal is $168.7 million, plus GST. I know that the good people at 5 Aviation Regiment in Townsville are warmly looking forward to the expenditure of this money, and we hope that we can get that approval from the Joint Standing Committee on Public Works. Subject to parliamentary approval, construction is expected to commence in mid-2008, with completion by late 2010. I commend this motion to the House.

Question agreed to.

See this speech in context