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

I once lived in Brisbane but in 1968—before the member for Moreton was born—I went to paradise, and now I represent Townsville in the Australian parliament. I do not know how you can live in that city with all the traffic that is there at the moment. It took me half an hour recently to go from the Storey Bridge down Ann Street. It is just hopeless.

In my electorate of Herbert in Townsville, I have Australia’s largest Army base, by far. There are several battalions but we also have a very significant RAAF component. We have moved all of Australia’s Caribou aircraft—which service the Army—up to Townsville, and that has created two issues. First of all, we do need more hardstand. I ask the Defence infrastructure group to have a look at that issue urgently, because when we have major operations there is not enough area to park aircraft. We really do need to solve that problem, hand-in-hand with the commercial operators of the Townsville Airport, so that we have the facilities necessary to park aircraft in times of major operations.

The second issue is that the Caribous are pretty old now. I have heard rumours within my RAAF community that the Caribous will cease flying in about two years and there is nothing to replace them. I would like to put those rumours to bed. I would like my people in RAAF Townsville to know and understand that the Caribous are going to continue flying. They have a very solid airframe which could go on for decades yet. Yes, there are some minor issues with the engines, but those aircraft are going to keep flying and they are going to continue to run out of RAAF Townsville. All of the staff at that particular wing can be assured that their jobs are protected.

I would also like to indicate to the parliament that on Sunday I was at Holsworthy Army base visiting the Chief of Army Cadet Team Challenge. A mighty fine group of young men and women from all around Australia were there competing in a whole range of tasks and demonstrating their professionalism in what they do. We are very lucky to have the cadets in our system. They provide leadership skills and training skills and, of course, they also provide a source of new recruits for the Australian Defence Force. I thank all the cadet leaders around Australia for their voluntary work, because they really contribute to the future leaders of our country and to our Australian Defence Force.

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