Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. He is a member who not only understands the nature of his regional seat but also understands the importance of the tourism industry to tropical North Queensland. As we appreciate, the seat of Leichhardt is one of Australia’s iconic tourism destinations. It has the Great Barrier Reef and the wet tropical rainforests. Tourism is exceptionally important to the economy of Northern Queensland, representing in the year to June 2008 more than $2 billion spent by visitors to the region. This spend is exceptionally important not only to the tourism industry generally but especially to small- and medium-sized operators.

It is for that reason that the government in association with the Queensland government was concerned about the decision for commercial reasons by Qantas to cut its services from Japan to Cairns, a traditionally important market to tropical North Queensland,. That represented a major blow to the tourism industry in tropical North Queensland. It effectively represented the withdrawal of many thousands of seats for an industry that has historically relied on the Japanese market for prosperity. For those reasons, the Australian government allocated a transition package of $4 million in association with financial support from the Queensland government to try and assist the transition from tropical North Queensland’s heavy historical reliance on Japan to not only look at new opportunities out of Japan but also look at markets which should be part of its future.

I am also pleased to say that Tourism Australia is able to redirect an additional $2 million to assist in advertising in Japan to try and assist Cairns through this period of transition. To date we have been able to allocate $640,000 as a first tranche to assist with charters. That has translated into 6½ thousand seats, which will come during the next couple of months following the cuts of December with respect to Qantas’s traditional servicing of Cairns. I am also pleased to say that last Friday I was able to announce an additional amount of $1.25 million, an amount well received by the industry in tropical North Queensland for the purposes of further consumer support and trade marketing in Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and southern China.

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