Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the government on the Jobs Fund and the jobs that it is stimulating, the jobs that it is retaining and the jobs that we will have in the future. So far, my electorate has been fortunate to receive $4.3 million from the Jobs Fund rounds. The Burnie City Council received $1.26 million for a magnificent waterfront boardwalk project which will link West Park to the waterfront and the CBD. The Mersey Natural Resource Management Group received $267,000 for a weeds-to-assets commercialisation project, which is essentially feral trees being processed and used for timber products. A Devonport based employment firm, the O Group, has been awarded $910,000 to fund a range of community based projects.

Only the other day I was able to announce, with the Devonport City Council and my colleague Senator Nick Sherry, a magnificent project of $1.8 million for what is termed the Julie Burgess Maritime Discovery Centre. I know you will be very interested in this, Deputy Speaker: not only does it involve the creation of a centre for information, a cafe and a training centre; it also includes the refurbishment of the Julie Burgess, part and parcel of our maritime history, a boat that was used for fishing, trade and wartime ventures. It will be restored to its former glory. The restoration itself will be used for lots of different enterprises and activities. First and foremost, it is going to enhance the shipwright skills, the shipbuilding skills, the woodwork skills and the metalwork skills of people in my district. Those skills are quickly slipping away, but we will be able to enhance them, and those skills will then be passed on to young people—particularly the young unemployed—who will be encouraged to participate in the restoration of the Julie Burgess. I think that is a fantastic enterprise.

On top of that, of course, it will become part and parcel of Tasmanian tourism and will enhance it, particularly maritime tourism and general tourism in the local area of Devonport. I see some young ‘dads’ assistants’ with us today in the gallery. The Julie Burgess will encourage families to get on board—literally. They will go along the beautiful north-west coast of Tassie, right through some of our ports, into Ulverston, into Penguin, into Stanley, into Smithton and then across a beautiful part of Bass Strait to King Island. It is a magnificent maritime legacy and people will be able to participate in that. It will be a wonderful experience for people. Not only that, as part and parcel of the maritime heritage trail that so dominates the beautiful port of Devonport, people will be able to develop hospitality skills through local training agencies. It will be a resource centre for skilling and training not just in boat-building enterprises but also in hospitality, food services and refreshments. Not only will the Julie Burgess take you on a lovely sea voyage, it will feed and refresh you while you are on it. I can see dads’ assistants and the families over there making their way on the Julie Burgess through the beautiful Devonport heads, passing the TT line with its two Spirits of Tasmania and the magnificent maritime museum. They will be able to take a punt across the river when they are finished with the Julie Burgess and participate.

I want to thank everybody who put up this project. I congratulate them. They have developed a trust, which is made up of Alderman Grant Goodwin; Alderman Graham Kent; Mayor Lynn Laycock; Evonne Ewins, director of community services; Ian Martin; David Kent; Peter Higgins, the chair of the committee; and Timothy Gott. I want to thank everybody involved in this wonderful project, all the stakeholders who have been part and parcel of developing a sea voyage for the future and preserving our wonderful maritime history. (Time expired)

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