Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2012-2013 and its cognate bills. For the last year we have heard that the budget would be back in black, but the budget papers show a very different story, with an artificial surplus and the government moving to raise the debt ceiling to $300 billion. Australian families are tightening their spending so they can reduce their overheads and make ends meet, but the government is increasing its credit card limit after a spending spree of waste and bad management. What was perhaps most disappointing about this year's budget to both me and many McPherson residents was that there were no measures whatsoever that focused on addressing many of the issues being faced by residents of the Gold Coast, Australia's sixth-largest city and the second-largest in Queensland. At a time when the Gold Coast is facing an unemployment rate that remains higher than the national average there has been no vision and no plan to help the many struggling families on the Gold Coast. Residents have taken note and are not impressed by this government's lack of interest in the Gold Coast.

Today I would like to speak about some key issues that affect McPherson residents. These are education and the possibility of establishing a fly-in fly-out operation at the Gold Coast Airport, the current state of the tourism industry and the need for better transport infrastructure on the Gold Coast, particularly the southern Gold Coast. I would like to begin with education. I am on record saying that the Gold Coast has the ability to become an education city and a centre for educational excellence in Australia. I wholeheartedly believe that. Work is well underway and has been underway for some time.

You do not need to go far to find the evidence of the Gold Coast becoming a future education city. Since the late 1980s the Gold Coast has seen four universities open their doors to students; Bond University, Southern Cross University, Griffith University and Central Queensland University all now have campuses on the Gold Coast. The universities cater to thousands of students from both domestic and international markets. Consequently, they provide employment opportunities for Gold Coast residents as they hire a wide range of staff in areas such as academia, administration, groundskeeping, hospitality areas and, of course, technical support, just to name a few. Local businesses also benefit from their proximity to the universities and student accommodation, with students and staff alike spending money at these stores on a regular basis. These businesses become a hub for both students and people associated with the universities, generating more wealth within the local community. For instance, the economic benefits generated for the local community by Bond University and Griffith University amount to more than $1.6 billion annually, with over two per cent of the local workforce hired by one of these two universities.

The Gold Coast becoming an education city leads to my next point: the opportunity for the Gold Coast to host a fly-in fly-out facility. I note that the Sunshine Coast currently has chartered flights that fly out of its airport to various locations and that a new air charter company will be flying from bases in Brisbane, Cairns and the Sunshine Coast to areas in the Bowen Basin, Cloncurry, Weipa and Mount Isa. The Gold Coast can also provide fly-in fly-out services to regional areas and take advantage of the wealth that the minerals and resources sector creates.

I recently met with Brett Schimming, the CEO of Construction Skills Queensland. We spoke about a number of issues, including the skilled construction workers we have on the Gold Coast who are currently unemployed or underemployed and how these workers have skills that are easily transferrable to the mining and resources sector. We looked at opportunities and ways that we could enable construction workers to access jobs in the mining and resources sector so that the skills that these workers had could be maintained so that, when the construction industry picks up on the Gold Coast in perhaps two to three years, there would be a skilled workforce we could draw on to meet the demand for construction workers on the Gold Coast. A fly-in fly-out operation will provide an opportunity to address skill shortages in regional areas whilst reducing the unemployment and underemployment levels on the Gold Coast that have been caused by a downturn in our traditionally strong industries such as construction. Mr Schimming also explained that job applicants who did want to take advantage of a fly-in fly-out operation were unable to due to the lack of necessary qualifications, and they would then need to be able to turn to our local universities and our training providers. his would mean that universities and training providers would need to adapt and expand their courses on offer to reflect the demands within the minerals and resources sector, as well as to continue to provide their current standard of service to students. This will in turn result in more locals being hired to ensure the effective operations of those institutions, more businesses benefiting from the higher number of students in the area and more investment in the local community from the universities and training providers, who contribute back to the local area.

I would now like to address the issue of tourism on the Gold Coast. It is no secret that, because of the global financial crisis and the high Australian dollar, the Gold Coast's traditionally strong tourism industry has suffered and continues to suffer. At the end of 2011, domestic visitor numbers on the Gold Coast were shown to have fallen by six per cent from the year before, and the number of holiday visitors also fell by seven per cent. Meanwhile, our international visitor numbers fell by 12 per cent. Because of the downturn in visitors, many tourism operators have hit tough times and are trying desperately to make ends meet. It needs to be remembered that many of the businesses involved in the tourist trade are not large international or national chains but are small businesses. Accommodation providers, restaurants, cafes, specialty stores and local tourist operators are all largely run by dedicated individuals who put in the hard work to provide a quality service to visitors and at the same time to put food on the table for their families.

Major events that are held on the Gold Coast, such as the Gold Coast 500, the Quiksilver Pro surfing tournament and Cooly Rocks On, provide struggling businesses with a much-needed injection of funds. However, events are held only once a year and do not provide continuous business over a whole year, especially at times when there may be a dip in the visitor numbers. Although the Commonwealth Games will do much good for the Gold Coast by bringing in visitors and building new infrastructure for the benefit of the local community, they are still six years away. Tourism operators need help now, but instead of giving them the helping hand they need the government is making things more difficult for them at a time when that is least needed.

The expected increases to the passenger movement charge will further deter international visitors, charging them more when they depart Australia. Also, overseas passengers who travel on domestic flights within Australia will have to pay more for their domestic airfares because of the carbon tax. Coupled with the extra expenses of accommodation and living expenses such as food and activities, the government is steadily making a visit to Australia too expensive. This is also one of the reasons why there is an increase in Australians holidaying overseas. It is not because they are bored with travelling around this great nation but because it is now as cheap to have a holiday in, for example, Bali as it is to have a holiday elsewhere in Australia.

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