Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to advise the House of recent efforts undertaken by the government to facilitate the development of an international airport at Avalon, in my electorate. Avalon Airport has been since its inception a strategically important piece of infrastructure for Geelong and greater Melbourne, servicing more than one million passengers per annum and now employing in excess of a thousand people. It has become a gateway through which holiday makers and business travellers have passed to access the diverse scenery of the Bellarine Peninsula, greater Geelong and the Surf Coast, as well as the vast commercial and industrial opportunities made available by the region’s growing economy. I am a keen supporter of Avalon’s international bid and have been part of a team that is working diligently to lay the foundations required for Avalon Airport to go international. But it must also be made clear that, inherent in a desire to meet this objective, opening the region to the international travelling public is a big and a serious step. In today’s Geelong Advertiser, Victorian opposition leader, Ted Baillieu, a man who has only just discovered that Avalon exists, sought to fire a cheap political shot at Geelong Labor politicians and, in turn, those who are currently working hard to deliver on this project. Amongst others, they include representatives of Geelong Council, the Committee for Geelong, G21, Geelong Otway Tourism and Linfox. The comments from Mr Baillieu reeked of populism as he dismissed the formulation of an appropriate customs strategy at the airport as ‘a purely administrative issue’.

I am a passionate believer in the importance of delivering an international airport at Avalon and I am confident that it will happen. But, as the federal representative for the electorate in which the airport resides, it is incumbent upon me to ensure not only that the region is striving for greater commercial and industrial opportunity, the kind which this project represents, but also that the federal government is taking the appropriate steps to ensure the safety and security of the residents of the Greater Geelong region.

Customs and quarantine are the cornerstone of our nation’s border security, and by making Geelong an international gateway we place it on the front line of border security. This is no small issue. It involves considerable public resources. Becoming an international airport will be a permanent step, so it is important that we get it right. If the Liberal Party wish to flippantly dismiss border security and the involved costs as ‘purely administrative issues’, I ponder aloud what other liberties they are willing to take with the public purse in the pursuit of votes at any cost.

The Rudd government has put considerable resources toward the process of making Avalon an international airport. This is why Mr Andrew Tongue, a deputy secretary in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, has been tasked with overseeing this process. Mr Tongue is recognised as an individual with all the attributes required to bring together the parties in this process, which, aside from business, also include five federal government departments. Mr Tongue took the opportunity to visit Geelong last Thursday, meeting with civic and business leaders, and he was exceptionally well received by all those stakeholders who had the opportunity to talk with him. I look forward to working with Mr Tongue in progressing Avalon’s international bid.