Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my melancholy duty to inform the House that, after 33 years of national service, HMAS Darwin FFG 04, an Adelaide class guided missile destroyer, one of four built in the '80s in the United States of America—this one commissioned in Seattle on 21 July 1984—was decommissioned on 9 December last year. She was an extraordinary ship bearing three battle honours: East Timor in 1999, the Persian Gulf in 2002-03 and Iraq in 2003.

Normally, the sad fate of such mighty warriors that once ruled the sea is to be cut up for scrap. Thankfully, DDG 41, HMAS Brisbane, was saved and sunk off Mooloolaba as a dive wreck, but Kanimbla and Manoora met with that horrid fate—of going under the blowtorch of those cutting her up. Tobruk was saved, after a fight between the Gold Coast and northern Queensland, as another dive wreck. Now there's an opportunity for the HMAS Darwin not to meet the fate of Manooraand Kanimbla, not to meet the blowtorch, but to once again have a proud role, this time under the ocean as a dive wreck off the coast of one of the nation's greatest cities—indeed, a world-class city: the Gold Coast. There is an opportunity for HMAS Darwin to be sunk off the Gold Coast as a wreck, a dive site to rival DDG 41 off Mooloolaba and certainly to rival that off North Queensland. This is a project that has wide support from sitting members on the coast; the Queensland state tourism minister; the Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, who is in love with the project; the diving industry; and a great number of my constituents.

Let's get some focus on the diving industry. It's an industry worth $2.2 billion to our national economy. In practice, the figure would be greater when you factor in the consumption spends on travel, accommodation, food and beverages that go with it. That also doesn't take into consideration the additional spending that would occur in overlapping and supporting industries. Numerous independent studies have been undertaken which conservatively estimate that an ex-Navy warship sunk off the Gold Coast would lead to at least 7,000 divers visiting the wreck per year. Gold Coast City Council modelling suggests that it would immediately add $5½ million in direct and indirect economic benefits to the city if the wreck was provided by the Commonwealth. The council's modelling, completed in 2016, suggested it would create 73 full-time jobs, with the flow-on to create another 81 positions and a further $6.1 million within three years of injection into the economy. Independent studies also have indicated that scuba diving is already quite a substantial contributor to the Gold Coast economy, and the Gold Coast has a large and passionate community of commercial and recreational divers who would actively use and promote the dive site.

I'm a diver. I've been a diver for 30-odd years—maybe 28—and have dived around the world. This would be an iconic dive site. Remember: the Gold Coast has its own international airport. It's only an hour's travel from Brisbane. It's the sixth-largest city, connected by the M1 to the third-largest city. There's little doubt that the provision of an ex-Navy warship will greatly increase the number of tourist visitors. The Gold Coast is one of the most active diving communities. It deserves to have a great wreck. The Gold Coast is an outstanding candidate for HMAS Darwin because of the tourist industry that is already in place there, and it's worth noting that previous wrecks have seen a huge increase in tourism to their areas. Gold Coast tourism and the diving businesses are established, they're full time and they run year round. Studies have shown that the physical location of the Gold Coast also lends itself as the standout candidate for HMAS Darwin to find its final resting place, with 300 days of sunshine—compare that to the morose conditions we find ourselves in here on the Limestone Plains—and clear skies for the vast bulk of the year, and a temperate climate that lends itself to diving all around the year. The safety of the Gold Coast Seaway Bar crossing also enables dive operators to easily access the site.

It's a competitive market, and the Commonwealth providing Darwin to the Gold Coast will make a big difference. And, can I say, it's a fitting end to this great warship. Darwin's motto was 'Resurgent'; its badge features a phoenix. Well, there is no greater place for a resurgence in diving than on the Gold Coast; there's no greater place to see a city like a phoenix rising—a city that, in 1954, had 18,000 people and today has 600,000 people. I call on the Commonwealth to support my bid for HMAS Darwin for the Gold Coast.