Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to welcome the announcement by Qantas late last week to create a new pilot training academy in regional Australia. To the board and management Qantas, you can take this as an early pitch from the city of Albury in my electorate of Farrer that we would like to be your new home. I've been in touch with Alan Joyce this morning and I understand that there are many suitors for this proposal, but I can think of none better than Australia's home of decentralisation. Albury-Wodonga not only is a great regional centre, with over 100,000 people, but has a fantastic airport and surrounds. I fly a small plane out of Albury and, in another lifetime, was an air traffic controller, so I know that there is ample space for training. The skies are open, the airfields are many and the different locations and different geography that you can experience as a trainee pilot from Albury are second to none. This is a fantastic local airport. It's also the home of a great local aviation company, Rotor Solutions Australia, and on the weekend we opened a new hangar for its aerial applications for agriculture. Dick Smith was on hand and he endorsed the plan for a new Qantas flying school. The other thing I want to mention is that the aim of increasing female pilots in the Qantas fleet to 40 per cent in the next decade is an outstanding one.