Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday I had a visit from Qantas representatives to inform me that they are retiring their Q200 and Q300 QantasLink aeroplanes around Australia and replacing them with Q400s. For those of you who are interested in such things: a Q300, for instance, can have about 50 passengers and the newly configured Q400s will have 78. Grey is serviced by Qantas in Port Lincoln and Whyalla, and I've spoken many times in this place about the challenges, particularly for Whyalla, of the withdrawal of finance from the federal government for the security scanners at the airport. In Whyalla, this will be generally welcomed, but it comes with a bit of a kick: we're going to have to replace the strip. It's called 'strengthening' the strip, but, when I spoke to the council, they said it's reached the point where it will have to be ripped up and completely relaid. They don't have current figures on what that's likely to cost, but Qantas tells me it's somewhere around the $10 million mark.

I'm here to tell the people of Australia that the people of Whyalla simply cannot carry that cost on their own. Currently, the scanners cost $1.1 million a year to operate for about 14 or 15 flights a week. That is incurring a $45 outgoing cost on passengers, who are carrying that load. For people in Whyalla, businesses may be able to carry it, but you also get people who need to go to Adelaide for medical services, family reasons and things like that, and it's quite an impost. On top of that, the council tells me that, while Qantas through their ticket prices are paying for that, the council is actually running a $1.16 million deficit on the airport. Whether it comes out of the ticket seats or from the ratepayers to pick up the deficit at the airport, we cannot continue to load the people of Whyalla with what is an essential service.

Whyalla gets mentioned very often by both state and federal governments as a place of new investment, particularly around hydrogen, green steel and renewable energy. They say it's going to be one of the economic drivers of our state. I'm here to tell the people that it's time for both of those governments to put their money where their mouth is. They can talk about these things, but they cannot unload this cost on Whyalla. Essentially, I'm asking for fifty-fifty funding for them to get their act together. Qantas wants to have these aeroplanes in place by the end of this year. There is a bit of a phase-in period, but I'd suggest that we've got about 12 months to get this right, and we need both governments to step up to the plate.