Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McMahon for her question. Indeed, our government is investing a record $233 million in Commonwealth national parks, to maintain their status as global icons of Australia and, importantly, to drive and create job opportunities, especially in the Northern Territory, where our iconic national parks primarily sit.

This $233 million will be provided over three years to support specific projects across Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Booderee National Park and Christmas Island National park, as well as the Australian National Botanic Gardens. These parks, especially those in the Northern Territory, are internationally renowned as key tourism, cultural and ecological destinations. The funding will support critical growth in employment, with the creation of over 1,100 jobs in regional and remote areas as a result of this investment and work.

It will be vital economic stimulus for those communities, providing an opportunity for our national parks, together with local industry and communities, to be revitalised following the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure that we invest in their strong recovery, to encourage strong tourism visitation to those regions once international travel is available again and to help drive tourism businesses in regional economies there to recover strongly from the heavy impacts. This investment is in addition to the $216 million already committed to growing tourism in Kakadu National Park and the waiving of park entry fees that our government introduced. The work involved will provide an estimated 1,114 jobs—some 564 during the construction phase and a further 550 indirect jobs in manufacturing, hospitality and transport businesses.

We recognise that these parks form the lifeblood of many communities and the lifeblood of the tourism industry in the Northern Territory, and that's why we are investing in the industry and supporting the Territory through these tough times.