Page 1432 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 11 May 1994
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that, apart from what the standing committee of this Assembly is doing, the Economic Development Division of the Chief Minister's Department would be doing its homework right now and looking at all of the potential costs, at all of the possibilities, at all of the options, and at the profitability.
We have heard that it is one of the few airports of the second echelon in Australia that make a profit. Others of the same standard, like Hobart, do not. They incur an annual operating loss. Presumably the FAC has a saleable commodity here that maybe it does not have in other places. I would hope that the Economic Development Division is doing its homework so that, on the day that the Government announces that Canberra Airport is available for sale, we are in a position to make a bid to begin to negotiate. If it is an economic and viable proposition, if there is a potential for increasing the activity out there and increasing its profitability and its turnover by bringing in maybe twice as many or three times as many passengers and aircraft as operate out of there now, there are going to be plenty of operators out there who will be willing to buy it. We would be foolish if we did not do it under those circumstances. I would hate to see the opportunity lost simply because we had not done our homework beforehand. If it comes up within the next few months and we purchase it, then we can determine what the timetable is for turning it into an international airport. That may be next year or the year after, or it may be the year 2000 or it may be at some future time.
Madam Speaker, I totally support the general concept in the proposition put before us by Mr Stevenson, but I also support the Chief Minister in her stated intention to move slowly and cautiously. We need to know what we are getting into if we intend to buy and to operate that airport as an international airport.
MR MOORE (4.09): Madam Speaker, the matter of public importance that Mr Stevenson has raised is almost in the form of a motion. It reads:
Why we should strongly support Canberra as an international airline destination in time for the Sydney Olympic Games.
I think that Mr Stevenson's motion is premature. The reason it is premature is that we need to go through an appropriate process. That process has started with the Government expressing their interest and the standing committee of the Assembly that looks into tourism going through the process that it is going through. I draw the attention of members to the question that I asked the Chief Minister yesterday on the environmental matters associated with the development of the airport, and to her reply. There are grave environmental concerns. Therefore, what Mr Stevenson's motion ought to be saying is that it is appropriate for us to assess Canberra as an international airline destination, rather than that it is time that we strongly supported it.
It may well be that we support the concept but we must remember at all times the environmental consequences. Mr Stevenson was talking about the possibility of landing a Concorde there. Whilst I accept that that was said, to a certain extent, with tongue in cheek, nevertheless it does raise the issue of noise pollution, and I think that is a most significant issue. Some of us are probably aware of the issue that cost Mr Gary Punch his ministership. His constituency was so concerned about the third runway at Sydney Airport that he was not able to hold the government line. He resigned from his ministry
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