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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (30 March) . . Page.. 1175 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

We could not attract new businesses of this kind to Canberra Airport unless the airport owners were prepared to pull their weight and take some risks in investing and expanding infrastructure and facilities. This includes redevelopment of the airport terminal, improvements to taxiways and landing aprons and the development of a business park targeting airport-related activities.

In addition, Impulse will bring with it another call centre, projected to provide another 150 new jobs, and a further capital expenditure of $2.5m. That will contribute in no small measure to our growing reputation as a major destination for call centres. Beyond this, I believe that the presence of Impulse Airlines will provide real opportunities to establish high-level pilot, engineering, aircrew and ground staff training, and I look forward to developments in aero-education in the near future.

Canberra Airport has already been designated as an international airport, thanks to representations that the Government made to the Commonwealth when the airport was being privatised. However, that does not mean that we will automatically get international flights. We need to generate the passenger numbers to support viable international flights from Canberra. The Impulse development will help establish Canberra as a major national hub and will go a long way towards assisting us to realise the goal of developing Canberra as an airport with active direct international connections that enhance our business attractions and provide benefits to our regional residents.

This opportunity for Canberra has emerged because Impulse is about to expand its network and capacities quite significantly. That will bring them up against strong competition at the national level. I know that one of the issues of concern to the Assembly is the risk that the ACT takes in supporting Impulse just when they are embarking on a new venture in what is a high-risk industry. In considering the risk element, there are two points that the Assembly should bear in mind. Firstly, the ACT is providing funds as a capital injection which will be forgiven as Impulse achieves certain milestones in the ACT. In other words Impulse, which is a sound business with a proven track record, has agreed to guarantee to the ACT that it will fulfil its side of the arrangement. Secondly, Impulse has a very sound business plan to support this new venture for jet services between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. That business plan was sufficient to convince the AMP Society and other significant financial institutions to invest substantially in Impulse Airlines.

We have had Access Economics review Impulse's business plan and Access states that the business plan appears to set out a sound commercial basis on which to introduce Impulse's proposed new jet services. Access also examined the potential impact on the ACT of the proposal for Impulse to develop its operational base here. It found that, even using conservative assumptions, once the initial ACT payments to Impulse were taken into account, the net present value of the project to Canberra over the next 10 years would be over one-third of a billion dollars, which would be a handsome return in itself on an investment of $8m and $2m in payroll tax relief. I am sure that all of us would like to have more investments that had that sort of return. The reward for the ACT is

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