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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1391 ..

Mr Quinlan: You turkeys can turn agreement into a blue and accuse us of being adversarial. You have got to be kidding. You are turkeys.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Carry on, Mr Smyth.

MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The advantages clearly see Canberra as the headquarters for Impulse's national jet operations. This is a Canberra-based regional operation, and that is great for the region. Look at the work that this government has done in developing its relationship with the region to make sure that they understand that we know that they are there, that they know that we are here, and that we work together to look after not just the 310,000 Canberra residents but also the 600,000 people in the region. That is very important.

Mr Corbell: Doing them over when it comes to rural residential development and other progressive moves like that.

MR SMYTH: It demonstrates the viability of new regional services that can be based on Canberra. So what we have is development of the-

Mr Corbell: How do they feel about you developing rural residential development in the ACT? How do they feel about that?

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell, you may yet get a chance to speak.

MR SMYTH: Mr Deputy Speaker, it is confirmation that not only this government but business, big business around the country, sees the Canberra region as a very important place in which to do business. I think this will stimulate further regional air routes, and that will only enhance the work that is done by the airport, enhance the opportunities that a very high speed train presents, and enhance the road links into Canberra that are continuing to be developed.

We will see an early flow of benefits from services and air fares to Canberra and the regional community. The fact that Qantas is matching that cheap air fare-they are dropping it by $50-is $50 in the pockets of Canberrans every time they now choose to take an air flight to Sydney.

There are other benefits in that it develops our potential. It works on the skills base that the Minister for Education is responsible for, and we are known as a highly skilled community. We now get some opportunities to develop a heavy aircraft servicing capability in Canberra. I think it provides great potential for the continuing development of an aero industry based here in the ACT, and from that new aero industry development comes training opportunities. That training capability in Canberra really does give us links with smart companies like Raytheon and other IT companies. It becomes in its own right an aero industry plus aero industry IT, and training is linked to provide more opportunities. That equates to jobs and it equates to growth. It really does create further stability in the ACT economy.

We need to look at what this does for the economy of the ACT. The Access Economics report found that even on quite conservative estimates the Impulse project would have a strong positive impact on ACT employment as well as on the gross state product and

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