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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1392 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

budget revenues. Access Economics estimated an increase in employment of 358 direct jobs, but saw 800 flow-on jobs that would come from this. What that does is increase the net present value of wages of some $310 million over the next 10 years. That is good for all of us. Those impacts will flow through to the community, and those extra 800 jobs are of immense importance in other sectors.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Access Economics also estimated an increase in the net present value of the ACT's gross territory product of some $413 million over the next 10 years, and that again is good for all of us. Clear value to the government then comes back in Access Economics' estimate that the ACT's payroll tax revenues will increase by a net present value of $13 million over the next 10 years. Again that is good. That is a good return on the money that we are investing there.

In the short term, immediately, over a series of projects that will be built, we see investment in construction and investment in property in the ACT. It is good in terms of building up that investment portfolio. It is great in terms of jobs in the construction industry. We see some five projects. The operational headquarters is worth about $3.5 million, the heavy maintenance and engineering centre is worth about $6.5 million, and the reservations and call centre is estimated at $2.5 million. The training facility really is a tremendous opportunity for us here and will become, I think, a real drawcard, a real asset to the territory. It is worth about $5 million. Accommodation will bring about $5 million worth of construction as well. In total it is $22.5 million for the construction industry, and that is always welcome.

The employment growth over the next five years is important in terms of the direct jobs and the direct opportunities that this offers Canberra residents. In the operational headquarters itself there will be 38 jobs. We will see another 65 jobs in the heavy maintenance and engineering centre. It is not just the jobs that they will bring. There will be the skills that are required and the flow-ons that you get back into your industry base. There are other spin-offs. People may say, "Well, if we can do that for them we can do this for another group at the same time," and other firms will spring up around this.

The reservation and call centre involves 155 jobs. Those are opportunities for Canberrans to have employment and to receive their rewards. In terms of ground staff, the regional airlines ground staff will be about 50 and air crew will be about 50. So again, 358 jobs will be based here in the ACT, with large spin-offs. As I said earlier, the expected spin-off is 800 flow-on jobs, and those flow-on jobs have the multiplier effect That puts it back into the community, our community. It puts it back into the region, our region, and we all get a benefit from this.

Mr Deputy Speaker, it is great to see a little bit of extra competition. No longer will it be simply the Ansett versus Qantas two-way street. Qantas has reacted very quickly to Impulse's fares and they will match them, reducing the Canberra to Sydney over the counter cost to $119 for a one-way trip, and that is about $50 a trip less. I am told that currently there are 800,000 Sydney to Canberra trips per year. With a saving of $50, if my mathematics are right, that is about $40 million in Canberrans' pockets to put back into the economy. That is money they will spend, and again that will have flow-on effects.

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