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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4315 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

He went on to say:

Canberra International Airport is now a gateway to the region of which any city could be proud.

The opening line of that paragraph is important. It says:

For us to continue to develop as a vibrant commercial and tourist destination, the face we present to the world is extremely important. Canberra International Airport is now a gateway to the region of which any city could be proud.

How did the airport win this award? Mr Stanhope said:

The airport won on the basis of 15 initiatives completed during the year. Particularly outstanding were development of Brindabella Business Park and the widening of the runway to accept head-of-state aircraft.

If Mr Hargreaves had got his original motion up a year or two ago, none of that would have happened. When the events of September 11 occurred and when Ansett collapsed, the airport did it tough, and it did it tough because the actual airport side of the operation suffered. But what it has been able to do, through diversification, is, in effect, to drought proof the airport against lean times.

That is good business sense, that is why it will survive, that is why it will expand and that is why it will employ more Canberrans as it uses the base that it has established to put more and more money back into the airport, back into Canberra, back into the region, back into tourism, back into the creation of jobs, back into industry, back into making sure that we, as a city, have a future.

I say that, Mr Speaker, with a great deal of admiration for the individuals involved with the airport. When they purchased the airport, perhaps they had a vision that was smaller than they have got to, but when they acquired the airport they saw what they had and came to understand better its full potential for Canberra and the region. I understand that more than $100 million worth of development has gone into the airport and they are planning more. It is important that we congratulate them. We should not be undermining them or doing anything that destroys the viability of the airport because, without that viability, the viability of this city and this region as a whole would be affected. If we cripple one of the arms or one of the legs of industry, then we cripple the whole body.

As the OECD report said and as Mr Corbell put it so neatly, Civic is the first among unequals but it is not to the detriment of the town centres and it should not be to the detriment of the airport. I do not believe that any expansion of the airport will be to the long-term detriment of the town centres, because having a viable airport and the industries that it brings actually contributes to the viability of us all as a whole.

Mr Hargreaves clearly got rolled on his motion that was withdrawn. The original motion opened with the words "Notes the rapid growth in commercial office space of approximately 30,000 square metres adjacent to Canberra Airport, considers that such growth has the effect of subverting the integrity of the Territory Plan, denying revenue to the ACT budget, denying investment opportunities". I would contend that he is just wrong. Thankfully, some cool heads in the Labor Party also decided that he was wrong

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