Page 213 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Since the signing of the MOU there have already been information exchanges on staff management and sustainability. The National Zoo and Aquarium here in Canberra has also advised that there are potential upcoming staff exchanges, one being that the Wellington Zoo giraffe keeper is coming to Canberra, the other being that the National Zoo’s green team is going to Wellington to receive firsthand advice on sustainability.
Whilst in Wellington I also took the opportunity to meet with Air New Zealand to provide them with an update and an overview of the ACT government’s commitment to direct flights between Canberra and New Zealand and why these can be commercially viable, and to provide insights into Canberra’s key tourism and economic drivers that demonstrate this opportunity. I also had a positive meeting with Wellington International Airport to seek their partnership in the reintroduction of direct flights from Wellington to Canberra.
In the last six months of the Singapore Airlines service between our two cities there was a 20 per cent growth, with strong outbound demand from the Canberra region and inbound demand from New Zealand residents. For Canberra the total number of international overnight visitors increased by nearly 16 per cent during the period that flights operated for the year ending March 2018.
There is no doubt that in the past three years Canberra’s aviation landscape has evolved significantly. We now have 14 direct international services per week that connect Canberra to the world and have ambitions to grow this even further. The ACT government strongly values this opportunity to pursue the reintroduction of trans-Tasman flights, as does Canberra Airport, and we continue to work with airlines on this opportunity. Most recently I raised this with both Qantas and Virgin in meetings I held with them in Sydney at the end of last month.
Wellington City Council has proposed an integrated transport and urban development solution for Wellington. As part of this, I am sure members will be interested to know, Wellington are proposing to develop a light rail project of their own. At the invitation of the Mayor of Wellington, I delivered a presentation to Wellington City Council on our city’s light rail project and discussed our vision and experience in delivering the first stage of this city-transforming project for Canberra.
The council was keen to look to Canberra’s experience of both developing a large infrastructure project in a busy urban environment as well as creating integrated transport networks that give people a genuine alternative to using their cars, whilst providing better livability through urban design and planning. Of particular interest to our Wellington colleagues was how the Canberra Metro project was developed and rolled out and how community consultation was undertaken.
Canberra has a growing knowledge economy, and space and spatial industries are an important component of this growth. Whilst in Wellington, I met with the head of the New Zealand Space Agency. The New Zealand Space Agency was established in 2016 and, similarly to the recently established Australian Space Agency, it is based
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