INFRASTRUCTURE TO FORGE OUR FUTURE CAIRNS TNQ STATE BUDGET PRIORITIES 2022-23
CAIRNS MARINE PRECINCT COUNCIL: CAIRNS STATE ELECTORATE: CAIRNS FEDERAL ELECTORATE: LEICHHARDT
BRIEFING NOTE SUMMARY • The Cairns Marine Precinct is vital for the economic diversification of the Tropical North Queensland region that has been hard hit by COVID-19. • Cairns is a strategic port for Defence. The Navy has announced it requires its planned Regional Maintenance Centre (RMC) North-East in Cairns to begin operating by 2022 – the first of four new RMCs in Australia. • The Federal and State Governments work together to deliver a $300-$400M Common User Facility as a centrepiece of fully developing the precinct infrastructure and tomorrow’s workforce. • A commitment is needed to provide long-term continuous sustainment programs and to support the redevelopment of ship and boat building in the precinct.
THE ISSUE
The Cairns Marine Precinct (CMP) is a critical enabler of the Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) economy, supporting Australia’s strategic Defence and foreign policy initiatives, as well as border and fisheries, tourism, and maritime trade operations. The precinct is home to a large and diverse marine sector with 1,603 commercial vessels across tourism, fishing and shipping, and cruising yacht sectors, in addition to several Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Australian Border Force (ABF) vessels. The precinct also hosts superyachts and cruise liners visiting the Pacific. COVID-19 exposed the fragility of Cairns’ tourism-based economy, and the continued growth of the CMP is critical for economic diversification in the region. A sustainable marine capacity to ensure that both strategic Defence priorities and industry needs are met is vital to provide growth and jobs for the TNQ region. Over the past few years, growing tensions between the United States and China have elevated the strategic importance of the Pacific, and Australia is now more than ever a frontline player in terms of engagement and development of the region. Australia’s Step-Up to the Pacific program, which sees engagement in the Pacific as one of the highest priorities of Government, is tied to the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper and commits Australia to a more ambitious level of Pacific engagement, signalling a key change inAustralia’s Defence posture as it prioritises the Indo-Pacific region.
Pictured: The proposed Common User Facility for the Cairns Marine Precinct.
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Under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (2018), the Cairns port is a critical national infrastructure asset. The port includes HMAS Cairns, Australia’s most northern naval base on the eastern seaboard, and it plays a key strategic role in Australia’s northern naval capability. In acknowledging this role, in 2017-2018 the Federal Government committed to upgrading the precinct through staged investment. There is unmet and growing demand in naval, commercial and superyacht maintenance opportunities that supports a step change in ship sustainment capacity in the CMP. As outlined in Table 1, this investment needs to cater for larger vessels (up to 120m), have ship-lift capacity of 3,500-5,000 tonnes, provide up to 350m of extra wharf, see multiple large vessels simultaneously in dry dock, and allow considerable extra land for sustainment activities. The State Government business case released in January 2022 has identified necessary infrastructure and skills requirements to ensure future growth and development in the precinct. This includes a common user facility, accessible by all shipyards. It is essential that a $300$400M commitment to fund the required infrastructure is made by both the Federal and State Governments. A commitment to long-term continuous maintenance programmes by the RAN will assist the individual shipyards to forward plan in their own businesses and give them the ability to make investments in their own infrastructure. Understanding the opportunities in specialist boat and shipbuilding will also allow further private investment and give security to individual businesses of a pipeline of continuous work in the marine precinct. The CMP expansion needs to be complemented by a significant step up in industry workforce skills and training, both within the shipyards and also within the sector’s support industries. To support the CMP, there is a major role for training to upskill existing workers and contextualise training for the marine sector, and to recruit and grow the workforce through stronger training pathways.
