Premier’s aviation scheme promise

Fund used to attract new routes to tourism locations

l CAIRNS CBD

| Nick Dalton

QUEENSLAND Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has committed her government – if reelected – to extending a $200 million fund to attract more airlines and routes to Cairns and Queensland.

At a business and industry lunch hosted for the regional sitting of parliament in Cairns on Tuesday, the Premier was asked by Advance Cairns chief executive Jacinta Reddan if she would continue the Attracting Aviation Investment Fund if her government was voted back in.

“Yes,” was the reply. Ms Palaszczuk said it had been “such a successful program”.

She said she had held “good discussions” with assistant tourism minister and Cairns MP Michael Healy who would be travelling to Hong Kong to try to encourage more flights.

Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines axed their flights to Cairns before COVID hit in 2019.

Ms Palaszczuk also told the lunch of more than 350 people that:

Industrial Relations Minister

Grace Grace had met a senior United Arab Emirates minister who was keen to bring family to Cairns for a holiday and also consider freight export possibilities

• Prior to COVID, Qatar Airways was interested in flying to Cairns

• She was leading trade delegations to Japan and South Korea and invited tourism businesses to join and had committed the government to a Chinese aviation expo. On the crime front she “acknowledged that keeping the community safe was paramount”.

She said:

• That Parliament had passed very tough youth crime laws

• A $500m fund had been established to tackle the underlying causes of youth crime

• Visited a nightly basketball program in Cairns that was taking youth off the streets

• More police for high visibility patrols, especially in shopping centres

• More funding for seniors to feel safe and secure in their homes

• Two small youth detention centres, with “wraparound services” for youth, including one near Cairns. In other announcements made during the regional sitting of parliament:

• The $250m Cairns Hospital expansion project reached a major milestone with Hansen Yuncken being awarded the tender

• $27m for a 1.2km road upgrade and a bridge to give shipyards direct access to the Cairns Marine Precinct’s common user facility at Portsmith

• A $12m fund to revamp facilities at local shipyards with both investments set to enhance the Cairns Marine Precinct as a premier marine maintenance hub, creating or supporting more than 4600 local jobs.

• Police recruits to receive special cost of living allowance on top of the recruit wage

• Waived live-in costs for recruits at the police academies and all recruit applicant pre-selection test fees to be waived

• $20,000 relocation allowance for interstate and overseas officers

• Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon convened a meeting in Cairns yesterday to discuss crocodile safety in Queensland, involving additional funding of $4.175m over three years, for new initiatives, including electronic surveillance and detection and construction of barriers in high-risk areas.

• A new Workforce Attraction Incentive Transfer Scheme will provide interstate and international medical practitioners with a payment of up to $70,000 to move to Queensland with generous $20,000 payments for healthcare workers too.