Prime Minister
JOHN MACKENZIE: This is wonderful news, indeed. We've got the Prime Minister of Australia, he's just flown into Cairns and this is, I think, the second time in about three months. He's on the line now, Scott Morrison, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, John. It's great to be back in Cairns and it's great to be here and to make some important announcements after my last visit, where I was listening carefully to the challenges being faced by the local tourism industry. No part of the country depends more on international tourism, I know that from my own experience, than far north Queensland and so it was good to listen last time and to to be up in town to make some important announcements.
MACKENZIE: I've got to say this. This is how it reads on the Cairns Post front page: Tourism booster shot for far north Queensland. Now it is a $15 million shot in the arm that you're announcing today, which is extremely timely. As you know, our community up here is in so many ways on its knees. We've had people desperate for tourism activity. Not only that, we've got operators going out to the reef and they can't get staff on the decks. They can't get divers, people in restaurants, cafes can't get workers. Everybody's out of town. Now this money, this injection of funds will be spent how to reactivate our tourism industry, Scott Morrison?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. Well, this package is all about understanding and recognising what one of the principal, if not the principal driver of the far north Queensland economy, is particularly in Cairns. That is international tourism. So the plan is here. Just add tourists. Get the tourists back and then we will see not only those tourists back in and spending, but that will also obviously encourage many of those who were in the area, coming back, taking up jobs, doing all of the things that make the tourism economy work in far north Queensland.
So it's $15 million specifically for Tourism Tropical North Queensland. When I was last up a few months ago, I sat down with the TTNQ leaders and they took me through a plan as to how they could see our international tourism restored up in Far North Queensland and then involved them being able to go out and reconnect with the international travel industry. And that involves direct joint marketing promotions with those who bring people from all around the world into Far North Queensland. But it's also importantly about reconnecting with all those important travel companies and trade travel trade wholesalers that you bring so many tourists back into Far North Queensland. So that's what they asked for. It's $15 million. I would strongly encourage the Queensland Government to match it.
MACKENZIE: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Because all of those benefits will flow directly into TTNQ and into Far North Queensland. It's an issue I raised when we met some months ago. So this funding isn't contingent on a state contribution. They're getting it and they're getting it directly too, I should say. And and that will help them just get on with the job. No one knows better how to engage the international travel industry, than our operators and the great professionals up there in TTNQ.
MACKENZIE: Yeah. Interesting with your background, used to head up TA. And this is very important given that we've got all these smarties, these commentators saying to us now and breaking the hearts of some, we will not get back, we will not be in recovery mode for at least three years until we get the good, the flow of international visitors back again. What are your thoughts? Look into your crystal ball with your tourism background and tell us, what do you think about the term of recovery here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm more optimistic than that, and we're already seeing across Queensland the rebound starting to occur. Now it does take a while for the wheels and the momentum to be moving to ensure that we can achieve all that. But that's why the $15 million that we're putting in as a government, it is in the budget for TTNQ. We put $45 million into Tourism Australia more broadly, and that is also about partnering with airlines, with other travel and trade operators around the world. And then there's further money within that $45 million. There's money around business events, there's money about the consumer marketing initiatives. But what we have to do is, the whole world knows that Australia and in particular, Far North Queensland is one of the most amazing tourism experiences you can have anywhere in the world. The job of this money is not to convince people of that. We want to talk to the people who already know that. People who have been locked up in their homes during the pandemic. People who've been caught, you know, not being able to have a holiday or time with their families properly all around the world, Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, etc, and say, come now. This is about putting price, product in front of a willing customer who wants to come and have a holiday. And that is a very sharp edged marketing that we'll be doing through Tourism Australia and specifically through TTNQ. So it's all about putting, pardon my expression, bums on seats. It's all about getting people on planes, who love Australia and and putting something in front of them which is compelling, and that means great tourism product, and no one's got better tourism product than Far North Queensland.
MACKENZIE: Yeah. This is really encouraging. I don't know if you're going to have time with Warren today to walk through our CBD. It's on its knees. I think you've probably been told it's shop after shop…
PRIME MINISTER: I've seen it, it's heartbreaking.
MACKENZIE: Well there you go. I'm so pleased you, we need we need a hand up, we need a hand up and a lot of that has to do with infrastructure. I watched you on television last night, South East corner, a big infrastructure rebuild coming up. That's the Olympics. And good on them. That's great. But we need a bit of a hand too. We specifically need a stadium. Our situation here and you know, it pours rain in summer. It's very hot. It's central. We've got capacity at Barlow Park for, say, 10,000, it says at 1,700 in the grandstand. Well, actually it's 1,400 because the others are out in the in the sun, etc. as well. We're desperate for a bit of a bit of a boost and as you know, Warren's probably told you, we need probably something like, now the State Government's promised $40 million heading into the Olympics, another 50 or 60 would get us over the line for a genuine grandstand, not a big one, 12,000, 14,000 or something, but we're now up against people like Toowoomba that don't even have a footy team, as far as I know. We're up against places like Darwin. I mean, they're not even in Queensland. They after a 25,000 seat stadium and they're expecting to secure some Olympics 2032 action as well. So we really are in a battle here, Scott. So any support via Warren Entsch, you can head and send our way would be greatly appreciated.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know, Warren's been a champion for infrastructure in Far North Queensland, and our commitments, particularly to the road infrastructure projects, has been significant and we've been doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to infrastructure, on health infrastructure as well up in Cairns. And we've been delivering on all of those things, but we also have a 50/50 partnership with the Queensland Government when it comes to Olympic infrastructure. Now I understand that up in Cairns, there is the proposal for them to play a role within that broader Olympic setting. And this is why I always said that our support for the South East Queensland Olympics are more than that. They're an Australian Olympics, they're a Queensland Olympics.
MACKENZIE: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: We want the benefits of that to be spread far and wide. That's why we're involved as a Federal Government because we want to see it to be everybody's Games, just like the Sydney Games were magnificent and the many other Games that have been on to have had wide benefits and Olympics can do that. And so we're in a 50/50 partnership with the Queensland Government on the important Queensland infrastructure that needs to be built for those games. So we'll continue to work down that path with them. You know, the Premier and I still got a bit more work to do with establishing the OCOG board and the range of other things and getting the infrastructure agencies in place to go and set these priorities. But when I said 50/50, I meant it when it came to this type of infrastructure for the Games. And it's not just 50/50 funding, it's 50/50 shared stewardship, ownership, governance down to how we lead the contracts, how are we making sure this stuff gets delivered. That's the 50/50 responsibility that we're taking, and I understand that. You know, the Cowboys, they're on a good roll, aren't they?
MACKENZIE: Oh, aren't they?
PRIME MINISTER: [inaudible] see them play a few games up there in Cairns. They had a great win on the weekend. So congratulations to the boys there. They're off to a great start.
MACKENZIE: You don't miss much. I watched you on TV last night at the Sharks down at Shark Park. You love your footy, don't you?
PRIME MINISTER: I got a bit excited. I was there. My daughter was with me and you know, I have a habit of embarrassing my daughter. But she was enjoying it too, because she's a Sharks fan, the whole, Jen, both Abbey and Lily are and they love coming to the footy when they can, but it was a very exciting day. Isn't it good to have the footy back on?
MACKENZIE: It is. By the way, I notice in Sydney too, quite a few of your grounds are getting upgraded with the Rugby League's doing a wonderful job down there, so it's timely we're having this discussion. By the way. Shark Park…
PRIME MINISTER: I should stress, that's being done by the State Government…
MACKENZIE: I know, I realise. I'm not putting you in a corner...
PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn't steal their thunder.
MACKENZIE: No, but I'm just saying Shark Park's got a history of needing upgrades. Did you know that was a rubbish tip once before it began, back in '66 I think it was?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.
MACKENZIE: And what happened was they just bulldozed the rubbish tip, put the bulldozers over the top, put about four inches of soil in. And when you got tackled, you'd actually try and work out, where are you going to land. Because all the bits of tin and glass pushed through the dirt. You can't imagine Shark Park like that now, can you?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I can't. It's a great place to watch footy, and one of the things about our home stadium, our home park, I should say, is that it it's owned outright by the club and they're doing a lot of property development there, which probably people might have seen from the games site, which means they're making their own way to make all this add up and so good for them for doing it. It only has a capacity now of just over about 10,000 with all that going on. But you know, if the footy is great, that's what matters most, I think. I don't think people mind too much of how long they have to wait for a pie, if your team's winning all else is forgiven.
MACKENZIE: You just talked about the deal with Queensland 50/50 basis. After our discussion, would Barlow Park Stadium qualify on that basis, on a 50/50 basis?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it all depends what decisions are made within the Olympic authority. So I look, I'm not getting ahead of myself there and I'm not looking to, you know, overstate where we are on those things. But that's the channel we're in at the moment in how we would look at something like that. But we do understand how important infrastructure is to Far North Queensland. We also understand how important things like getting insurance is. That's why, you and I've spoken about this many times the establishment of the $10 billion reinsurance pool that is one of the biggest game changers for Far North Queensland and not just there, by the way, right across the north of Australia. And no one championed that more than Warren Entsch. And can I tell you on this announcement today for tourism, $15 million out of the $60, a quarter of it going directly holus bolus to TTNQ. Warren championed and that he made sure when I came up, I sat down with the team and they took me through it and we went out to Green Island on that day.
MACKENZIE: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And we had a really good discussion and that really informed how we're going to spend the rest of the money because it's all about, you know, we don't need to tell more people how wonderful Australia is. They know. And in tourism promotions and marketing, I understand that, but sometimes you just got to focus on converting that into people buying seats on planes. Product and coming and spending money in TTNQ. So in Queensland, in Far North Queensland, so I'm looking forward to that because TTNQ know what they're doing. I've always respected them as a very capable Regional Tourism Organisation.
MACKENZIE: It's very encouraging news for the operators and their workers, of course, are going to be very, very grateful for that. Thank you, Scott Morrison. Great to talk again.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, John.