Cairns marine precinct funding bid ignored while Darwin gets $1.5bn
Without a significant step up in infrastructure and capability at Cairns Marine Precinct, it will be left behind – but the federal government has just handed Darwin a whopping $1.5bn.
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A BID by Advance Cairns to secure $200m in federal government funding for Cairns Marine Precinct was ignored in this week’s federal budget – but Darwin has landed $1.5bn for new dual-use port infrastructure.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the government had earmarked funds for the port, in what appears to be an attempt to resolve an impasse over the existing Darwin port being leased to a Chinese company.
The budget has a $1.5bn allocation for “new port infrastructure, such as a wharf, an offloading facility and dredging of the shipping channel” in Darwin.
Advance Cairns has mounted a convincing case for up to $400m – split between the state and federal governments – to be spent on Cairns Port, which is rated a critical national infrastructure asset and the state government released its business case in January.
The port includes HMAS Cairns, Australia’s northernmost naval base on the eastern seaboard, and plays a key strategic role in Australia’s northern naval capability.
Advance Cairns chairman Nick Trompf said the massive Darwin investment highlighted the importance of Northern Australia in protecting the nation in a volatile global climate.
“We’d be expecting that the government takes Cairns as seriously as it obviously does Darwin in the protection of Australia,” he said.
“Cairns has missed out but we will be continuing to advocate to the government to step up with $200m.
“We are still clarifying with the state government whether it has formally written to the federal government and if they haven’t, we will be asking them to do so immediately,” he added.
Retired Lieutenant General John Grey, former chief of the Australian Army who moved to the Far North upon retirement in 1995, said he believed the federal government was behind expanding HMAS Cairns but had not committed to the common user facility.
“My suspicion is there may be a pre-election announcement, I know (Federal MP for Leichhardt) Warren Entsch strongly supports it and I think it has bipartisan support, I’m waiting for an election promise,” Mr Grey said.
“It draws together the various shipyards that have been competing into co-operation and it is a vehicle for Cairns to become even more significant as a regional maintenance port for the navy.”
Mr Entsch has been asked for comment.
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Originally published as Cairns marine precinct funding bid ignored while Darwin gets $1.5bn
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