Garden Island the key to Sydney’s cruise crisis, says Port Minister Melinda Pavety
THE solution to Sydney’s cruise crisis is sorting out how much access to the Garden Island docks Defence must share with ocean liners, according to NSW Ports Minister Melinda Pavety.
NSW
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THE solution to Sydney’s cruise crisis is sorting out how much access to the Garden Island docks Defence must share with ocean liners, according to NSW Ports Minister Melinda Pavety.
It comes as industry experts warned unless a fix was found soon it would cost the state at least $65 million.
“It is clear that all industry and government need clarity on what can be done to deliver additional berth capacity in Sydney,” a spokesman for Ms Pavey told The Daily Telegraph.
“That will involve discussions with the federal government to use Garden Island and share facilitates with navy.”
The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed how the chronic lack of dock space on Sydney Harbour was forcing Carnival and Royal Caribbean to move ships to Melbourne, Brisbane and even Asia.
Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas is off to Asia instead of Australia for the 2018-19 season, taking an estimated $60 million in revenue.
The Daily Telegraph revealed in March that Carnival’s Queen Elizabeth and Carnival Legend will be running some cruises from Melbourne instead of Sydney in 2018 and 2019 because of Sydney’s port congestion, costing NSW $5 million in lost revenue.
Labor and Tourism Australia were yesterday calling for action.
And Tourism and Transport Forum boss Margy Osmond said Garden Island was “the only deepwater option in the city which is able to accommodate growth”.
Yet federal Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said he doesn’t think “it should be shared.”
“It would be a backward step,” he said.
Defence allows three cruise ships a year to dock at Garden Island but that’s likely to be reduced for renovations.
English tourists Sarah Otter and Bethan Price said they chose to cruise into Sydney because of the Opera House and other sights.
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