Mareeba Aiport Gets Pineappled

[Cactusjack]

Its only a minor news article in the big scheme of things but it once again shows that GA is forever getting kicked in the head. Campbell Newman you are a skid mark.

Mareeba airport funding upgrade ditched

Tony Stickley
Monday, July 30, 2012
© The Cairns Post


MAREEBA airport has fallen victim to the State Government's spending cuts, losing out on about $12 million for redevelopment.
Tablelands Mayor Cr Rosa Lee Long said the project would have to be stopped.
"It is very sad for the area. It was going to be a huge boost for our economy and for local jobs. We are bitterly disappointed, as you can imagine," Cr Lee Long told The Cairns Post.
The previous Bligh administration had promised $13.4 million to upgrade the airport when the Tablelands Regional Council missed out on a subsidy to upgrade Mareeba’s sewage treatment plant.
But Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development and Planning, Jeff Seeney, has wielded the axe saying the Government was being forced to find significant savings.
Part of the project – a design brief and drainage works – would be complete by the end of the year. The Government said it would reimburse the council for that work.
"Projects like this were being paid for with borrowed money by the failed Bligh government which has left the state saddled with $65 billion of debt – a debt bill that is growing every day," Mr Seeney said.
Cr Lee Long said the council was disappointed at the news, because a number of companies had been looking at relocating from Cairns.
"The $13 million that was promised by the Bligh government was actually given to us in lieu of money that they would previously have given to us for the sewage plant in Mareeba," she said.
"Now that they have pulled out of the airport, we feel as though we have missed out doubly here and that is a great blow to our Tableland community but also the Cairns community and Far North Queensland."
Mareeba Chamber of Commerce president Pietro Girgenti said he was disappointed.
He said he understood the state's precarious financial position, but the money was "compensation" for losing out on the sewerage upgrade.
"It is a double kick. Not only do we not get funding for that infrastructure project, but the consolation prize of funding to redevelop the airport has been taken away as well," Mr Girgenti said.
He said there had been substantial interest from Cairns-based general aviation companies which had considered relocating their maintenance departments to Mareeba.
"Obviously, I would dare say that investment is in jeopardy now," Mr Girgenti said.