NAIF office short on staff

ONLY a third of staff employed to work at the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility’s ( NAIF) headquarters actually live north of Brisbane.

New staffing figures for the region’s economic development agency have been revealed at a recent Senate Estimates hearing, with an ALP senator questioning the NAIF’s commitment to Northern Australia.

The NAIF employs 15.5 fulltime staff, however only five are actually work at the agency’s head office in Cairns.

Earlier last year, a campaign was kicked for the NAIF have a presence in the top half of Queensland, rather than a capital city.

The agency’s chief executive, Laurie Walker, told the Senate hearing that its employees were predominantly located in the Cairns headquarters and in Sydney.

Under further questioning, NAIF chief of staff Carol Bellettini also revealed at the hearing that there were some employees working for NAIF in Brisbane.

“There are five staff based in Cairns,” she said. “There are three in Brisbane.

“That’s a total of eight in Queensland. Then there are five in Sydney.”