End the politicking and get on with building city’s CST

STATE Development Minister Cameron Dick can demand all he likes that the LNP provide a location and cost for a future port facility on the Gold Coast (Minister hits back on CST, Bulletin 14/11/18) but he and his party are the ones elected to run the state.

Demanding the LNP provide the answers only makes it sound as though he doesn’t have any.

Everywhere we turn we read of the State Government spruiking the huge benefits that the new Brisbane terminal is undoubtedly going to provide.

Cameron Dick himself has said that it will bring $5 billion in economic value to Queensland in the next 15 years.

More and more, however, it appears that this Palaszczuk Government has little or no interest in developing a cruise terminal on the Coast and is using every tactic to put off any decision.

The Premier, on more than one occasion, has made it clear that she has little enthusiasm for a Gold Coast CST, somehow imagining that the new Brisbane terminal will cover both cities.

It won’t, a costly and time-consuming two-hour return journey on the M1 is enough to deter many potential visitors.

I’d be interested to know how many passengers currently visit the Coast from cruise ships docked in Brisbane.

A friend in Norway recently sent me a copy of an article from a US publication, Cruise Industry News. The article was titled “Queensland Looking to Build Cruise Business” and it talked of port developments in Cairns and Townsville to attract and accommodate larger ships, the new port of Bundaberg and transit call potential at Gladstone, Fraser Island, Port Douglas, Mooloolaba and the Whitsundays, as well as interest in the Torres Strait.

No mention of the state’s premium tourist destination, the Gold Coast. In the article, cruise development leader for Tourism and Events Queensland, Julie O’Brien, was quoted as saying: “The state offers 14 different ports and moorings, that the most recent stats showed a 29% growth season, with 468 vessel calls over the 2016/17 season amounting to 815,706 guests”.

O’Brien highlighted one small cruise ship, Silver Discoverer which took in seven Queensland destinations. “Our point of difference is our variety” she said.

Cameron Dick, isn’t it time the Gold Coast got its share?

We would certainly be a point of difference. One day, when all the politics over this issue has been played out, we will get our terminal, cruise ships will glide quietly in and out and we will wonder what all the fuss was about. Let’s stop playing politics and get that terminal built. GAVIN HARPER HOPE ISLAND