TRISH MEARS [LABOR CANDIDATE FOR HINKLER]: Well, we're here today with some very exciting news. I'm Trish Mears. I'm the Labor candidate for Hinkler and what an incredible day to be here. Beautiful weather for the start of Easter. And what better place to be at than River Heads Boat Ramp? Of course, we have K’gari just to our right, and this is a very exciting announcement that's going to be made to make people's trips to K’gari safer and more enjoyable. And I'd now like to introduce Senator Anthony Chisholm.
 
ANTHONY CHISHOLM [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Thanks, Trish. It's great to be with you as the Labor candidate for Hinkler, and this is a beautiful part of the world. One of my favourite places to holiday in the whole of the world is K’gari. I've been over there a number of times, and I've taken my family over there as well, and I've done it from this boat ramp behind me. It is a challenge to be reversing your car while you've got the sun coming in at 6am in the morning, but plenty of people do it because they have such a great experience. And you can see the queue there that are heading over there for Easter. We know that hundreds of thousands of people visit K’gari every year, and a lot of them leave from this boat ramp here. The Council and their advocacy document had put forward fixing up this boat ramp to expand it, to make it safer and make it accessible, depending on the different currents that we're getting, current coming out of the river.
 
So, a re-elected Labor Government will invest $2.5 million to extend the boat ramp, make it safer, and ensure that people can access that boat ramp all year round and get over to K’gari as part of the barge. We think that this is a really important announcement for tourism, but also for this area as well. As you can see, it is a very busy part of River Heads. We know that people are coming here, both locals, but also from around Queensland and from around the country, and indeed internationally as well.
 
So, this is part of what council want to do to invest in this area and ensure that we can have good, safe, accessible access to K’gari all year round, and that those people who come and enjoy this part of the world can continue to do it for decades to come. So thanks to the Council for putting this forward. Thanks to Trish for your advocacy about this and a re-elected Labor Government looks forward to delivering on this promise for the local region. I might introduce Councillor Weiland to say a few words as well, before we take any questions.
 
JOHN WEILAND [COUNCILLOR, FRASER COAST COUNCIL]: This is a really exciting announcement. I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes of this. River Heads is the gateway to K’gari. We see hundreds of thousands of people come through this boat ramp here behind us every year. It's quite a challenging boat ramp. The current there makes it very difficult for the barge to dock, it's constantly running engines to stay. This upgrade will fix that and make getting on and off the barge to K’gari much safer.
 
JOURNALIST: Were residents actually putting it to you guys that they want to revamp? Or that was initiative you guys took?
 
WEILAND: One of the key advocacy pieces from the residents here in River Heads, is upgrades to the boat ramp, and upgrades to this whole area here. Many visitors may only see this when they come through. So, we're always advocating, as both the community and the Council, for upgrades to this entire boat ramp precinct.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you know roughly how many people might use it, especially during peak times like Easter?
 
WEILAND: Well, the barge is full every day. I go over quite regularly myself, as it's part of my electorate. And yes, I've never been on an empty barge. So as you can see, behind us, today's one is full. I think visitor numbers are in the hundreds of thousands each year. So certainly, see that through here. It's going to be great for local business in River Heads as well.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you able to speak a bit more to the specifics of the upgrades? What are the differences that locals and tourists might see once the upgrades complete?
 
WEILAND: With the upgrades, what they'll see is getting onto the barge will be much more stable, much safer. It should have pillars for the barge to lean against, which will hold it steady. We see those on K’gari itself at Kingfisher off-ramp. It has pylons that it can lean against. They'll be installed here as part of that upgrade and a widening and strengthening of the ramp itself, so it’ll be a much safer onboarding and off boarding process.
 
JOURNALIST: Is this the same ramp that boaties use themselves to put their boats in? Or is that the other one?
 
WEILAND: No, that's the other one. This is more of a broader community and tourism benefit on this ramp. We'll still work towards improving all of this precinct here over time as different grants and council budgets come up.
 
JOURNALIST: Could you just touch on that a bit? What are the plans for upgrading the other ramp?
 
WEILAND: We're advocating strongly for the pontoon here and the ramp to be expanded. The pontoon was broken in a storm probably a couple of years back now. We're working with Marine Services Queensland on a new design that's much stronger and able to do the job better and more permanently.
 
CHISHOLM: Any other questions for Trish or myself?
 
JOURNALIST: Yeah, I was going to ask, what would happen without this investment? What impact would that have for the community?
 
CHISHOLM: As you heard from Councillor Weiland, this does go to safety, and we want to ensure that people can access this ramp all year round. Obviously, the service to K’gari is an important part of the facilities here, and this will make it safer and ensure that those people who are entering the ramp can do so in a safe way, and that ensures more people will be able to access it at the same time.
 
JOURNALIST: So from a tourism point of view, it's needed?
 
CHISHOLM: That's what the council advocacy document has put forward. We understand that K’gari is such an important part of the tourism product here on the Fraser Coast. So many people access the boat ramp from this location. Often it means they'll spend a night in Hervey Bay before they get on the boat, or they'll spend a night coming home. That's great for the local area, and that's something that we want to see continue as tourism grows in this part of the world.
 
JOURNALIST: Just with the volume of tourists going over to K’gari and as you mentioned, that's increasing as it's such a popular destination. There's been some recommendations over the past six months or so from consultation groups saying we perhaps should be looking at visitor caps to K’gari, just to help to sort of protect the environment. Over there, we're seeing more and more interactions with dingos, which can be a problem too. What's the ALP’s position on the possibility of visitor caps in K’gari to help protect the environment?
 
CHISHOLM: That's not something that I'm aware we've entertained, but what we understand from tourism in Queensland is that you need to ensure that you're open and accessible, and that people know they can come all year round, if that's what they want to do. So, I think that message is really important for the local area, and that's one that we want to continue to sell both to interstate visitors, but also internationally at the same time.
 
JOURNALIST: I wonder Trish, can I ask you a bit about housing? just it's obviously been a key topic in the campaign, and ALP and the Coalition have released policies. There are policies from the ALP looking at that demand side, and experts are perhaps saying that neither party is going far enough in terms of addressing the supply side. We've got around 1,400 people on both Hervey Bay and Bundaberg still waiting on the social housing wait list and waiting on average around two years. What do you think the party can be doing to help to address the issue of the supply of housing generally, and perhaps social housing in particular?
 
MEARS: Well, social housing is a really important part of our policy, and what we're looking at doing. The other thing is training people to be builders. You know, we have to have that long-term supply. So Fee-free TAFE is going to be incredible. So, what we want to do is get more apprentices trained up working with building companies and building supply as well, of course, as the social housing that we have on the plans.
 
JOURNALIST: So, you're confident that ALP’s policies are doing enough to address that supply side?
 
MEARS: I really am. I think there's so much that has to be done, but at least we've got a policy and we're actually going to make things happen and for the long term as well. Thank you.