❓ Mr Papalia questions the Minister for Tourism about securing direct flights between Perth and Japan, following Queensland's success. The Minister defends the government's efforts, citing past negotiations and market conditions.
AnsweredQoN 186Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DIRECT
FLIGHTS — PERTH–JAPAN
186. Mr P. PAPALIA to the
Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the Queensland state government securing Qantas
daily flights between Japan and Brisbane from August, which is projected to add
61 000 extra visitors to Queensland each year and generate a significant number
of tourism jobs.
(1) Did the
minister do anything to get a similar deal for Western Australia?
(2) Is it not
true that originally there was an option of four flights a week to Brisbane,
with three other flights to Perth, but the minister missed out on that?
(3) Considering
the government lost direct flights to Japan four years ago, why did the
minister not jump at this opportunity to resecure them?
FLIGHTS — PERTH–JAPAN
186. Mr P. PAPALIA to the
Minister for Tourism:
I refer to the Queensland state government securing Qantas
daily flights between Japan and Brisbane from August, which is projected to add
61 000 extra visitors to Queensland each year and generate a significant number
of tourism jobs.
(1) Did the
minister do anything to get a similar deal for Western Australia?
(2) Is it not
true that originally there was an option of four flights a week to Brisbane,
with three other flights to Perth, but the minister missed out on that?
(3) Considering
the government lost direct flights to Japan four years ago, why did the
minister not jump at this opportunity to resecure them?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(3)
The answer to the first question is yes—not no, as some smart person on
the other side said. What happened was that very soon after I became minister
three or four years ago, we looked at increasing our flights coming to Western
Australia both from China and Japan, and at that time Qantas had just cancelled
its direct flights to Perth because of very high costs in the structure of the
airline, and a lack of passengers. Remember, at that time Japan went through a
significant downturn and the number of tourists coming out of Japan had
significantly reduced so we went to China. The Leader of the Opposition, who
was aMinister for Tourism in the former Labor government, reckoned he had some
hand in this, but it went absolutely nowhere; the Labor government was a dismal
failure. We went over there, negotiated directly with China Southern Airlines
and signed a deal for those direct flights. On that same trip, I went to Japan.
I met with Japan Airlines, Qantas and, I think, Cathay Pacific, to talk about
the prospect of providing direct flights to Perth. Qantas said it was not
interested in doing that as it was not part of its new profile—that was
three years ago.
Mr
P. Papalia This decision was in December.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I was not the minister last year.
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, you have asked a question. Let the minister
answer the question and you can have a supplementary question.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I went to Japan Airlines and it said it had just been through
enormous financial difficulties—it had the same cost profile as Qantas
in running the airline—and it did not see any chance of making it
economically viable in the near future. But it said it would keep that space —
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It said it would keep that space —
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : I call you to order for the second time, member for Warnbro.
Member for Albany, I do not want to hear from you.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Those negotiations were undertaken three years ago. Since that
time there has been a great strengthening of the market in Japan and a lot more
interest in tourism. I have not asked the former tourism minister, the member
for Scarborough, � exactly what was done
in this space when she was minister, but I have had feedback from the
department that there was considerable involvement under her watch in
negotiations with Japan to try to get it to come back to Western Australia. We
will continue to do that. The flight from Japan to Queensland is much shorter
and there is a much bigger population base, so the chance of Queensland being
successful in getting the flights needed is greater. It is understandable that
that would be Japan's first choice in dipping its toe in the water to
see if it can make it economically viable again. However, we will continue to
work through that. We work through other airlines such as China Southern
Airlines in particular, which also has flights through Guangzhou to Japan.
Cathay Pacific is a very strong performer in that space and, of course,
Singapore Airlines goes from Perth to Singapore and on to Japan. It is not as
though there is no other option for people to catch those flights. Even with
the very strong success rate we have had with China Southern going through
Guangzhou, a lot of people, including Chinese, still choose to fly Cathay
Pacific as their preferred option to get into Japan. People choose the airline
they want. All we can do as a state government is work with airlines and with
promoters to promote ourselves to ensure that we bring as many people here as
possible. My understanding is that the tourist numbers from Japan have been
increasing.
The answer to the first question is yes—not no, as some smart person on
the other side said. What happened was that very soon after I became minister
three or four years ago, we looked at increasing our flights coming to Western
Australia both from China and Japan, and at that time Qantas had just cancelled
its direct flights to Perth because of very high costs in the structure of the
airline, and a lack of passengers. Remember, at that time Japan went through a
significant downturn and the number of tourists coming out of Japan had
significantly reduced so we went to China. The Leader of the Opposition, who
was aMinister for Tourism in the former Labor government, reckoned he had some
hand in this, but it went absolutely nowhere; the Labor government was a dismal
failure. We went over there, negotiated directly with China Southern Airlines
and signed a deal for those direct flights. On that same trip, I went to Japan.
I met with Japan Airlines, Qantas and, I think, Cathay Pacific, to talk about
the prospect of providing direct flights to Perth. Qantas said it was not
interested in doing that as it was not part of its new profile—that was
three years ago.
Mr
P. Papalia This decision was in December.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I was not the minister last year.
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, you have asked a question. Let the minister
answer the question and you can have a supplementary question.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I went to Japan Airlines and it said it had just been through
enormous financial difficulties—it had the same cost profile as Qantas
in running the airline—and it did not see any chance of making it
economically viable in the near future. But it said it would keep that space —
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Warnbro, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : It said it would keep that space —
Mr
P. Papalia interjected.
The
SPEAKER : I call you to order for the second time, member for Warnbro.
Member for Albany, I do not want to hear from you.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : Those negotiations were undertaken three years ago. Since that
time there has been a great strengthening of the market in Japan and a lot more
interest in tourism. I have not asked the former tourism minister, the member
for Scarborough, � exactly what was done
in this space when she was minister, but I have had feedback from the
department that there was considerable involvement under her watch in
negotiations with Japan to try to get it to come back to Western Australia. We
will continue to do that. The flight from Japan to Queensland is much shorter
and there is a much bigger population base, so the chance of Queensland being
successful in getting the flights needed is greater. It is understandable that
that would be Japan's first choice in dipping its toe in the water to
see if it can make it economically viable again. However, we will continue to
work through that. We work through other airlines such as China Southern
Airlines in particular, which also has flights through Guangzhou to Japan.
Cathay Pacific is a very strong performer in that space and, of course,
Singapore Airlines goes from Perth to Singapore and on to Japan. It is not as
though there is no other option for people to catch those flights. Even with
the very strong success rate we have had with China Southern going through
Guangzhou, a lot of people, including Chinese, still choose to fly Cathay
Pacific as their preferred option to get into Japan. People choose the airline
they want. All we can do as a state government is work with airlines and with
promoters to promote ourselves to ensure that we bring as many people here as
possible. My understanding is that the tourist numbers from Japan have been
increasing.
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