Heavyweight Joe backs Avalon, stadium upgrades

Kim Waters
Australian shadow treasurer Joe Hockey threw his weight behind plans for an international terminal at Avalon Airport and a $35 million upgrade of Skilled Stadium during a visit to Geelong this week.
Mr Hockey said opening Avalon airport to international flights was a “no-brainer”.
He believed the proposed terminal would provide “huge economic benefits” for the region.
Mr Hockey slammed the Rudd Government for “failing to deliver on a promise” when it rejected Avalon’s bid for the terminal in 2008.
“I can’t make any promises but it certainly seems to me like a no-brainer idea, which represents yet another stuff up by the Rudd Government,” he said.
“There are a lot of good reasons to open up Avalon for international services and one of them is the huge economic benefits it would have.
“This seems to me to be the sort of issue where Labor makes promises and then fails to deliver.”
But Labor candidate for Corio Richard Marles hit back, saying his party had supported the development of commercial flights at Avalon “for most of the last decade”.
The Liberal party only discovered Avalon was “on the Melways about two years ago,” he said.
“The announcement of Tiger airways locating some of its services to Avalon vindicates the support that has been provided to the growth of that airport by the Labor Government.”
Mr Marles rejected Mr Hockey’s claim the Rudd Government had broken a promise to Avalon.
“Avalon becoming an international airport carries with it enormous responsibilities because it will place Geelong on the frontline of Australia’s border (protection),” Mr Marles said.
“We need to make sure that all the security is in place before we take that step and the decisions we’ve made in the past have been based on that.”