ACT Government, Chief Minister, Andrew Barr at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2022
Andrew Barr has led a progressive and ambitious agenda for Canberra and the Australia Capital Territory (ACT) since being elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2006 and becoming Chief Minister in 2014. As ACT Treasurer and Minister for Economic Development, Andrew’s long term economic reforms have contributed to over 3 decades of consecutive economic growth in Canberra, and an increasingly resilient and diverse economy. He has worked to improve the lives of Canberrans through major changes to the ACT’s tax system, investing in world-class healthcare, city transforming public transport infrastructure and excellent schools, reaching 100% renewable electricity and making Canberra the most LGBTIQA+ friendly city in Australia. By leading one of the best public health responses to COVID-19 in the world, the ACT became one of the most vaccinated jurisdictions on the planet. This response has led to low mortality rates from COVID and a resilient and confident community and economy. Andrew has been the ACT Tourism Minister for the past 17 years, making him Australia’s longest-serving Tourism Minister, leading significant growth in tourism and business travel to Canberra, particularly by bringing major domestic and international aviation partners to the ACT and growing and diversifying the cities hotel stock which has enabled a booming events and hospitality industry. Since Andrew became Chief Minister, Canberra has been ranked by the OECD as the best city in the world to live, and by Lonely Planet as one of the best cities in the world to visit.
Transcript
Andrew Barr:So we're seeing a really strong recovery in the ACT tourism industry. I think we've had the best winter really since the pandemic. Hotel occupancy back up to levels that we were experiencing pre-pandemic. We've now got more direct flights into Canberra in terms of different destinations, up to 13 now. So that's nearly double where we were pre-pandemic. So as we have this reasonably strong recovery phase, it's, it's pleasing to see more airlines flying to more destinations. Very simple objective to make it cheaper and easier to get to the national capital. With the change of Australian government, there's a real sense that Canberra is back at the heart of national politics, of national decision-making. The Prime Minister lives in Canberra again, so our sense of purpose is renewed as the nation's meeting place. That's driving really strong business and event tourism. International student market has recovered strongly. That's the ACT's biggest export sector. And then our broader tourism economy is our second biggest export earner, and aviation is absolutely critical to that. Absolutely focused on restoring that international connectivity. So Qatar Airways have announced their return to Canberra. Canberra pre-Christmas this year. I've been in Singapore meeting with Singapore Airlines to renew that Canberra-Singapore connection. We're engaged on trans-Tasman connectivity, and we also have a particular focus on the Pacific. There's clearly a very strong engagement from the Australian government in the Pacific as a result of recent geopolitical events, and so we're looking to reinforce that with direct flights from Canberra into a number of Pacific countries. Sustainability is a really significant political and economic trend in our country at the moment. After a period of inaction on climate change, there's now a new national policy direction that's been reinforced at a state and territory level and across many industries. And I think aviation, tourism, and hospitality has at various points been ahead of the Australian government. I think the situation has now changed. The public policy settings are there. For a transition to a net-zero emissions economy over the remainder of the first half of this century. So there's some real opportunities here. You're seeing it as an economic imperative for aviation to have more fuel-efficient aircraft and then to be researching in the medium term alternative forms of propulsion for aircraft. It's exciting, a way for the industry to be more sustainable. And across the tourism and hospitality sector more broadly, now becoming a defining issue and a choice that many consumers will make, that they want to travel with a lighter footprint and they'll choose destinations and venues, hotels, events, activities that, that are more sustainable. And a lot of that comes with the energy that, that powers those events and activities, and in the ACT we are 100% powered by renewable electricity. We're the first state and territory to get to that point. We got there in 2020. We're now looking to build on that as we transition out of natural gas. We electrify everything— private transport and heating and cooling for buildings. They're the next big frontiers for the ACT.
Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of CAPA - Centre for Aviation. Our reproduction policy is as follows: you may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to CAPA - Centre for Aviation and link to the original video page. All other use is prohibited. While we aim for 100% accuracy in the transcript, there may be some minor transcribing errors.