The month in review: Cairns
By Herron Todd White
November, 2009
As a high population increases, the level of infrastructure
provision to support future growth has always been
a vexed issue in Cairns. However now with the Cairns
economy doing it tough as a result of a slowdowns in
the tourism and construction industries and with the
unemployment rate in the Cairns Region now the highest
in Australia at a trend level of 14.4% during September,
many are also looking to an expansion of infrastructure
development to keep softening the current economic
blows as well as create a platform for future population
and business growth once the economic recovery
begins.
The Cairns region has benefited from increased
infrastructure spending allocations this year by the
Federal Government, the main big ticket items of which
are to build 218 new social housing dwellings in Cairns,
Cooktown and Port Douglas; spend $150 million on new
school facilities in Cairns and regional locations; and build
a $33 million dental school at James Cook University.
However State Government infrastructure spending
actually in Cairns this year in our view is relatively light.
Although the biggest ‘big ticket’ development in Cairns
is the $446.3 million Cairns Base Hospital redevelopment,
the Budget allocation for works to be carried out this year
was only $21.8 million. In addition, although the State
Government has allocated $181 million for roads in the
Cairns region this year (compared to the billions of dollars
being spent in South East Queensland), most of this will
be spent on roads outside of Cairns. Only $16.7 million
will be spent this year on road projects actually in Cairns.
The main State Government spending item this year is
the $79.5 million Government Office building underway
in the CBD.
With residential and commercial construction values
having fallen to $416 million in 208-09, from $821 million
in 2007-08, infrastructure spending, whilst welcome, is
not filling the void in activity created by the slowdown
in residential and commercial building. Nevertheless
by supporting economic activity at a higher level than
it would otherwise have been, infrastructure spending
is also providing an indirect level of support to the
residential property market in Cairns.
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