Mackay Port Authority Mackay Airport welcomes Government funds for security improvements Article first published on Friday, 5 December 2003 @ 4:33:02 PM

The Mackay Port Authority has welcomed the Federal Government’s move to improve security at airports in Central Queensland.

Member for Dawson De-Anne Kelly confirmed today that $93 million dollars will be channelled into a major expansion of the aviation security regulatory regime.

Mackay Airport general manager Trevor Heard said the additional injection of funds into smaller airports was good news for the travelling public.

“As yet we still don’t know what financial assistance will be available to the MPA, but we will be contacting the Transport Minister’s office for more detail,”

he said.

“It will be interesting to determine if this money can be used to purchase an explosives trace detection machine that has to be installed in Mackay under these regulations by December next year.”

The equipment is expected to cost about $100 000.

Mr Heard said he wanted to clarify if these funds could be used by the MPA’s to implement total check bag screening and the provision of Australian Protective Service Police if Mackay went international and secured direct services from Auckland in New Zealand.

He said security at Mackay Airport currently met all government regulations and requirements.

“We’ve spent more than $1 million over the past two years to achieve this goal and this was recognised last year when Mackay was judged the best regional airport in Australia,” he said.

“We are keen to build on our reputation and additional government funding to improve security can only be good for all airports and passengers.”