Concerns for the airport

Aero club vice-president James Hollinworth said the club would be affected “down the track” by the Australian Defence Force no longer training its pilots in Tamworth.

He said it was not just the students and instructors, but also those involved in refuelling, cleaning and catering.

“As a club, it’ll affect our bottom dollar,” he said.

Mr Hollinworth said the club wanted to be positive, though, and had a close relationship with the Republic of Singapore Defence Force and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, which both train personnel at BAE Systems.

“We support them and they support our business, and we hope that other nations can train in Tamworth, as well as domestic pilots,” he said.

“As one moves on, other opportunities come along. BAE Systems are very savvy, they’re a top defence contractor and we’re confident they will have something in the pipeline. As a community member and as a community organisation, we’re concerned about wider impacts, but Tamworth has the top four flying conditions in the world. The aero club will still be there to support people.”

Tamworth Regional Airport manager Julie Stewart said BAE Systems had “significantly more movements than civilian movements” at the facility.

This includes Singapore, Brunei and ADF movements, estimating BAE Systems accounted for about 80 per cent of the movements at the airport.

A BAE Systems spokesman said the facility was responsible for “60 to 70 sorties per day” at the Tamworth facility, including all its customers. 

Aviation media have also alluded to the loss of the manned control tower at Tamworth Regional Airport if the ADF was to move its training facilities, but Airservices Australia said there were no plans to do this.

“There are no plans to reduce air traffic control services at Tamworth Airport,” a spokesman said.

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“DISAPPOINTING” is how Tamworthians have described losing military flight training in Tamworth.

Tamworth Regional Council mayor Col Murray said it was “disappointing that Lockheed Martin won the contract over the BAE bid for Tamworth”, but understood it was a question of money.

“I understand the difference was around $200 million over the life of the contract,” he said.

“That’s probably beyond reasonable political influence to change, but I’m always a firm believer that when one door closes, another can open. I think it’s incumbent on the Australian government, BAE and TRC to ensure that the economic void left by the ADF movement to Sale is filled by something else.”

Cr Murray said AIR 5428 project manager for BAE Systems Matthew Sibree would brief council today on what it all means for Tamworth and what the next four years looked like from the Australian Defence Force’s point of view.

“We will be continuing to work with BAE and both state and federal government to ensure this vital part of our economy is not lost to Tamworth and NSW,” he said.

“I think certainly we should be aiming to at least plug that deficit in our economy and try to get something stronger.”

Tamworth Business Chamber president Tim Coates also said it was “very disappointing” and that there would be an economic effect on Tamworth, with BAE Systems employing more than 100 people.

If flight training for other countries or civil aviation continued at the site, the BAE jobs would remain, though.

“The economic impact was estimated at between $24-$25 million per annum,” Mr Coates said.

“We are disappointed because we have worked very closely with stakeholders doing anything we could to make it stay here.

“They’ve made a decision based on the best and most cost-effective tender and we have to respect that as a business community. We’re now looking for strong leadership at all levels of government to utilise the space going forward.” 

Mr Coates said Tamworth threw everything and the kitchen sink at securing the contract, including getting Tamworth onto the defence white paper, with Ken Gillespie visiting the city, and had support from the state government with funding.

“Change is always scary, but this is an opportunity and we have to get up and find the next opportunity, as Tamworth usually does,” Mr Coates said.

Build-A-Door owner Craig Albertson completes work for BAE Systems and said he believed the work would continue as normal.

“It’s like anything – if they pick up and they go to a different contractor, there’s not much you can do about it. That’s part and parcel of business,” he said.

“In our case, a lot of what happens out there is quite often controlled by Tamworth Regional Council, as anything we are normally doing is on their gates, it’s only internal, so I would think that would continue.”

New England Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein said member for New England Barnaby Joyce was “missing in action” over the loss of the contract. 

“It’s exactly two years since Barnaby Joyce was elected to represent the people of  New England, and the loss of the Tamworth ADF contract is emblematic of the Nationals’ taken-for-granted approach to this region,” he said. 

“I remember Mr Joyce telling voters in 2013 that he would most likely be at the ‘big table’ of government as a cabinet minister, and that this would supposedly be a  good thing for New England. 

“But the ADF decision coming right after the Shenhua Watermark mine approval shows that Barnaby Joyce is not able to be an effective representative for New England while he remains a minister in Tony Abbott’s cabinet.”