Recently, I had the privilege to visit the newly upgraded Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay with the member for Dawson, Mr Andrew Willcox. The former coalition government invested $10 million to upgrade the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, and it looks absolutely fantastic, befitting one of the most beautiful parts of our world. The arena has recently hosted two first-class cricket games—both women’s and men’s. They’ve been broadcast live, and they had absolutely stellar reports from Cricket Australia. Indeed, Cricket Australia now say that the Great Barrier Reef Arena is the best cricket ground in any regional part of our country or any non-capital city.
I think it can do more. It can do much, much more, because we’ve got this thing called the Brisbane Olympics coming over the next decade. Of course, befitting its name, most of the money—about $7 billion—is going towards Brisbane. Part of that money will be to upgrade the Gabba cricket stadium, and, because of those upgrades, we will need a new venue for a test cricket match for about four or five seasons over the next decade. There are some saying we should build a whole new stadium in Brisbane to accommodate this other cricket match, which to me seems to be a massive missed opportunity. It would create another white elephant, because what will happen once the Gabba is redeveloped is that those cricket games will just go back to the Gabba, of course. Why not take this opportunity to take test cricket to the regions—to Mackay? What better selling point for our great tourism industry could there be than to have test cricket at the Great Barrier Reef Arena? The Barmy Army can come over, see their team lose and then head out to the Whitsundays afterwards for a wonderful trip to drown their sorrows. It’s a great part of our country, it’s a great arena, and I thank Adrian Young and his whole team at Harrup Park Country Club for what they’ve done.
