Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has met with BAE Systems representatives today, as he fights to keep the basic flight training school in Tamworth.
While the city holds the existing contract, there’s fears it could lose the multi-million dollar piece of the economy to East Sale in Victoria next year.
“If this facility was to leave Tamworth, it is going to cost the taxpayer about $40-million dollars. For a facility to be built in a new location, when we’ve already got the location operating here.”
Mr Joyce says he’s already had discussions with both the prime minister and minister of defence over the issue.
He’s concerned the loss of the school could also have an impact internationally.
“We also in the way through lose the capacity for it to be a training facility for our strong allies in Singapore, and for our allies in Brunei and for our allies in Papua New Guinea, because once it closes down here, they lose their training facility.”
(Vision accompanied by audio in parts only)
