‘Fair’ hearing for tourism operator at big banks
WHITSUNDAY tourism operator Tony Brown says three of Australia's big four banks gave him a fair hearing about investing in the expansion of Abbot Point last week.
Mr Brown travelled to Sydney and Melbourne to meet with the sustainability committees of Westpac, the NAB and ANZ banks.
His purpose was to "put a face to the region" and express the concerns of the marine tourism industry about potential effects to business from the dumping at sea of dredge spoil from the port of Abbot Point.
He said the meetings were an opportunity for a two-way dialogue where the banks' sustainability groups were also able to ask questions.
"Everyone responded along the same lines because no-one's been approached for finance yet, so that's not the issue," he said.
"But if they do go through that process, they're going to have to take these sorts of things into account - as well as what the proponents have to say."
Mr Brown said it was important for the tourism operators in his industry to know how the banks would respond if a situation arose that had the potential to threaten their livelihoods.
"It's also important for us an industry to know what processes they go through and I can now report back," he said.
