The Tourism Industry Council NSW has clearly voiced disappointment in Prime Minister Gillard’s decision to award Brisbane the hosting rights of the G20 summit.

In a statement released yesterday (11 July) the General Manager of the Tourism Industry Council NSW, Andrew Jefferies has said the decision is “a sad attempt to mask the Federal Government’s political weak points.

“Let’s make no mistake that this decision is a disappointing outcome for Sydney at the expense of marginal Government held electorates in Queensland”, Jefferies said.

“The Government’s decision to ignore Sydney and host the summit for some of the world’s most important business leaders in Brisbane, quite clearly smacks of desperate political gamesmanship, a year out from the Federal election”.

“In addition, we are disturbed by the Prime Minister’s comments that Sydney was not ready to host this event due to a lack of convention space and supposed restrictions at Sydney Airport”.

“The Tourism Industry Council NSW strongly disagrees with Ms Gillard’s comments in no uncertain terms”.

“Quite frankly, it is outrageous for the Prime Minister of Australia to refer to restrictions at Sydney Airport when her own Government policy limits the flexibility of day to day operations by legislation that specifies an hourly movement cap at our nation’s major gateway”.

“Not withstanding this piece of legislation, we believe that Sydney did have the capacity to manage the influx of world leaders for this summit, particularly when one considers past events such as the Olympics and APEC, as well as the use of RAAF Richmond for visits by military operations and the Pope”.

“Sydney is Australia’s true global city and sending world leaders to Brisbane is akin to the United Kingdom sending the upcoming Olympic Games to Liverpool, instead of London”.