General News
8 October, 2024
Cook candidates front forum
UPGRADING the Mareeba Hospital, constructing the long-awaited Mareeba bypass, the need for action on the Kuranda Range Road and Barron River bridge, and the youth crime crisis came to the fore during a public forum last week attended by five of the six candidates hoping to be the next Member of Parliament for the Cook electorate.
Labor’s Cynthia Lui has held the seat for two terms of office and anyone wishing to topple her will need a swing of around 6.3% to be successful.
Ms Lui defended her record of delivering for the electorate during the forum, citing various projects that have been funded by her government, her “passion” for better health services and Labor’s plans for more economic development in the region which would deliver better outcomes for communities.
But she ruled out shifting her Cairns office to Mareeba, despite Katter’s Australian Party’s Duane Amos and LNP’s David Kempton having already secured offices in the town’s CBD.
“Historically, it’s always been in Cairns where it is central to the electorate - it is in the most central and accessible location for a large number of constituents who live in the electorate,” she said.
The forum at the Mareeba International Club saw the five candidates put forward their case as to why they should be elected on 26 October.
Mr Kempton cited his 40-plus years of living in the region as to why he is the right person to represent Cook, asserting that the Coalition had the right policies and plans to reduce crime, tackle the problems with the region’s road network and to cut the “waste” by ensuring decisions on what the priorities are were made at a local level.
Mr Amos said he was armed with the knowledge of how to tackle the youth crime crisis with his 34 years in policing, and understood what challenges small businesses faced, being a small business owner himself. He said he had “a tiger in his tank” and was prepared to hold the major parties to account, especially if KAP won enough seats to hold the balance of power in the parliament.
One Nation’s Peter Campion lamented how the youth crime crisis had undermined people’s lives, taking away their freedom to feel safe, saying that the current situation “imprisons the many because we let the few run rampant”. He also criticised both major parties over their stance on climate change, saying that while China went ahead “leaps and bounds” using coal-fired power stations, “we are in the dark ages”.
The Greens’ Troy Miller made it clear his party was focused on ensuring that the “big corporations” paid more tax to fund initiatives like free university and TAFE for everyone, the cancellation of HECs debt and to include dental services in Medicare. He also touted the party’s demand for rents to be frozen for two years “to give time for wages to catch up”.
The current crime crisis was a main topic of discussion, with each candidate outlining what their party would do if elected.
Ms Lui said her government had passed strong legislation to tackle the issue and was investing in a $1.28 billion community safety plan that included $228 million for intervention programs, while accusing the LNP of cutting police numbers when they were last in power.
Referring to the recent news that a police helicopter would be based in Cairns to help reduce crime, Mr Amos said “helicopters don’t solve crime” and that current legislation was “out of touch with society’s needs”.
Mr Kempton said Labor had had 10 years to “sort this problem out and done nothing” and that if elected, the LNP would get new legislation passed before Christmas that would allow the courts to sentence perpetrators who committed serious crime to “adult time”.
Mr Campion attributed the current crime crisis to “watered down legislation” and agreed that youth offenders needed to be sent to boot camps, and penalties and bail laws strengthened, while Mr Miller linked the crime crisis to the increase in poverty, saying that until living standards were improved, and services provided to help youth who were exposed to trauma or did not have food or a place to sleep, it would continue to be a big problem.
When it came to the big issues that rear up every election cycle, the candidates were mostly aligned on what should be done but there were few solid commitments when it came to the hospital upgrade and the construction of a heavy vehicle bypass for Mareeba.
Mr Amos put the lack of action on the bypass to the region not getting its fair share of funding for critical infrastructure, while Mr Kempton says his new local road advisory group would be given the ability to identify and prioritise what works were needed such as the bypass, Ootann Road, the missing sealed section on the road to Chillagoe, and badly needed unhitching or breakdown pads.
Ms Lui said the bypass had been “in the conversation for a very long time” but stood by her advocacy efforts which, she says, secured $1.5 million for the business case to be completed that would provide the argument for funding the construction of the new road.
Mr Campion asserted that if “we allowed the country to prosper….we’d have enough money to do the bypass and repair the Kuranda Range Road…but we’re not going to get that infrastructure until we get the Labor and Liberal UNiparty out”.
All candidates agreed that the Mareeba Hospital deserved more attention, in particular a dialysis machine and an upgraded Emergency Department.
Ms Lui, who recently launched a petition to her own Health Minister calling for the hospital to be upgraded, said that during her time in office, she had brought back endoscopy services to Mareeba, a new CT scanner and a new ambulance station.
