General News
29 October, 2024
Kempton takes Cook
FAR Northern seats have helped LNP leader David Crisafulli to become the 41st Premier of Queensland on Saturday.
While Cook remains close and will be decided on preferences and postal votes, LNP’s David Kempton is projected to win the large electorate from incumbent Cynthia Lui who has been the Labor MP for Cook for three terms.
LNP’s Bree James was victorious in Barron River, defeating incumbent Labor’s Craig Crawford, and former Cairns mayor Terry James is tipped to take out Mulgrave, but it is a close race between him and former Cairns councillor Richie Bates.
This is only the second time the conservatives have held Cook since the 1970s, and Mr Kempton has won it both times. He won the seat in 2012 as part of the Campbell Newman Government but was ousted in the rout of the LNP at the 2015 election.
Mr Kempton was ready to get to work on Monday, turning up to his office in the Mareeba Post Office centre to find a car had rammed the back entrance to the complex, smashing in the glass doors.
Feeling buoyed by his victory in Cook, Mr Kempton acknowledged the seat was hard to win due to its diversity of communities and its geographical size.
Mr Kempton said he was not surprised that the Far North and North Queensland had shown their support for a new path with the LNP after years of failure by Labor to invest in the north of the State.
“I think the fact that so much going on up here has not been addressed across a number of issues - crime, cost-of-living, health, roads and housing – was the reason people wanted change,” he said.
“The really big win was here in Mareeba, people really had had enough and that was indicative in the votes.
“It’s a really difficult electorate, it’s logistically difficult to get around, it’s hard to man booths during elections, there’s a diametrically opposed demographic - there’s a strong farming community, there’s the Torres Strait, all the indigenous communities, there’s mining, we have an international border, half the State’s coastline and half of the Great Barrier Reef.
“You need to understand it and build relationships. The type of campaign you would run in the city doesn’t work up here. It’s very much a personal one-to-one approach. People need to know you and they need to trust what you’re saying.
“You need to earn this seat and you need to work to keep it, you cannot take it for granted.”
Mr Kempton is keen to get on with the job and expected to be sworn in in the next two weeks so the LNP can action changes to legislation before the Christmas break.
One his first priorities will be to establish a regional roads advisory group to tackle the region’s neglected road network.
“It won’t be just a community advisory group though – it will actually be developing policy and set priorities with the Minister who will direct TMR (Department of Transport and Main Roads),” he said.
In addition to action being needed on the Kuranda Range Road and the Barron River bridge, Mr Kempton said there were a host of other issues plaguing the region’s transport industry that needed to be tackled.
“From Ootan Road to the Chillagoe road, to break down pads, to road classifications to the Mareeba bypass, the bridges this end of the PDR, and the other end of the PDR - all have to be looked at,” he said.
“Again, we need to prioritise those and get them funded, and move in a way that brings the best benefit to the transport network here because we are being flogged with transport costs of breaking down B-doubles to double handling freight and it all lands back on the consumer and the farmer, so we need to fix these things.”
Humbled Knuth back for 8th term
A HUMBLED Shane Knuth has thanked the voters of the Hill electorate for granting him an eighth term as a Member for Parliament, vowing to continue the fight on issues like youth crime, crocodile management and protecting the rights of people to defend themselves in their home.
With 82.7% of the primary vote counted, Mr Knuth claimed 44%, defeating his nearest opponent, LNP’s Cameron McCollum, who earned 25.5% of the vote.
“I am absolutely humbled by the win and thank the constituents of Hill for putting their faith in me again,” he said.
Mr Knuth attributes the win to how he goes about his business as the people’s State representative.
“It comes down to traditional, grass roots politics - that is, getting out there and talking to everyone from all walks of life and backgrounds,” he said.
KAP has retained at least three seats in the Parliament but may end up with another, with a tight race in Mirani and a winner yet to be declared (as of Monday). But Mr Knuth said the party was keen to continue to build on that number for the 2028 election.
“We will be building from here with a goal to get seven seats in the next Parliament,” he said.
He said KAP would continue to push for stronger action on crocodiles by reintroducing the Crocodile Control, Conservation and Safety Bill in the hope that the Crisafulli Government will back it.
KAP would also be reintroducing the Castle Law Bill to give people the right to defend themselves and their property against offenders.
Mr Knuth said the party would also continue to strongly push for relocation sentencing rather than building new detention centres for young criminals.
“This will be the number one priority – we know well and truly that this is the best alternative. Our detention centres are full to the brim and you can guarantee that after 12 months out there building cattle yards, driving graders, front end loaders and mustering, the last thing they (offenders) will want to do is to come back, commit crime and go back out there,” he said.
“We 100% guarantee that this system will work.
“Castle Law and the relocation sentencing is the deterrent for them to commit crime.”
