Direct line gets results
ROADS Minister Mark Bailey has stepped into a meeting between Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and representatives of eight Cairns community groups with a welcome surprise.
Highland Motorcycle Restorers Club president Don Sheppard was among the group talking directly with the Premier for an hour before last night’s public town hall meeting.
About 450 people attended the event at Brothers Leagues Club, with protesters against the Adani coal project outside.
He asked why an 80 per cent registration concession was applied to vintage cars, when only a 20 per cent discount existed for motorcycles.
“They’re rarely out on the road because they’re so fragile,” Mr Sheppard said. “Queensland is certainly much higher than any other state and other countries as well.”
Ms Palaszczuk promised to take the issue back to Brisbane and investigate whether change could me made.
“I’m happy to have a look at that. It sounds reasonable,” she said.
A few minutes later, Mr Bailey walked in with good news.
“We can fix it, absolutely,” a he said. “We’ll go through the details tonight.
“I don’t see any reason we should do it for historic cars and not historic motorcycles.”
Cairns and District Chinese Association president Lai Chu Chan had the chance to tell the Premier of her group’s dream of building a $2.5 million Chinese heritage centre near Cairns Chinese Friendship Gardens on Greenslopes St.
She said Cairns Regional Council had “strongly endorsed” the plan.
“But that land is leased by council from the State Government,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk’s ears perked up when she heard the group had a collection of artefacts from the Chinese history of Cairns, unseen in a warehouse.
She said at a similar meeting in Rockhampton in January uncovered a “hidden treasure” of priceless art.
“Now we’re putting money into one of the largest regional art collections in Australia,” she said. “This is the same sort of story I heard from Rockhampton.”
Ms Palaszczuk promised to visit the potential cultural centre site on Greenslopes St before her return to Brisbane.
Mrs Chan said the group would sell a block of land it owned on Arthur St to allow it to develop the State Government owned block.
The eight community group representatives all answered the Cairns Post’s call for applications to meet Ms Palaszczuk. Get a full wrap of last night’s meeting online and watch video of Community Cabinet