Projects don’t always help

BARRON River MP Craig Crawford announced the government would spend $152 million over four years for the Smithfield Bypass project for Cairns.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the bypass would significantly improve traffic flow in the area while also creating 115 jobs during construction.

I would normally be excited and inspired by such news. Regrettably I and many other operators I have spoken to are not at all encouraged as they should be.

It will not help the Cairns business community unless the government steps in and ensures certain conditions are met and abided by.

Southern companies over the last five years have been continually winning these contracts with absolutely minimal to no margin.

Then, unfortunately, they push quarries for their absolute lowest prices and force transport and local contractors, who need to work to survive, to drop their rates.

My wife and I have been in the construction and transport industry in Cairns for 37 years and have seen good and bad times over that period, but nothing that compares to the last four years.

We have seen the unfortunate demise of many operators while the government seems blinded to many of the reasons this is happening, most of which the government unintentionally created. Greg Parrack, Babinda 1654: By treaty, England receives privileges for its merchants in Portugal in exchange for military aid. 1810: Bogota rises against Spanish rule. The day is now Independence Day in Colombia. 1871: The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition is formed, to become better known as the FA Cup. In the first final the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0. 1917: Pact of Corfu is agreed under which Serbs, Croats and Slovenes form a union called Yugoslavia. 1937: Death of Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and pioneer of wireless telegraphy. 1940: The first singles charts are

published in the US journal Billboard. 1944: Adolf Hitler is injured by a bomb in an attache case, an assassination attempt by German officers that leads to a brutal purge. 1969: US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (above) become the first men to set foot on the moon. 1986: Australian golfer Greg Norman

wins his first major, the British Open. 2015: The US and Cuba restore full diplomatic relations after more than five decades of frosty relations rooted in the Cold War