Push to get jobs growing via SDA

TREASURER Curtis Pitt says thousands of new residents moving to the city’s southern corridor could find work in a proposed State Development Area at Gordonvale.

Mr Pitt said employment options in the area would become vital as the $1 billion Mount Peter housing estate moved ahead.

“I am very keen to see more opportunity for jobs closer to Gordonvale and more opportunity for jobs that are actually close by to where people live in the southern corridor,” he said.

“That alone will actually take some additional pressure off people travelling into Cairns and that’s what will be important.”

The proposed SDA covers about 840ha south of Wrights Creek, taking in homes, cane farms, rail lines leading to the Mulgrave Mill, a turf farm, the northernmost section of the Meringa Sugar Experimental Station and a flower farm.

It has been widely rejected during its consultation process, which ended on Friday, with owner MSF Sugar stating the project could force it to shut down the Mulgrave Mill.

MSF’s submission stated it would likely lose its use of cane rail to the north of the mill, with cane grown in the Cairns region having to be shifted by road transport, if financially viable.

The organisation warned the proposal’s announcement had already led to land-banking within the subject area.

“This speculative action leads to less investment in farms including in planting of crops, which in turn has ongoing impacts on mill operations (even in the event development does not proceed immediately),” it said.

About $150 million of future investment flagged for the mill would also likely be scrapped, if the mill was not closed entirely, the submission warned.

Mr Pitt said the State Government had not “drawn a line in the sand” over the scheme, although he was eager for it to go ahead.

“We would like to ensure that there is a situation where we can have either offsets to create additional opportunities for agricultural land or, alternatively, absolutely minimise any impact on agricultural land, to ensure growers can continue what they have been doing,” he said.

I AM VERY KEEN TO SEE MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR JOBS CLOSER TO GORDONVALE AND MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR JOBS THAT ARE ACTUALLY CLOSE BY TO WHERE PEOPLE LIVE

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