Straight to the source
Mayor flies to Brisbane to lobby for region
MAYOR Bob Manning is Brisbane-bound to directly lobby the new Queensland Government following Cairns Regional Council’s exit from Advance Cairns.
Cr Manning flies out this afternoon for meetings with Department of the Premier Director-General David Stewart, and has requested meetings in Cairns with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Far North’s four Labor MPs.
He said the council would take a more proactive, flexible approach to regional advocacy after pulling its $300,000 annual funding to Advance Cairns.
“We’ve got a great awareness we need to get on and get things moving, not wait for somebody else to get in there and do it,” he said.
Cr Manning recently met with former Brisbane Marketing CEO John Aitken for a “fact-finding discussion”, but denied he planned to establish a scaled-down version of the organisation in Cairns.
“We’re looking at a much lighter-footed approach to this – more flexible,” he said.
“We don’t want to pin ourselves down with bureaucracy and reporting.
“We want a quick reaction group.”
Advance Cairns is planning its own campaigns with the new government, seeking meetings with new Far North MPs before Christmas and key ministerial portfolio holders early next year.
“Advance Cairns will remain steadfastly focused on its pre-election infrastructure and policy priorities shoring up the $500 million-plus election commitments made by Labor,” the group’s interim-CEO Rob Giason said.
Mr Giason said the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils’ decision on Monday to axe its $25,000 funding to Advance Cairns was “both anticipated and respected”, noting FNQROC had not been a financial member since July.
He added the search for a full-time CEO to replace former boss Kevin Byrne had attracted high-calibre candidates, with an appointment to be made “in the near future”.