Convoy brings good results

A CONVOY of 50 business leaders to Brisbane this week has yielded at least two good outcomes: a regional State Cabinet meeting in Cairns and the Palaszczuk government’s backing of the $300 million Cairns Marine Precinct.

The cabinet meeting in April is the first in Cairns in two years and it comes a few weeks before the State Budget is brought down and before the State Election in October.

It is expected that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her team of ministers will make funding announcements and decisions pertinent to the Far North at the meeting in Cairns.

But she has thrown down the gauntlet to convoy delegates to do their homework, work out which ministers to meet and what they wanted to show them.

The meeting will be held at a time when the full impact of the coronavirus and the hit to the tourism sector due to the loss of the region’s biggest source of tourists China - is realised.

The Premier also said her government was backing Cairns as a regional navy maintenance centre and has put pressure on the Federal Government to outline their defence commitments for Cairns, despite a promise for funding made more than two years ago.

It comes as former army chief, retired Lieutenant General John

Grey, in Brisbane with the convoy, warned Queensland could miss its share of billions of dollars in defence funding unless the State Government took a visionary approach to Cairns port development.

The cabinet meeting in Cairns must provide outcomes to improve and grow the region, especially involving government-owned assets. Nick Dalton

Deputy editor