State spoils region in governing week
IT HAS been a massive week of announcements for the Toowoomba region, with a location named for the new Toowoomba Hospital, the Qantas Pilot Training Academy and a new Rural Centre of Excellence at the TAFE campus among some of the major projects unveiled.
The announcements were timed as part of the Queensland Government’s Governing from the Regions program, which returned to Toowoomba for the second time in two years.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the week had been about “getting out and talking with the community”.
“I think the judge of how the last week went is a matter for the people for Toowoomba,” the Premier said.
“The level of engagement has been fantastic.
“I remember the Mayor said to me at the Carnival of Flowers parade I hope you have plenty of announcements this week and I don’t think anyone would think we didn’t have a lot of good announcements across a whole range of service deliveries and economics.”
Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio said the week had been the “most exciting week we’ve had in Toowoomba in a long, long time”.
“It started with the magnificent Carnival and parade, then having the cabinet in Toowoomba for that time whole period of time and having them listen to us to get an understanding of what we’re doing... it’s been a particularly good week,” Cr Antonio said.
“We did have the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time to talk with the cabinet about our wishlist here and while everything hasn’t been announced we have confidence that cabinet has a clear understanding that we in Toowoomba, because of the growth here and what is happening, we need a fair amount of support.”
Cr Antonio said he raised issues such as water security, flood ways, the Toowoomba Showgrounds and the Railway Parklands.
“We talked about funding we could possibly get for the escarpment and that includes some serious discussions on the Quarry Gardens,” he said.
“There is but one obstacle on the Quarry Gardens, whether we build them or we don’t. We still have to address safety issues.”
The council is in the final process of completing a feasibility study for the gardens.
“During the election campaign we made a commitment to look at a feasibility study there,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We’re more than happy to work with the council and they’ve got a great vision there in making it a signature tourism destination.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the announcement Qantas would open a pilot training academy at Wellcamp Airport was a “national story”.
“That Qantas has decided to base the academy at Wellcamp airport is a testament to the vision of the Wagner family, and also to the partnership and good working relationship of the State Government, the Wagners, and Qantas,” she said.
“There is a lot of confidence in the (Toowoomba) community at the moment. We want to work with the council and the business community to really keep developing Toowoomba as a key economic driver of this state.”
Ms Palaszczuk would not say if or when the Governing from the Regions program
would return to Toowoomba, but the city should expect to see her and her ministers return at various times in the future.
“What you will see is a constant number of my ministers coming through the region, back to Toowoomba and making sure we are delivering on our commitments we made during the past week,” she said.
“It’s been a very busy week, it’s been very exciting, I’ve learnt a lot of things and I’m looking forward to coming back.
“And I think everyone should be incredibly proud of how beautiful the city is looking this week.” See the full list of announcements this week at thechronicle.com.au.