Welcome, now let’s get serious
“WE’VE got serious problems and we need serious people.”
In the absence of truly inspirational speeches from political leaders, those who have read my pieces before will know I tend to revert to Hollywood for my fill.
Michael Douglas as Andrew Shepherd in The American President sums up the Far North’s predicament — and what we need in our leaders — well. While the US has a bucketload of COVID and economic problems, we’re up to our necks in our own.
The Cairns Post has worked hard to find the positives, the inspirational and optimistic, but you shouldn’t wear rose-coloured glasses all day and all night. Our region has its face planted up against some serious headwinds.
International tourism is dead and the interstate market is on a stretcher being wheeled from one hospital ward to another. Right now intrastate tourism is what’s keeping the industry’s heart fluttering. TTNQ and local stakeholders are, quite bluntly, working their guts out and steering the boat in reaction to whichever way the new wind is blowing.
What we are staring down though is the loss of almost half the region’s 25,000 tourism jobs in the next 12 months, despite JobKeeper’s efforts to keep most of them afloat.
On Monday, the Queensland Premier will bring her Cabinet to town and they are most welcome for no more important reason than to witness first hand the effect of the economic disease that coronavirus also is. There isn’t a sane person in this region who doesn’t realise there are no piles of cash sitting in the vault to spend on every infrastructure or economic priority in every region of this state.
But we’re in need of a serious solution to our serious problems.
We need a serious plan. Repackaging project announcements from pre-COVID times and unveiling them as some sort of recovery plan isn’t going to fool anyone.
We know governing this state and country is always going to be tough but if we’re to be in this together we need our governments to get in the trenches with us.
The Cairns Post for the past week has rolled out a campaign for a Cairns University Hospital. The Operation 2025 campaign is asking for:
$5m for detailed business plans; $60m to help optimise facilities; $100m for the Cairns Health Innovation Precinct;
money to make up the shortfall in funding to buy land.
And we want it all allocated, planned and built so the facility can be operational by 2025.
Sounds aggressive? Necessary? Tick. Tick.
Impossible? Not if you have serious people willing and able to do serious jobs. I’ve been overwhelmed during the past six months at how smart, innovative and adaptable people in the Far North have proven themselves to be — again.
From restaurants turning their business models inside out to not-forprofits adjusting to social distancing restrictions and a lack of cash so that they can help those most in need, we have the smarts and passion here to help ourselves.
The Cairns Post, too, has not been spared. We’ve copped a beating like most but we’ve adapted the way we do business because we know what we do matters and we love this region.
One thing that will never change is that we’re here for you. We launched a petition on Thursday for the university hospital project and the Far North has turned up to the game. In under 48 hours we received more than 500 signatures on the e-petition alone. When the Premier and her team lob into Cairns on Monday they will already know how this region feels about this project. If not, they really are living under a southeast boulder.
Civic and political leaders, including her own Cairns MP, Michael Healy, back this project. We don’t just want $5m pledged for a business plan with a commitment to maybe looking at it one day down the track, a pat on the head and an “along you go, Missy”. That won’t cut it. We recognise it’s an aggressive plan but the hospital upgrade is urgently needed and it will make a big difference.
With tourism battling, we need to invest big time in projects that will boost jobs and educate and care for people for the future.
We need serious people to help us help ourselves. Frankly, if that’s not Labor, it’s time for a change.