Hopeful Derlagen keeps focus on issues
POLLING shows Matt Derlagen’s chances of unseating Mundingburra’s Labor incumbent Coralee O’Rourke are increasing but his focus is on the three hot topics dominating discussion in Townsville.
On a two- party preferred basis in Mundingburra, the LNP is leading Labor 52 per cent to 48 per cent, a Galaxy poll revealed.
The LNP’s support has dropped from 40.6 per cent in 2015 to 30 per cent in 2017 but is still higher than Labor’s, which has plummeted from 37.4 per cent to 29 per cent.
Despite the increasing odds of Mr Derlagen winning, he’s not talking about polls.
“There’s still such a long way to go the only thing I’m thinking about is getting out in the community and continuing to share our plan and what the LNP is doing,” he said. “I’m not focusing on the polls.
“The only thing I focus on is speaking with the community and finding out what their issues are and how to implement solutions.”
He’s been doorknocking and holding community forums in a bid to find out what the problems are.
The response has been the same across the Mundingburra electorate with jobs, crime and water continuing to be hot topics. Townsville has one of the highest unemployment levels in Queensland, crime is ram- pant and tough water restrictions are in force.
Mr Derlagen said he wanted to see the youth unemployment decrease.
“It’s about trying to provide jobs security and more employment stability and getting people back to work in our re- gion,” he said. “We’ve also been working very hard to find solutions to crime.
“People don’t want to come home and find their car has been stolen or their homes ransacked.
“People also want to see water flowing back into our city. It affects everyone and we need water security for our city to continue to thrive.”
There’s an elephant in the room regarding Townsville politics with One Nation surging in Mundingburra.
One poll has the party’s support at 20 per cent but Mr Derlagen said it was not something he was looking at.
“I’m not commenting on that poll,” he said. “There’s still a long way to go.”