Building on city’s strengths

AS we enter into the last quarter of 2018, it’s fair to say for a lot of people this year didn’t quite deliver on expectations.

In Townsville, most of us were happy to bid farewell to 2017 and held hope things would improve this year.

We watched Mackay recover to the south and Cairns begin to pick up to the north. Yet our property prices didn’t lift, our jobless figures remained high, businesses continued to do it tough and our confidence yo- yoed.

Across the city there are differing views of our situation. For some, business has picked up, they know the pipeline of work is opening and that while the turnaround won’t happen overnight, it will happen.

Then there are people and businesses who are hanging on by a thread.

There are, however, some really good indicators that things are on the up.

We should cling to those without losing grip on reality.

There has been a tightening in the rental market, some big commercial properties have sold and this week another crane was added to the skyline for the Mater Hospital redevelopment.

Our unemployment figures are up but so are the workforce figures.

Organisations are hiring – like the Port, the council, engineering and construction companies and the Mater.

It is crucial we celebrate the little wins but speedily build on them.

We need to show the rest of the nation we are open for business and we welcome development. We need to keep improving the liveability of the city so we can attract southern families.

We need to proactively seek out and attracting opportunities, such as Townsville Enterprise did this week with the trade hub or the council is doing with the proposed battery factory or the broader city leaders did with Adani. We all can play a part. We need to maintain a sense of urgency around all of the above while also looking to the future to ensure we don’t ever have to start from a total standstill again.