Plenty of reasons for hope

WE DON’T like to get ahead of ourselves in Townsville, especially when it comes to the local economy.

And who can blame us.

After a prolonged period of pain, we’ve had more false starts than a ….

This year was to be our year.

But Mother Nature had different ideas when she lashed us with rain of biblical proportions in February. So many are still recovering from that devastating weather event but the upside is that the unemployment rate in the city has improved in the aftermath of the floods.

A report shows the jobless rate in the Townsville local government area has fallen 0.6 percentage points to 7.6 per cent compared with the December quarter. It’s a big improvement on March 2017’s rate of 10.8 per cent. Some of that will be the money invested in North Queensland for recovery.

But of further good news is that economist Colin Dwyer is tipping our local economy is also starting to feel the benefit of major projects.

With the Sunmetals expansion under way, Adani’s mine now on track and a host of other projects due to commence this year and in coming years, things are certainly looking up for the city.

IS IT too much to hope that our voices are, at long last, being heard in the corridors of power in Brisbane?

Certainly having Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk decide to hold Parliament in Townsville provides the city an excellent opportunity to burst the eardrums of every MP in the state.

With official dates still to be locked in, city leaders and MPS should be putting their heads together quickly to decide what kind of messages we want the Queensland Government to go back down south with. With Deputy Premier and Treasurer Jackie Trad in town today, there’s no doubt North Queensland is back on the map and that this government is acutely aware it needs to win us back over should it wish to win another election.