Make the most of your vote

WITH two elections due next year, it will be a critical time for North Queensland voters to think carefully about our region’s past, present and future.

Regarding the March local government election, the silence is deafening when it comes to any potential mayoral candidates revealing plans to take on Jenny Hill.

A commonly-held belief is that Cr Hill is unbeatable given her performance during the February flood disaster and her popularity with the battlers in the burbs.

But if the last few years in politics have taught us anything, no one can afford to take victory for granted.

Having just watched their federal counterparts lose the unlosable election, state Labor MPS know only too well how hard they will need to fight to save their seats in the October 2020 election.

In the 2017 election the three Townsville MPS – Scott Stewart, Aaron Harper and Coralee O’rourke – faced a nervous battle, with Mr Stewart winning his seat by just 214 votes.

Key to winning the North at the state vote will be who does preference deals with the minor parties, remembering Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Bob Katter’s Australian Party poll well here and are not to be sneezed at.

But more significant than that in the local and state elections will be the quality of candidates in play.

The three Labor state MPS and Townsville’s Labor-aligned mayor all resonate with the public because they seem like ordinary people like us.

And that’s fine. People get tired of slick politicians and their spin.

But the most important thing for North Queenslanders to consider is where our region has been economically for the past term, why we’re not seeing the recovery we’d all hoped for, and which leaders are the best to deliver us back to the kind of growth and prosperity we all desire.

Parties choosing which candidates to run and readers choosing who should get their votes, is not a decision any of us can afford to make lightly.