PLAIN SAILING
Southport Yacht Club general manager Brett James says it’s about time people stopped talking about action on The Spit and started taking it instead.
Southport Yacht Club’s Brett James and his views on what should happen at The Spit
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE GOLD COAST?
“The diversity. I’ve lived in America, China, Japan, England, New Zealand – I think the beauty of the Gold Coast is you can be in the mountains, you can be in the water and it’s a great spot to bring kids up.” WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD BE DONE BETTER ON THE GOLD COAST?
“I definitely think they need to look at more tourism.
“When you go to all those great places like Miami and England, you find they have a lot more for tourism.
“We’ve definitely got the areas, we just need some better tourism facilities.
“I definitely think the issue that keeps coming up is The Spit. I think we need to make some decisions there, make some nicer walks along the beachline which we don’t really have at the moment.” IN YOUR TRAVELS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN BEING DONE ELSEWHERE YOU
THINK COULD WORK WELL HERE?
“The infrastructure around the water in Miami.
“The ferries, the transport, the depth of water which they constantly dredge.
“They have a lot more population than us and they seem to be able to handle it very well.” IF MONEY, TIME, LAWS AND APPROVALS WERE
NO ISSUE, WHAT IS ONE BIG PROJECT YOU’D UNDERTAKE TOMORROW?
“Everyone’s looking at The Spit and a plan there but there’s no plan for the water.
“I take my kids fishing – there are concerns with the next 20 years how busy it’s going to be.
“We’ve had some projects in with the State Government for two years now, community projects, and we can’t get an answer.
“So, if there were no laws they’d be built by now and the Gold Coast would be a better place for the community.
“We’ve got a maritime museum, rebuilding the naval cadet academy and having the memorial park here on The Spit made larger for the community.
“There are about 80 kids going through the academy at the moment and we have about 10,000 kids taking part in try-to-sail through the yacht club.
“We’re looking at co-ordinating with them so that they can come here, learn to sail, and then go and learn to be a cadet.
“The government’s talking about submarines but they actually don’t have the supply of people so it’s a good training program for the navy.”
WHAT CONVERSATIONS SHOULD GOLD COAST MOVERS AND SHAKERS BE HAVING?
“Less red tape. Unfortunately due to government changes all the time it’s very hard to get anywhere.
“The issue that we have is that being a Labor State Government and the Gold Coast is all Liberal, we find that we can’t get any support for projects.”