PEEK AT VOTERS’ WORRIES
WHAT is really worrying Gold Coasters? You will be surprised. Yes, they’re concerned about the M1 grinding to a halt, waiting in the hospital ED. But there is a bigger common concern – the building that’s going on in their backyards.
In the lead-up to tomorrow’s poll there were only three Meet the Candidates meetings, the fewest in a long time.
Friends of Currumbin and the Tugun Progress Association staged a night for the candidates from the most southern electorate at Currumbin.
The Main Beach Association and Save Our Broadwater asked the candidates from the coastal seats, and the Paradise Point Progress Association on Tuesday night invited the Broadwater hopefuls.
These are robust community groups. Their leaders are smart and successful. Unless your head is buried in the sand, you will know what Philip Follent, Judy Spence, Sue Donovan and Brendan Boyle are passionate about.
At the Paradise Point Community Hall, on the stage at the end of the meetings, Mr Boyle has pages of questions.
Your columnist walked away with them to gauge what residents wanted their candidates to answer.
On the stage, the candidates themselves provided a cross-section of the community. Labor’s Peter Flori is a veteran copper and the LNP’s David Crisafulli was a journalist before wanting to make a difference, first at city hall.
One Nation’s Brenden Ball was a tradie before going into sales and the Greens’ Daniel Kwon helps the homeless and drug-addicted. They all get along and seem like good blokes.
The serious questions from the audience, most of them with a hint of silver in the hair, portrayed the plight of the swinging voter and cash-poor.
On one foolscap page there were seven questions all relating to council development.
Apart from the wealth of Sovereign and Ephraim islands, Paradise Point was this last patch of beach shacks until the council recently began approving more multi-storey townhouses.
“Large footprints on property mean that larger than acceptable developments can be placed right on the water’s edge and destroy the ambience of what is a unique residential village,” a resident said.
Residents wanted to know whether as a state MP, the candidates would intervene to oppose some of the council’s rulings on development.
What this debate revealed was the next council election will be all about planning and how it impacts on their block of dirt. It will be the real deal compared to this campaign.