Shire is hurting: mayor
A POPULAR North Queensland mayor has delivered a strong take-home message for the winner of the seat of Kennedy during a candidates’ forum in Ingham.
Hinchinbrook Mayor Ramon Jayo took to the stage to address the candidates directly, and said that like other rural regions, the shire was “hurting”.
He said the council was attempting to diversify the Hinchinbrook economy away from a sole reliance on the sugarcane industry “but we are finding the going extremely tough”.
“There is a lot of talk from all walks of politics about the regions being the powerhouses of Australia but we have banks withdrawing face-to-face services in our town,” he said. “That is not only a problem for the elderly of our community who are not tech savvy, but it is also not a good impression when trying to attract people to invest in and live in our shire.”
Mr Jayo said rural areas were also facing mortgage discrimination, “where people seeking loans are slugged with requirements for enormous deposits that make lending un
attainable”. “Banking is a federal responsibility, and while we understand that governments are reluctant to become involved in private-sector matters, there should be some form of social responsibility for licences to operate where this form of discrimination does
not occur.” He said the council unashamedly urged members of the community to stick with banks that retained a physical presence in Ingham.
“The point is that when we lose services such as this, our community suffers and our ability to grow declines.”
Mr Jayo said a lack of housing also limited opportunities to fill job vacancies.
“We have labour shortages in this district, both skilled and unskilled, that is affecting and will continue to affect our productivity.”
The issue was compounded
by several communication black spots in Hinchinbrook.
“You cannot watch uninterrupted television at Lucinda nor can you make mobile phone calls from Stone River or Forrest Beach, which is significantly problematic,” he said.
“These factors all go against us when we are trying to promote our liveability and boost our productivity.”
Mr Jayo urged the federal government to do more “to help us with these smaller nonsexy problems so that we can help ourselves … to grow”.