Thursday, April 2nd, 2020
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It’s time to heal the division and plan for the future PETER MCCULLAGH THIS year, 2020 will be remembered for many of the wrong reasons. Horrendous bush fires, tourism down-turns in our region with the withdrawal or scale-back of international flights, followed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. All events that will leave a lasting scar upon our society, economy and communities. 2020 can also be remembered as a year when the community stood together and left an indelible mark upon democracy and government accountability. The Cassowary Coast Local Government elections have been held, but the result is far from decided. A new mayor, potentially 5 new faces and one returned Councillor all now have an opportunity to forever to leave their mark upon this community and their public administration. Multiple wedges have been driven through this
region during the past 4 years. Not just north south wedges, but small communities divided as Council appeared to be involved in heated battle with some residents, whilst also appearing to be deaf to the pleas of the wider community. This is not the time to revisit the old wounds. Now is the time for the all new council, under the leadership of an experienced mayor to reunite the community and heal the wounds of the past 4 years. Will there be an exit strategy announced, a way forward from the legal quagmire the Kremastos led administration have found themselves buried within? What this community needs is a pathway forward, an exit and a resolution to the multiple issues that continue to divide and prevent the region from advancing. This exit strategy must foster a feeling of confidence in the administration of the region. This strategy must reunite the communities and restore
faith in the Council. This lack of faith and confidence has not been caused by the rank and file workers of Council. The cause of this distrust must be shared by the outgoing Councillors, Mayor Kremastos and some of the key high ranked officials of Council. How can confidence be restored and Council once more returned to a position of trust? True accountability and transparency must be the mantra for this administration. Essential in this process will be the termination or resignation of several key high ranking officials in the executive department of Council. Without these resignations faith and confidence in the new administration cannot be restored. Incoming Councillors need to engage with the community more. This engagement must be through monthly ‘councillor surgery’. Where the community have a regular opportunity to face to face a councillor, raise issues and seek clarification on
council issues. These regular ‘councillor surgeries’ will also serve to provide feedback to councillors as to the feelings of residents with regard to individual issues as well as general directions of council. Without regular, formal engagement and consultation this administration will struggle to overcome the deep-seated distrust of Council. The opportunities are there for this new council, combined with some serious challenges. Changes must be made, and it is critical that changes are made. It’s important as well to ensure the changes are made with precision, planning and resolution. It would be unwise to expect a massive turnaround in the coming weeks or months. To turn an administration like council is akin to turning the Queen Mary, it take time, effort and energy, but when it’s turned, it will be full steam ahead for the Cassowary Coast.
Unemployed locals must put their shoulder to the wheel KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter says a critical proportion of Australia’s fruit and vegetable supply is at risk unless recently unemployed North Queenslanders put their shoulder to the wheel and take up fruit picking jobs. Mr Katter’s office has been contacted by concerned farmers and representatives of the banana industry who say they won’t be able to find an adequate workforce
with the national borders closed to backpackers who fill 60 per cent of fruit picking roles. “I have never in my life advocated compulsion, but when 10 or 20 per cent of Australia’s fruit and vegetable production is at risk, it’s a real possibility,” Mr Katter said. “I’m sorry but everyone has to put their shoulder to the wheel. Two or three months picking work won’t hurt anyone and in
fact the exercise will do them a lot of good. “The newspapers say unemployment will reach 23,000 people in Cairns and a similar number in Townsville. Well there’s the answer to the farmers’ concerns. “When I was younger I worked for four or five years in unskilled labouring jobs. I did everything from repurposing television sets, working at the picture theatre, cleaning
toilets and hard yakka in the mines. “I desperately want our young people to be aspirational. I represent the aspirational classes. Most people in Kennedy are aspirational; they work in mines or the agricultural industry. “You can’t expect people to pay you when you refuse to do any work. That’s not fair.” The Member for Ken-
nedy has also written to the federal government asking them to extend the visas of backpackers who are currently working on North Queensland farms. “We can’t maintain production unless the federal government relaxes the laws on backpackers and extends their visas by three months,” he said. “Many of the backpackers have a month of two left at most on their visas, many are in their last
week or so. “We have sent an urgent communication to the relevant ministers.” Bananas are still the highest selling produce item in Australian supermarkets (ref: Nielsen 2019) with a majority of supply coming from Far North Queensland. Mr Katter said the supermarkets have been grossly irresponsible saying there is no trouble with supply.
“There will be issues with food production as we depended on backpackers for 60 per cent of the workforce.” Mr Katter encouraged job seekers to apply for recently announced roles in mining with BHP, supermarkets, hospital work through Queensland Health and in call centres for Centrelink and Telstra.
Healthy Qld doctors and nurses must stay on the health frontline; not forced home SAFE childcare services must remain open #stayenrolled #waivethegapfee Media interviews with the leadership of the Australian Childcare Alliance available now Hundreds of Queensland doctors and nurses could soon be forced from the frontline battle against COVID-19 to stay home
and look after their otherwise healthy children, if the Government doesn’t act quickly to provide an urgent lifeline to the hardhit childcare (early learning) sector. In one childcare (early learning) centre alone, 80% are children whose parents (more than 40) are employed in the two neighboring hospitals, Gold Coast Private and
Gold Coast University. Australia’s peak body for childcare (early learning) services, the Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland (ACA Qld) is again calling on the Federal Government to provide an immediate first-step solution which is cost neutral but would allow parents to retain their places and stop the centres from collapse.
The ACA Qld President, Ms Majella Fitzsimmons, said the Prime Minister’s expected wage subsidy announcement would be very welcome to help valued educators but that, alone, won’t help the 400,000 Queensland families (over 30% of whom are essential services) who rely on perfectly safe childcare to centres to stay open. There has been a
dramatic withdrawal (4060%) of children from Queensland centres, over the past week, by worried parents. “There remains a simple and urgent cost-neutral step, the Federal Government must take now, to ensure Queensland’s childcare (early learning) services will be able to recover from this economic crisis and the children can
return.”
Queensland economy.
As an urgent and initial first step, the Federal Government must allow providers to waive the gap fees (on average $100$200 p/w) that parents must pay and continue to fund their places with the Child Care Subsidy, from March 01.
‘If they close this week, too many healthcare and emergency workers will be forced out of the health frontline, which is simply unacceptable,” said Ms Fitzsimmons. “We need the Federal Government to throw us that very simple, first-step lifeline and we need it now.”
ACA Qld’s 850 centres are the lynchpin of the