Positive Start to Lunar New Year

JACINTA REDDAN

What a great start it has been to the new year, my first as a resident of Tropical North Queensland.

As part of my local immersion, I was delighted to have joined Cairns Tropical Writers’ Festival in February, where I had the pleasure of interviewing Australian author Holly Wainwright. How lucky we are to have such rich and dynamic culture in Cairns.

Many of you will know that we have begun the Year of the Rabbit in the Lunar calendar. In Chinese culture, the rabbit symbolises longevity and prosperity, and most of all, calm. Having moved to Cairns from Hong Kong, the importance of the Chinese New Year is powerful, and this Lunar New Year character bodes well for the coming Chinese New Year, particularly as the mainland China market begins to open up and we can once again look forward to welcoming visitors from Asia to the region.

Despite the promise of calm, it has indeed been a busy start to 2023 for the team at Advance Cairns.

We were pleased to welcome Cairns Regional Council as a platinum member alongside Cairns Airport, Ports North and James Cook University. This closer collaboration with Council will help our two organisations to deliver greater alignment and more effective advocacy for the region as we look to build upon last year’s success, in which more than $1 billion was committed for TNQ through state and federal funding.

Much of our advocacy in this new year has revolved around our State and Federal Budget submissions, which have been a key focus in the past few months.

The submissions expand upon our Forging a Brighter Future manifesto, calling for delivery of funding for transformative projects including upgrades to the Cairns Marine Precinct and construction of a CQUniversity Cairns CBD campus. While it was fantastic to see so many state and federal funding commitments for our region in 2022, it is vital that we receive more immediate delivery timelines on these key projects.

Our Federal and State Budget submissions include:

• Marine - Delivery of shared federal and state funding to build the Common User Facility at Cairns Marine Precinct

• Health - State funding for detailed design and construction of Cairns Health and Innovation Centre, plus planning progressed for the Health and Innovation Precinct

• Education - Delivery of $50m for a permanent CQUniversity Cairns CBD campus, plus additional Commonwealth Supported Places at JCU Medical

• Roads - $25m to finish sealing the Kennedy Developmental Road, plus $210m for Kuranda Range Road.

We will continue to advocate to see these commitments and many more delivered to help forge a brighter future for the communities of Tropical North Queensland.

And on a personal level, I have welcomed the chance to enjoy Cairns’ cultural side enjoying live music, theatre and comedy performances. It has been three long years since I have been able to do so and I am making up for lost time enjoying homegrown, national and Indigenous talent. I was honoured to participate in the Tropical Writers’ Festival, interviewing author Holly Wainwright who was among an extraordinary program of local, national and international writers, poets and thinkers. This has been perfect tropical balm for the soul.

We look forward to updating you on more milestones with Advance Cairns and our partners throughout the year. Wishing you all a prosperous and calm Year of the Rabbit.