The Express Newspaper 13th December 2017

Page 1

EXPRESS The

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

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ENDS THURSDAY! ► SEE PAGES 12 & 13!

Meet your new member Cynthia Lui is this week making history as the first Torres Strait islander to be sworn into Parliament. We sat down with the single mum from Cairns to find out what she has in store for the people of Cook ►P3

Here’s the truth Former mayor Jim Chapman speaks out on health

By Rebecca Wallis

Former Atherton mayor Jim Chapman may now be a soft spoken 86 year old, but after almost 10 years of retirement he still has his finger firmly on the pulse of the community. Mr Chapman was elected six times into the top

spot of local government spending 20 years in the seat that helped shape the region. Highly respected and well-liked, he saw a lot, he said a lot and he changed a lot, but when he backed away from the role as a 77 year old, he vowed not to speak publicly on local issues – until now.

“When I retired I made a solemn promise to myself that I would not come out and make statements,” he said. “I would let the council of the day run. I’ve stuck by that. This is the first public statement I’ve made in 10 years. This one I think the public needs to know exactly what happened here.”

He is talking about health, specifically the hospitals of both Atherton and Mareeba. For years Mareeba hospital has been under a cloud of negativity, fuelled by the community’s belief that the facility has missed out on key services that have instead been installed in Atherton.

There is an ongoing perception that Atherton is being favoured over Mareeba and developing into a central health facility for Tablelanders that will eventually see the hospital in Mareeba downgraded to nothing but an aged care home. But Mr Chapman said there is no favouritism and

the only reason Atherton is thriving is because the community fought hard and fairly for everything they got. “I want to say from the start I’m not in any way condemning the Mareeba people wanting to look after their hospital and get the best for their town,” he said. Continued P5

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