Queensland state election 2024: Meet the Candidates Hervey Bay forum
From candidate anecdotes about the “devil’s lettuce” and bold calls to take on “terrorising” teen criminals, here’s how the Hervey Bay MP’s first public comparison with his election opponents went down at a colourful meeting.
Fraser Coast
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Hervey Bay MP Adrian Tantari has pleaded his case to a crowd of voters for the first time as his LNP rival, former Fraser Coast councillor David Lee and three others work to make him a one-term wonder.
The Labor incumbent with a strong public service and union background fronted the Thursday night Meet the Candidates Forum at the Clubhouse where passionate promises were made for the future of a community being “terrorised” by kid criminals and under extreme hospital and housing amid unprecedented population growth.
Despite being announced as his party’s pick just weeks before the last election, Mr Tantari won the seat with an 11% swing to Labor – the largest in Queensland – following the retirement of four-term LNP MP Ted Sorensen and on the back of widespread support for the then-Palaszczuk Government’s Covid response.
As he had declined an invitation to the News Corp Meet the Candidates Forum in 2020 which was live streamed amid the pandemic and attended by his One Nation, LNP and independent opponents, rarely responded to media requests in his four-year term or sent out releases and announcements prior to the avalanche of funding pledges and photo opportunities in the lead up to this election, it was the first time he’d been seen and heard from in this type of public setting.
The seemingly sudden appearance of construction fencing bearing Queensland Government banners but with no work appearing to be going on behind them, including at the future fire station site on the corner of Main St and Boundary Rd and the Walker’s Rd roundabout in Urangan, has been relentlessly mocked on social media by the Lee camp and was the subject of one of the few jabs to make it through a tightly-controlled format on Thursday night.
Mr Tantari had earlier insisted the projects he had advocated for and announced were “rock solid” and only at risk should the LNP win government, making sure to regularly reiterate the long-running Labor line about the Campbell Newman era public service job cuts and the party’s claimed risk of a repeat under now LNP leader David Crisafulli.
He told the crowd he’d been working “methodically” to ensure the people of Hervey Bay benefited from lower unemployment rates and the Queensland economic recovery which was stronger than any other state – pointing to major construction at the hospital, schools, roads and investment in more doctors, nurses and police along with new business grants.
He also rejected Quinn Hendry’s suggestion that overseas immigration was impacting the housing crisis (along with wanting to turn the “tap” off NDIS funding and Native Title claims, the One Nation Candidate supported halting overseas migration, foreign ownership of Australian homes and intake of international students which he said were taking up housing that could be filled “by your kids”).
Instead, Mr Tantari insisted interstate migration since the start of the pandemic and population growth of 260,000 put most pressure on housing.
He pointed to his advocacy for 10 new one-bedroom units in Torquay and a public/private project for 32 new dwellings at Wondunna but acknowledged it was “way, way not enough”.
“You’ve got to have a plan,” he said.
“You don’t go pointing the blame at someone else.”
‘FATHERLESS FAMILIES, TOUGHER LAWS’: YOUTH CRIME
Youth crime was a key focus with Mr Lee using much of his opening address to highlight the LNP’s proposed new tough laws including Adult Crime, Adult Time, removing youth detention as the last resort and allowing magistrates to take a child’s criminal history into account when sentencing.
Mr Lee said the LNP would pour $100 million in early intervention ($50 million to support existing services and $50 million to new services – all with KPIs) and $40 million to schools to help disengaged kids and said, “ our beautiful Hervey Bay deserves strong and courageous leadership”.
He said he had spoken with countless police officers who were fed up and leaving the force “in droves” and he would work on re-engaging police along with the LNP’s multimillion-dollar mental health funding pledge for officers.
Mr Hendry put a challenge to the chamber crowd, asking them to think outside the box and consider a program where they sponsored troubled kids to go through programs like the Bob Davis-run military-style boot camp Hard Yakka at Susan River.
He said the majority of youth crime was committed by children in “fatherless families” who were going out “on the street at night terrorising your businesses”, that the LNP policies were too costly for the taxpayer and that the cost of sponsoring a child through a program versus the “$800 in replacing your glass doors (damaged by wayward kids) might be an idea”.
‘GHOST TOWN BOAT HARBOUR TOP PRIORITY’
Mr Tantari, Lee and Hendry all plugged the revival of the Hervey Bay marina as key in supporting business.
Describing the marina as a “ghost town” thanks to the removal of a ferry service from the boat harbour to K’gari (Fraser Island) and eyesores like the “sinking”, taped off boardwalk he wanted to see it returned to its heyday with direct boat services brought back in and seeking a developer to invest in the marina where business owners were currently subjected to month-by-month leases.
Slamming the state of leases at the marina as “appalling chaos” Mr Lee said the business community needed certainty and confidence and security of tenure.
He said the government needed to “get out of the way”, remove red tape and it was businesses that should be allowed to set plans for progress in the community.
He also said he’d been listening to the chamber of commerce and groups like the Fraser Coast Property Industry Association and Wide Bay Regional Development and all three levels of government needed to work together to respond.
Mr Tantari said it was good to see the Urangan Boat Harbour masterplan was “now underway at my instigation” and it was one of three such masterplans being developed across Queensland.
He said he understood people were asking why these processors “took so long” and blamed the complicated process of the many leases and sub leases attached to the precinct.
‘CHAOS’: FUTURE OF HERVEY BAY HOSPITAL
Referencing his background as an ex-army medic and health service manager who helped “save the local hospital” in another town, Mr Lee said it was he who had the credentials to turn around the “complete chaos” at Hervey Bay where it was unacceptable that essential services were being delivered from dongers and shipping containers in an already swamped site which was also landlocked.
He said he had been working on submitting a medical precinct service master plan based on the needs of Hervey Bay and his party would “diagnose, cure and treat” the problem plagued health system with real time data as “what you can’t measure, you can’t improve” with a pledge to reduce ambulance ramping to under 30%.
Mr Tantari insisted he was already implementing an “integrated plan” and had campaigned for the continued development of the emergency department and extension of medical wards and said “I know we will have adequate services in the next 10-15 years).
He pointed to Labor’s promised satellite hospitals, one of which is earmarked for Hervey Bay, and incentives like free nursing diplomas at TAFE, saying his party understood the need to make sure there was a “pipeline of new talent”.
He also questioned what Mr Lee’s alternative was to the “landlocked site” and whether he planned to bulldoze the current hospital or build a new one elsewhere.
The region’s ageing population (median age of 52 here compared to 28 for Queensland) and its impact on the health system was recognised by all candidates with Mr Hendry highlighting One Nation’s plan to push for a new hospital which followed the Queensland Children’s Hospital model – but for seniors where older patients and their hip, knee replacements and specialised geriatric care could be dealt with in one dedicated place, freeing up beds and wait lists in other public hospitals.
The musician known locally for years as the Radio Star and one-time owner of the Black Dog cafe said the pandemic and subsequent restrictions had decimated his livelihood which went “kaput” because he refused the “jab”.
He also believed the decision of many nurses, police officers and paramedics to not be vaccinated had increased pressure in hospitals and stations.
POWER PRICES, ‘NOT NET ZERO’
Power prices were used as ammunition in arguments from multiple candidates about easing cost of living with Mr Tantari pointing to recent power bill rebates and the Miles Government’s election pledge to introduce a new electricity provider.
However, Mr Lee said the biggest contributor to power prices was the failure to manage and maintain coal-fired power stations like Callide which had been out of action under Labor due to maintenance failures.
Mr Hendry also wanted to ditch Net Zero targets and the extreme spending on wind and solar and focus on supporting the coal industry, believing that “if it isn’t broken …”
Anyone hoping for a genuine tussle or deep debate of ideas however was left wanting as it was made clear from the get-go by MC Bec Greenshields that this was a “meet and greet” and not a battle.
“Cheering or jeering” from the crowd was banned and disrupters warned they would be evicted, candidates were given access to the main three questions prior to the event (which unsurprisingly for a chamber of commerce event were mostly about growing business, the economy and supporting small business) and were not able to speak over one another or rebut, meaning their claims and promises went largely unchallenged.
But the night wasn’t without colour thanks largely to candidate Jeff Knipe – a former drafted footy player turned sales rep whose gruelling battles with both prostate and throat cancer were relieved only by the life-changing moment he tried a cannabis-laced cake at a friend’s birthday party.
Representing the Legalise Cannabis Queensland party, the frank-talking stayed on message throughout, declaring it was time for the government to stop treating the medicinal plant as the “devil’s lettuce” and encouraging voters in the room to just “try it”.
His plan for health – legalising cannabis and support its medicinal value and pain-relieving properties.
How to grow the economy – legalise cannabis (because since being legalised in Canada it had contributed to increasing the GDP by billions and he would advocate for incentives for mum and dad farmers to grow cannabis and for related start-ups in textile and other products).
And the solution for more housing?
“Guess what I am going to talk about”, he joked to the amused crowd (because a type of hemp plant could be grown from seed and used for construction within 100 days vs. the 10 years it might take to grow a pine tree for the same purpose, and it was ridiculous some hemp still shunned even though the amount of THC “wouldn’t get a mouse stoned”).
Greens candidate Pat Walsh had been expected to attend and a place card was set for him but later removed when it became clear he was not turning up.
Voters will decide who they want to lead Hervey Bay on poll day – October 26.
In the meantime, you can catch up on the Courier Mail’s live election blog here.
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