Qld election 2020: Cairns tourism industry at risk from lockdown

It’s been a bellwether seat in Queensland elections, and it is particularly vulnerable to the state’s current coronavirus strategy.

Cairns is bracing to lose almost half of its 25,000 tourism jobs over the next 12 months, as voters cry out for a slew of new projects to attract visitors north, diversify the economy and save livelihoods.

Employment and the post-COVID recovery is set to dominate the fight for Cairns seat Barron River unlike anywhere else this October election, with 4000 Cairns businesses still propped up by JobKeeper – even more than the number in Brisbane.

Tourism bosses: Qld the ‘biggest loser’ from border closures

FNQ’s message to Palaszczuk on key health project

Palaszczuk plots path for own Bradfield Scheme

Business leaders are demanding money for a new hospital to position the city as a centre for excellence in tropical health, Nullinga Dam and irrigation projects for food and water security, a new CQ University campus, and an expanded marine precinct to service more Defence and border force vessels to secure the city’s future.

They also want tourism projects, such as a new gallery precinct and the Palm Cove to Port Douglas Wangetti walking trail, and a $100 million aviation plan to open up more domestic routes and encourage more Australians to fly north.

The LNP has chosen a popular former Cairns councillor to try to wrest the seat from Labor minister Craig Crawford, who holds it by a paper-thin margin of 1.9 per cent.

The electorate covers the northern parts of Cairns and areas along the coast from Cairns Airport to Palm Cove and has been held by the Minister for Fire and Emergency Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships since 2015.

The former paramedic is going up against the LNP’s Linda Cooper, a Cairns councillor for 12 years before announcing she would run, and before that was an FM breakfast radio host. Her personal popularity will likely be a factor in the race, having secured 86.3 per cent of the vote in the last council election in a division that overlaps the state electorate.

Mr Crawford said incumbency guaranteed him nothing in the state’s bellwether seat that has always gone to the victor in George Street.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen said businesses were crying out for a proper plan to live with COVID so borders could eventually reopen, and more tax and fee waivers including on reef boat and tour vehicle registration.

“We don’t have decades to build a stronger economy, we have to turn this around,” he said.

“In the next 12 months our region could lose 11,000 jobs in tourism out of the 25,000 jobs that are supported, because without international visitation and without interstate travel the product here is too large and too diverse to support the jobs that it’s created.

“So the timeliness in opening the state borders for many businesses is a life and death situation.”

Mr Crawford acknowledged there was a “fear of the what next” in the community but said there was “a good, positive attitude from people that they’ll be right”.

Asked about business calls for a plan forward, he said “no one’s got answers to those questions yet” as the world struggles with the virus.

Ms Cooper said locals did not feel they had proper representation in Brisbane.

“It’s heartbreaking when you walk down the streets and you just see ‘closed’ and ‘for lease’ signs spread throughout the CBD,” she said.

Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Sally Mlikota said whoever won the election needed to work on local procurement after many small businesses missed out on Cairns Convention Centre work to interstate and Brisbane-based companies that set up temporarily in the city.

The Greens traditionally poll well in the seat, although in 2017 they did not do as well as One Nation, which scored 17 per cent of the first-preference vote to the Greens’ 13 per cent.

‘Time for us to be heard’

Struggling Barron River tourism operators want just one thing in the upcoming election: a voice.

Local business owner Richard Hewitson, who also runs two resorts and Palm Cove Tourism, said the Barron River electorate was suffering due to lack of “local knowledge” in state parliament.

“They don’t recognise far north Queensland or regional Queensland – they’re tarring us with the same brush as a CBD,” he said.

“We need someone who is truly going to give us a voice at a state level… we’re screaming for a voice and recognition.”

The electorate is reliant on tourism encompassing a diverse array of operators from rainforest tours to beachfront accommodation – many of which are independent.

“Then you’ve got the hair sub-industries that hang off that… hairdressers, events,” Mr Hewitson said.

Mr Hewitson said the region needed a representative who would push for region-specific changes to create a new tourist market so operators can stay afloat, whether that’s the possibility of travel exemptions or campaigns boosting visitation from COVID-free states.

“Our biggest domestic market has gone for the year … and everyone understands why,” he said.

“We want to know that, whoever gets in, we’re going to have a voice.”

It comes as Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said the six new virus cases announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday was “disheartening”.

Mr Gschwind said his industry was committed to safety, however, admitted the new cluster would create further pressure on an industry already struggling.

“This seems to be an endless road through darkness,” he said.

“It is an emotional rollercoaster which is very difficult for businesses to maintain.”

Mr Gschwind said it was difficult for tourism businesses to stay abreast of the changes.

“The ramping up and down is a very difficult prospect for any sized business,” he said.

“It takes an emotional toll on all of us including business operators who are really at the end of their tether.”

- additional reporting by Hayden Jonson