Cr Christian Dickson re-elected unopposed to Sunshine Coast Council

The only Sunshine Coast councillor guaranteed his seat says the new council will need to stand up to the state and federal governments straight out of the gates.

Cr Christian Dickson has been elected unopposed to Sunshine Coast Council.

A Sunshine Coast councillor who has been re-elected unopposed says the new council will need to get back to the basics, while standing up to the state and federal governments to secure infrastructure.

Division 6 Cr Christian Dickson was the only candidate to nominate for the seat in the 2024 local government election and has received confirmation from the Electoral Commission of Queensland that he has been elected unopposed.

While Mr Dickson, the son of former LNP and One Nation MP Steve Dickson, also faced no challengers at the 2012 local government election, he didn’t expect it to happen again.

“I guess the first thing that happened was shock,” he said.

“Heading into an election you expect you’re going to be on a campaign, but to find out that no one had put their hand up against me, well straight off the bat it was humbling.”

Cr Christian Dickson was the only candidate to nominate for Division 6.

Mr Dickson added he is optimistic about working on a council that will feature a new mayor and at least three new councillors.

“I’m actually really excited about a bit of change for the Sunshine Coast,” he said.

“I hear from a lot of people out there that they are looking for change, because that means there’s an opportunity to move away from the big end of town projects and the big coastal projects and hopefully focus back on the grassroots issues like footpaths and roads.

“I think we have an opportunity to really focus on getting back to basics and working as a team with all levels of government.”

Cr Christian Dickson vouched for keeping sandbags at the Maroochy River mouth.

Mr Dickson said the new council will need to stand up to the top tiers of government to secure infrastructure that will cater for population growth, a challenge outlined by outgoing Mayor Mark Jamieson.

“I think the biggest challenge right now is that we have a public transport and a population issue, residents are telling us they don’t want the growth that’s coming to the region without the infrastructure,” he said.

“So that means the council is going to need to make some hard decisions and stand up to the state and federal governments and say we’re not going to take this growth as population growth without infrastructure.

“The council is going to have to be bold, stand up and say we can’t keep doing things the way we’ve done it, we will need to be brave.”

Cr Christian Dickson says councils need to look at street parking.

While Division 6 residents will not be required to vote for Mr Dickson, he clarified that they will still need to vote for a mayor.

“It just means on the election day or at pre-poll you need to pick a mayoral candidate, you still have to vote.”

The 2024 local government election will take place on Saturday, March 16.

Everything you need to know about the election can be found here.