LNP pledge exclusive Cairns housing funding during Peter Dutton visit to Far North

An elected LNP government will channel exclusive housing funds into Cairns, Opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged during a visit to the north, but his local candidate missed the announcement.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visited a new homes construction site at Mount Sheridan with Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal and Cairns councillors. Picture: Richard Dobson / Newswire

An elected LNP government will channel exclusive housing funds into Cairns, Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pledged during a visit to the Far North.

Mr Dutton and his Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal met with local councillors including the mayor at a Mount Sheridan housing estate on Saturday where Mr Neal announced $33.8m towards Cairns Regional Council’s request of $150m per government, for trunk infrastructure.

The local government has been campaigning for $300m from the state and federal government with $150m from the council to cover stage one of development between Mount Peter and Gordonvale under its Securing Cairns’ Housing Foundations plan.

The southern growth corridor falls into the electorate of Kennedy, however the LNP’s candidate for the seat Annette Swaine wasn’t present for the announcement as she’d opted to campaign at pre-polling booths at Innisfail.

LNP Kennedy candidate Annette Swaine at the Edmonton polling booth on April 22. Picture: Facebook

However, the project has been deemed as a Leichhardt issue, as it “solves Cairns’ housing supply.”

Mr Dutton said the $33.8m investment was “a start” while acknowledging the council was seeking a total of $150m from each tier of government.

He said the stand alone election promise fell outside his party’s national $5bn trunk infrastructure policy and funding pool.

“So the whole idea of the $5bn fund is to support councils like Cairns and I think their application would be looked upon favourably,” he said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton with his Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal at Mount Sheridan to announce funds towards trunk infrastructure for Cairns’ southern growth corridor. Pictured with councillors Brett Moller, Rhonda Coghlan, Matt Tickner and mayor Amy Eden. Picture: Richard Dobson / Newswire

“It’s a competitive process, so we haven’t announced anywhere around the country where that $5bn will be spent, but when I look at what the council is proposing here I think they meet all of the objectives of an application under that fund.”

During the campaign Mr Neal had been hinting it was unlikely the Coalition would invest the full $150m in one round, stating during conversations with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor it had been identified there was an opportunity to stage the development with smaller contributions.

“We’ll been working with them in the future, making sure that we can contribute a whole lot more,” Mr Neal said.

Labor candidate for Leichhardt Matt Smith said he was “very supportive of the council’s project.”
“And in less than a week I hope I will be able to advocate for this project as the Member for Leichhardt.”

Asked if there was Labor funding “in the works,” Mr Smith said: “We haven’t seen an announcement yet from Peter Dutton, so no.”

Cairns Regional Council was expecting to release about 3800 lots with its $450m trunk infrastructure plan, and while the correlation between funding and development was not linear, a $67.6m combined fund would produce about 570 homes.

Originally published as LNP pledge exclusive Cairns housing funding during Peter Dutton visit to Far North