Far North candidates debate exposes political divide over region’s future

The Far North’s top political aspirants have traded heated backhanders in three passionate debates held in Cairns with frontrunners and longshots holding little, if anything, back as disputes over the region’s future threatened to boil over.

LNP candidate for Cairns Yolonde Entsch, Greens candidate for Cairns Josh Holt, One Nation candidate for Cairns Geena Court, Labor Member for Cairns Michael Healy and independent for Cairns Shane Cuthbert are interviewed at the 2024 Meet the Candidates: State Election Forum Lunch, hosted by the Cairns Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Tropical North Queensland at the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino. Picture: Brendan Radke

The Far North’s top political aspirants have traded heated backhanders in three passionate debates held in Cairns with frontrunners and longshots holding little, if anything, back as disputes over the region’s future threatened to boil over.

With just two weeks till Queensland’s 93 seats are determined, a dozen candidates for Cairns, Barron River and Mulgrave thrashed out their differences at the event hosted by the city’s chamber of commerce and Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ).

Questions on headline issues, including cost of living, youth crime and the housing crisis prompted worn out responses from the major parties, leaving the audience of more than 200 guests with precious little new information to inform their vote.

But strident discussions around the future of the Kuranda Range, a lack of investment in major infrastructure, flood recovery, tourism support and Taylor Point exposed the growing political divide between the two major parties, minors and independents.

‘ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL’

In the first debate, Mulgrave’s Terry James and Richie Bates went all in on the region’s housing crisis and the role that a critical growth corridor could play with the pair trading barbs.

ALP candidate for Mulgrave Richie Bates took aim at his LNP rival and former Cairns Regional Council mayor, Terry James, over his performance as chair of the Local Disaster Management Group. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Bates, a former Cairns councillor, attacked his old employer for failing to deliver trunk infrastructure in Mount Peter, which could deliver more than 18,000 homes for the region, but said Labor would assist, if re-elected.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this,” Mr Bates said. “This is water and sewerage infrastructure that should have been rolled out in the last three terms of council.

“They’ve failed to do so and now we’ve got a situation where we have a critical emergency in terms of not having enough housing for our city.

“Of course, the state government will do the heavy lifting. We’ve done it with the water security project and we’ll do it with this. But it’s very important that we learn from the failings of the past.

“We had a council that was asleep at the wheel and didn’t deliver the necessary infrastructure for the growth of this city. Mulgrave is the growth corridor and we need to invest in it.”

LNP candidate for Mulgrave Terry James argued in favour of further investment in Cairns’ growth corridor, south of Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr James, the former Cairns mayor who also previously served as a councillor, dismissed Mr Bates’ argument.

“Richie thinks that councils are made of money,” he said. “80 percent of tax goes to the federal government, 17 percent to the state and three percent to councils. How can they (councils) afford it?”

In one of the most aggressive debate performances of the afternoon, Mr Bates didn’t stop, attacking Mr James for his performance as chair of the Local Disaster Management Group during Tropical Cyclone Jasper last December.

“The post-Jasper review that came out is critical reading for anyone (in the Far North),” Mr Bates said. “There were a couple of findings out of that were quite significant. One was on leadership and the other was about communication.”

In response, Mr James defended his work in the role.

“We were caught out,” he said.

“Yes there was a problem with communication – everyone turned to Facebook (for emergency information) but talking about funding … I think there should be a (further) review because you can’t end up with council having a $25m debt due to infrastructure (damage).”

Legalise Cannabis Party’s Nicholas Daniels claimed the line of the debate, while arguing for marijuana as an alternative crop to sugarcane in the region.

“By the way, cannabis is CO2 negative,” Mr Daniels said. “If you’re aiming to lower your CO2 targets, we need a lot of weed growing. It’s as simple as that.”

Katter's Autralian Party candidate for Mulgrave Steven Lesina claimed youth crime was the biggest issue among voters in Mulgrave. Picture: Brendan Radke

KAP candidate Steve Lesina nominated youth crime as the electorate’s biggest issue highlighting the party’s tough policies while independent Yodie Batzke urged the major parties to look more closely at alleged corruption within the correctional services system.

YOUTH CRIME

Member for Cairns Michael Healy was forced to defend Labor’s record on crime at the outset of the second debate with moderator Sonja Johnson calling on the incumbent to identify what the ALP had done to solve the crisis within his electorate.

Member for Cairns Michael Healy defended the ALP’s record on youth crime. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Healy acknowledged early intervention programs for at risk youths and increased capacity to incarcerate juvenile delinquents when necessary.

“If kids are a threat to our community, they are being locked up and that is happening,” he said.

“That’s why we want to expand our detention capacity. But we know the solution is identifying and getting to these kids early and having wraparound services.”

One Nation candidate Geena Court advocated for establishing a military style diversion centre for problem kids, a proposal she claimed to have been working on for the last nine months, based near Lotus Glen.

“These kids could be assets to us, they could be assets to themselves, not a burden,” Ms Court said.

More support for welfare services such as Youth Empowered Towards Independence (YETI) was needed to address the problem, Greens candidate Josh Holt said.

“90 percent of kids that are put in jail go on to re-offend,” Mr Holt said. “Queensland is already locking up more kids than in any other state. If that was going to work, it would’ve worked already.”

LNP candidate for Cairns Yolonde Entsch has yet to back several major infrastructure projects advocated for by Cairns Regional Council, TTNQ, Advance Cairns and others. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms Entsch reaffirmed the LNP’s “adult time for adult crime” line, running through the Coalition’s tough policies it will implement, if elected.

But she refused to back the proposed $25m high performance centre to be located at West Barlow Park, which has received supported from Cairns Regional Council and key advocacy groups.

Asked if her party would match Labor’s $10m funding commitment for TTNQ, Ms Entsch didn’t provide answer.

In closing, Mr Healy challenged the LNP candidate to match one of Labor’s other major election promises, a $45m common user hangar to be built at Cairns Airport.

“What I can commit to is addressing the youth crime crisis which you continue to ignore,” Ms Entsch said to applause from the audience.

‘THAT’S YOUR FAULT’

The main candidates for Barron River renewed hostilities with a typically tense discussion over the acquisition of a treasured coastal headland, campaign donations, the Kuranda Range, Wangetti Trail and even parking in Palm Cove.

The bitter repartee between the ALP incumbent Craig Crawford and the LNP’s Bree James sparked plenty of audience interaction with the pair sharing little common ground on key issues.

Member for Barron River Craig Crawford and LNP candidate Bree James were divided on most issues discussed at the debate. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms James took the Far North MP to task for failing to buy Taylor Point, located on Cairns’ northern beaches when he had the chance, with the 18ha property believed to have been snapped up by a private buyer.

“It’s been on the open market the whole time you’ve been in power,” she said.

“If you were that passionate about it, why didn’t you do the compulsory acquisition or purchase it?

“I set the challenge for you in February, to buy it off realestate.com.au, or whatever you want to do, it should’ve been done before the election.”

Mr Crawford said he still believed he could broker a deal, if re-elected on October 26.

“The situation with Taylor Point is this - a person up there proclaims to be the owner of Taylor Point and we are not necessarily convinced of that,” he said.

“We will wait and see what occurs in that space. We have a $10m election commitment which includes acquisition of that site and any change left over from that we’ll put into rebuilding that site.

“We will acquire that site using the powers of government for compulsory acquisition if we need to, and we’ll do that from whoever it is that own it.”

Should the public no longer be able to access the site, the Member for Barron River was to blame, Ms James said.

“The only problem we’ve got now is whether the community is going to have access to it, and if they don’t, that’s your fault.”

A lukewarm commitment from Opposition Leader David Crisafulli to fund the completion of the $47m Wangetti Trail was seized on by Mr Crawford.

But Ms James argued that the project was already “over time and over budget”.

Voters head to the ballot boxes across the Far North on Saturday, October 26.

CANDIDATES IN ATTENDANCE

Mulgrave

Richie Bates (ALP), Yodie Batzke (Independent), Nicholas Daniels (Legalise Cannabis), Steve Lesina (KAP), Terry James (LNP)

Barron River

Craig Crawford (ALP), Bree James (LNP)

Cairns

Michael Healy (ALP), Geena Court (One Nation), Shane Cuthbert (Independent), Yolonde Entsch (LNP) Josh Holt (Greens)

Originally published as Far North candidates debate exposes political divide over region’s future