Cairns council elections: Trevor Tim wins hard fought Div 4 over Jeremy Neal

Cairns’ seventh councillor has been declared as the votes for Division 4 are finalised, leaving two seats on council and Cairns’ Mayor yet to be formally declared. Meet the new councillor.

Mayoral candidate Amy Eden with Division 4 candidate Trevor Tim. Picture: Supplied

Cairns’s seventh member of council has been officially declared after Team Eden candidate Trevor Tim was elected as councillor for Division 4.

Mr Tim beat out incumbent Councillor Jeremy Neal in an extremely close count.

A host on National Indigenous Radio Service’s National Talkback show, Trevor has been a Cairns resident for 45 years and has four children and four grandchildren.

“I’m very very excited. It was Team Eden but now I’m Team Cairns,” he said.

Mr Tim called for all the councillors to now come together for the future.

“We all have to come together as one, we ran as independents or as part of teams but now we need to get it together, together.

“I’m really excited about the future and the people at the table, and now it’s a team effort for the people of Cairns.”

Division 4 candidate Trevor Tim. Picture: Supplied

Mr Tim said he looked forward to bringing his people-first approach to the role.

“I’m a people person. I've been campaigning all my life in the tourism industry, in youth work … played all my football with the school here, so it’s just business as usual. (I’m) looking forward to meeting new friends and being a voice at the table for them (the community),” he said

“We are dealing with people here, not product.

“I have two ears and one mouth and I’ll use them in that order with an open heart to listen to the concerns and visions of the constituents of Division 4.

“It’s a new chapter and I have got to do the role.”

While Mr Tim received 2590 or 30.40 per cent of votes, less than Jeremy Neal with 2750 votes at 32.29 per cent, he has been declared the winner thanks to the distribution of preferences.

The official distribution of preferences remains under way, but Mr Tim received the majority of votes, according to the Electoral Commission of Queensland.

Mr Tim said he had a lot of respect for Mr Neal.

“Thoughts to him and his family, our wives worked alongside each other at the booths and got on very well,” he said.

“It fell in my favour, but I’m capable of doing the job.”

Mr Neal was whisked into the Division 4 seat in January after the ascension of Terry James to the position of mayor left the seat empty.

The Cairns Regional Council tried to appoint a Division 4 councillor on December 21, but the meeting descended into chaos; the agenda item did not progress past the first nominee when a conflict of interest issue reared its head and the matter was rescheduled.

Unity Team Division 4 candidate Jeremy Neal. Picture: Brendan Radke

The result leaves two council seats yet to be declared in Division 2 and 5, and the official declaration of Mayor.

In Division 2 Mathew Tickner is well ahead with 33.13 per cent of the vote, ahead of John Shilling, who holds 17.42 per cent, with almost 75 per cent of votes counted in the division.

Rob Pyne is currently leading in Division 5 with 29.99 per cent of the vote, ahead of Nathan Lee Long and Emma Gelling who have 24.19 and 24.61 per cent of the vote respectively, with 63.93 per cent of the votes counted.

Mr Tim will join Division 7 elect Anna Middleton as first time councillors and will sit on council with re-elected members Brett Moller for Division 1, Cathy Zeiger for Division 3, Kristy Vallely in Division 6, and Rhonda Coughlan and Brett Olds in Divisions 8 and 9.

Originally published as Cairns council elections: Trevor Tim wins hard fought Div 4 over Jeremy Neal