Affordable housing, liveability of the regions, youth crime, water infrastructure and education opportunities were on the menu when the three party candidates for Traeger engaged in debate in Cloncurry on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Organised by the North West Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils and moderated by the North West Star's Derek Barry and the ABC's Krystal Gordon, the debate brought together incumbent MP Robbie Katter with challengers from the LNP, Marnie Smith and the ALP's James Bambrick (Independent candidate Craig Scriven was unable to attend).
In front of an audience of North West mayors and CEOs, the candidates had the opportunity to give a five minute introduction and two minute wrap-up in between an hour of questions, which was conducted in a cordial manner with no interruptions and a lot of agreement on what the issues were.
Mr Katter used his opening remarks to point out his success in parliament on reducing the remote pub licence and said he was continuing to fight for Blue Card applications to be assessed by community groups on a 'case-by-case' basis because the current 'one size fits all' approach prevents locals from obtaining employment. He also pointed to recent good news for the Isa copper smelter and CopperString funding.
Ms Smith talked about the importance of water infrastructure and pledged support for Big Rocks Weir and the Hughenden Irrigation Scheme, She also vowed to work hard to improved health services across the electorate.
Mr Bambrick said he was delighted the Premier started her election campaign in Mount Isa and pointed out Labor's funding commitments for mining projects and CopperString. He also supported the revised Bradfield Scheme to divert water west.
There were several questions about the difficulty of getting housing in the region due to a shortage of houses plus the reluctance of banks to lend to the regions and there was broad agreement more needed to be done to make housing loans easier and more power to councils to solve their own housing issues either directly or through some sort of regional development bank as proposed by the KAP. Mr Katter said it was unacceptable people only needed a 10pc deposit to buy a house on the coast but needed up to 40pc in places like the Gulf.
On youth crime, Mr Katter again brought up relocation sentencing while Ms Smith questions the efficacy of existing schemes and said many children were allowed to go off the rails. Mr Bambrick pointed out crime had actually fallen 30% in Mount Isa thanks to collaborative work between governments, the PCYC and local support groups. The Labor party opposes relocating sentencing.
On education Ms Smith said she would like to see something in Mount Isa like Mackay's resource centre of excellence while Mr Bambrick supported Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade for a university campus to be set up in the city.
When asked what how to stop the long term decline of the population of Mount Isa, Mr Katter admitted it was difficult to solve. He said declining populations was a problem across rural centres west of the divide. He suggested more needed to be done to provide opportunities and jobs and projects like CopperString would help create mining jobs through cheaper energy costs. He also said the area's remoteness has been turned into a positive with its distance from the worst effects of the pandemic.
Ms Smith said she moved to Mount Isa with her husband for resource jobs but like all cities it needed good education opportunities to attract families and they then needed the jobs in the region that flowed out of whatever education they did receive to stay in the regions.
Mr Bambrick agreed with both the candidates and added affordable housing was also important.
READ ALSO: NW Hospitals test positive for legionella
While you are here, subscribe to our weekly email delivered to your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.