Last week I had a few days off and went down to Townsville for a long weekend.
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Barely minutes after checking into our apartment we bumped into a Mount Isa couple when we went for a walk.
We joked about how Townsville was really "Mount Isa on Sea", a mere nine hour jaunt away to feel the ocean breeze.
But it got me thinking about the connection points between Mount Isa and Townsville, the nearest big city.
They are the Flinders Hwy, the Mount Isa-Townsville rail line and flights between the two airports and each have their issues.
You better not be in a hurry if you are using the road at the moment as there are plenty of roadworks especially near Julia Creek and Charters Towers.
It's good, money is being invested into it,but more needs to be done especially in the choke points at either end (CT to Townsville and Cloncurry to Mount Isa) where there is still too much product being moved on wheels.
Which brings me to the rail line which is the main conduit for mining and agricultural producers in North West Queensland to gain access to domestic and international markets.
The state government says it has a $500 million plan to boost mineral freight exports on the Mount Isa line, and that includes maintaining and improving the line but Robbie Katter wants the Queensland Competition Authority to implement a pricing framework that makes rail line usage a viable option for business.
The LNP doesn't appear to have a plan for the line except to dress it up in terms of general economic stimulus.
As for flights, well I've been a broken record for five years about how expensive they are and the withdrawal of Virgin from its Cloncurry routes won't help there.
Qantas has helped with residents' fares but the federal inquiry has done little to improve the situation providing Labor with a useful stick to beat the federal government with though unsurprisingly the LNP blames the state government.
Robbie Katter says starting point is visibility on pricing, so we can at least prove we are being ripped off. Then he says, the government needs to either subsidise shuttle runs to major centres or introduce more regulated routes.