Mayor Danielle Slade wants the prime minister to consider taxation incentives to get people to live in remote areas like North West Queensland.
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Cr Slade met prime minister Scott Morrison and other federal ministers in Cloncurry last week and impressed upon him the difficulties of affordable living in the regions.
"I made the point to the prime minister that if I buy or invest in Mount Isa and he bought a house in Brisbane, in 20 years time when I sell my home I may make $100,000, while he'll triple his investment," Cr Slade said.
"We've got to even the playing ground. I suggested whether it's a tax zone allowance for people to live in this region or something similar that actively gives an incentive to move and live here and takes the sting out of expensive flights to the region."
Cr Slade met the prime minister at the official function at Cloncurry's Florence Clark Park before having a breakfast meeting with him and other mayors the following morning.
"What was great was that I received an invite from Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell and he invited every mayor in the North West so we met him (the PM) later in the evening at the function and then we had a good hour for breakfast," she said.
"The one thing that Cloncurry did well was get us all together because we have a lot of common challenges."
Cr Slade said all local councils had declining populations.
"Our ability to attract people to the regions and keep them here has been extremely tough for 10 years maybe longer," she said.
"One of the challenges is in health, convincing health professionals to come and live here, housing was a big issue, quality affordable housing is something that does attract people to come here."
Cr Slade said the prime minister listened attentively to local concerns.
"He actually took out his notebook, he didn't have anyone scribing for him," she said.
"We also had Keith Pitt, the minister for Northern Australia, and (agriculture) minister David Littleproud and (transport) minister Scott Buchholz so we really had the ear of federal government."
The difficulty will be ensuring follow up actions, a point the mayor acknowledged.
"It's tough because Mount Isa is not drought-declared and we weren't involved in the floods and that was his focus on that tour, keeping a promise he had made," Cr Slade said.
"I did invite them to come to Mount Isa and they said 'send us an invite' so that's what we are doing as a council, we'll invite them to Mount Isa and we are also going to highlight the celebrations for the 100 years in 2023."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
