Media Release 31 January 2024
EVER WONDER why two Australians in three live in our capital cities?
It’s all about jobs. Jobs that pay serious money, with serious career paths and mouth-watering opportunities for promotion.
After 12 years of a Unity controlled Cairns Council, it’s clear our tourism and retail sectors cannot alone fuel the growth we need to become a truly great Australian city.
Team Eden — our six Divisional candidates, plus me as Mayor — believe it’s time for Cairns to mature.
We have too few 21st Century jobs, Some — but never enough — high powered businesses in cutting edge, big growth areas of the future economy we need to have.
Many of our restaurants are closed by 9pm — even in our tourist mecca Northern Beaches. Much of our CBD is deserted by nightfall. Safety, a part of that, which I’ll talk about in more detail over the coming weeks.
So, what are we going to do?
Everything possible to ensure museums, galleries and tourist venues, for example, are open until much later at night. Ditto for bars and restaurants.
We’re going to look at night-time childcare to make it easier for key front line hospitality, health, transport and other shift workers to actually work at night.
We’re also going to pull out all stops to attract exciting start-ups to Cairns.
But we’re not going to pick winners ourselves. We’d be terrible at that.
We’re going to partner with Venture Capitalists — whose core business — whose survival — depends on finding young businesses that can produce substantial and rapid growth.
If those ventures were looking to set up in Cairns, we’ll entice them with appropriate incentives.
We’ll also work to partner with our Universities and others to turbocharge this exciting co-investment business model.
Cairns official growth forecasts are about one quarter more residents in the next quarter of a century.
Not enough, we say. A much bigger Cairns has its challenges — infrastructure amongst them — but we’ll also be a more vibrant, more exciting city, bustling with successful businesses and nightlife.
A true regional capital.
I and my team believe it’s time for Cairns to mature. Time for a fresh, new team. Time for fresh, new ideas. Time for change.
–ENDS—
