Queensland State Election | Week 3 Wrap Up

WEEK 3 WRAP UP

We are well and truly getting to the business end of the State Election campaign, with only one week remaining until official polling day next Saturday 31 October. However, due to COVID health advice recommending early voting, pre-polling commenced earlier than usual from Monday, which has seen record numbers of voters already heading to the ballot box in this first week.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland has placed the seat of Townsville in the top five electorates with the highest level of early votes. According to the Courier Mail, the statewide average as at the end of day two of early voting, was 7.73 per cent of enrolment. That equates to 262,915 voters of 3,397,420 million. At the other end of the scale, the electorates with the lowest early votes so far include our region's seats of Mundingburra, Thuringowa and Hinchinbrook. To find your nearest voting centre or polling booth click here.

Townsville was once again a hive of political activity across the week, with the Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington in the city for the third time in as many weeks and the second time Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has visited. The Premier and Opposition Leader crisscrossed each other around Townsville as they made announcements to road infrastructure and crime respectively.

This week we also welcomed another bipartisan commitment to our platform of priorities, with the LNP committing $50M towards boosting the destination marketing efforts of the 13 Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs). This joins the $15M announced by the ALP towards RTO's last weekend as a part of the $74M tourism recovery policy over four years. Bipartisan commitments to Regional Tourism Organisations will ensure we can bolster our destination markets efforts to attract visitation and support the rebuild of our battered tourism industry.

We were pleased to attend the Townsville Chamber of Commerce "Meet the Candidates" event on Tuesday morning which was attended by nearly all candidates from the seats of Townsville, Mundingburra, Thuringowa and Hinchinbrook. Questions put to candidates were based around business and commerce, with their responses including party commitments to payroll, local procurement and decentralisation. Well done to the Chamber for hosting such an informative and valuable election event!

Please scroll down to view what was announced this week and in the final week of the election campaign we will complete a final summary of all announcements.

Download your copy of the Townsville North Queensland 'Unlock the North' Projects & Policies Platform HERE

WHO WAS HERE THIS WEEK?

• Premier Annastacia Palaszuzuk
• Opposition Leader, Deb Frecklington
• Treasurer, Cameron Dick
• Katter's Australian Party Leader, Robbie Katter
• Police Minister, Mark Ryan
• Transport & Main Roads Minister, Mark Bailey
• Shadow State Development Minister, Andrew Powell

WHAT DID THEY ANNOUNCE?

ALP

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk begun the week on the Gold Coast before travelling north to Townsville to make an announcement at Giru. Across the week the Premier announced:

• $74M 'Rebuilding Queensland Tourism' policy including $15M over four years to boost Regional Tourism Organisations' destination marketing
• $40M towards protecting the Great Barrier Reef and other natural assets, including $3.9M to develop world-class ‘sailing trails’ around Townsville and the Whitsundays, $6M for ecotourism, and $10.1M for National Parks and World Heritage Areas
• $1B second Bruce Highway from Charters Towers to Mungindi as an inland freight corridor
• $140M Small Business Strategy to help regional exporters expand and develop their markets
• $880M Keeping Queensland Working campaign (including $400M for Works for Queensland infrastructure projects across 65 regional councils over the next six years)
• $500K for a feasibility study to investigate the suitability of turning Townsville's 1300Smiles Stadium into a multi-agency emergency service headquarters
• $21M towards free TAFE courses and apprenticeships for under 25s for in-demand jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, early childhood education, aviation, electrical and automotive, costing
• $40M for advanced manufacturing hubs to grow Queensland‘s manufacturing capabilities

Labor announcements HERE

LNP

LNP Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington started the third week of the campaign in the South East before moving north to Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns, announcing for our region:

• $30M towards the construction of Big Rocks Weir at Charters Towers
• $50M towards boosting Regional Tourism Organisations' destination marketing
• Introduce trial curfew laws in Townsville and Cairns (8pm for youths aged 14 and under and 10pm for youths aged 15-17)
• Released 'New Bradfield Scheme' concept fly over vision
• $19M for Riverway Drive Stage 2
• $4.2M CT Scanner at Ingham Hospital
• $1M upgrade of Ayr Rugby Park facilities and just over $750K for Burdekin Rugby Union to build and upgrade their facilities

LNP announcements HERE

KAP

Across the week, Katter's Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter travelled from the North West reaches of Georgetown to Townsville, announcing and reiterating:

• Repeal of Queensland’s reef regulations and tree clearing laws
• Mandatory labelling in dining venues declaring if seafood has been imported
• Relocation Sentencing Policy

KAP Policy Platform HERE

 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

UNLOCK THE NORTH: VIDEO SERIES

As part of our Unlock the North Federal Budget and State Election advocacy activities, we have been promoting a series of videos showcasing all corners of North and North West Queensland and how key projects and policies will create jobs in the region and support the state and nation's long-term economic recovery and resilience.

The video series highlights the priority projects, challenges and opportunities across the North's broad industry base, including interviews with regional mayors and the perspectives of industry leaders. So far 10 videos have been produced and viewed more than 10,000 times.

Check out the videos below, which include the 'Unlock the North' Parliament House Delegation, North West Queensland Road Trip, Hinchinbrook EcoTourism, Destination Development, Charters Towers: Big Rocks Weir, and Burdekin Growth Opportunities.

LEADERS DEBATE

Sky News Australia and The Courier-Mail will host Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington at the People’s Forum next Wednesday 28 October from 4pm. The two leaders will take questions from a group of undecided voters in Brisbane just three days before the October 31 election and can be watched on Sky News and Sky News on WIN.

**NATIONAL CABINET UPDATE**

National Cabinet resumed for the first time in five weeks today, with all States and Territories (except Western Australia) "agreeing in principle with the reopening framework of domestic borders for Australia by Christmas" according to the Prime Minister. Each state will have different open dates, decided by the individual state governments.

This is welcomed news for our tourism and hospitality industry, as whilst Queenslanders have done a great job supporting the local industry, this is not a sustainable model moving forward. To meaningfully get back to business, and support the 8,000 jobs that rely on the tourism sector, we do need to see the Queensland borders reopen.

Interstate visitors are our region's high value traveller market, who spend a longer amount of time visiting and tend to spend more. More broadly, the business community will embrace borders reopening, enabling skills attraction in critical industries across the region which have been struggling to fill placements during the pandemic.