Tonight I rise to share some great news and great wins that my team and I have had for the residents of Barron River. Some are big wins, like the funding for the Barron River bridge and the Smithfield mountain-biking trail.
Some wins may seem small in reality but are huge for those whose lives are being impacted.
One such win was achieved in helping two lovely constituents in my region, Cheryl and John, with a stolen licence plate concern that they had been trying to sort out for 12 months. It was causing them immense stress as the fines kept coming in, but my amazing team sorted it in a matter of weeks and cleared their name.
Then there was the family in Holloways Beach who lost so much during the Jasper floods and were then going to be charged $10,000 to $30,000 by Ergon to fix a power pole on their property. Getting this fee waived was a huge win, as was getting an extension of the generators for the Kamerunga Villas, which are still on generator power 18 months after Jasper.
The Trinity Beach State School is another great story. This school community had been campaigning for five years for a new school fence to improve community safety, but it fell on deaf ears.
My team campaigned for 10 months and we got this over the line last week, which was really exciting.
Another proud win was the $1.45 million investment into a second paediatric cardiologist and cardiology support services for Far North Queensland to support the amazing Dr Ben. That was thanks to the advocacy of local mother Tegan Catalano, who shone a light on the huge waitlist Far North Queensland families were facing. I was proud to help her.
Marlin Coast Neighbourhood Centre received a Skilling Queenslanders for Work grant. Sharing the news with their team—Prue, Alison and Philippa—left us all looking like someone was chopping onions nearby. It was a really beautiful moment.
Much-deserving sporting clubs received grants such as the Cairns Wake Park, Marlin Coast football club, Stratford Dolphins Football Club and Pace Running. Another huge win was the funding to support the council to start major repairs from the Jasper floods that were neglected by the former government, including fixing up Lake Placid and a new bridge for Holloways Beach.
I could list many more local wins, but I only have three minutes. I want to thank the Premier and the ministers for their visits to Far North Queensland and for their help with so many issues that my team and I contact them about daily. Many stakeholders in our region say that they have never had so many visits from ministers, so thank you so much for caring about the regions.
People ask me all the time why I wanted to be a member of parliament. This is why. Fighting for funding and for outcomes for Far North Queensland is my job. As much of it is relentless and the
mountain of problems left to us by the former government is huge, wins like these, big and small, are what make it all worthwhile. After 10 years of decline under Labor, we are 10 months into delivering for Queensland.
I am proud of the work we have done to date, but there is a lot more to do. This is just the beginning and I am just getting warmed up.
