ROC Chair, Kerr on right track with ambitious agenda
OPINION
I am yet to meet the Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr, but I am impressed with his willingness to take on some issues in his other role as Chairman of the Regional Organisation of Councils.
No doubt this role comes with a level of frustration that he might not have expected. Understanding the relationships and responsibilities for policy and development between State and Federal Governments requires magician like abilities so I wish him well in prosecuting his and the ROC agenda.
A number of us have been calling for years for a review of the State Government’s FNQ Regional Plan which as the name suggests is meant to guide all local governments and community advocacy outfits as to the direction of how a particular region will likely grow and develop in the short to medium term.
That the ROC has picked up on this crucial issue is welcome. These plans need to be achievable, and ideally arrived at in a collaborative manner, but importantly contain the flexibility to pivot and change when required, particularly when we talk about essential infrastructure. Let's address this issue as a consequence of recent publicity.
The recent release of the Dept of Transport study into options of the Cairns/Tablelands link (aka Kuranda Range Road) released last week created a firestorm of commentary from the usual suspects, much of it ill considered.
This immediately after the safety issues regarding the Kuranda Bridge were addressed at great inconvenience. DMR planning is rightly predicated on usage and vehicle numbers and currently the numbers were never going to be in a bulls roar supporting immediate action.
In this case the only outcome that will work is the Kuranda Range Road, with the odd change to alignment to be reclassified as an addition to the roads of national significance.
This requires a bipartisan commitment from both Governments and to fund it based on the social and economic need and the project requires essential final design funding now.
As soon as this is done it will be a matter of agreeing to the upgrade funding ($800M) and getting on with the job. Alternative suggesting the existing Quaid Road upgrade and the suggested Bridle Track option are the stuff of fantasy.
The other issue is water and the storage, responsibility and distribution of it. It has generally been accepted that local governments are responsible for the storage, treatment and distribution of water within their boundaries and on occasion will source and pay for water from elsewhere as needed.
The CRC had planned to buy water from the mysterious Nullinga Dam mirage via an agreed allocation. Nullinga Dam planning has been dogged for decades by intransigent State Governments and local irrigator and grower opposition to likely bulk water costs on completion. There has to be a better way as the issue is stifling growth.
In this context it’s useful to understand the burr under the saddlebag of the Mayor of Cairns and his demands of the Federal and State Governments to sharing the costs of the CRC Mulgrave River $222M project on the spurious basis that both Governments have funded water security for Townsville.
In the case of Townsville, the funding is for infrastructure outside the Townsville boundaries and delivers water from the Burdekin and Haughton Rivers to the Ross River Dam inside the city boundary which presumably will be bought at some cost by the TCC from Sunwater and on sold to ratepayers through their water charges.
In this case it would appear that there was no plan B for Cairns in relation to bulk water should the decades long Nullinga planning come to nought.
It is a stretch to draw a similarity between the two and both State and Federal governments would be loathe to set a precedent that would unleash the floodgates where local governments everywhere would demand similar financial largesse.
There has to be some consistency in this area. Local Government has mechanisms in place through water rates recovery to recoup the costs of essential water infrastructure.
Kevin Byrne is a former Mayor of Cairns