by Mat Churchill

Mayor Val Schier is defending her position that the Cairns Regional Council's State Budget wish list can be "ticked off" even though the Douglas region received minimal direct funding.

“I think we can say that this budget ticks all the boxes," she said. "I had four major items on my wishlist for this State budget -  maintenance of existing services, more tourism and events funding and commitments to the Cairns Entertainment Precinct and Lake Street revelopment projects .

"I also advocated strongly for the inclusion of the Port Douglas Waterfront Masterplan in the forward budget estimates.

Mayor Schier said that increased funding in events will create an economic boost to Douglas.

"First and foremost, I believe the doubling in events funding will be a direct benefit to the Douglas area. The Regional Event Development Program in particular has been the source of funding for a number of events in the Douglas area in the past, including Carnivale and will provide $20,000 for the Croc Trophy this year. This fund will increase by $600,000 and will help develop new events in the Douglas region such as the (Great Barrier Reef) Marathon.
 
"Secondly, maintenance of State Government services such as health, education and main roads benefits us all. It's a very tough budget and ensuring that services were not cut was my priority for this region."

She added that funding was not sought for the Port Douglas lagoon as plans had not progressed far enough to submit a firm proposal.
 
"I carefully considered putting forward a capital funding bid for the waterfront implementation to be in this budget, however, given that we are still in the consultation phase and have not yet finalised a site for the lagoon I felt it was too early in the process for the state to include this in this year's budget.

"Next year, when we have a lagoon site and firm plans, the waterfront implementation will be top of my list for a concrete dollar commitment from the State.

Mayor Schier denied that Port Douglas had been neglected in terms of infrastructure.

"I think Port Douglas has some of the best infrastructure of any part of the Cairns Region, especially when you take population into consideration and this is because of the great contribution we know Port makes to the tourism industry.

"In terms of maintenance of streetscapes, Port recieves the highest level of service becuase we realise the importance of the area looking immaculate all year round.

"As for what infrastructure is missing, my commitment to the waterfront upgrade is clear and I have put in a bid for an evacuation centre in Port. I'm happy to hear community suggestions of what infrastructure is missing  or needs upgrading, but I certainly wouldn't say Port is "neglected"."

However Federal Member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, told The Newsport that Port Douglas' infrastructure had very little to do with Council intervention.

"It's all been privately funded. What has this Council done? They chlorinated the water, we haven't got a hospital yet.

"When I look at what's in there (the State Budget), there's $28 million for a mall upgrade in Cairns. How many people is that going to bring into our region? It's not going to bring in squat, not squat.

"Rather than doing little feel-good projects that benefit a few, we need to be a little bit more visionary and doing things that will kickstart the economy.

"If they really want to do something that would acutally start to do something for the economy the lagoon is a must.

"You've got our one-term Mayor running around talking about a $250 million precinct with a performing arts centre which will seat 1,000 people. That's going to do bugger all for our region."