On election day, Mike from Cairnsblog vows to soldier on with his online independent journalism.  

I've been looking forward to writing this column.

It signals the end of the line for questioning and battling what we see as this local Council's inability and incompetence to work with the people.

I started this exercise only mid last year, and was spurred to do so from many far from satisfactory interactions with the Cairns City Council.

Mike from Cairnsblog makes his judgement in the Cairns Council race.

I was looking through the files, and saw some interesting leaflets that I thought I'd share.

I moved to Cairns just before the 2000 election, and quickly settled into Yorkeys Knob. There were promises from Big Kev that he would deal with the Northern Beaches access roads if he was elected. They have a history of flooding and blocking residents in almost every wet season.

Mike from Cairnsblog laments the reluctance of the local paper to take the council to task... 

A few weeks ago, I bought to attention the substantial list of donations to Kevin Byrne's Unity party in 2004.

Then I came across these press clippings (below) from the Cairns Sun in 2000. These are interesting, given the current debate about political donations and affiliations, in light of the Mayor steadfastly refusing to declare if his interest recorded, are correct.

Norman Miller, independent candidate for the Cairns Regional Council for Division 4 said that there were accidents waiting to happen in Cairns because of road safety issues.

“Council needs to take action on accidents waiting to happen” said Mr Miller. Residents in Div 4 have expressed fears that sometimes they risk their lives backing out onto the street from their own homes. Traffic calming measures are required urgently in areas of Kanimbla for example to slow down drivers who are speeding.”