Qlddecides team member Jason Wilson casts an eye over Labor's new attack ads on Campbell Newman in Brisbane, and the transport issues that have come to dominate local politics here.
It's no surprise that transport is emerging as the key policy
battleground in Brisbane during this local election campaign. The city
has grown at an unprecedented speed in the last decade, and the strain
on transport corridors and infrastructure has been obvious for some
time.
Campbell Newman ran hard on Brisbane's transport woes in 2004,
promising tunnels and road improvement to unblock Brisbane's arteries.
This was in contrast to the Soorley administration's focus on public
transport, and was laser-targeted at commuters' growing frustration
with the twice-daily ordeal of making their way home to the suburbs
along roads like the Ipswich Motorway and Kelvin Grove Road.
All candidates
in the Gold Coast City Council elections now have the opportunity to show where
they stand on planning and other issues through a "Residents' Questionnaire"
launched at Currumbin today.
The Currumbin
Residents' Action Group joined with the Broadbeach Action Group and other
community groups across the Coast to release the questionnaire "in
response to growing frustration and residents' concerns about a current
imbalance in the existing Council planning regime".
Spokesperson for
the Currumbin group, Jack McGregor, said residents were "sick and tired of
having to run large-scale campaigns to oppose deficient development
applications that should not have come close to being considered for approval
in the first place."
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman will make it easier for elderly people to
remain in their own neighbourhoods by establishing a special Retirement
and Aged Care Taskforce, if he is re-elected with a Can Do Council team
on March 15.
The Lord Mayor said the Taskforce would review the town plan and
industry requirements to find ways to establish retirement and
aged-care homes in each ward, and closer to the CBD.
Cr Newman said the Taskforce would address an increasingly tragic
scenario being played out across the city – that of elderly people
being forced away from their neighbourhoods when they could no longer
look after themselves or when they want to downsize into a retirement
village.
Cairns council candidate Rob Pyne makes his pitch on YouTube as part of what he's calling his "grassroots" campaign. Trivia buffs might be interested to note that Rob's father was long-serving Cairns mayor, Tom Pyne.
All candidates
in the Gold Coast City Council elections now have the opportunity to show where
they stand on planning and other issues through a "Residents' Questionnaire"
launched at Currumbin today.
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman will make it easier for elderly people to
remain in their own neighbourhoods by establishing a special Retirement
and Aged Care Taskforce, if he is re-elected with a Can Do Council team
on March 15.
