Forum drives FNQ industries

Regional Community Forum comes to town

Rowan Anderson

Journalist

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MP’s, Ministers and community members come together for a better future. Image: supplied

Far North Queensland hosted a Regional Community Forum last week with great success.

Bringing people together to meet with Ministers and MP’s, the forum was co-chaired by member for Cairns Michael Healy, member for Cook Cynthia Lui and member for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt.

Mr Healy spoke passionately about what these forums did for regions such as the one he represents. 

“Without any doubt these forums are vitally important because they pull together people from so many different parts of our community.

“From what I understand we are the only state in the Commonwealth that has these regional forums.”

Regional Community Forums were also held in Townsville, Mackay, Longreach, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Toowoomba. A sign of the importance of including all regions of our state in the planning for the future.

“Each region is different,” Mr Healy said. “In Cairns and North Queensland we are getting people from a range of industries including manufacturing, education, tourism sector, and retailers to talk in detail and identify the challenges that we face.”

With members coming from a range of industries it allowed for greater positive and effective progress across the region, as the Cairns MP added.

“The forums allow for greater delivery of services at a state level – providing services in South East Queensland is quite different to doing so in rural and regional parts of the great state of Queensland.”

Filtered through to Government

Since 2019 the Regional Community Forums have allowed the views and opinions of participants to be filtered through to the Government.

The importance of strengthening the regions through the industry is vital as well as the role that the Government plays in ensuring this happens.

“These forums allow the flow of information and are another great example of the way in which our Government engages with the community at varying levels,” Mr Healy said.

“It’s important that the Government listens to the regions and it provides them with the ability to deliver what is fundamentally required.

“It is another opportunity to refine and articulate a regional message directly into Cabinet.”

Key platform

The Member for Cook Cynthia Lui echoed MP Healy’s comments and support of events like the Forum.

“The Far North Queensland Regional Community Forum provides a key platform for its members to discuss issues, priorities and challenges that are unique to our region.

“The FNQ Regional Community Forum membership consists of a diverse range of professionals who have expertise in small business, tourism, arts, community services and health.

“Hearing first-hand from locals is invaluable, as they provide government decision makers with great insight and understanding of the issues that are unique to our region. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, this process feeds into government decision making that is tailored to meet the needs of our region, thus ensuring effective outcomes and benefits for our communities.”

Great outcomes

State MP for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt supported the importance of these forums.

“In Far North Queensland, we’ve seen some great outcomes from the forums to date, increasing engagement with Local Government and Queensland Government departments.

“It’s essential the Far North Queensland forum continues to reflect the community it serves and that’s why I’m pleased to welcome new forum members, who are so eager to play a bigger role in shaping the future of this region.”

The Forum’s agenda included areas of interest along with and the development of a new region-specific action plan, guided by the priorities of forum members.

A session followed which reflected on the recent Queensland Workforce Summit to close out the event.

Collaboration around the table with elected leaders and business leaders. Image: supplied

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