By Margaret Maccoll
Techno wizard Phillip Jenkins is projecting his dreams through politics in his new role as Noosa and Hinterland Greens State Government candidate.
Voted in unanimously, the former Western Australian entrepreneur who admits to being a disillusioned Liberal voter was compelled to enter politics after seeing the destructive environmental scars being left on the landscape by mining.
“I used to live in Gladstone, used to go crabbing. Now it’s two gas ports. It brings tears to your eyes to see what they’re done, what they’ve done to the waterways. It’s upsetting.
“I’m all for development, but if we don’t have clean water and clean land we don’t live.”
Phillip was born in 1953, and he and his wife, Carol, have two daughters.
In 1990, Phillip began a business known as Audio Visual Consulting from his home, and based his business on experience rather than formal training.
In 2000, he established a software development business, PIVoD (Permanent installation Video on Demand), making control systems to manage multimedia presentations in museums and libraries.
The company won contracts for controlling and distributing multimedia to kiosks and exhibits at cultural institutions such as the Ontario Science Centre in Canada, the King Abdul Aziz Historical Centre in Saudi Arabia, and Museum Victoria’s Scienceworks exhibition.
Phillip built PIVoD up to be one of the most prominent players worldwide in the media streaming and control business. The business employed more than 80 computer scientists and had three offices in Australia as well as offices in the USA, the Netherlands, and Dubai.
Phillip sold the company in 2007. Over the past 10 years, Phillip has served as a director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, the SciTech Discovery Centre in Perth, and the Alternative Technology Association in Melbourne.
Here in Noosa, Phillip provides management consulting services to both large and small businesses.
Regarded as one of the world’s highest profile designers, Phillip dreams up an audio visual concept for clients, then makes the contractual arrangements with electronics engineers, computer engineers, architects, computer programmers and interior designers around the world to bring it together.
He also designs and sells fine timber furniture from a small workshop in the Noosaville industrial estate.
Phillip is a keen sportsman and enjoys our wonderful Noosa life to the full. He’s an avid golfer and plays weekly. He’s also a keen cyclist who rides with a number of groups in Noosa. In June this year, he rode his bike, solo, from Rome to Paris via the Alps.
Noosa and Hinterland Greens last Friday launched their State Government election campaign with endorsed candidate Phillip Jenkins.
Campaign manager Ahri Tallon said the party needed people like Phillip with real life experience able to listen to the concerns of the people of Noosa and have the ability to problem solve.
Phillip believes a Greens representative in government would be in a position to use the balance of power to Noosa’s advantage. Phillip believes that the next Queensland government will once again be closely divided with neither major party being able to form government in its own right without the support of the cross bench.
“This creates a great opportunity and great leverage for Noosa,” he said.
He aims to use the balance of power to bring state resources to support major local issues identified as the hospital, the TAFE, Beckman’s Road, local small business, and the Noosa River.
