Tourism Noosa’s members-only election forum at the Noosa Boathouse on Tuesday contained no surprises and continued its selective approach to the dissemination of information, by banning recording and photography during the candidate presentations and brief Q and A with the Courier-Mail’s Kylie Lang.
Fortunately for the media, the candidates stuck mostly to the script, which was their written responses to three questions about their attitudes to tourism, already sent to members, published in full on social media and summarised elsewhere in this edition of Noosa Today.
However on the kind of sun-splashed morning that Noosa is famous for, mayoral candidate Nick Hluszko couldn’t help himself when he amiably opened proceedings with: “I’m Nick Hluszko and I live over there,” pointing to his North Shore river frontage, then hurriedly following up with, “But I’m not going to stand here and prattle along about me.”
The essence of Mr Hluszko’s five-minute precis of his written responses was that Noosa was deeply in trouble and there was no destination management plan that was representative and accountable enough to get us out of it.
Candidate Ingrid Jackson followed her written submission, calling for detailed expert analysis and assessment of how Tourism Noosa funding was being allocated, diverting only briefly to tell the members that her son now lived in Bali, which had been destroyed by tourism and should be a lesson noted.
Candidate John Morrall carried his cheery and self-confident countenance into this, his third or fourth election pitch in a week or so, but seemed a little light on for detail on the specifics of Tourism Noosa’s role, which he had also conceded honestly in his written submission.
Mayoral candidate Frank Wilkie prefaced his remarks about a necessary balance of community needs and tourism by suggesting that Noosa was at the “crossroads of realisation” that change would be needed, and management of that change would be critical.
MC Kylie Lang injected a lighter note, perhaps unintentionally, when she asked Cr Wilkie, “What does the ideal visitor to Noosa look like?” Wilkie: “Well, we’re open to all shapes and sizes,” which got a welcome laugh from the audience of 50 or so.
A smiling Mayor Clare Stewart took in proceedings from the back row, seemingly enjoying time out of the spotlight.
For edited highlights of candidate responses to the Tourism Noosa questionnaire, see Campaign Diary pages 30-31.
