State Election candidates who attended a Meet the Candidate forum last week hosted by Australian Independent Retirees (AIR) Noosa responded to questions, either previously submitted to AIR or from forum attendees.
Present at the event were incumbents, Independent Noosa MP Sandy Bolton and LNP Ninderry MP Dan Purdie, candidates for Noosa Mark Denham, (ALP), Clare Stewart (LNP), Rhonda Prescott (Queensland Greens) and Ninderry candidate Jo Justo (ALP). Here are the responses to the questions from the Noosa incumbent and candidates.
AIR: Short term accommodation has been quite controversial, what are your thoughts?
Sandy Bolton (Independent): I think one of the greatest grievances I have with the state government going back when this first became an issue was there was a reference group formed with the mayors in attendance. Ultimately they did all the work and they came out the other end. All other mayors basically disagreed with the position that Noosa had regarding STAs. So it went nowhere. Noosa Council to its credit started taking some matters into its own hands. I think what’s critical now is that that isn’t overridden, but they are supported. What they really need is that statewide register so they know exactly where everyone is but they don’t need the state bringing in some sort of levy that then ensures council aren’t getting those funds that currently they are. I think we’re getting closer. I think council’s need greater support, those that are impacted.
That’s one big issue repealing existing rights. There’s a terminology, you can’t do that because it puts local governments at risk of being sued. That’s a matter for state government. It’ll be good to hear what the LNP will do if they get in, if they will put in some kind of legislation that actually addresses that. Everyone’s been talking about it but nothing substantial has been done.
Rhonda Prescott (Greens): The genie has been let out of the bottle with short term accommodation. It’s going to be very hard to put it back in and very hard to revoke existing approvals but there were some statistics that I saw about STA in Noosa, there’s a lot of unlicenced and unregistered STA. So the Greens policy on that is homes not hotels. We think that homes built for residential accommodation should be providing houses for the local people and for workers and we’d really like to see both council and state government clamp down on STA. There’s a situation in Noosa where local families can’t find rentals are actually staying in places like Villa Noosa for a few nights for crisis accommodation because some of the hotels and motels have fairly low occupancy rates and the tourists are all in the houses to accommodate the local people. This is an issue and this would go a long way to solving the housing crisis in Noosa.
(AIR) What are your thoughts on education?
Clare Stewart (LNP): I am the daughter of two teachers. My dad was director of Catholic Education in Toowoomba and Cairns. My parents met while they were on staff at a school. My best friend’s a teacher. I feel that I’m surrounded by teachers. Teaches work incredibly hard. I think we need to come back to core principles, maths, English, algebra, we need to get back to basics. I think this is a specific question I’ll take on notice, but I think our schools are changing. I see with my children. They need a loving, caring environment and that’s for our teaches as well. They need a supportive environment.
Sandy Bolton (Independent): Sometimes when we’re looking at an issue, we take what’s in existence and we keep plugging those things. I just want to say about education we have some sad statistics that come through whether from teaches about how they’re overwhelmed or whether it’s from children that are overwhelmed with constant information being pushed in and being tested. Countries like Norway, they aren’t experiencing what we are but have comparable results. I think sometimes we’ve got to move out of the standard rather tha going how do we make things better by just plugging on. What we need to do is look at the underpinning of what’s happening, and the stresses those teachers and students are going through can be vastly improved on if we just step outside for a moment. We’re not tackling the core causes and we’re constantly dealing with symptoms.
Gary Watt: I have a question about health and health services. What do candidates plan to do to address the issue of staff, ambulance ramping, particularly in the public system?
Sandy Bolton (Independent): We’re blessed with the services we have. I have been working with the hospital, not only in getting their first 10 year lease but also to expand. Where it all started was about the emergency department because when you don’t have capacity there what happens is it goes on to bypass and you’re redirected to Nambour or SCUH. That adds to the ramping there but it also adds to people not being able to get back. If you’re taken down there with chest pains in the middle of the night, they check you out and you’re fine, you can’t get back. These are the types of reason this expansion is needed. It’s a private hospital with public contracts. That extension of the lease has to incorporate more public contracts. Since I’ve been an MP there is extra scope, we now have telehealth, extra things you fight for. That will continue but I think there will be a combination of extra services delivered. It’s important we focus on the ageing of this community and since Covid that has increased – that ageing and services we need. As we fight going forward we want to make sure we don’t have a situation where we are losing any services for our elderly. We’re all living longer and want to enjoy our older years.
Mark Denham (ALP) : Health is a very complex animal. If you look at the world, ambulance is a 24/7 service, emergency departments are 24/7 services, hospitals are nine hour service. So that’s where ramping comes from. Specialist services only work certain hours within the hospital so the plan is to extend those so we can move people from emergency departments, from ambulances. It’s not a quick fix. It’s something that needs to be improved as it goes along. It’s huge. The health budget is more than a third of the state budget. Noosa Hospital is a great location, great staff. I take patients there all the time. They do go on bypass. Why? Because they don’t have the capacity because they’re a limited resource. When they get really sick patients they focus on those really sick patients and others will be sent on further. Ambulance then backs it up with paramedics and other services. We have other services to supply. Not every person who calls needs to go to hospital. That’s a realisation people need to understand and what ambulance does is we put other services in place for that. We have low acuity response teams. They go out to your house if you’re not a critical patient and you don’t need to go to hospital. We go out and treat you on site. We give you what you need and we put the other services in place that you need. There are other tiered services that sit out there, not just more beds. More beds are great but more services to you, to keep you in your own community. This is where you need to be. I understand what Sandy is saying, you go to SCUH, you can’t get home. But there are lots of services out there.
Clare Stewart (LNP): I can tell you how many ambulance hours were lost last year. Ros Bates, Shadow Health Minister was up here in May, 7581 lost ramping ambulance hours on the Sunshine Coast. We can do better.
Rhonda Prescott (Greens): The Greens policy is for public ownership of services. We think the hospital should have been built as a public hospital. I went through treasury reports when Noosa Hospital was being planned over 25 years ago and we had an LNP government in power at the time. Treasury actually recommended that Noosa have a public hospital. It would have cost more initially but over the long term because we’ve now got a private hospital with public services which the government pays for, in the long term it would have been a better financial decision as well as better for the local community.
Josh Usher: One of the great battles we have in Noosa, we are special and we relate to the narrative of Noosa being independent. Getting below the narrative of keeping Noosa independent I just wonder whether your ability to do achievements over the last two periods has been with the Labor government. The challenge we face now is anticipating your ability to live with a potential LNP government. Are we better off with an independent candidate who is almost lobbying for decisions or a potential powerbroker as our local member with a seat at the table. How are you going to go and do you have relationships with the LNP right now you think you can take into the next season?
Sandy Bolton (Independent): Absolutely because I work with both sides. I travel with them. I get on with all these guys and that’s the beauty of it. I work hard and I put the cases forward. I do as every good MP should. Whether someone is a Labor MP or an LNP MP or Independent you put your case forward on behalf of your community. That is the benefit of being independent because I can be objective. I have watched and I’ve seen other regions across Queensland and they get so upset because they either have someone if there is an MP in their seat with government, a Labor and a Labor and they will make excuses for government and if they have an opposition member and they go to them they will just throw rocks. I don’t do either of those. I don’t have to make excuses for anyone. What I have to do is get to the facts.
Josh Usher: Wouldn’t it be a benefit to have someone in the policy development?
Sandy Bolton (Independent): What is really interesting and I’ve got to spend seven years with MPs from both sides. The factions within the parties means those MPs on the wrong side of the factions they don’t get their voice heard either, they’re not part of it. When policy is getting developed I get to talk to them all the time. How hard it is to sit in that chamber and have to vote for something that they deeply oppose and they’re community opposes. They are very conflicted. So the freedom of Noosa being independent, you know you’ll get credible information, transparency and integrity. That’s what you get because there is no reason for me to say anything. I don’t have to follow the party line. I don’t have to say x, y, z, and I don’t have to go out with misinformation and fear mongering. I don’t have to use slogans, though keeping Noosa independent is, I suppose, a slogan.
Clare Stewart (LNP): I think what Sandy says is very nice. You can put the case forward on behalf of your own community and that’s what happened with the SFDs and the Minister said no. The only people who can make decisions – there’s a blue team and a red team. The blue team are the ones who said we will stop high rise. We will stop this. The minister said to Sandy’s action or question, no. That is it. You can advocate and you can ask but at the end of the day you’re not in the room, you’re not making the decision. In this example and it’s a great example for our community the only party who can stop the highrise, who can make the decision are the LNP.
Sandy Bolton (Independent): So why did the LNP not oppose the Bill that allowed the pathway for this to occur? So for anyone to say I am powerless, I was the one who opposed it. Both majors supported it and then I stood in chamber and every question that’s raised, everything I’ve done since has led to the LNP then going – Ooh – this is a big issue, we’re going to have to get on board. So what I did achieve is what needed to be done and that is having the LNP now going backing it. No doubt we will have Labor doing the same, not just with the SFDs. When you look at the things that have rolled out, whether it’s pedestrian crossings or otherwise, that is because, literally I stood there. What I said is, this is wrong.
Clare Stewart (LNP): The LNP received an email in a plea from the mayor to have a meeting and myself and the Shadow Deputy met with the mayor. We were the ones who advocated for this, we were the ones who put it on the table and we are the ones determined to work with Noosa Council and LNP are the ones who will stop the highrise and stop this development.
Rhonda Prescott (Greens): When the Bill that includes the SFD pathway was before parliament it was opposed by both Greens MPs and Sandy our Independent MP. Our Greens MP Dr Amy McMahon got up and said this Bill should be called open season for rich developers, because that’s what it does, it gives the power to the developers. So residents certainly want more affordable housing. This is certainly not the way to achieve it and we have alternative plans to achieve affordable housing that don’t involve bypassing the wishes of the local people.
