Day 15, 12 February
DÉJA VU
Campaign Diary sprang out of bed early on a cloudy Monday, full of beans and ready for action, only to be deflated by a mandatory perusal of the usual subject pages on social media. Yes folks, Week 3 begins and it’s déja vu all over again!
Same old candidates dishing up last week’s promises again, being rubbished by the same old negative naysayers and defended by their loyal supporters. Of course this is democracy in action in the modern world where social media rules, but with a whole month still to run in this campaign, CD could only take solace in the motto of mayoral candidate John Morrall, seen at the head of his FB page: “If you love life, then don’t waste time, because time is what life is made up of.” So CD switched off social media and switched on the ECQ website.
Day 16, 13 February
NOMINATIONS CLOSE
Candidate nominations closed at noon, with a couple of late landings giving us 14 runners in the race to become an underpaid councillor, while the mayoral contest remained at four, which, interestingly, was twice as many as last election in 2020. On that occasion the vote went down to the wire, with the incumbent Tony Wellington eventually falling by about 300 votes to newcomer Clare Stewart. What will it mean to have four choices for mayor, and will optional preferences play a big part?
Hard to know, although recent history would tell us that experienced candidates usually have the edge, as was the case in 2016, when Wellington, who’d served on two councils, edged out popular Sandy Bolton, who hadn’t. On the other hand, in 2020, along came Clare, with no experience but plenty of campaign funds. In 2024, Frank Wilkie and Ingrid Jackson are former councillors. Morrall and Hluszko are untried.
But getting back to the councilor candidates, excluding the five incumbents seeking re-election, the remaining nine, whom you’ve met in these pages over the past couple of weeks, seem to be an interesting mix of community-minded activists and complete unknowns, striving to turn that around over the next four weeks.
Day 17, 14 February
DONKEY VOTE DECIDED
Thrill a minute with the returning officer pulling the numbers out of the box for the ballot papers. First in line for the donkey vote for mayor, where preferences are optional, was John Morrall, with Chris Darwen at the top of the council candidates where it’s first past the post. In descending order:
Mayor: Morrall, Wilkie, Jackson, Hluszko
Councillor: Darwen, Finzel, Phillips, Wilson, Newland, Stockwell, Lorentson, McCready, Jurisevic, Bankes, Jacobs, Gnatai-Stokes, Wegener, Staines.
Day 18, 15 February
DONATION DISCLOSURES
Campaign donations declared by candidates are disclosed by the ECQ and quickly picked up by the politico social media. Since the 2020 election new expenditure limits based on population have come into play, which makes donations more noteworthy. For Noosa Shire, it is capped at $43,820 (the number of electors) for mayor and $30,000 for councillor. As at 15 February only two mayoral and three councillor candidates had declared donations, but the disclosure file remains open until the election so this could change.
Mayor
Frank Wilkie: $35,500
Nick Hluszko: $8998
Councillor
Alecia Maree Staines: $2100
Karen Finzel: $693.75
Leigh McCready: $550
Day 19, 16 February
MEET THE CANDIDATES
Although our own shire’s round of candidate forums don’t kick off for another week, social media snippets revealed that at least two Noosa mayoral candidates gave their patter a trial run at last night’s Sunshine Coast Business Council Meet the Mayoral Candidates forum. Seen here sharing a laugh, Sunshine Coast mayoral hopeful Rosanna Natali bookended by Noosa’s John Morrall and Ingrid Jackson.
Day 20, 17 February
SUPPORT OUR GROWERS
It may not be the sexiest topic on the campaign agenda but Cr Tom Wegener has been pounding the hinterland markets circuit, spruiking a message of support.
Day 21, 18 February
ROAST CANCELLED
And speaking of candidate forums, Noosa People’s Council and friends’ candidate “friendly roast” and “Pillars of Concern” lecture scheduled for this weekend at Tewantin State School has been mysteriously cancelled. CD understands it was the education department that pulled the pin on the school venue with organisers apparently trying to transfer it to Tinbeerwah Hall, but as NT went to print the roast appeared to be cancelled. Lack of candidate interest may have been another factor, although at least one of them, Mat Bankes, had agreed to attend.
Meanwhile, Tourism Noosa, organisers of the second of three official candidate forums, to be held at The Boathouse in Noosaville on 27 February, copped a hammering from commentators over its candidate-distributed questionnaire asking politically loaded questions about attitudes to further funding of the $2.5 million a year lobby group.
