By Jolene Ogle
More than 50 Greens supporters crowded The J foyer on Wednesday 25 January as Joe Shlegeris was officially endorsed as the Greens candidate for the State Election – which is yet to be called.
Greens party deputy leader Senator Larissa Waters travelled to Noosa to officially endorse Mr Shlegeris, who launched his campaign with a promise to use his power to secure better outcomes for Noosa.
Mr Shlegeris said it was time to shake things up as Noosa has long been viewed as a “safe seat” and as such it has been ignored.
“The worst thing which can ever happen to any electorate is to become a safe seat. For more than a decade now, Noosa has been safe LNP seat. Safe seats are always ignored,” he said.
“An LNP state government looks at a safe LNP seat as a given. Such a seat never gets any attention because the government is pretty sure it can win the seat again no matter what.”
Among his campaign promises was a pledge to gain maternity services for Noosa. Mr Shlegeris said it was time to “aim high” and an achievable target was a maternity ward at Noosa Hospital.
“Many people don’t realise that the original plan for the Noosa Hospital included a complete pavilion for maternity care,” he said.
“Somewhere along the way, this plan was simply dropped. Women and young families in Noosa have simply never had access to local maternity care. Until now the nearest facilities have been down in Nambour. Now that Nambour maternity is closing, the nearest facility for Noosa families will be in far-off Birtinya.”
Mr Shlegeris said that was unacceptable and simply too far for heavily pregnant women to travel.
“I don’t begrudge the residents of the southern Sunshine Coast their fancy new hospital, but decent quality health care is reasonably accessible, and Birtinya is simply too far away,” he said.
“The time is right to raise this issue again. Not just because it would be a great thing to have proper maternity care accessible to people in the Noosa electorate, but also because we must aim high.
“Public health services here in Noosa have been progressively cut and will continue to shrink unless we take strong steps to reverse the trend. We cannot simply aim to stop the decline in services. It’s too late for that.”
Mr Shlegeris acknowledged it was a “big ask” to demand a maternity service, but he said now is the right time.
“It’s the best time we’ve ever seen. The continuing collapse of the exhausted old political parties makes it a near-certainty that neither will win a majority in the next Queensland government and that the next state government will be one which requires compromise and co-operation with the cross bench,” he said.
“Noosa will only be relevant to the state government if we make it relevant, and we can only do that by telling the exhausted old parties they’re through.”
Mr Shlegeris has often criticised current Noosa MP Glen Elmes for a lack of action and for ignoring his “power” in Parliament, and as such will run his campaign on the hope he will be able to use his balance of power to gain benefits for the Noosa electorate.
“For many months now I have been hammering the same theme: the Member for Noosa has had extraordinary power to use his vote for the good of Noosa, but he has declined to use it,” Mr Shlegeris said.
But what will happen if Mr Shlegeris’ doesn’t have the bargaining power he hopes for and if his vote isn’t needed to pass legislation in government.
“You still have to use the influence to the best of your ability,” he said. “You still have to raise the questions that affect Noosa and not make it easy.”
Senator Waters said the Greens were hopeful Mr Shlegeris would win the election, but said voters could still send a strong message with their votes.
“If he does fall short … then people’s message would still be heard. The fact the seat can no longer be considered a safe seat would mean the voices of Noosa’s residents will be much, much stronger and the next parliament will know they can’t take those people for granted anymore,” she said.
“Either way, it’s a powerful vote to back the Greens and to back Joe this time around.”
Senator Waters said many voters are disenchanted with the major parties and fell as though they have been forgotten.
“People are looking for an alternative where they can feel truly represented,” she said.
“I think that’s why you see the vote for the older parties so low at this point in history. But what they see in the Greens is some actual positive solutions that puts people back in the heart of decision making again.”
