Community & Business
10 February, 2021
Silence is not golden.
OPINION - Last week residents sick of inaction by successive state governments about the crime situation in Far North Queensland decided to rally together in peaceful protests in Mareeba and Atherton.
OPINION - Silence is not golden.
Last week residents sick of inaction by successive state governments about the crime situation in Far North Queensland decided to rally together in peaceful protests in Mareeba and Atherton.
Politicians from all sides and levels of the political spectrum were in attendance to hear from locals who are sick and tired of youth violence, graffiti, break-ins, and carjacking's.
One notable absence at the Mareeba rally was The Member for Cook, Ms Cynthia Lui who told The Express she could not make it to the community organised rally.
“I’m unable to make it as I have other meetings on,” she said.
“This issue is important to me. The fact that my showing my face at a rally is going to make all the difference, it is not.
“It’s all the work that needs to be done to make sure youth crime is addressed and we need to look at this from a holistic perspective.”
I would love to know what meetings Ms Lui had that were more important than her constituent’s safety and ability to live peacefully?
Last year the Member for Cook held a couple of round table meetings addressing the crime situation in the shire. The meetings came to naught as the crime problem continues to escalate.
Another telling sign of Ms Lui’s contempt for the Mareeba Shire is that Mareeba Shire Council Mayor Angela Toppin must line up to speak with the local member at the local IGA when she has one of her mobile visits.
Why does the local member not make an appointment to see the Mayor? rather she makes the Mayor line up and wait in the local shopping centre. Not a great use of the Mayors time.
At the 2020 state election Ms Lui lost the polling booths of Biboohra, Chillagoe, Daintree, Julatten, Mount Molloy and the two booths in Mareeba.
If the Mareeba Shire was its own separate seat, Ms Lui would have lost it badly. Where Cynthia got across the line was pretty much everything north of Cooktown.
Ms Lui now knows she does not need Mareeba or any of the surrounding towns to win and hold on to the seat of Cook. Mareeba constituents can now be safely ignored, and she safely hangs onto her base salary of $159,122 plus whatever else she earns for being on various committees.
Ms Lui’s promise to the people of Mareeba at the last local election for a water park was an answer to a question that nobody asked.
The silence has also been deafening from the local member about The Barron River Bridge, a new route from Mareeba to Cairns, Dialysis machines and the Mareeba Bypass. They all just seem too hard for the local member.
Let’s just hope for our sake and the sake of her career Ms Lui changes gear and steps up, because as Enoch Powell once said, “All political lives, end in failure.”
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