General News
1 July, 2025
Kempton warns funds hard to get
EIGHT months after he took office, Member for Cook David Kempton has given an update of what’s he’s been doing to the Mareeba Chamber of Commerce luncheon, warning that money for regional areas will be harder to get as the state prepares for the 2032 Olympics.
“Most of the budget expenditure for the next number of years will be directed towards the Olympic Games which is a $7-10 billion spend,” he told the luncheon.
“It’s a big challenge – we (his party) didn’t bid for the Olympics but we need to make it work but it will suck out so many resources which means I have to lobby harder and I’ll need much more support from the community and the council to get things we need for this part of the world.
“So, everything we get up here we will really have to struggle for.”
But Mr Kempton revealed there would be a $700 million fund established for regional towns that would not see any benefit from the Olympics.
“The Olympic Games will mostly benefit the south-east and a few other places that will have events – to offset that is a considerable fund of around $700 million for regional areas that missed out, so we can bid for infrastructure, social and other programs,” he said.
“We might be able to get upgrades for things like sporting facilities and so on.”
He said some of the money would be made available through grants but it would be “people like me identifying projects with community benefit and lobbying for them”.
It could be for projects like the beautification of the town’s railway station.
“We’re going to try and get that whole precinct around the railway station tidied up so it’s attractive for tourists. If we can get that up and looking presentable, then we can use that as leverage and get the rail bridges fixed.
“We’re looking around for other opportunities for beautification around the town including the CWA toilet building – I’m in discussion with council, how we could upgrade that and make it more useful rather than just let it sit there.”
Describing his comeback as the Member for Cook as “a dream come true”, Mr Kempton said he would not make promises he could not keep such as the promise by Labor at the election to upgrade the Mareeba Hospital emergency department.
“The hospital services here really do need an upgrade,” he said
“There was $20 million promised for a new ED here (by Labor) and it wasn’t even in the budget. So anything that we commit to doing will be funded, there’s no throw away promises. Things will be done as budget becomes available.”
He said Queensland had a lot of “catching up” to do when it came to public hospitals.
“There’s a lot of statutory maintenance in hospitals that need to be done every year that hasn’t been done. All that has to be done before we can start addressing other works,” Mr Kempton said.
He also advised that now the government had committed $245 million to replace the Barron River bridge at Kuranda, work would start almost immediately on design and obtaining approvals.
“So, it shifts attention away from the bridge to the range road which has been difficult since (Cyclone) Jasper because of the continual delays. There was no work even due to start until this year, but we got in there straight away and it’s progressing but it’s pretty torturous going up and down there,” Mr Kempton said.
“I’m not in any position to make any announcement about the road, it’s going to be a multi-billion dollar spend – and there’s a lot of alternatives to consider.”
But he was looking forward to the establishment of the regional advisory group which would provide advice to government about the priorities for local roads.
“We will be able to go to the government with a list of priorities developed by the community which will give us the best possible outcome.”
Mr Kempton also weighed into the crocodile issue, saying he wanted the Department of Environment to be “far more proactive in getting rid of the crocs in Zone F” and was personally pushing for farmers to be able to take action on their own property.
“If a private landholder has a dam on his property and there’s a croc in it, he should be able to get a licence to remove it because it’s a constant threat every time he goes to the pump,” he said.
