Mike Squire

Candidate for Barron River Electorate

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Email me: candidatebarronriver@nqp.org.au

"If you keep voting for the same party you are going to keep getting what you got before."

Barron River covers north of Ellis Beach, west to Black Mountain Road, Mona Mona Road, Armstrong Road, Barron River, Koah, Davies Creek, Clohesy River. The south East boundaries are Reservoir Road, Momanus Street, Brooks Street, Jensen Street, Heavey Crescent, McCormack Street, Macdonnell Street and Saltwater Creek.

If you are unsure of which electorate, State or Federal, in which you live please find out here [find my electorate] [check my electoral enrolment]

Welcome

I'm passionate about how things are done because it's so easy to get it right if we follow proper processes.

The recent debacle over the Queensland Health payroll system is yet another example of how our Constituents' affairs are being mismanaged.

Health Payroll Debacle the worst State-Government (Labor) failure during his term, says auditor-general

The sitting member for Barron River is Steve Wettenhall MP who is part of that government.

Would I want to be part of a government that couldn't throw a party in a brewery? No, I would be too embarrassed.

In one of my previous professional engagements I was witness to the implementation of a new payroll system across 26 aged care facilities. That implementation used all the professional project management skills and processes available to the business world today and ran smoothly. The system was tested to a robust level before it could be signed off. Why did this sort of thing not occur under Labor?

This is just one issue, there are so many.

Representing the community involving various individuals and groups with diversified interests has never been easy however one complaint across the board has been that the very people that are supposed to be represented are not being afforded their input over matters directly affecting them.

There is no excuse for this and every stake holder must be given the opportunity to have their say in a proper consultation process. This will include individuals, community groups, residents, business and business organisations etc. Regardless of the issue the consultation process should be the same so that at the conclusion we can truthfully say that we have a proper understanding of the views of all those people that an issue will affect. Nothing less is acceptable.

Do we have all the answers for everything? No, far from it, but what I can guarantee is that we will always endeavour to provide a proper consulting process and publish that process as well as full transparency involving finance, how much projects are going to cost, who is getting paid what and what interests are involved. Let's do something other parties fear, and that's laying it all out in the open. We'll soon be able to tell if something is too expensive to implement or there are other priorities, this is a fact of life with a limited public purse, there is no need to lie about things, we simply need to understand what we are trying to do with what we have.

Jail those who assault police

I agree with the Editor of the Cairns Post p32 19/11/2011 (editorial) when he calls for those who assault police to be jailed. He goes on to include assaults against all emergency workers on the front line including paramedics, firefighters, SES workers etc. I wholeheartedly agree.

Having been a police officer on the front line I know exactly what it is like having to deal with the dregs of society and it is not an easy job. Our emergency service workers across the country need to have the appropriate legislation and penalties in place, that's the least we can do.

discuss it in our forum

Environment

Machans Beach Wall

The sea wall is crumbling away and soon it will take out the road and then the houses. Urgent remedial action in the form of a proper concrete or similar retaining wall needs to be built.

Nullinga Dam Mareeba

We need to ensure an ongoing water supply. The only way to do this is to build another dam.

Treasury and Finance

Financial Equity

Our whole raison d'etre is to get more money into North Queensland so we can get some projects under way. Without this much needed finance we can do nothing. People are always asking us what our policies are but it all starts with more money. North Queensland raises a lot of money for the state but this mainly all goes to the south never to be seen again.

Royalties for Regions

Did you know that the Weipa mine royalties amount to $120 million per annum. That money is just going straight to South East Queensland into their communal coffers to be spent on whatever. What should be happening is a programme similar to the one in Western Australia should be instigated and that $120 million should go to local councils so that we can undertake some infrastructure activities.

Health

Cairns Base Hospital

We all know about Cairns Base Hospital don't we? Not only is this hospital in entirely the wrong location, underfunded but lacking in essential services. It's literally a stone's throw from the sea and 300 people needed to be evaculated to Brisbane hospitals during cyclone Yasi that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Much needed funds that could have gone into improving the hospital and the services that it provides.

Many people think that it should be upgraded form a Tier Two to a Tier One to attract and additional $50 million in funding. I say it and every other hospital should be funded on a needs basis, no more and no less. Bob Katter from Katter's Australia Party has suggested a spend of $32 million dollars. Studies conducted by Chamber of Commerce Queensland put the figure at $1 billion. Yes one billion. If we start now we might have a new hospital in 5 years time as they take plenty of time to plan and build.

Transport

Bruce Highway Upgrade

When is this Labor government going to stop prevaracating and get on with fixing the Bruce Highway as a matter of urgency?

Cairns Airport

Cairns Airport management want to move general aviation from one side of the airport to the other so they can build more shops that you have to go through before you are able to get on your plane. Enough is enough!

This will impact negatively on general aviation and will add costs and inconvenience.

Palmerstone Highway

At the moment large B Doubles (they're the semi trailers with two trailers on the back) cannot go down the range in one go. What they have to do is hitch one trailer, travel down to the bottom of the range, unhitch that trailer then go back up the top to get the second one, travel to the bottom, hitch both up and go on their way. How archaic is that?

Redlynch Valley Buses

The residents of Redlynch Valley do not have any public bus services. Are they not citizens too? Do they not pay their taxes and deserve public transport as much as everybody else does? Of course they do. The trouble is there is not much money, if any, to be made and services may even run at a loss. So what? The government need to understand that some services do run at a loss. If Telstra took the same attitude then every pay phone that did not pay for itself would be scrapped and one phone in the middle of nowhere could save a life.

Think about this: If someone uses a bus that does not make a profit to go to work and pay taxes should that bus not be funded or subsidised from those taxes? The parents also need to be given a break from having to run around playing taxi driver all the time for their growing children.

It's time for a new survey to be done and proper scheduling to be put into place. The one that was done last time went nowhere.