In reading the Planning Officer's Report and Recommendation to Council we see what appears to be a significant error in fact.

The relevant excerpt can be found on page 50 of the Report (and elsewhere in the Report) and is as follows:

"Transport – Roads & Paths

- Paradise Palms Drive/Moore Road (Major Collector Road)

- Discovery Drive (Sub-Arterial Road – 4 Lane Median Divided)

- Petricola Street – Paradise Palms Drive (Minor Collector Road)"

Discovery Drive is not 4 lanes. It was changed some time ago from 4 lanes to 2 lanes to accommodate bike lanes. Under the developer's plans, Discovery Drive becomes the only exit point from the entire precinct (including anything that may happen on the Paradise Palms site) for all traffic heading south towards the city.

The statement in the Report is either wrong and will cause enormous congestion problems, or it is right and it is a subterfuge because it is intended to reclaim the bike lanes and turn Discovery Drive back into 4 lanes without drawing any attention to the change, or opening it up for public discussion.

Without the bike lanes there would be 4 relatively narrow vehicle lanes, leading into the dangerous choke point of a single lane roundabout at Sandalwood Avenue and no safe path for bikes at all.

The link below will open a copy of the Planning Officer's Report to Council.

As you will see, they recommend that the DA be approved with conditions.

https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/404005/Clause-No-1-Planning-and-Environment-Committee-11-November-2020.pdf

The Council Planning Dept has advised us that they have made the decision to recommend approval of the DA for Paradise Palms with extensive conditions attached.

Full details will be available on Council's web site on Monday 9th November.

That means that the full weight of community expectations regarding the rejection of this DA  must now to be borne by the individual Councillors and their consciences. 

We hope that the Councillors are truly aware of the depth of feeling that this whole drawn out business has brought to the surface and that they will vote against the proposal.

If they do vote against the proposal then they will be supporting their own 2016 Plan and the 2050 Shared Vision which resulted from extensive community surveys and consultation regarding the preservation of green space.

Please email your Councillor (or all of them) right now and make your feelings known again. This is one of the most significant and far reaching Town Planning issues that Cairns has ever seen.

The 11th of November is the day that is now scheduled for Council to make their decision regarding the DA for Paradise Palms.

Your Committee has been assured that even with Covid restrictions, they will be able to sit in the Chamber and observe the Council meeting on the day.

The meeting starts at 12:30pm due to Council Remembrance Day commitments.

Whilst it seems unlikely that a large supporter group would be allowed in, a demonstration of community interest by having a peaceful crowd assemble outside the Council offices to witness what will be one of the defining moments in Cairns Council history would be good to see as the Media is likely to be there in force.

If you can make it, please turn up on the day and show support for the cause, we hope to see you all there.

Please note that as per the formal notice below, the Association's AGM will take place on the 7th December at 6:00pm for 6:30pm at the Palm Cove Surf Club. All financial members are encouraged to attend.

AGM PPRA Inc 2020 (1).pdf

The date for Council to make a decision on the DA for Paradise Palms has been extended again.

It is now 11th November.

The relevant documents can be viewd on the links below:

Request for extension by PPNQ.pdf

Council Confirmation of extension to the Decision Period.pdf

A resident of the Paradise Palms precinct has written an excellent letter to Cairns Councillors. He has kindly given us permission to publish it on our web site

We recommend reading it and please don't hesitate to act if it inspires you to write your own letter.

To view the letter, please click on the link below:

Letter to Councillors Oct 2020 - Paradise Palms.pdf

Council has today received a request and agreed to a further extension to the decision date for the Development Application for PPNQ P/L on Paradise Palms.

You can view the documents below:

PPNQ's request for an extension.pdf

Council's response to extension request 09 09 20.pdf

It seems a possibility that this requested further delay is to allow the new Belcarra legislation to come into effect just prior to that date. Once the new legislation takes effect, none of the Unity Team of Councillors will be deemed to have a conflict of interest with the proponent for the DA and will be able to vote on it. That is not the case right now. 

Not everything is as it may appear.

This sign is not announcing the developer's sucess in securing the Development Approval that he is seeking from Council.

It is simply trying to create an impression.

The Council has not yet made a decision on the application for this precious site.

The bottom line on the sign is what is left of the previous TAS School sign (strange?)

Also strange, the website advertised on this sign does not appear to have been updated since early last year.

Interesting article published in "InQld" yesterday.

Golf, it seems, is the perfect game for physical distancing, even if Queensland’s courses are more crowded these days thanks to COVID-19, writes Brad Cooper.

As lockdowns early in the pandemic threw sport at all levels into disarray and disruptions continue throughout many parts of the country, golf in Queensland at least has barely broken stride.

That’s good news not only for the sport’s administrators and club managers in local communities doing brisk business, but also for the broader sporting economy, with the momentum expected to carry all the way to the Australian PGA being hosted at Royal Queensland Golf Club in December thanks to the State’s successful coronavirus containment so far. The signs were there at the end of last year that golf was taking modest steps towards bringing more people back to the game, still played predominantly by older men, an image the game struggles to shake.

Absolutely it does and the reason is that it represents a clear example of what can happen when a site is "Code Assessable" rather than "Impact Assessable" under the Planning Scheme.

It appears that the Councillors, even those who voted to approve it, felt disempowered by the Code Assessable zoning. They seemed to think that Council would have no chance on appeal if they knocked it back.

In the case of Paradise Palms, at the moment, being zoned Sport and Recreation, any development proposal is Impact Assessable, meaning that the proposal must be publicly advertised and everyone gets the opportunity to have their say.

If the Development Application currently before Council for Paradise Palms is approved by Council, then we are advised that from that point on the site becomes Code Assessable for a large variety of uses. This means that the Developer just has to meet the relevant Code and neither the public nor the Council get to have any say.

This is the worst possible outcome. The Trinity Beach example clearly shows what can happen in these circumstances. Who ever thought that we could end up with two seven storey buildings at the beaches with Council basically powerless to stop them? Could a developer change his approved Masterplan and put 1,500 homes on Paradise Palms? Who knows?

Even if you are one of the few people that think the current DA is OK, it appears that there is nothing to stop the developer from changing it completely to almost anything that he wants, as long as it meets the Codes.

Your Committee had been offered the opportunity to make a one hour formal presentation to Council and today that presentation took place.

It was made to the Mayor, Councillors, the senior Officers and some Council Consultants.

We started with a Power Point presentation which included a talk by Nikki Huddy, our Town Planning Consultant and was then followed by a Q & A session.

We felt that it went well.

We left a high quality full colour bound copy of the presentation with each Councillor and senior Officer for them to refer back to.

We were also able to introduce two surprise letters of support, one from Perrett Webb Golf Course Architects and the other from Australian Golf Digest. 

Karrie Webb is Australia’s best performed golfer of all time in terms of Tournaments won. She is in the Hall of Fame and has been awarded an AO. She was brought up in Ayr and is really keen to be involved in a North Qld Golf venture. We have actually talked with her personally via Zoom from Florida and this letter is the result.

You can view these documents by clicking on the links. 

Perrett Webb letter of interest PP.pdf

Aust Golf Digest Paradise Palms Letter.pdf

Cairns Regional Council has requested a further extension of the time allowed for their Officer's to finalise their recommendations.

The new date is now the 9th September, 2020

Click the link below to view Council's letter:

Decision pending - 9 Sept.pdf

As the chairperson of Save Paradise Palms, I think it’s important to understand the negative impact that this proposed development would have on our environment and the wider community. I would encourage you to act by writing to your local councillors and expressing your concerns. (Email addresses for Councillors can be found in the Post for the 24th June below) Bob McPhail -

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”

—Gaylord Nelson

We have just been advised by Council that their independent expert who had been retained to assess "Need" has become ill and is not able to complete the task.

Council have appointed another independent expert to complete the task but that person needs some time to both familiarise himself with the site and the application/submission material and then provide Council with advice on the matter.

Council is now estimating late August 2020 for the Planning Officer's assessment to be available to Council for decision.

We are reassured to know that Council is seeking independent advice on many elements of the DA and are not just taking the Proponent's reports as good enough.

To view Linda's comments on her Facebook page just click the link then scroll down to the article.

https://www.facebook.com/LindaCooperLNP/

This is a message to our 4,700 Petition signatories and our 827 Individual Submission writers. We need you to act once more please.

With the DA decision day approaching, now is the time for everyone to send an email to all the Councillors telling them why you think that they should vote against the Development Application for Paradise Palms.

Hundreds of emails would be good, thousands would be better!

The Councillor's email addresses are:

b.manning@cairns.qld.gov.au

b.moller@cairns.qld.gov.au

r.pyne@cairns.qld.gov.au

C.Zeiger@cairns.qld.gov.au

t.james@cairns.qld.gov.au

a.eden@cairns.qld.gov.au

k.vallely@cairns.qld.gov.au

m.ohalloran@cairns.qld.gov.au

r.coghlan@cairns.qld.gov.au

b.olds@cairns.qld.gov.au

If you just want to copy and paste all the addresses into the "To" Field of your email and send to everyone at once, use the the format below:

b.manning@cairns.qld.gov.au;b.moller@cairns.qld.gov.au;r.pyne@cairns.qld.gov.au;

C.Zeiger@cairns.qld.gov.au;t.james@cairns.qld.gov.au;a.eden@cairns.qld.gov.au;

k.vallely@cairns.qld.gov.au;m.ohalloran@cairns.qld.gov.au;

r.coghlan@cairns.qld.gov.au;b.olds@cairns.qld.gov.au

You can cc info@saveparadisepalms.com.au to give us a copy of what you send.

HAPPY EMAILING and thank you from the PPRA Committee!

A copy of Council's request to PPNQ Developments Pty Ltd for an extension can be viewed by clicking this link

Request to extend Decision Period to 22 July 2020.pdf

The following is an extract from the May HTW Valuers Property Report

"The Cairns property market continues to function but at vastly reduced volumes of sales. This reflects significant reductions in both supply and demand as a result of increased vendor uncertainty and a lack of buyer urgency. Our preliminary trend estimate for April 2020 is that, over the two months since February 2020, house sales are down 28.6%, unit sales are down 27.5%, and vacant land sales down 22.5%. The overall market reduction over the two months is estimated at 27.8%"

It would appear that any attempt to develop new housing stock is going to find the going very difficult indeed. In fact, why would anyone even consider trying?

Your Committee are still working hard to keep the Paradise Palms 98 hectares as Sports and Recreational land, whether it be a golf course and/or a sports recreational centre.

Last week some of the Committee met with three of the four new Cairns Councillors along with Kelly Reaston, in order to give them some essential background on the whole Paradise Palms situation and the very strong feelings of the residents. It was a good meeting and the new Councillors gave us a good hearing.

The DA is still being assessed by the Council planning officers and a decision will be made on or about the 5th June. Prior to the Planner's decision being put before the Councillors we will have the opportunity to meet with the whole of the Council informally and put our case to them again. We will also have the opportunity to have a formal deputation meet with the Councillors.

Once Council finalises its decision, if it goes against us, we will only have 21 days to challenge that decision.

If it comes to that. (and we are optimistic that it won't) then we will need to commence a serious fund raising exercise to meet the costs associated with an appeal.

Please check the website weekly for updates, as things will change quickly. Please spread the word.

The end of this long road is approaching. Council is expected to make their decision on the Development Approval Application by June.

We would like to be able to keep everyone (particularly those of you that lodged your own written objections with Council) informed as things develop from now on, so please just send us your name and email address to: 

info@saveparadisepalms.com.au

and we will include you on our supporters distribution list.

Thank you

'Stay safe and stay home in these unprecedented times. 

Just to confirm to all our supporters that we are still working to save Paradise Palms from development. We are in constant communication with Cairn Regional Council who have confirmed that there is NO DA in at present for a 'towering water park' and if a DA is forthcoming for that it will be subject to Impact Assessment and public consultation, regardless of the misleading comments made by and in the media recently.

What you can do? Whilst many of you have additional time on your hands it would be great to use this time to write to the Council and the Cairns Post with your views on the development.  

We submitted 4,744 Petition signatures against the development to Cairns Regional Council. These petitions also called on Council to purchase the site, should another buyer not emerge.

It has now been confirmed that 825 individual detailed written objections have also been lodged with the Council. 

What a fantastic effort by all those who made such an effort to record their views.

With such a clear indication of the difficult road in front of him, perhaps the developer may be prepared to re-think.

Now is the time to write lots of Letters to the Editor at The Cairns Post to keep things on the boil!

Our Consultant Town Planner, Nikki Huddy of Planz Town Planning, has compiled and lodged our official submission against the DA for Paradise Palms.

It makes for excellent reading and you can download a copy for yourself here:

Paradise Palms - Submission against development 2 Dec 2019 w attachment ....pdf 

It is a 6MB file, so it might take a little while to download.

In addition to this submission, we have presented our petition with 4,700 signatures to Council and we estimate that there will be just on 850 individual written submissions/objections lodged by close of business today.

Thank you to all our supporters for really getting behind the Committee on this issue of critical importance.

We have received calls from supporters saying that whilst they have made online submissions to Council, they have not received any confirmation of receipt. 

We have spoken to Council and they advise that their system may be overwhelmed by numbers. That's probably a good thing but if it has happened to you, Council suggest that you re-send your submission to make sure.

You should receive a confirmation email almost immediately if the system is working properly.

Planz Town Planning has provided us with a template that you can use for your own Letter of Objection to the Paradise Palms Development.

It is in Word format and it is there for you, and for each individual submitter to amend to suit themselves.

Dowload a copy here:

Template Letter of Objection to Paradise Palms Development_.docx

The letter will have more weight if it does contain a mix of grounds for objection.

On this basis each person who objects may like to make comments in the first 2 lines - as follows:

I / we have lived in the local community for ______________________________________, and I moved here (or live here) for the – open space, natural areas, golf course… whatever works.

I / we wish to strongly object to the proposed development application on the following grounds:

Insert your own points first  such as:

1.  the golf course is important to me

2.  The open space is important to me

3.  I am concerned the environmental values are not being managed in this application.

4….. whatever works for each individual

On completion you can attach this letter to the Council's standard submission Form which you can complete online at their web site or download here:

Submission-Against-For-a-Proposal (1).pdf

The last section of the letter includes 3 email addresses that each submitter may like to use to forward the objection to specific councillors and Craig Crawford.

This letter covers the main planning grounds and is good to go.

These extracts from the Herron Todd White November 2019 Report really make you wonder why anyone would think that bringing hundreds of residential lots to the market would be profitable.

They also contradict the assertion that this new product will fill a need in the community

Cairns Building Approvals.

 "Building approval figures have stagnated at consistently low levels over the last twelve months in tandem with low levels of new land sales and housing construction. It highlights the still parlous state of the residential property market and the tough competition new housing construction faces from prices in the established housing market for both houses and units alike."

Cairns Property Prices

"Median property sale price trends remain basically flat to slightly declining for houses, but have wavered for land and units in tandem with volatile market composition. The latest trend median prices, for properties sold in the month of October 2019, came in at $411,000 for houses, $206,000 for units, and $207,000 for vacant land. Twelve month median trend price moments, for the period from October 2018 to October 2019, stood at minus 0.2% for houses and minus 7.1% for units.”

Please click on the links below to view and/or print the Notice of AGM and a Nomination Form for the vacant position of Secretary.

AGM notice to members.pdf

Secretary Nomination.pdf

Nominations for the position of Secretary should be returned to info@saveparadisepalms.com.au  

Below are some guidelines that you may find of assistance in lodging your own submission.

Now is the time to send your submission in. 

Rest assured that your Committee is working with our Consultants to formalise the most effective submission that we can put together, which will, of course, be paired with the nearly 5,000 signatures on the petition.

Advice received overnight from the General Manager Planning & Environment at Cairns Regional Council

"I confirm that this afternoon we received the Response to Information Request for the proposed Paradise Palms Development. It is 1400 pages in total. It will be uploaded to the web as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it is too large for me to attach to an email.

I am advised that the Applicant is proposing to commence Public Notification on Thursday."

We note that signs are being erected today, so now is the time to finalise and deliver your individual submissions to Council. The submission period is open 24th October to 4th December.

You can use the Council's own Form which you can find at             https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/6480/Submission-Against-For-a-Proposal.pdf

The Annual General Meeting of the Paradise Palms Resident's Association Inc, trading as Save Paradise Palms will be held on Monday 9th December at 6:30pm.

The venue is the Palm Cove Surf Club.

All members welcome

Good to see the State and Council Planners calling out some of the significant inadequacies, inconsistencies and misleading statements in the PPNQ Pty Ltd Development Application. It almost looks like they will need a complete re-write of the DA to meet those requests.

It will be particularly interesting to read the needs analysis that they have been asked for, justifying the subdivisions, school, waterpark, trailer park, child care centre, retirement home, etc etc when all they may really want is a change in zoning to be able to sell it on to an experienced developer.

What both the State and Local Governments written concerns do highlight is that a project of this magnitude on such a precious site as this should probably be referred for a full Environmental Impact Study, so let’s hope that Government agrees and requires that an EIS be done

Click on the link below to read the text of another Information Request sent to the developer by the State Assessment and Referral Agency for the developer's attention.

Looks like there is plenty of work still to do!

2019.08.15 - SARA RFI.pdf 

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Paradise Palms Residents Association Inc has had to close the 'Save Paradise Palms' Facebook page.

We are confident that most supporters will be able to "read between the lines" of that comment

Paradise Palms Residents Association Inc will continue to fight any Development Application and rezoning of Paradise Palms Golf Course by all proper and legal avenues available to us.

Please continue to check this website for updates.

This is a very interesting read!

It is the Council's initial response to the Development Application lodged by PPNQ Developments Pty Ltd.

When you read it you will see that this DA is far from decided and the developer has an awful lot of work to do and obstacles still to overcome!

The Council's Information Request is a public document and can be viewed by clicking this link: 

Information and Variation Request.pdf

LNP MP for Petrie Luke Howarth today urged Moreton Bay councillors to stop North Lakes Golf Course from being developed into a retirement village and aged care facility.

 “I say to the Moreton Bay councillors, listen to the people of Petrie and North Lakes and do not allow this golf course to be developed,” he said.

The golf course, which is privately owned, is expected to close at the end of this year and sold to developer The Village Retirement Group (TVRG).

TVRG, we understand, is meeting with the council as part of a pre-lodgement process to discuss its plans for the site and get some direction from council planners.

The Developer has now lodged his preliminary Development Application with the Cairns Regional Council.

If you would like to view this DA in full you can use this link 

The application can be viewed at:  

https://eservices.cairns.qld.gov.au/eservice/daEnquiryInit.do?nodeNum=227

The reference number for the Application is 9522/2019.

Council has placed a hard copy of the full DA at the Smithfield Library for the public to inspect.

Now the work starts in earnest and your support will be critical, particularly with the Fighting Fund!

If you would like to financially support our efforts but would prefer not to use "Go Fund Me" to do so, please make a direct deposit into our Bank Account.

BSB:                   633000

Account:            164331183

Account name:  PPRA Inc

We have been operating a "Go Fund Me" page but there appears to be a reluctance from our supporters to donate via that channel, perhaps because of the commission that they charge.

"Go Fund Me"  donations represent a minute percentage of our total funds raised. By the way, our signed on supporters now number just under 5,000!

If you would like to financially support our efforts but would prefer not to use "Go Fund Me" to do so, please make a direct deposit into our Bank Account.

BSB:                   633000

Account:            164331183

Account name:  PPRA Inc

The developer's Development Application can't be far away now and that is when we will need to ramp up the use of our specialist Town Planning and Legal Consultants.

It could get quite expensive but your Committee and our Consultants believe that there is a very real chance of success. We must keep fighting in order to win this precedent setting case to preserve our green space, so any assistance to grow the fighting fund is really appreciated. Thank you.

PS: The Association has an Auditor appointed

Information from the Cairns Regional Council's Vision Statement, outcomes of community surveys conducted about a future vision for Cairns.

The Community's views are very clear, well worth reading and the main results are listed below.

Cairns Regional Council, are you listening to your constituents and the results of your own surveys?

Stop the loss of any further recreational green space like Paradise Palms now with one simple preemptive decision! No need to wait for the developer to lodge a Development Application

Congratulations to the Cairns Regional Council as the Redlynch Masterplan wins state award

What great foresight and initiative has been shown by Council to acquire 51 Hectares of land in Redlynch in order to ensure sufficient provision for Master Planned land to be zoned Sports and Recreation in the region.

Obviously it begs the question as to why Council can even contemplate for minute allowing nearly 60% of the current supply of Sports and Recreation zoned land in the Northern Beaches at Paradise Palms to become the plaything of a private developer. His plans are to obliterate the current precious zoning with Development Applications for large numbers of residential and commercial properties.

The answer seems obvious. Other Councils around the country have done it. Our Council could simply make a declaration that they will not under any circumstances contemplate a change of zoning for such a scarce and precious community asset.

The developer purchased the site knowing what its zoning was and allegedly intended to improve the existing facilities. The fact that his plans failed is not a reason to allow him to ride roughshod over the rest of the Community.

It is important to acknowledge that the Save Paradise Palms Association now has in excess of 4,500 people signed on to support its objectives, so there is no room for doubt about what the community thinks

HTW Valuer's Property Report for May 2019

A cautionary story for inexperienced developers who think that they know it all.

See an extract from the Report below. It shows very big slumps in all categories, houses, units and land.

For information, the following advice has been received from Council re progress of a Development Application for Paradise Palms:

In February the Association lodged aTemporary Local Planning Instrument request with the Cairns Regional Council.

The request was reviewed by the Council's Planning Officers who produced a Report and recommendations for Council to consider.

Council received the Report at its Meeting on 24th April and chose to refuse the Application. Of course, with 8 out of the 10 elected Councillors declaring a conflict and not voting, the decision was delegated to the CEO to make. A clear compromise of democracy.

THANK YOU!

PPRA Inc would like to thank each and every one of our supporters who attended the Council meeting on the 24th April. The numbers looked impressive and made an impact. Those of you who were able to stay back for the subsequent meeting with the Mayor, the CEO and the GM of Planning would have found it interesting.

Although our TLPI request was declined on this occasion, both the Council and the Developer are now clearly on notice that they are dealing with a determined and resourceful group with more than 4,000 committed supporters signed up. 

Whilst we maintain our strong disagreement with a decision such as this being delegated to the CEO rather than being made by elected Councillors, we have noticed a clear and encouraging change in the attitude shown towards us by the Council leadership team recently and we thank them for making the effort to understand our issues.

Petition to Cairns Regional Council - Status Update

And so the destruction of the Golf Course enters Stage 2 today!

What's the rush? There is no Development Application lodged so the only apparent reason is as a demonstration that Darren Halpin can do what he wants with impunity.

Cairns Regional Council has been made aware but no response has been received.

Click on the "Read More" button for photos of the turf being stripped from the 16th Green today

Interesting read! 

Click on the "Golf Courses and the environment" menu item at the top of the page

The old 7th Hole a couple of days ago, only 3 months from the last photos and we already have a potential new film set suitable for a Jurassic Park movie

The confidential Environmental Values Report that the Association commissioned is now completed!

Click on "Read More" to see one small excerpt from the Report that gives an amazing insight into the environmental value of the site.

The iconic Paradise Palms land is a community amenity under threat.

Radio Interview - John Mckenzie Show with Clive Abbott, PPRA Committee Member, 26th Feb 2019

Click below to listen to the interview.

ABC Far North - Radio Interview with Clive Abbott, SPPA Committee

Click below to listen to the interview.

Rainwater runoff - Rooftops and roads absorb zero rain, as against more than 100 hectares of grass and trees

An internationally recognised drawcard for our region could be lost for all time

Radio interview - 23rd January 2019 - Darren Halpin on John McKenzie's show

6th September 2020, Sunday morning 11:00 am. Traffic backed up from Palm Cove. The highway certainly can't handle the increase that would come from any development of Paradise Palms

Employment of Town Planning Lawyers - Holding Redlich

Employment of a Town Planner

More commentary  by Cairns Post Journalist Chris Calcino on the indefensible position that the Unity Team has adopted

God save us all and our council

SHAMBLES: Cairns Regional Council meeting was complicated this week.

MY GRANDPA only ever knew God Save the Queen was playing because everyone stood up.

His tone deafness is legendary, but he has nothing on our elected local government officials.

Cairns Regional Council’s meeting this week was a rotten shambles — an exercise in alienating ratepayers and undermining your own good work.

The majority-wielding Unity Team, despite so many assurances the alliance dissolves after the election, buckled down to stop the independents from doing their job, all in the name of self-aggrandisement.

It was complicated and yuck, but here’s the gist:

› The Unity Team accepted about $200,000 in donations before the last election, including a heap from property developers.

› It has since become illegal to accept donations from developers.

› Retrospective legislation means Unity Team members cannot vote on any items touched by a donation they have received.

› Since the majority of councillors belong to Unity, those decisions have been delegated to the CEO.

› New advice makes it clear that is not the only way — a subcommittee comprising a majority of non-conflicted councillors could be formed to decide on those thorny items.

› Rather than have their fellow elected councillors do their job, and against their protests, Unity opted to leave an unelected bureaucrat to make those decisions.

The sentiment seemed to be “if we can’t do it, you can’t do it”, which is both vindictive and stupid for people who want to get voted back in next year.

The big argument was that the State Government planned to introduce amendments to the legislation that brought this mess about in the first place.

It was uncanny.

A group of councillors who on any other day expends gallons of hot breath bagging out the Palaszczuk government for its incompetence suddenly found an extraordinary amount of faith in its legislative abilities.

Keep in mind none of the independent councillors knew what that legislation looked like, or if it would ever pass through parliament.

Only the State Government really knows.

It has been suggested the legislation would allow the council to come up with a set of parameters, such as a cap on donation size and how long ago it was made.

Those parameters would be voted upon by — get this — non-conflicted councillors, who would have the option to allow the Unity Teamsters back in the action.

So those four councillors that Unity did not trust to make decisions would be asked to trust Unity to vote on matters in which they have actual bona fide conflicts of interest.

It is insane.

If I were Cathy Zeiger, Linda Cooper or Brett Olds, I would be seriously considering my options here.

Received a $1 donation?

No go, buddy.

None of this is to say the Unity Team has acted illegally in any way, shape or form, but to have a group of conflicted councillors blocking a group of cleanskins from doing what they were elected to do just stinks to high heaven. The other big argument was that the CEO had, on every occasion a conflicted matter was delegated to him, voted in line with the council officer recommendation. Big whoop. How is that a good thing? I don’t know who that council officer is, I don’t know who his uncle is, I don’t know if who he owes money. We elect councillors because we want them to represent us. If that means going against a crap recommendation from some faceless bureaucrat, so be it. Mayor Bob Manning has been in Canberra and has the opportunity to swoop in and save the day, introducing a democratic solution while we wait for the State Government to pull its finger out. If the Unity Team councillors thought this display would go down well with the community, they need to extract the wax between their ears. Teams and parties should be banned from local government. Cairns Regional Council’s ordinary meetings are open to the public. The next one starts at 9am sharp on Wednesday, February 27.

CAIRNS REGIONAL COUNCIL’S MEETING THIS WEEK WAS A ROTTEN SHAMBLES — AN EXERCISE IN ALIENATING RATEPAYERS AND UNDERMINING YOUR OWN GOOD WORK

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Save Paradise Palms, the organisation and who is involved?

Please DONATE what you can to the Fighting Fund at our GoFundMe page.

You can simply visit our GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/save-paradise-palms and make a donation there. Every little bit will help, thank you.

Big numbers in attendance at the Public Meeting - Tuesday 12th February 

Significant wildlife habitat

What is really happening?

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