Letter to the Editor

There is a full page advertisement in some newspapers from the Liberal Party asking for candidates to contest the state seats of Cook and Hill.(west of Cairns)

It never ceases to amaze me when we keep getting Labor candidates re-elected in Cook.  At least five conservative political parties I have discovered are going to put their hands up to run against Cynthia Lui the indigenous Labor member on October 31.

Not all of them can be serious about winning the seat. There is a large welfare vote in the northern part of Cook which favours the sitting member.

But conservative voters outnumber the Labor voters. If the LNP, KAP, One Nation, Palmer and NQ First all nominate candidates they split the vote five ways and Labor gets returned.

I have my suspicions that most of these parties know they can’t win and are just chasing the money. Why not when the Labor Government recently doubled the value of your vote to candidates and parties which get over 4 per cent of the tally?

Payments to candidates standing for election will increase from $1.57 per vote received to $3.

Payments to political parties will also increase, from $3.14 to $6 per vote received.

The eligibility threshold for the payments has also changed — parties and candidates will only require 4 per cent of the primary vote, rather than 6 per cent, to receive the money.

It would be a good question to ask. Where does the money come from?

It is up to voters to determine which candidate is serious about winning and working for the local community instead of chasing the money. My test is who is a local and will live in the seat, how many MP’s do they have in the nearby region and their past performance and who champions regional communities, farmers and small businesses of the Far North?

It is not hard to find an answer.

Yours

K Court

Cairns

Editor: Cairnsnews editorial board has agreed to publish letters from North Queensland readers relating to the upcoming state election. Particularly like this one which the writer said Newscorp and other press would not publish. Send in your unpublished letter and we will print it if it has merit. We will publish the identity of the newspapers that refuse to publish well written letters with topical subjects.