FNQ Future Looks Bright
CityLife Business
ADVANCE CAIRNS
FNQ Future Looks Bright
Jacinta Reddan
: (07) 4080 2900
: admin@advancecairns.com
Chief Executive Officer
Advance Cairns
The past few weeks have been extremely fruitful for Far North Queensland, with the region set to receive more than half a billion dollars in funding in the Albanese Government’s first Federal Budget.
Marine and education were the region’s big winners, with $200m allocated for infrastructure upgrades at the Cairns Marine Precinct and the construction of a CQUniversity Cairns CBD campus, to be rolled out over six years from 2023/24.
Also in the Federal Budget was $107.5m towards Cairns Regional Council’s Cairns Water Security – Stage 1 project, $13.2m for Commonwealth Supported Places at JCU Medical School, $15m for TTNQ to support international tourism in the region, and $210m for the Kuranda Range Road upgrade.
These transformational projects will have exponential flow-on benefits across the broader economy, creating jobs and skills growth, improving logistics and supply chain, and painting a bright, sustainable future for the region.
The announcements followed strong advocacy from Advance Cairns Chair Nick Trompf and the Executive Board, along with other key regional stakeholders including Cairns Regional Council and TTNQ.
There is no better example of the power of speaking with one collective voice and this spirit of collaboration is one which attracted me to this role. The passion and pride for the region is self-evident in all of my initial meetings with members and key stakeholders.
It is indeed a privilege to be stepping into the role as CE at a time when the region has secured funding for these major game-changing projects. The bar has been set high!
I wanted to thank you for the extraordinary welcome you have given me to this beautiful part of the world. I feel incredibly blessed to be in a position to build on the momentum to shape a future for Far North Queensland in which we all prosper, and we create diverse career paths and opportunities for our children and for their children, and that in doing so, we contribute to a community in which we all thrive.
My goal is to get to meet as many of you as possible and to ensure that you have a voice. I have been fortunate to have met many of you at three major events in my first month in the role – from a briefing with the Minister for Transport and Main Roads to hosting our first event with a Minister from the new Federal Government, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King who gave us a sneak preview of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the region, to our AGM.
I am certainly pleased that the climate in Hong Kong has prepared me well for Cairns and I am enjoying some of the best Asian food I have eaten anywhere in the region – but nothing can compare with the sheer beauty of the natural landscape, your abundant fresh produce and the extraordinarily welcoming community. And I have barely touched the surface but am giving it a really good go!
It has been a real pleasure meeting, listening and learning during my first few weeks in Tropical North Queensland.
