While Member for Cook Cynthia Lui says a Cairns electorate office is “accessible and inclusive for all” constituents, it will almost certainly become a thing of the past if the two-term MP is beaten at the upcoming state election. Photo: Lyndon Keane.
A Cook electorate office in Cairns will be a thing of the past if any of the four challengers hoping to wrestle the seat from incumbent MP Cynthia Lui claim victory at the state election on 26 October.
Ms Lui’s office has been located in the Cairns central business district, on the corner of Grafton and Shields streets, for a number of years, a position that has drawn criticism from her political opponents due to it being outside the electorate boundary.
The Queensland Parliament website shows Ms Lui also has an electorate office on Thursday Island, however, Cape York Weekly understands it is unmanned and, according to one Torres Strait source, “there for show only” with the phone number diverting to the Cairns office.
Liberal National Party candidate David Kempton held Cook from 2012 until 2015, during which time he relocated the office from Cairns to Mareeba.
With less than 90 days before the election, Mr Kempton said he had already “secured an option” for his previous office if he reclaimed the seat.
“An electorate office is for the benefit of constituents, not the convenience of the member for Cook, as it provides access to the member for social, economic, cultural, financial, and environmental issues arising in the electorate,” he said.
“Mareeba is central to the vast majority of constituents and it the most obvious choice for the main office.
“I have secured an option on the original Mareeba electoral office and am running my campaign from this location at present.
“If elected in October, I will move the electoral office back to Mareeba.”
The commitment to scrap the Cairns office was echoed by One Nation candidate Peter Campion, Katter’s Australian Party’s Duane Amos and independent runner Yen Loban.
In addition to relocating the main office, candidates have also suggested they would seek to open an additional one, potentially in Weipa, to provide constituents of the vast seat better access to electoral services.
“There’s no place else other than the electorate to base all the offices of the Cook MP,” Mr Loban said.
“To have multiple offices in the electorate just gives people the option and choice not to travel far to visit the local MP.”
Mr Campion said, if elected, he would “return [the office] to Mareeba immediately, where it rightfully belongs”, adding he believed satellite electorate offices on Cape York and in the Torres Strait were “essential”, given Cook covers an area more than 80 per cent the size of of Victoria.
Mr Amos argued the office should “never have been relocated”.
“Mareeba is the largest community in Cook and gateway to the Cape,” the KAP candidate said.
Despite the criticism, Ms Lui has doubled down on Cairns being the most suitable location for the Cook electorate office and said she would not relocate it if elected for a third term.
“Although my Cairns office is not in the Cook electorate, it is in the most central and accessible location for a large number of constituents who live in the Cook electorate,” she said.
“Acknowledging that a great number of people travel to Cairns from across the far north for various reasons, a Cairns office means I have a central point where I can engage with a wider number of constituents.”
“Historically, the Cook electorate office has been in Cairns; the move to Mareeba was a decision made during the Campbell Newman government, and there were access barriers for people beyond Mareeba.”
All the challenging candidates Cape York Weekly spoke to have committed to moving the Cook electorate office out of the Cairns CBD if they are elected on 26 October. Photo: Lyndon Keane.
