While parties and candidates have splashed plenty of cash and promises around the south-eastern corner of the Leichhardt electorate, editor Lyndon Keane says Cape York voters have the right to feel hard done by as they head to the polls on Saturday. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
To borrow and clumsily paraphrase a line from Moving Pictures and Shannon Noll: what about us?
With the federal election only four days away, we can pack away the optimism and spreadsheets tallying how much of a funding injection Cape York is set for, because you can count on one hand how many direct promises have been made, and how much money has been earmarked for the far north of the Leichhardt electorate.
Think of a number closer to zero than it is to billions, which is disheartening, given there are 10 candidates – representing nine parties – who have been campaigning fervently for the past five weeks as they attempt to plant their flag in the front yard of the house recently vacated by long-term tenant Warren Entsch.
For the most part, it has been a throw-up-a-little-bit-in-your-mouth scenario watching the campaigns of some of the major players play out since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the election on 28 March and triggered a jousting contest for Leichhardt.
With Cape York making up less than 4 per cent of the 122,787 voters who will elect Leichhardt’s next representative in Canberra, it’s depressingly unsurprising most of the pork barrelling, promising and chest puffing has been undertaken in and adjacent to Cairns, where the concentration of electors reside.
Sporting clubs proved particularly popular spots for campaigning candidates to wave wads of taxpayer money in shameless and often cringeworthy attempts to procure votes, with the rationale apparently being those based in urban areas have plenty of members of voting age only too happy to offer their support in exchange for a new set of goal posts, and photos with a novelty cheque and cheesy grins.
While Cape York will likely benefit from national or statewide election commitments like Labor’s Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation and the Coalition’s $20b Regional Australia Future Fund, what was most critically needed was a specific funding commitment to infrastructure we need to go about our daily lives. Things like the continued upgrading and sealing of that little thing called the Peninsula Developmental Road.
Those responsible for progressing the next stage of the Cape York Region Package have now been left to spin their wheels until a new Federal Government is formed and someone in Canberra shows the intestinal fortitude required to secure the $240 million we’re waiting on to celebrate the vital road project’s continuation.
In an election cycle, it’s all about the numbers, and you can bet your firstborn they just didn’t stack up when it came to committing $240m for, at best, not even 4 per cent of the votes up for grabs. The money could be much better spent seducing sporting clubs and Cairns-based groups with membership bases exceeding the entire population of Cape York.
I don’t expect a sensical answer about why the Cape has been so glaringly excluded from the election promise extravaganza over the past 33 days, but I am stumped why our elected leaders and community advocates have been silent about the lack of money committed to the remotest part of the electorate – their backyard.
Where have our mayors, councils, chambers of commerce and advocacy bodies like the Torres Cape Indigenous Council Alliance been since 28 March? Why aren’t they shouting from the rooftops, banging the tin and pleading on social media for candidates to throw a few bucks in our direction? Why aren’t they outraged – some would say rightly so – and cursing our aspiring federal politicians to any media outlet that will listen?
With such a small population base, we will never be taken seriously by political parties unless we demonstrate our anger at being constantly ignored by uniting when we head to the ballot boxes this weekend. Remember that when you pick up your pencil and begin numbering from 1 to 10 on Saturday.
