Member for Cook David Kempton has sat down with the Cape York Weekly to discuss his key takeaways from his first three months back in the role, including why he believes Olympic Games infrastructure dramas in south-east Queensland will create a “real battle” for Cape York to get its fair share of the funding pie over the next few years. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
The returned Member for Cook says he is concerned a south-east corner focus on infrastructure for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games will create a “real battle” for Cape York to receive a fair share of available funding in coming years.
Speaking to Cape York Weekly about his biggest takeaways from his first three months back in office, David Kempton flagged infrastructure development as one of the major issues he had identified and spoken to stakeholders in the northernmost part of the electorate about.
“Without being unfair, it just seems to me there’s been a lack of attention to infrastructure and service delivery,” he said.
“There would appear to be a void in the delivery of essential services, and in particular, in things like health, there’s been a lack of even maintenance funding for hospitals; there’s a catch-up period when I need to understand what hasn’t been done, what needs to be done immediately, and then start some long-term planning, so that we’re getting a fair slice of the funding and infrastructure delivery in this region.”
With the region crying out for wide-ranging infrastructure upgrades, especially to the road network, Mr Kempton said he believed a Brisbane-centric focus on developing facilities for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games put remote parts of the state like Cape York at risk of missing the funding boat.
“This is particularly the case looking over the next eight years with the Olympic Games and the concentration in the south-east, it’s going to be a real battle up here to make sure we get our share of the pie,” he said.
Mr Kempton, who will attend the 2025 Western Cape Futures Symposium in Weipa in May, said he was committed to being a strong advocate for the region, but called on Cape York communities to help the case for funding by identifying local priorities requiring immediate government attention.
“I think it’s critical, because we’ve got to get away from this attitude that things will be fixed by the government in the south-east,” he said.
“I would like to see right across the board, the position put forward by the communities and their leaders as to what they see should be done, and I should become an advocate for that, rather than just coming up here delivering messages from Brisbane.”
Mr Kempton is currently working out of former Labor MP Cynthia Lui’s office in the Cairns central business district and has a temporary office in Mareeba operating as suitability concerns over a permanent office in the town are rectified.
The topic of electorate office siting became a contentious issue during campaigning for the October 2024 state election, with all candidates except Ms Lui committing to scrap the Cairns location in favour of a presence within the Cook boundary.
“I have opened the office in Mareeba – it’s a temporary office,” Mr Kempton explained.
“At the moment, it’s not compliant with the rules in terms of security, public safety and amenity for staff, and we’re working on rectifying that; so, the Cairns office is an interim arrangement to make sure that the electorate is properly serviced, and as soon as I can get that Mareeba office fully operational, then we’ll make a decision about the future of Cairns.
“But at the moment, if I didn’t have this (Cairns) office open, there’d be no office; I’m doing the very best I can to make sure that the entire electorate is serviced as well as it can be.”
