Tacita de Tournouer has won the five-way race to fill the vacancy in the Weipa Town Authority chamber following Saturday’s by-election.
Tacita de Tournouer has won the five-way race to fill the vacancy in the Weipa Town Authority (WTA) chamber.
Weipa voters gave Ms de Tournouer the nod to represent the community when they went to the polls on 16 August, with WTA announcing on social media on Saturday night she had claimed the by-election victory over fellow candidates Jeff Hughes, Rikki Cooper, Malcolm Slack and Sheridan Teizel.
Ms de Tournouer will serve as the fourth WTA elected member until the next general election in 2028, and joins Chair Jaime Gane, Deputy Chair Geoff Robins and Trent Gordon in the chamber, alongside Rio Tinto representatives Nick Preece and Tim Ryan, and Traditional Owner representative Jackie Malacoola.
Ms Gane, who is travelling back to Australia from a holiday, told Cape York Weekly on Sunday afternoon she thought all five candidates had put forward compelling cases to voters, and congratulated the newest WTA elected member on her win.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on what’s happening back home, and I’m very happy to welcome Tacita to the team, and congratulate her on being elected as our newest member,” she said.
“I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all other candidates who put their hand up for the by-election; asking people to support and vote for you is not an easy thing to do, but it gave our community choice, which is always a good thing; it also goes to show how many passionate people we have in the community, who were willing to put themselves out there for the benefit of everyone, which is fantastic.”
Ms Gane also thanked the WTA team for pulling off a seamless by-election.
“There is a lot of work that goes into it, and it is done on top of all the other ‘business as usual’, but our staff go above and beyond to ensure everything runs smoothly – I give them my sincere thanks,” she said.
“I would also like to thank all of the community members who took time out of their day to go and vote; although it was not compulsory to vote in this election, we still had a great turnout, which again goes to show how many engaged and passionate community members are out there.”
Ms de Tournouer could not be contacted for comment before Cape York Weekly went to press.
