Greetings Members
Welcome to Spring! The Gold Coast has been seeing temperatures of up to 30 degrees C, a great welcome for our interstate visitors up here to enjoy the Pacific Airshow, which was a major success! We had a “record crowd” of more than 400,000 people over the 3-day airshow extravaganza, great for all our local businesses.
It was a hectic long weekend to kick off the official start to spring with the Gold Coast Show, which many local families attended enjoying rides, side show entertainment, agriculture, tornado potatoes and a vivid firework display. In addition, Gold Coast families hit the beaches on Sunday to celebrate Father’s Day. And the GC is also hosting The Lifesaving World Championships for the first time! What an ideal location to showcase our fantastic surf life savers and welcome international competitors to our beautiful beaches as over 5000 competitors plus their families and supporters have discovered the Gold Coast from all parts of the world dining out and staying for 2 weeks’ worth of accommodation, demonstrating the enormous economic value to the Gold Coast of our tourism industry.
Tourism is our number one industry and financial generator and always will be, even when the construction industry slows down. That is why the expansion of the Gold Coast Convention Centre for larger world conferences is a number one priority for the tourism industry on the Gold Coast. The Labor Government walked away from a private sector investment of $100 million expansion which was a ridiculous decision. Hopefully, a new QLD government after October 26th will look at ways to facilitate this important expansion.
Local residents are persevering as the light rail construction works jackhammer on through the night, causing constant disruptions to traffic. The latest disruption sees roads such as Alexandra and Peerless Ave, Surfers Ave, all the way down to Dawn parade at the Gold Coast highway intersection, closed off, making things extremely difficult for motorists to travel. A trip that used to take 10 minutes now takes up to half an hour to get there!
The Queensland State election is right around the corner. The Labor Government has only brought chaos and crisis to Queenslanders over their almost 10-year tenure. This year, you can make a change in relation to things that matter to you, and all of Queensland, by voting for change in the next state election. The LNP will listen to your concerns as they have the right priorities for Queensland’s future.
As always, if you have any State issues you would like to discuss with me, don’t hesitate to contact my office.
Ph: (07) 5600 0100 / Email: mermaid.beach@parliament.qld.gov.au
Address: 1/2434 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach, 4218, QLD
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Cheers
Ray Stevens MP
