Event wrap up
On the 27th of January CAFNEC and AMCS hosted at the Salt House in Cairns an important event in our ongoing series of Reef Hour events, the Reef Hour – Election Special event.
The event featured local election candidates speaking about their policies in relation to the Great Barrier Reef and addressing questions from the audience.
An engaged Cairns and Far North community hear from candidates on reef protection.
The scheduled and confirmed speakers were: Michael Trout MP (LNP), Rob Pyne (Labor candidate), Noel Castley-Wright (Greens candidate). However the LNP candidate withdrew from the event and no LNP representative was present to replace him. This gap in the line up was replaced at the very last minute by attending local independent candidate Bernice Kelly.
Early problems with the in house sound system, the non-attendance of a LNP representative and some chopper noise were quickly overcome with the help of our committed CAFNEC Marine Response Team volunteers and an engaging and insightful hour long conversation continued. A strong turn out and many intelligent questions confirmed the importance of the Reef as a crucial election issue in 2015.
Topics covered included the Cairns Port dredging proposal, the Reef 2050 plan and the threat of ‘World Heritage in Danger’ listing, coastal development, land based impacts such as agricultural runoff , fisheries management, protection of vulnerable species such as dugong and turtle and the issue of climate change impact on the reef.
CAFNEC would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the volunteers, management committee members, candidates, the Salt House and everyone who attended and made the event a success.
CAFNEC Marine Response Team volunteers did a great job to facilitate the event and prove and information booth for the public.
We would also like to thank the many members of the media who attended and appreciated the coverage given to the event by the channel 7 and WIN local news teams.
Community participation in the democratic process is very important to all of us at CAFNEC and we are proud to have facilitated this important event in the lead up to the 2015 election.
For more information please see our 2015 election page where you can read more, access our election report card and learn more about how to make your vote count for the environment in 2015.
