FRI 09 JANUARY 2015

Mediaportal Report

2014 - THE YEAR IN REVIEW08 Jan 2015Whitsunday Times, Airlie Beach QLD, General News

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Pilot call `a precaution'08 Jan 2015Cairns Post, Cairns QLD, General News

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Games legacy up in air09 Jan 2015Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD, General News, Lucy Ardern

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Stars want organisers to lift game09 Jan 2015Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD, General News, Shaya Laughlin

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Events man a real high flyer09 Jan 2015Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD, General News, Jenny Rogers

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2014 – THE YEAR IN REVIEWJanuaryIT WAS a positive start to2014, with tourism operatorsreporting solid bookings overthe festive season and into thenew year. Former Whitsun-days Marketing and Develop-ment CEO, Danial Rochford,said all reports showed theho-liday period was one of thebest in recent years.It wasn’t long before thecontentious issue of dredginghit the headlines. By January9, representatives from Whit-sunday businesses were call-ing on the Great Barrier ReefMarine Park Authority(GBRMPA) to refuse a sea-dumping permit for dredgespoil from Abbot Point.GBRMPA was due to make adecision on issuing the permitby January 31 and locals fromaround the region were keento express their views.MeanwhileWhitsunday Re-gional Council announced se-rious discussions were under-way as a result of a mayoraldelegation to China in the lat-ter part of 2013.The delegation consistingof mayor Jennifer Whitney,Council’s CEO Scott Waters,Fish D’Vine owner Kevin Col-lins (a councillor at the time)and Airlie Beach business-man Tony Laurent, travelledoverseas at the invitation ofthe China Australia Entrepre-neurs Association Inc(CAEAI). Cr Whitney report-ed back that the CAEAI weregenuine about investing in theWhitsunday region and thatCouncil would do everythingin its capacity to help makethis a reality, including advo-cating to the State and Com-monwealth Governments asrequired.On Friday, January 17, themayor oversawa signing cere-mony between the CAEAI and

the Zelong Group from Mack-ay, in relation to mounting abid for a regional casino li-cence in Airlie Beach. TheQueensland Government hadinvited applications for threecasino licenses – one in Bris-bane and two in regionalQueensland – and CAEAI pre-sident Mr RaymondWang an-

nounced his organisation hadbeen looking at locations inand around Airlie Beach.After a fairly turbulent 2013,Council’s finances were neverfar from the spotlight. At aCouncil meeting towards theend of the month, Council’sCEO Scott Waters was direct-ed to seek advice about thepossibility of legal actionagainst individuals and enti-ties who submitted Council’sfinancial statements for the2010-11 financial year andthose who facilitated spend-ing of flood damage funds in2010.January ended with the re-gion being on cyclone alert.Tropical Cyclone Dylancrossed the Australian coastat Hydeaway Bay on Friday,January 31, at 3.30am. The ca-tegory 2 system arrived justseven hours before the kingtide. While the region expe-rienced minimal damage,Council received both praiseand criticism for its emergen-cywarning systemsand stormsurge maps and the Bureau ofMeteorology also came underfire.

FebruaryWILD weather did nothing

to deter one of the world’smost famous couples fromvis-iting Airlie Beach. Brad Pittand Angelina Jolie came totown for the filming of Jolie’sdirectorial debut Unbroken.

Locations at Funnel Bay andEarlando were used to repli-cateHawaii where some of thefilm’s story is set. When thecameras stopped rolling onTuesday, February 4, the 130-strong cast and crew headedto Airlie’s Shipwrecked sea-food bar and grill for theirwrap party. Despite a strongsecurity presence ‘Brangeli-na’ went out of their way togreet local children and shakehandswith fans. News of theirWhitsunday visit spreadworldwide.There were more accoladesfor the region just oneweek la-ter when local charter compa-ny Whitsunday Escape wonGold at the Australian Tou-rism Awards. The company,which employs up to 10 peoplein Airlie Beach, took out theunique accommodation cate-gory for 2013. Meanwhilemore famous visitors arrivedin the region towards the endof the month, with the castand crew of the US comedy se-ries Modern Family filmingscenes from their ‘Australia’episode on Hayman Island.Arts minister IanWalker saidModern Family was a “hugelypopular show” and that it wasvery exciting to know placeslike the Great Barrier Reefand Hayman Island would beseen by millions of peopleworldwide. On a not-so-posi-tive note, the predominantlyBowen-basedWhitsundayRe-gional Residents Association(WRRA) called a series of pu-blicmeetings to discuss Coun-cil’s performance. This culmi-nated in a massive protestwhen a record number of pe-ople turned out to a Councilmeeting in Bowen.Mayor Jen-nifer Whitney claimed thecrowd was whipped into afrenzy by Cr Dave Clark, whohad spoken at a WRRA meet-

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ing about the rumoured clo-sure of Bowen’s Council offic-es and associated job cuts. CrWhitney, who was booed onherway into themeeting flatlydenied that any such decisionhad been made.

MarchCOUNCIL’s internal chaoscontinued to dominate theheadlines in March. At the be-ginning of themonth CrKevinCollins resigned, there weremore threats of public prot-ests and Council seemed tokeep finding itself ever furth-er in debt.TheMarch 12 Council meet-ing was moved to the Proser-pine Entertainment Centre,security guards were posi-tioned at the doors and only100 people were allowed in. CrWhitney admitted a deepen-ing divide appeared to be de-veloping between the northand the south of the shire butshe stressed “we’re diggingour heads in the sand if wethinkwe’re going to goback toindividual shire councilsagain”.Nonetheless there werecontinued calls from somesectors of the community forde-amalgamation and / or theappointmentof anadministra-tor and in the midst of this,Council’s CEO Scott Watersfound himself in court on adrink-driving charge.The final Council meetingfor the month was abandonedless than 10 minutes after itstarted, due to the fact thatCrsDaveClark, PeterRamageandAndrewWilcoxallwalkedout. Cr Whitney was on an-nual leave and had delegatedher responsibilities as chair ofthemeeting to Cr JanClifford,despite the fact this functionwould normally pass to CrWilcox as the deputy mayor.At the meeting, Cr Wilcoxstood up and announced hewould be taking no furtherpart in this or any other meet-ing until he had spoken to Lo-cal Government Minister Da-

vid Crisafulli. Crs Ramageand Clark followed his lead.Mr Crisafulli responded bysaying he was happy to meetwith the councillors but thatthey weren’t going to solvetheir financial or infrastruc-ture challenges by “squab-bling among themselves”. Hewas also critical of the mayor,saying she “got this wrong”.On the tourism front a deve-lopment application was ap-proved for a retro-style resort

at Woodwark, the ProserpineRiver boat ramp re-openedand Segway tours started run-ning in Airlie Beach. Mean-while hundreds of peopleflocked to the opening of thenew Woolworths store in Air-lie Beach.One of the biggest news sto-ries of the month was the de-claration of Airlie Beach asone of Queensland’s 15 SafeNight Precincts in a 12-monthtrial aimed at reducing drugand alcohol-fuelled violence.Under the new strategy, ‘co-ward punch’ killers could facelife imprisonment with offen-ders required to serve 80 percent of their sentences beforebeing eligible for parole.

AprilAPRIL got off to an excitingstart with the introduction ofTigerair flights between Syd-ney and the WhitsundayCoast Airport at Proserpine.The arrival of the first flight at9.45am on Tuesday, April 1,signified the first time inmorethan six years that directflights had been available be-tween Proserpine and any in-terstate destination. TigerairAustralia’s head of communi-

cations Vanessa Regan, whowas on the flight, said the newTuesday, Thursday and Satur-day services would delivermore than 1000 visitor seatsper week.There was further progres-sion on the Whitsundays’ bidfor one of the regional casino

licenses up for grabs, with therevelation that the bid by theCAEAI was not the only one.Fullshare International(Australia) Pty Ltd, otherwiseknown as Laguna Quays, alsomade a play for the privilege.Each of the developers had topay the State Government$100,000 in non-refundablefees.It was during April that theFight for the Reef campaignstepped up a notch, with theholding of a rally in AirlieBeach. About 200 peoplebraved the onset of TropicalCyclone Ita to join wildlifewarrior Bob Irwin at theevent.Meanwhile local Govern-ment Minister David Crisaful-li travelled to Bowen whereeach of theWhitsunday coun-cillors and mayor were told toput their differences behindthem and “get on with it”.“You don’t have to be bestfriends, you don’t have to playin the sand pit together, butyou do have to govern for theregion,” Mr Crisafulli said,telling the media afterwardsthat “some feathers flew andsome fur went missing, but itneeded to happen”.Whitsunday MP Jason Cos-tigan also copped an ear-fullfrom the region’s boating pop-ulation, frustratedat theappa-rent lack of action over hiselection promises to fix theCannonvale boat ramp. MrCostigan responded by sayingmoney was tight. Local fisher-man and boat ramp advocateBob Spees warned that peoplewould remember this at elec-tion time.It was a busy Easter andANZAC period for the Whit-sundays with the closelyalignedpublicholidayspayingdividends in the form of the‘No Vacancy’ signs region-wide.

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MayMAY started with the an-nouncement that the numberof international visitors to theregion was up. More than127,000 Europeans visited theWhitsundays in 2013 – an in-crease of 14,000 people. Num-bers from Asia and Canadawere also up.One particularly well-known animal visitor causedquite a stir. Gary the Goatfound himself almost bannedfrom a scheduled show at Air-lie’s Magnums Hotel due to aCouncil food and beveragelaw. The famous goat and hiscomedian owner Jimbo Ba-zoobi were allowed into thevenue at the eleventh hourthanks to intervention byCouncil’s CEO Scott Waterswho said common sense need-ed to prevail.In other news, cattle manand boat ramp advocate JohnAtkinson became a councillorafter winning the by-electionfor Division 2. Mr Atkinsonbeat Mario Demartini, JackLumby and Rogin Taylor, win-ning 732 of the 2089 votes.More than 1500 enrolled peo-ple did not vote.Cr Atkinson had only beenpart of the team for a weekwhen Council hit the hea-dlines again, this time over a$1.25 million rates disputewith the proponents forAbbotPoint, North Queensland BulkPorts (NQBP). While mayorJennifer Whitney claimedthis amount was outstandingfrom two financial years, aspokesperson from NQBPsaid the ports corporation hadalways paid its bills.Chinese interest in the re-

gion continued to develop,

with the announcement of aBuddhist seminar and visit byChinese holy man Abbot Dao-ci. The Abbot’s seminar wasdesigned to give interestedcommunity members insightinto Guan Yin Buddhism, inlight of the CAEAI wanting toestablish a Buddhist templehere.Mayor JenniferWhitneysaid if a Guan Yin Buddhisttemple was established in theWhitsundays “it could be thebeginning of a constant flowoffollowers visiting the regionand a further boost to localtourism”.Nonetheless, the CAEAIsuffered a setback to theirplans with the announcementat the end of the month thattheWhitsundayshadbeenun-successful in its casino licencebids.Deputy premier Jeff Seeneysaid the unsuccessful propo-sals needed “more work” iftheywere tomeet the criteria.The government chose two lo-cationswhere casinos alreadyexist – the Gold Coast andCairns.Whitsunday tourism opera-tor Tony Brown was the manof the month, for taking thefight against dredging and seadumping at Abbot Point to theother side of the world. MrBrown went to Germany,France and London, to speakat the AGMs of the DeutscheBank, Societe Generale and

Mr Brunker said this wasnot true and that Council heldmeetings over several monthsdiscussing water and sewer-age needs and the resultingimplications on finances. Thereport was made public.None of this meant anyth-ing to the visiting humpbackwhales, who returned to theregion this month. The firstreported sighting for the yearwas made by crew on TrueBlue Sailing’s flagship Atlan-

HSBC. The purpose of hismis-sion was to ask the big banks

to think about the environ-mental and social conse-quences of investing in whatcould potentially become thebiggest coal terminal in theworld in the middle of theGreatBarrierReef. Duringhisvisit the Deutsche Bank an-nounced it would not considerany financing requests andless than 24 hours later HSBCfollowed suit.JuneFINANCES were top ofmind as the end of the finan-cial year approached, withWhitsunday Regional Councilentering into budget talks. Asearly as the firstweek of June,Council announced itwas con-sidering sellingassets, raisingrates, maintaining the levyand reducing the five per centearly rate payment discountfor 2014-15.By the end of the month,former mayor Mike Brunkerwas calling for current mayorJennifer Whitney to besacked. His calls came after aroweruptedover a 2010Finan-cial Sustainability Report. CrWhitney said the reportwarned of Council’s impend-ing financial doom in March2010, but was never broughtbefore Council to discuss. Shesaid had this occurred, diffe-rent decisions could havebeen made, particularly overthe delivery of water and sew-age treatment plants, mean-ing Council would not be in itscurrent level of debt.

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tic Clipper, on Wednesday,June 5.Meanwhile the Racewaytrack at Proserpine propelledthe Whitsundays into the na-tional spotlight with the host-ing of the 2014 Australian Su-permoto Championships.Further to this was the an-

nouncement that the trackcould be considered for theworld titles in 2018.It was a romantic end to themonth when third generationWhitsunday bachelor, DougDavy found love on nationaltelevision in the WIN net-work’s reality show ‘WhenLove Comes to Town’. Doug,then 28, met 30-year-old Bris-bane-based marketing man-ager Zoe Gorbunow when theshow’s ‘love bus’ pulled intoAirlie Beach in December2013.After the showhadaired,Doug announced he would bemoving to Brisbane to be withhis new-found love.JulyTHE new financial yearcould not have got off to a bet-ter start, thanks to the re-in-troduction of Qantas flights toHamilton Island. Nine yearshad passed since Australia’snational airline last flew intothe Whitsundays so the moodwas understandably jubilantwhen on July 2 the iconic fly-ing kangaroo was welcomedback.From this date, Qantas an-nounced it would operatethree flights per week be-tween Sydney and HamiltonIsland on Wednesday, Satur-day and Sunday during peak

season (July and Septemberthrough to January) and bi-weekly services on Wednes-day and Sunday off-peak.Qantas Domestic CEO LyellStrambi said the airline sus-pended its services to Hamil-ton Island in 2005 when themarket dictated it would bebest serviced by subsidiaryJetstar.MrStrambi said itwason the back of a 14 per cent

rise in visitor spending to $706million in the past year, thatthe flying kangaroo was back.The first flight on July 2coincided with the opening ofthe newly re-branded One-&Only Hayman Island Resort.The resort underwent an $80million investment and ‘re-birth’ as part of the exclusiveOne&Only collection. Nowowned by Mulpha Australiaand managed by Kerzner In-ternational, the resortwas thefirst in the state to officially flya Queensland flag, raised byTourism Minister Jann Stuck-ey.On the back of these highprofile events was the an-nouncement that the Whit-sundays had experienced thebiggest growth innational vis-itation throughout all ofQueensland for the past year.Almost half a million Aus-tralians spent more than $600million on visits to the Whit-sundays in the year to March2014. The figures, taken fromTourismAustralia’s latest Na-tional Visitor Survey, also re-vealed that more Australianswere coming to the Whitsun-days, staying for longer andspending more money thanthey had done for years.Meanwhile, Council lost itsbattle with North QueenslandBulk Ports (NQBP) writing off$700,000 in alleged outstand-ing rates. Mayor JenniferWhitney said NQBP had util-ised the State GovernmentRates Equivalent Regime tohave areas normally rateabledeemed non-rateable, hencethe bill needed to be re-calcu-lated.A statement released byCouncil said they were dissa-tisfied and disappointed withthe outcome of the negotia-tions and “reluctantly” ap-proved the write-off of

$117,469.68 interest and$567,749.95 general rates.NQBP remained in thenewsthis month with the ABC’sFourCorners program filminga reef documentary in the

Whitsundays and AirlieBeach. Prominent anti-seadumping advocate TonyBrownwas interviewed by thefilm crew ahead of a visit toSydney and Melbourne wherehe met with three of Austra-lia’s ‘big four’ banks. MrBrown’s pitch to the bankswas the same as the one hemade to the European finan-cial powerhouses in May.On the immediate home-front was the fight to retain astinger net at CannonvaleBeach. The decision by Whit-sunday Regional Council toremove the stinger net,sparked outrage among mem-bers of the local community,who started a petition signedby 2327 people.AugustTHIS month literally tookoff with a bang thanks to thePorters fireworks display, offi-cially opening the 14th annualWhitsunday Reef Festival onAugust 1. Festival chairwo-man Margie Murphy de-scribed the line-up at thisyear’s event as “bigger thananything we’ve had before”.Big name acts like Nathaniel,TheCollectiveandTheBasics,featuring Wally de Backer ofGotye fame, had thousands ofpeople dancing in the mainstreet of Airlie Beach. The2014 street parade was alsobigger than ever before at-tracting a record number of 34floats, with about 400 peopletaking part.The record-breaking trendcontinued with the 25th an-nual Airlie Beach Race Week,which attracted 135 entries,beating the original record of123 in 2011. Whitsunday Sail-ing Club commodore and Air-lie Race Week chairman JimHayes proudly announced“we didn’t just beat the record– we smashed it”.All the action from RaceWeek was recorded by a Syd-ney-based film crew, whomade a half-hour documen-tary to be distributed to an es-timated 60 countries, with a

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potential reach of 400 to 500

million households. RJ Mediawas contracted by Tourismand Events Queensland(TEQ) to shoot the interna-tional television special focus-ing on sailing in the Whitsun-days and particularly the 25thanniversary of Airlie BeachRaceWeek. Executive produc-er Richard Scotts said the pro-duction crew were here notonly to get the sailing shotsbut also footage of AirlieBeachand theWhitsundays ingeneral. Then CEO of Whit-sundays Marketing and Deve-lopment Limited (WMDL) Da-nial Rochford congratulatedthe Queensland Governmenton the initiative, saying thiswould be an enormous oppor-tunity to promote AirlieBeach to the world.Good news continued withthe announcement that workwas to start on a new luxuryresort at Shingley Drive, Air-lie Beach. In the third week ofAugust preliminary clearingworks started on the $70 mil-lion One Whitsundays Resortand Spa, at the site previouslyear-marked for developmentby model and socialite IvanaTrump. When complete thefive star resort and spawill in-clude 75 strata titled apart-ments, six premium pen-thouses, a three-tieredtropical lagoon pool, a premi-um day spa, complete withgymnasium, high quality res-taurant, and Airlie’s largestconference centre. The firstsod was officially turned onOctober 8.Outspoken Member forDawson George Christensentook the final front page hea-dline of the month by an-nouncing ‘I got it wrong’ withrespect to his former stanceon the dredge spoil debate. Inan open letter to the commun-ity, published in the Whitsun-day Times on August 28, MrChristensen said he didn’t fo-resee the angst the dumpingof dredge spoil in the Great

Barrier Reef marine parkwould cause tourism opera-tors and residents of theWhit-sundays. “If a viable optionemerges, I will ensure that thespoil is dumped on land, not atsea,” Mr Christensen vowed.

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SeptemberHOT on the heels of MrChristensen’s apology camethe news that the two key pro-ponents at Abbot Point – GVKHancock Coal and the AdaniGroup, would re-submit a pro-posal for dredge spoil to bemanaged on land and not inthe waters of the Great Bar-rier Reef.Meanwhile history wasmade on the Whitsunday wa-ters when members of theShag Islet Cruising Club (SI-CYC) gathered for their an-nual Whitsunday rendezvousof 2104. The ‘shaggers’ as theyare affectionately known,used their tenders to form theshape of the Prostate CancerFoundation of Australia(PCFA) logo in the waters offMontesResort inan inaugural‘HandsAcross theBlue’ event.Hands Across the Blue wasattended by representativesfrom all three tiers of govern-ment as well as world leadersin the field of prostate cancerresearch. The SICYC’s 2014Rendezvous raised a record-breaking total of $77,756 for

the PCFA.It was a big month forCruise Whitsundays, whomoved to their new state-of-the-art maritime terminal atPort of Airlie The companystarted operating from thenew terminal on Saturday,September 6, with Port of Air-lie replacing all former AbellPoint Marina arrivals and de-partures. The terminal, fea-turing airport-style check-inand baggage carousels, wasofficially opened at a formalceremony on September 19.The Whitsunday Timesmade the headlines thismonth, by announcing on Sep-tember 4 that its owners AD-HOC, of which APN Aus-tralian Regional Media ownsthe major share, had alsobought theWhitsunday CoastGuardian in Proserpine. Thetwo media teams united andhave worked as one on bothpublications ever since.Meanwhile in Airlie Beach,tempers started to flare overthe issue of buses and taxis onthe main street. Taxi opera-tors met with representativesfrom Whitsunday RegionalCouncil, Mackay/WhitsundayTaxis, the Department ofTransport and Main Roads(TMR) andWhitsunday CoastAirport management, to dis-cuss their complaints. Someofthose who attended the meet-ings described them as “awaste of time”, with no mu-tually convenient outcomeagreed.A more positive meetingwas the one held betweenWhitsunday tourism opera-tors andmembers of theGreatBarrier Reef Marine ParkAuthority (GBRMPA) board.This was the first time in itschairman Russell Reichelt’sseven-year reign that theboard of GBRMPA had cometo Airlie Beach.The first thing the boardmembers didwas to get out onthe Whitsunday waters andvisit some of the locationswhere the zoningswere up for

review. They then met withmembers of the Superyacht

industry, who wanted to havetheir say on restrictions to useof the marine park. Finally itwas time for the board to facethe tourism operators of Air-lie Beach, many of whom hadbeen at the forefront of the no-sea dumping campaign. Onthe back of the QueenslandGovernment’smost recent an-nouncement that itwould sup-port land-based dumping ofdredge spoil, Mr Reichelt toldthe operators he thought “wecan take a breath and look atthe bigger picture for a littlewhile now”.Finally, in more good newson the flight front, Qantaslinkannounced itwouldexpand itstravel networkwith flights be-tween Brisbane and HamiltonIsland, starting on November28.OctoberABELL Point Marina ownerPaul Darrouzet hit the hea-dlines this month, for takingsteps to clear his name follow-ing two national media re-ports.OnAugust 18 and19, theAustralian Financial Review(AFR) ran reports claimingMr Darrouzet was one of a“new breed” of political do-nors, helping to fill the coffersof the Liberal National Party(LNP). The initial reportclaimed the “former coal ba-ron turned marina operator”and largest individual donorto the Queensland LNP, gave$150,000 to the party just oneweek before “gaining appro-val to dredge near the GreatBarrier Reef”. The articlesstated the donation, made lastyear through Mr Darrouzet’sprivate investment companyPondcote, was not personallydeclared to theElectoral Com-mission of Queensland, as re-quired by law.MrDarrouzet absolutely re-futed these claims saying henot only declared the dona-tion but was issued with a for-mal receipt from the Electoral

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Commission of Queensland’sAssistant Director of Fundingand Disclosure, David Gottke,on November 6, 2013. He wasalso adamant there was no re-lationship between his politi-cal allegiances and dredgingat Abell Point. Mr Darrouzetsaid he was launching defa-mationactionagainst theAFRand on November 25, the new-spaper published a public

apology, withdrawing any andall allegations raised.October was the monthwhen the Whitsundays be-came a literary destination,with the fifth annual WritersFestival held from October 10-12. One of Australia’s mostprolific non-fictionwriters Pe-ter FitzSimons travelled to theregion for the event andcharmed the crowds with hisanecdotes and quick wit.Also welcomed was theopening of theRegattaWatersDriving Range on Thursday,October 23. The driving rangemarked the return of golfingfacilities to the Airlie Beacharea and the first stage of thecommunity’s $500 million pro-fessionally designed golfcourse.This month, local tourismoperators reaped the rewardsof a year of hard work at the2014 Whitsunday TourismAwards. On Saturday, October18, 27 local businesses wereawarded for their outstandingachievements and excellencein business practice. Thisyear’s Bob Porter Award foran outstanding contributionmade by an individual went toAl Grundy from ExploreWhitsundays.The fight for the reef, whichMr Grundy had been such anintegral part of, was also inthenews thatweek,withmorethan 300 people joining Whit-

sunday Residents AgainstDumping (WRAD) to create aspectacular on-water heartformation in support of theGreat Barrier Reef.

One of the biggest announ-cements of October was thatthe former Whitsunday Re-gional Council was cleared ofany criminal activity by theCrime and Corruption Com-mission, which finalised its in-vestigations into theorganisa-tion this month. Formermayor Mike Brunker againcalled for the current mayorJennifer Whitney to besacked. He also said it was hercivic duty to go to Brisbaneand recover money the Coun-cil had “paidback” to theStateGovernment as a result ofthese “so-called overspends”.Cr Whitney said now was thetime to “draw a line in thesand”.NovemberTHE townwas abuzz for thestart of November with thehighly anticipated second an-nual Airlie Beach Festival ofMusic. There was a great vibefor the weekend event, featur-ing 74 bands across 18 venuesspread throughout AirlieBeach. Festival highlights inthe Whitsunday SailingClub’s big top tent, includedperformances by John PaulYoung, JonEnglish,MarkSey-mour, The Eurogliders, Radia-tors and Screaming Jets.Meanwhile, the Whitsun-day region proved it was firm-ly back on the adventure tra-veller’s ‘must-do’ list, bycleaning up at the 2014GoldenBackpack Awards. At a galaevening held in Sydney, one ofthe biggest awards of thenight for the best destinationinAustralia, went to theWhit-sundays. Local tour operatorWhitsunday Sailing Adven-tures was awarded Best TourActivity in Queensland andTrue Blue Sailing’s TonyBrownwaspresentedwith theGolden Achievement Awardfor his outstanding contribu-tion to protecting the GreatBarrier Reef. Other winnersincluded The Great BarrierReef, which was named BestVisitorAttraction inAustraliaand Base Backpackers Airlie

Beach, which came third inthe poll for Best Accommoda-

tion in Queensland. TheWhit-sundays proved equally popu-lar with pop princess KatyPerry who famously posed ina bikini in front of a HaymanIsland boat, and about 2000school leavers, who descend-ed on the region for Schoolies2014 fromNovember 22-26. Or-ganisers and police were gen-erally happy with the beha-viour of attendees at thisyear’s event who, by spendingan average of $1500 each fortheweek, also delivered awel-come economic boost.One of the biggest announ-cements of the year wasmadethis month, with the revela-tion that a $300 million China-town development wasplanned for Airlie Beach.Whitsunday Regional Councilaccepted a $2.5 million tenderfor the sale of vacant land onWaterson Way, to be trans-formed into a central open-airpedestrian mall, with groundfloor retail and entertainmentvenues, fronting an eventsplaza adjacent to the AirlieCreek boardwalk.Mayor Jennifer Whitneysaid the successful tenderpro-posal was for a tourism-basedmixed-use development, com-bining a landmark hotel andshort-term accommodation,alongwith up to 100 shops andrestaurants.She said the project hadbeen realised through the re-lationship between Whitsun-day Regional Council and theChina Australia Entrepre-neurs Association Incorporat-ed (CAEAI). The Chinatowndevelopment is the first stepin the CAEAI’s proposedbroader $5 billion investmentin the Whitsunday regionwhich includes a Buddhisttemple, integrated resort de-velopment and the upgradingof the Whitsunday Coast Air-port to international stan-dard.December

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Whitsunday Times, Airlie Beach QLD08 Jan 2015

General News, page 23 - 2,760.00 cm²Regional - circulation 7,393 (--W----)

ID 358873825 PAGE 8 of 9

THE last month of the yeargot off to a great start with theannouncement that the Whit-sundays shone at the 2014Queensland Tourism Awards.Whitsunday Jetski Tours, theWhitsunday Maritme Train-ing Centre, Whitsunday Es-cape, Airlie Day Spa, TrueBlueSailing,Daydream IslandResort and Spa, MagnumsBackpackers, BIG4 AdventureWhitsunday Resort andCruise Whitsundays, were allresponsible for winning theregion a swag of 11 awards, ingold, silver and bronze, acrossa variety of categories.Cruise Whitsundays wonthe region’s two gold awards –

one for Best Major Tour and/or Transport Operator andthe other for Unique Accom-modation at the newly rejuve-nated Reefsleep.Meanwhile two-and-a-halfyears of verbal warfare be-tween the former and currentWhitsundaymayors came to ahead at the last Council meet-ing of the year in Proserpine.Former mayor Mike Brunk-er attended the meeting tohear the response to a ques-tion he had formally posed tocurrent mayor Jennifer Whit-ney at the previousmeeting inBowen. The question per-tained to whether CrWhitneystill believed Mr Brunker andhis administration were res-ponsible for “pinching” $10million, despite being clearedby the Crime and CorruptionCommission (CCC).Cr Whitney maintained “adocumented error occurred”under Mr Brunker’s watch,which had a flow-on effect tothe following financial year“providing Council and thecommunity in real terms witha negative cash balance at theend of the 2011-12 financialyear”.She said Council’s liquidityissues, clearly demonstratedafter amalgamation, werefurther compounded by thedisaster relief programs of

2009 and 2010 and the under-taking of a number of majorprojects at once – again all un-der Mr Brunker’s watch.Mr Brunker argued that thereason for this Council’s bud-get shortfall and weak cashflow position was the timespent “looking for reds underthe beds”.Bymid-December theWhit-sundays was back in the na-tional and international spot-light with two good newsstories for the region.The firstwas that the RaceWeek docu-mentary shot inAugustwas fi-nally set to air onmainstreamTV and the second pertainedto a Proserpine boy, who grewup to be amajor pipeline boss.On December 10, MickMcCormack, now CEO andmanaging director of Austra-lia’s largest gas infrastructurebusiness, the APA Group,signed a $6.2 billion pipelinedeal with UK giants BritishGas. The deal, to buy a pipe-line linking gas fields in theSurat Basin to a plant on Cur-tis Island, is the nation’s big-gest gas deal to date.The year ended just as it be-gan, with a bumper Christmasperiod and happy holidays.

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Whitsunday Times, Airlie Beach QLD08 Jan 2015

General News, page 23 - 2,760.00 cm²Regional - circulation 7,393 (--W----)

ID 358873825 PAGE 9 of 9

Pilot call ‘aprecaution’A PILOT slated to land at theCairns Airport yesterdaymorning put the aircraft on“local standby” after experi-encing issues while in the air.

A Cairns Airport spokes-woman confirmed the pilot en-tered a holding pattern abovethe airport at about 9am, butmanaged to land withoutdifficulty.

“The standby is a pre-caution to tell the airport andAir Services Australia thatthere’s a potential problem,”she said. “It didn’t eventuate toanything, thankfully.”

It is believed the lightaircraft had experienced somedifficulty with its landingequipment.

However the spokeswomanconfirmed the local standbywas a “normal part ofoperations”.

The airport fire service wascalled to the tarmac, but wasnot required.

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Cairns Post, Cairns QLD08 Jan 2015

General News, page 11 - 52.00 cm²Regional - circulation 18,262 (MTWTF--)

ID 359205061 PAGE 1 of 1

Games legacy up in airAuditor-General says long-term benefits of Coast event are largely being ignoredLUCY ARDERNLUCY.ARDERN@NEWS.COM.AU

THE State Government is notlooking to make any changesin its organisation of the 2018Commonwealth Games, de-spite a scathing pre-Christmasreport from the state’s top beancounter.

Queensland Auditor-Gen-eral Andrew Greaves was par-ticularly critical of thedirection and funding for thelegacy program, which wasaimed at delivering long-termbenefits from the Games forthe Gold Coast and the state.

In the document tabled inState Parliament on December

16 he said: “The current legacystrategy lacks detail on meas-uring the intended achieve-ments and benefits to thecommunity”.

The fact that legacy out-comes were unfunded wasraised as well.

Mr Greaves went on tohighlight the lack of account-ability surrounding the event’sorganisation because of thenumber of departments andgroups involved.

The issues are largely theresponsibility of Common-wealth Games Minister JannStuckey, who is charged withthe event’s delivery.

This week she seemed un-concerned about the matters.

When asked about theGames legacy, Ms Stuckey in-stead chose to discuss the de-livery of venues which isactually the responsibility herparliamentary colleague,Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.

“It is very important to notethat we are on track – we are

on time and we are on budget,”she said.

Then Ms Stuckey went onto say that “legacy was more

about how a community em-braces an event like this”, ig-noring the fact that it was up toher to ensure it happened.

Gold Coast Central Cham-ber of Commerce presidentPeter Yared said the govern-ment needed to recognise theimportance of the Common-wealth Games if the city wasgoing to get the most from it.

“This is the most crucialevent in the next 30 years forthe Gold Coast,” he said.

Political insiders said thegovernment had struggledwith legacy planning eversince it dumped the council-formed CommonwealthGames Legacy Committee andestablished its own Embracing

2018 Advisory Committee inMay last year.

Most of the work done bycouncil’s committee was disre-garded, while the State Gov-ernment group, which is alsoheaded up by former PremierRob Borbidge, has been forcedto rubber stamp recommenda-tions put to it by the Office ofCommonwealth Games Coor-dination.

Gold Coast Mayor TomTate said legacy planningshould be top of Ms Stuckey’s“to do” list. “Legacy planningmust be of the utmost priorityand it is important that anybody carrying out this work isproperly resourced and util-ised,” he said.

GIMME 5WISH LIST 2015WISH LIST 2015

WHAT’S ON OUR WISH LIST1. Trams connecting to the Brisbane rail line by20182. Exit 54 upgrade, triggering $1 billion of private investment and creating thousands of jobs3. No retreat on the bikie crackdown4. Clarity on the Broadwater mega-resort and cruise ship terminal5. A well-funded, well-organised CommonwealthGames with a lastinglegacy

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Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD09 Jan 2015, by Lucy Ardern

General News, page 11 - 291.00 cm²Regional - circulation 31,017 (MTWTF--)

ID 359392461 PAGE 1 of 1

Stars wantorganisersto lift gameSHAYA LAUGHLINSHAYA.LAUGHLIN@NEWS.COM.AU

BEN Ward does not takeshortcuts in his weightliftingtraining and he’s hoping Com-monwealth Games officialswon’t either.

Like many of the city’s ris-ing sport stars, the 14-year-oldis eyeing off the internationalevent to compete alongside theworld’s best athletes.

“Obviously everyonedreams of making the Com-monwealth Games,” the Kee-bra Park student said.

“Everyone has heroes and itwould be great to see how thebest of the best compete.”

Driven and determined,Ben is doing everything he canto make the team and rep-resent Australia in 2018.

“I train four to five times aweek,” he said. “I always pushmyself to be the best I can be.”

His dad Matt said he wantsCommonwealth Games offi-cials to realise how much theevent would mean to youngsporting stars like Ben.

“Everyone will be watchingthe Gold Coast,” the UpperCoomera resident said.

“They need to promote itand sell it to the world.”

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Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD09 Jan 2015, by Shaya Laughlin

General News, page 11 - 418.00 cm²Regional - circulation 31,017 (MTWTF--)

ID 359392462 PAGE 1 of 2

Ben Ward, 14, from Coomera, hopes to compete at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in weightlifting.

Picture: DAVID CLARK

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Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD09 Jan 2015, by Shaya Laughlin

General News, page 11 - 418.00 cm²Regional - circulation 31,017 (MTWTF--)

ID 359392462 PAGE 2 of 2

Events man a real high flyer

Tony Mullen, chief operating officer at Events Management Queensland, flys to England once a month to attend a business course. Picture: REGI VARGHESE

JENNY ROGERS

ONCE a month, Tony Mullencompletes a 30,000km roundtrip to attend an executiveMBA course at the prestigiousUniversity of Cambridge’sJudge Business School in theUK.

Each week, he works at hisday job, managing major GoldCoast sporting events the GoldCoast Airport Marathon andPan Pacific Masters Games aschief operating officer forEvents Management Queens-

land.The father of seven-year-

old twins also manages tosqueeze in a regular 10km runalong the Surfers beachfrontand a weekly morning visitvolunteering in class at hischildren’s school.

Mr Mullen estimates he willhave spent at least 960 hoursor 40 days on a plane andracked up 645,000km in theair by the time he completes

his MBA.“I do hold the title of the

longest travelling student tak-ing part in the course,” GoldCoast-based Mr Mullen said.

It’s a schedule that wouldput the world’s toughestexecutive to the test.

But he says the gruellingflight, study, work and familyroutine will be well worth it inthe end.

“It is a unique opportunity

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Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD09 Jan 2015, by Jenny Rogers

General News, page 47 - 632.00 cm²Regional - circulation 31,017 (MTWTF--)

ID 359393385 PAGE 1 of 2

of a lifetime to attend a courseat such a prestigious insti-tution,” Mr Mullen said.

“I considered a number ofexecutive MBAs worldwidebut chose Cambridge becauseof the quality of the programtaught by world-leading aca-demics, the diversity of thecohort, the future value of thenetworks and the global valueof the Cambridge brand.”

Mr Mullen said while ittakes him longer to get there

than any of his classmates,about a third of his fellow stu-dents travel to Cambridgefrom abroad.

“I have a classmate whotravels from Malaysia andother students come fromIndia, Chile, South Korea andUkraine,” he said.

His 54-student cohort of 28nationalities includes high-fly-ing executives from Googleand Microsoft, Rolls-Royce,Credit Suisse, a surgeon and anOlympic rower.

Mr Mullen hopes the coursewill lead to a CEO or boardlevel position.

The EMBA, one of a grow-

ing number of MBAs designedfor busy working executives, isdelivered over 16 weekendsand four week-long blocksover 20 months.

Mr Mullen uses his traveltime to Cambridge to bothstudy and sleep.

“I leave on a 1am Thursdaynight Cathay Air flight whichhave lie-flat beds, sleep forabout six hours and then studyfor the rest of the trip,” he said.

“It is a big commitment butmy wife and I spoke about itand decided it was an invest-ment for the future.

“And it is only once amonth ...”

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Gold Coast Bulletin, Gold Coast QLD09 Jan 2015, by Jenny Rogers

General News, page 47 - 632.00 cm²Regional - circulation 31,017 (MTWTF--)

ID 359393385 PAGE 2 of 2