Local Queensland Council of Unions Secretary Richie Bates announced his intention to stand for preselection as Labor Candidate for the seat of Cairns today.
Having run for council with Mr Bates on the Cairns 1st ticket in 2008, I for one am thrilled, in fact should he gain selection I may just need to move into his electorate just to vote for him!
When running for council I got to witness first hand how hard Richie worked and his commitment to meeting and representing the views of the people in his division was inspiring. What I like about Richie is there is no guess work, you know where you stand, and this is a man who's word is everything. Imagine a pollie who stands by what he says, I know of two or three currently in council, but I'm struggling for more than that.
Mr Bates supports the retention of public-owned assets, something close to my own heart. "Lucrative assets like QR National which underpin Queensland's economy well into the future should be retained"
"We are already seeing the first signs of QR National getting rid of jobs and damaging rural and regional communities," he said.
"We should learn from this lesson that we can't risk vital public services by handing them over to commercial interests who do act in the public interest."
"Privatisations of public assets are supposed to pass the public interest test. QR National has failed and I will support the Labor Government in any effort to regain control over QR National and to ensure we don't make the same mistakes in the future.
"My hope is to bring Labor principles back to the table in any major decision-making in government"
Mr Bates said the Premier Anna Bligh had shown strong and inspirational leadership during the recent natural disasters and "I would enjoy the opportunity to be part of her team that can provide strong principled government to Queensland".
Richie Bates is actively involved in community sport and has been a staunch advocate to improve sporting facilities in FNQ.
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