Move the hospital, change the attitude

I, like many Cairns' residents, get very nervous every time I hear the old debate about moving the Cairns Base Hospital.

I get more nervous when the Mayor comes out like a drag queen at Madri Gras and freaks out Rev Fred Nile with his demands for it's removal.

Evidently Mayor Byrne is "livid" that there are still no plans to move the hospital. Now that would be a sight.

Byrne tells the Cairns Post it is clear "the government was intending just to put another Band-Aid on the longstanding problems rather than spend some real money fixing them."

“What we’ve done for 10 years is put Band-Aids on it to keep everyone happy but we’ve created a monster,” Byrne says.

Everytime a development-mad talks about clearing waterfront land, I get bloody suspicious.

He and his Council have been fixated on clearing the land that for more than 100 years, is home to the Cairns Yacht Club. He says it's not up to him, that it's a State Government issue. But they have given no positive support to retaining this.

Even Byrne's plans to build the long overdue performing arts centre, to replace the poor Civic Theatre, is woeful. I wrote back in November about this and questioned why many other options weren't being considered. There is much unused land that lies dormant where the old Trinity Wharf is located. This is a perfect location for a waterfront centre that the people of Cairns will have access to. To share, and enjoy.

Byrne's plan is to put a new theatre on the land across the road from the Cairns Convention Centre and alongside the State Government building in Sheridan Street. What he has been less upfront with though is that it will be dwarfed by three or four huge apartment towers on the same site, covering two sides of the proposed theatre.

Now that will be just great. Build a new theatre that is for night-time entertainment, and block it in with apartments for people that don't want to be disturbed at night!

Byrne's theatre plan also has an inadequate carpark facility, of which we've became well adverse to.

I know that waterfront land is a valuable bit of real estate. But it doesn't have to belong to the rich and big fat greedy developers for slapping up high-rises to block the sea and the magnificent False Cape, as Harbour Lights have done next door to the Hilton and the Cairns Yacht Club.

Byrne goes on to say “We can’t expand on the current hospital site so if nothing is done our health services will diminish. Trying to reclaim more land around the hospital would also just be “throwing good money after bad”.

Whilst I agree in a cyclone-rated region this wasn't the most sensible place to build a hospital.
JCU's Professor Nott has been harping on for years to a close-minded Cairns City Council about the ongoing onslaught of coastal development in our region.

Mayor Byrne infamously calls Professor Nott an extremist and neanderthal. Good one Kevin. I laughed as loud as when you dressed up as Yassh Afafat with a tea towel around you head. You should join the Chaser team.

However the Mayor acts in very poor form when he doesn't declare the full interest in such sites and the long term intentions for such prime land. His history would tell us that he's already had discussions with the likes of GlenCorp, CEC, Hedley, or all three for possible uses of the land that occupies the Base Hospital. You could almost bet your bottom dollar on that one.

Byrne says that smart communities build hospitals next to a tertiary institution so they enjoy synergies. What a load of trollop! This has never been the basis for the location of a hospital as far as I can ascertain. Sure there'd be some mutual services and avenues to leverage off. But as to sharing synergies, get my that bucket!

Like what? Synergy to piss off the hospital to some far off place like Edmonton, or Smithfield, the only two spaces that could accommodate a new enlarged and comprehensive health facility, and then play Who Wants the Esplanade?

The relocation of the hospital would be sensible. What worries me more is that I do not trust Byrne and his greedy development buddies for a minute with that land that would be left behind.