It's not like we needed another reason to throw this Council out.
Yet every week or so there's yet another story that comes to the surface. This one has been the sore in the Byrne Council's arse for years. 
As we move from a Liberal-led government that believed the solution to indigenous affairs was to send in the storm-troopers and police to solve problems in a quick fire method of rehabilitation, so too it seems that another right-wing local government doesn't know how to work with indigenous people.
They've had years to work on this one, but were too busy putting up rates and approving construction of multi-story apartment blocks and providing tourist facilities. Right under Council's nose, some two minutes drive from Council offices in Spence Street, there is a bigger issue that needed their attention.
Mayor Byrne has said camps where many aboriginals live (he calls them 'itinerants'), must be pulled down and "vagrants moved out". He's called them “sites of shame.”
The only 'site of shame' in located in Spence Street. It's a Council, like Howard and his view of indigenous people and their place in Australia. This Council can't understand aboriginal people nor has it effectively worked in a collaborative way with them.
Mayor Byrne says there's sewerage and no running water. Well, Mr Mayor, why doesn't the wealth of your Council that you've collected from your high-rise property boom, put some money towards these folk? Your Council could build facilities here to help these people.
This is not the first time mind you. Two years ago Kevin ordered the demolition of a large redundant shed at the end of Sherdian Street that was home to many. Again, there was no plan to help these people and where they would go, he just ordered in the bulldozers one morning.
There are solutions to this, however you've been in office for how long now? One term as mayor prior to amalgamating Cairns and Mulgrave, and another 2 terms under Cairns, and what progress has been made by Cairns City Council in the relationship and progress with local indigenous people?
When did you last welcome their elders into your, I mean our, Mayoral office to discuss and support these people?
Before you jump up and say that there's one rule for all and we all must abide by it, we know that's not true in white man's culture, especially when you have loads of money and want to build a 325-apartment block.
It's a typical conservative attitude when you see that the only perceived solution mirrors that of the Coalition government in trying to solve 200 years of abuse, confusion and little knowledge on how to help a people whose culture is threatened and they have a legacy of abuse and treatment from white Australia that leaves a lot to be desired.
That's right Kevin, jump in and pull these camps down. Throw these people into the streets. You will still be able to order a chauffeur-driven limo to your next function at the Sofitel. You will still have Peking duck without worrying about the cost. You will still enjoy the privileges of office and power of Council's (ours) lawyers to attempt to silence people that express a different view to yours, when open public debate is what any other publicly elected official does.
Watching the change of government last weekend, and that people simply had enough of being spoken to without being consulted on climate change, working conditions, immigration, going to war - the community reacted defiantly.
In March next year, in just over 100 days time, the Cairns community will also have their say.
They will follow the mood of this country as I think they have had enough of being treated with contempt in a city and region they love.
We elect city leaders to lead and represent our interests, to act as our servants and manage our rates for the benefit of all. To have a vision and compassion for difference and those who are not in the same economic base as others.
I'm delighted that Damon Guppy at the Cairns Post reminded his readers of the infamous stint in 1994 when Byrne and his Council were involved in the moving of bus loads of aboriginals from Cairns and dumped them 760 kms north at Lockhart River.
I've told this story to many visitors and recent arrivals. They almost always can't believe it's true. It's like this story has become an urban legend. But no, it's true.
What a shameful, shameful thing to be party to. This story will need to retold in great detail before the March election. It needs to be. How any Councillor could act in compliance with this act of callous disregard for fellow residents is something you'd only expect in Mugabe's South Africa, not in modern Australia.
By the way Damon, next time the Mayor tries to tell you they're 'itinerants', they're not. They're people. They're aboriginal. Please don't use those words to describe a people that have been betrayed so many times by the recent settlers to Australia.
As a community, we will soon deliver a Council that will respect these people. All people. That will work with them to find a solution. That will respect there is a place for them in Cairns, as there is for everyone, not just fat rich white guys.
Val Schier, or any credible opposition to the current Council, will need to lead this group of people in our community out of the poverty trap and give them a helping hand in partnership. There are solutions, and they may well be complex and sensitive. However, the answer isn't to bulldoze their homes because it doesn't meet with our, I mean Byrne's idea of what a home is.
How often are you presented with such a situation like this where there's an opportunity for a local body authority to construct a world-class cultural centre. It could offer support, liaison, accommodation, medical needs and protection. Our region could actually address and provide solution-based options for this situation and become a leader in it.
Byrne went on to say to The Cairns Post that they're "living in squalor, it’s illegal use. We can’t just turn a blind eye to these camps. If we do, we’ll be condoning it and this council won’t do that.”
Very imaginative stuff Kevin. Is that the answer then to anything that doesn't fit for your Council? Are you actually a leader with a vision for a Cairns that accepts and integrates all it's citizens, not just the ones who come here cashed up and can get out to the Reef every other week? Not just those that can afford a $375,000 air-conditioned apartment in some god-forsaken gated community with two cars.
Terry O’Shane, a local indigenous leader who works in areas of alcohol relief services, has told the Mayor to "stop blaming the victims and help solve the city’s poverty problem."
O'Shane says the Mayor should act like a mayor. Of course, to address poverty is difficult. It takes balls. It takes a person with compassion and commitment to working together with different people who have different outlooks on life. They have a different set of values to others.
O'Shane believe Byrne's words are simply hassling homeless people. He said that over the years there has been little done by Council to help out in a constructive empowering way.
Ironically, when Damon Guppy visited the camps targeted by
Byrne, they appeared 'tidy and well constructed'.
Even the panel on this morning's channel 7's Sunrise programme slammed the attitude of the Cairns Mayor. "What an archaic way to look at this problem" they said. "He wants to put them on buses again!"
This will be a task that the new Federal member Jim Turnour would do well in addressing. In a partnership between State, Federal, Council, and local community indigenous people, a local Action Group could be formed within days.
Like successive governments have done: stop the blame game and thinking that bulldozing these camps will help. Come up with a real practical way forward.
This reaction to this problem says more about a Council out of touch and out of ideas than one with positive energy to work with such vulnerable people.
Presently, the Cairns Council is part of the problem. They have created the very thing that Mayor Byrne now detests. They need to be part of the solution, and they should have been years ago.
Unlike you Kevin, I doubt these folk in Portsmith will have internet access to read this blog. The March election can't come soon enough.
