Independently Owned, Locally Grown, Community Loved
Last week was a good reminder that advocacy is rarely about one meeting, one announcement or coming home with a cheque in your pocket.
More often, it is about making sure the Whitsundays is in the room, building relationships and consistently putting our region’s opportunities and challenges in front of the people who can help shape what comes next.
There was no better way to start than seeing Airlie Beach named Australia’s Top Small Tourism Town for 2026 at Parliament House in Canberra.
After six years of nominations, it was fantastic to finally bring the national title home. More importantly, it recognises the thousands of people across our tourism industry who work every day to make the Whitsundays such a memorable destination.
We also used that national platform to highlight two issues that matter enormously to tourism regions like ours.
The first is the future of the Working Holiday Maker program. International visitors are an important market in their own right but working holiday makers are also a critical part of the workforce that keeps many regional tourism and hospitality businesses operating.
The second is disaster recovery funding. Regions regularly exposed to cyclones and severe weather need funding arrangements that allow communities and critical infrastructure to recover quickly and build greater resilience for the future.
Later in Canberra, I met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, joined by representatives from Gilmour Space, to discuss another very different opportunity — the role Bowen and Abbot Point could play in Australia’s future sovereign space and defence capability.
That conversation extends beyond the Bowen Orbital Spaceport itself to opportunities around advanced manufacturing, logistics, fuel, supply chains and other industries that could develop alongside it.
From Canberra it was on to Sydney, where I met with major investors and developers about opportunities across the Whitsundays, particularly in tourism, accommodation and regional development.
None of these conversations guarantees an outcome tomorrow.
But investment and government decisions are rarely made because a region waited patiently for someone to notice it.
We have an exceptional story to tell — a growing population, a strong economy, world-class tourism, emerging industries and Brisbane 2032 on the horizon.
My job is to make sure that story is heard, and that when opportunities arise, the Whitsundays is firmly part of the conversation.
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