Local Businesses are urged to get on board and take advantage of current and up-coming projects.

$10 billion worth of projects have been identified at a major project forum in Cairns.

Some of the projects mentioned: Cairns base hospital redevelopment, Cairns airport upgrade, Lotus Glen prison extension and a range of mining projects as outlined on Cairns.com.au on the 18th of November.

A small proportion of these projects are under current construction. Local community will not see an immediate relief to our unemployment rate, sitting at 12.3% for the September quarter according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Advance Cairns Chairman Mr Russell Beer said, “the difficulties that the region is facing, which are highlighted by record unemployment rates, have forced the call for urgent and real assistance from Canberra and Brisbane”.

Advance Cairns, Cairns Chamber of Commerce and TTNQ have developed a plan “A NEW DEAL”. The plan’s three main components – Relief, Recovery and Reform aim to drive our region’s economy from tourism to construction industries to face our high unemployment figures, which are the highest in the country.

“We are bleeding, and many tourist operators are already on their knees, and there is no way that some of them will survive until the next tourist season without help” as outlined by Chair of Tourism Tropical North Queensland Bill Calderwood.

Last week the Department of Bureau of Statistics released the new unemployment figures showing a rate at 8.1% for the month of October. We suggest to be cautious of these figures and wait for the quarterly figures which indicate a more realistic reflection of the true unemployment rate.

The incredible high population leakage as indicated on Cairns.com.au on the 23rd of November where 4600 people have left Cairns in the month of October, showing an alarming sign for our region. What would this mean to Cairns in six months?

This week a delegation from Cairns lead by Jim Turnour, Member of Leichhardt will be meeting with the Federal Ministers in Canberra for further discussion on the “The New Deal” plan.

Parties involved in the delegation included Advance Cairns, Cairns Chamber of Commerce, TTNQ and Mayor Val Schier. Stay tuned for a hopeful outcome.

Thousands of jobs for theme park project South of Cairns.

Cairns dedicated Environmental Engineer Kim Forde from “The Missing Link” says:
Since the announcement of Significant Project, we have been busy liaising with Advance Cairns to support their project of bringing a film studio to the region as part of diversifying the businesses here, and encouraging more films to be made here.

We will be bringing one of the biggest film studio’s in the world here as part of our project…. expect a formal announcement of who in the next couple of months.

We are expecting an answer before Christmas from the Commonwealth Dept of Environment, Water and the Arts to identify if we have to conduct additional studies to confirm that there will be no negative impacts on World Heritage rainforests or reefs.

We have arranged briefing for Jim Turnour to enlist his help with Commonwealth assistance and to let him know of the potential 4000 jobs over the life of this project. We will need locals to plan, construct and to work on the site – in the movie studio; theme parks; hotels and golf courses, but also there will be job opportunities for 100’s of others to supply the local quality food; great customer service; uniforms; cleaning; transport; …… the list is almost endless.

The first jobs to come to this region for this project will be in the environmental area, with a local company to be engaged to do the environmental impact studies. The announcement of who that is to be will be early next year.

Over 20+ Years Work Experience

Resource Management

Keith managerial experience in Defence has given him an excellent opportunity to develop skills in the area of Human Resource Management. He was trained and has experience in succession planning, career development, personnel administration, recruitment and selection. In addition to formal qualifications in resource management gained through numerous management and promotion courses, Keith has extensive practical experience in managing physical resources.

Leadership

Throughout Keith’s career he has been privileged to exercise leadership of multi-skilled teams across a range of business functions.  Keith’s role as leader encompassed responsibility for the performance, development and administration of diverse teams, and involved working under pressure to meet deadlines in challenging circumstances.  Keith’s current position is a senior appointment for which he is regularly required to make independent assessments and decisions.

Commercial Acumen

Management experience gained across a range of Defence businesses has allowed him to develop strong commercial acumen and all-round leadership, strategy and execution skills.  The development of his commercial skills has been refined in dynamic environments where it was necessary to adapt readily to changes in technology. He has been directly responsible for communicating the corporate plan to the workforce, developing strategies for achieving business goals and monitoring results against key performance indicators to ensure plans were being achieved.

Teamwork & Interpersonal

In all appointments, he has been required to act as both leader and team member. These experiences have deepened his awareness of group dynamics and methods of dealing with conflict. The ability to work both as a member of a team and autonomously is essential in an organisation with the many semi-independent and inter-dependent units that Defence has.  Keith has managed teams as large as several hundred and as small as 3 members and have always enjoyed a good rapport with them, both at work and socially.

Communication Skills

As a senior manager with the Australian Defence Force, both his written and spoken communication skills were required to be of an extremely high standard. He has developed a high degree of literacy and an ability to communicate in a fluent manner on a wide variety of topics and issues.  In addition, he has extensive experience of report writing and delivering presentations in many settings.  He has also undertaken training in presentation skills, negotiation skills and listening skills for customer service.

Financial Management

Throughout his career, he has been responsible for budgeting, forecasting, auditing, preparing and submitting financial reports, and general control of business finances and assets. Keith exercised financial delegation and managed funds associated with capital and discretionary expenditure.

Some of Keith’s Skills and Qualifications:

• Diploma in Government
• Diploma of Resource Management
• Diploma of Frontline Management
• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
• Certificate IV in Training and Management
• Certificate IV in Business (Frontline Management)
• Workplace Health and Safety Officer (Construction, Industrial, Service Based Workplaces)
• Medium Rigid Drivers Licence (MR2)

If you wish get in contact Keith please call Vlasta on +61 (0)7 4050 3888