When it was Julia Leu’s turn, she refuted much of what had been said before her by other candidates about the Council under her lead.
“There has been a lot of talk about rates and I have heard a lot of inaccurate figures, false claims and irrelevant statements showing that most do not have any understanding of how we determine rates and how we strike a budget in Council,” she said.
“The fact is that this Council under my leadership over the past six years has had very good economic management. General rates last year increased by only 1.8 per cent, that is the lowest in living memory.
Ms Leu spoke about how under her leadership Council is in surplus coming back after a six million dollar deficit following de-amalgamation from Cairns.
“So due to good finical management we have paid off this Cairns debt and that means we have been able to keep rates low in comparison to many other shires around,” she said.
Ms Leu added she was proud of her record over the last six years in gaining well over $150 million in grants for projects around the Shire that have then not had to be funded by ratepayers, including advocating for funding for the Mossman Mill.
“Ratepayers and residents need the certainty of a mayor with a proven track record of strong economic management, not people who complain, make false claims, sprout economic nonsense and have no real solutions or experience to successfully lead the Douglas Shire Council,” Ms Leu said.
