Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The 94th Mudgeeraba Agricultural Show was held last weekend, on 29 and 30 June. The Mudgeeraba show is a very traditional agriculture show where you would find everything that you would expect there to be at such a show. There were equestrian events and competitions. There were cattle, sheep, goats and poultry. I did even see a young alpaca walking around. There was woodchopping. There were arts and crafts. There were quilt displays. There were many heritage vehicles there that made quite the entrance in the grand parade. There were farriers, there was pig racing and of course there was an animal nursery that was very popular with people of all ages. As you would imagine, there was plenty to eat and drink and there was a very impressive sideshow alley.

This year the weather was kind, unlike some years in the past where heavy and very consistent rain had turned the show site into quite a mud pool. As the president of the Mudgeeraba show, Melanie Bryson, has said previously, 'Here at the showgrounds we've put the mud into Mudgeeraba.' I have to say that, rain or shine, the Mudgeeraba show does go on and no-one's spirits are at all dampened during that time. Whilst I don't have the official attendance numbers from the show, there were certainly very good crowds—from our very, very young to our very much loved seniors and everyone in between—and I can assure you that everyone I saw was having a great time. Congratulations to the president and her team for another fantastic show. I look forward to all that the Mudgeeraba show has to offer in its 95th year.

At the show, I took the opportunity to ask Gold Coasters about the issues that were important to them. I asked people specifically about the issues that are most often raised with me, and I asked them to let me know which was the most important to them. The top issue was crime. This was followed very closely by cost of living and then transport. Let me break down each of those points just a little bit in the time that I have remaining, starting with crime.

People are constantly speaking to me about crime. If you look on the Facebook community pages, what you see is that, day after day, there are reports of crime happening. People's houses are being broken into. Their cars are being stolen. We know that it is a huge issue, and we all need to work together to make sure that we try and solve this problem. With cost of living, people speak to me the most about the cost of housing, whether it's to buy or to rent. They speak to me secondly about the cost of groceries, because their budget is not stretching as far as it used to. Very briefly, with transport, the Gold Coast is a very different city to other cities around Australia. It is a linear city, and that means that our transport solutions have to be very specific to meet our needs.

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