Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Sunshine Coast is one of those unique places in Australia where the values of the past and the opportunities of the future coexist. And, within the Sunshine Coast, where better reflects that uniqueness than the town of Nambour? Nambour has a heart and it has a soul. It's due to its people, who truly possess a sense of pride which is second to none. Nambour has had its challenges. Certainly the 2003 closure of the Moreton sugar mill looms large as one of those challenges, but, in more recent years, there's been the downsizing of the council operations and the downsizing of the hospital, and we've seen large retail outlets move from Nambour to the coastal strip and some businesses close down. It's had its challenges.

Amidst all of this, a few years ago I spent considerable time doing what we parliamentarians should be doing—knocking on doors and walking the beat around the town, hosting stalls and trying to understand what could be done. There were two key insights for me that came out of that. The first was that the people of Nambour, as much as they are part of a broader growing Sunshine Coast region, want to maintain their own distinct identity. They're proudly from Nambour and they want to have that maintained.

The second insight was that the people of Nambour recognised a need to transition their economy. They recognised the need to move in a different direction. This was not going to be done organically. Indeed, it needed, first and foremost, a plan of attack. The people of Nambour were the first to say that what they really needed was a map for Nambour's future—how would they build that new future, maintaining its identity but transitioning the economy? This led to the establishment of a project called Reimagine Nambour.

Reimagine Nambour is a project that I instigated probably 18 months ago now, at least in its initial stages, together with local councillor Greg Rogerson and also the state member, Marty Hunt. The three tiers of government had to be in lock step together. But, more importantly, it needed the community leaders from business, from civil society, from different walks of life. We established a steering committee of 12 people that oversaw a process that involved a high degree of analysis. We engaged external consultants through a project funded by the federal government and also the Sunshine Coast regional council to do an enormous amount of quantitative and qualitative analysis, hold pop-ups across the town and host forums and strategy days. Ultimately, this culminated in a Reimagine Nambour strategy which was released only last month. That strategy really has the idea of a 10- to 15-year plan across the themes of renewal, growth and transformation. For Nambour, it is about renewal, growth and transformation. Under each of those buckets of themes exists a lot of work to be done and different work streams. Now that the work has been identified and been scheduled across an implementation plan, we have identified the task forces that will take those actions forward to deliver on renewal, growth and transformation.

Right now we have people signing up across Nambour as a sign of unity to get behind the Reimagine Nambour plan. My call-out to the people of Nambour is to join the cause, and go to reimaginenambour.com.au and sign up.