By Rosanna Natoli
Sunshine Coast Mayor
As the newly-elected Mayor of the Sunshine Coast and indeed, this Council’s first female Mayor, I am filled with immense pride and much excitement for the future.
Together with our community, my fellow councillors and I are about to embark on the next chapter of the Sunshine Coast’s story.
This is a story is about making a difference. It is a story about supporting our community and collectively doing our best to improve lives in our region and ensure the Sunshine Coast continues to thrive into the future.
To achieve this, every day my fellow councillors and I and our council staff will work together to focus on our customers, build community trust, embrace sustainability and plan for the future.
We have enormous population growth coming our way with an additional 210,000 people expected to call the Sunshine Coast home over 25 years.
With that growth comes tremendous opportunity and also large challenges. The Sunshine Coast is in desperate need of more infrastructure. We need a better public transport system connecting all our communities – north-south and east-west – and a road network that isn’t choked with traffic.
I am determined to work with the State and Federal Governments to ensure we get the infrastructure we deserve to support our growing economies, both urban and rural.
Afterall, it’s easy to understand why the Sunshine Coast is a popular choice for people wanting to move to Southeast Queensland – and that’s not about to change.
We are a globally competitive hub and we are creating opportunities that strengthen our local economy, now and into the future.
Our beaches are pristine and beautiful, our surf is a daily joy for many, our parks, bushland and rainforest provide green space and recreation.
However, from our growing urban centres along the coastline to our bustling hinterland towns, and everything in between, our communities are feeling the pressures of growth.
It is our job as a council to ensure that the reasons people have chosen to live here are preserved and enhanced for the next generation and the people who are to arrive in the future.
Together with our wonderful community, we will work to nurture and enhance our environment and quality of life. We have done, and will continue to do the hard yards, but we cannot do it alone.
That’s why State and Federal investment in one of Australia’s fastest growing regions is critical.
We’ve been patient for a long time and we need not be patient any longer.
With the State Government’s SEQ Regional Plan outlining our population will increase by 8,400 people every year, reaching more than 565,000 by 2046, we can’t afford to be.
