Barb Bailey bestowed the Rotarian of the month to Peter Hovey for his invaluable contribution to the club, especially through the Vocational Excellence Awards Event..
Directors Reports
Will Waterford gave a review of members identification activities and reminded members of the upcoming Changeover Night.
Bruce Radford advised that Terka, our exchange student, was moving to Noel and Bronwynne Bates and will be our guest speaker before she leaves in June!
Members moments
Graham Bowden reported on some ailing members, we wish them a hearty “get well soon”!
Les Pontin gave a report on his progress with CEO sleepout, he has hit $12K his highest figure ever but he wants MORE!! Everyone needs to check the back of their couches for any spare coins and donate all for Les!
Win Fowles gave us a well researched introduction to Kendall which highlighted her background in teaching and small business. She was elected in October 2024 for the State seat of Caloundra.
Guest Speaker, Kendall Hatcher MP
She started by acknowledging the power of community and community groups like CALPAC to be positive forces.
She displayed an interest in Politics from an early stage, 1996 when she was in Primary School.
When she moved to Caloundra she was warmly welcomed by the community and continues to support that ethos. In her business life the agony and ecstasy of dealing with politicians developed her need to be involved to make change!
The rapid growth of Caloundra and surrounds has and will change how we enjoy our part of Queensland and we need to be part of making sure the change is positive. The planning process of the growth has moved ahead faster than the planning and implementation of the infrastructure required.
Some of the issues that keep popping up in the electorate are; Youth Crime, Housing and Cost of living. Another primary issue is of course Caloundra Road traffic congestion. She believes that good data drives good outcomes and tries to listen to the people.
Some key projects that are moving ahead all around transport: The Train ! The Caloundra transport corridor is moving at a snails pace, held up federally with green tape. A similar issue involves the Kawana link way over pass. Changes at Bellavista are well underway. The Caloundra Road/ Nicklin way roundabout changes are now free to move ahead and will hopefully work in well with the creation of the Caloundra Rail station. Last but not least is the Wave, with the linking of more of the southern sunshine coast with public transport.
The TAFE centre of excellence in Caloundra is moving ahead and will provide the next generations of tradespeople to drive the continued growth in the region.
There is also a new school being built in Baringa, which will compliment the new Shopping centre, anchored by major retailers.
She touched briefly upon the governments quick response to the Bribie Island breakthoughs and the necessity to protect the Passage and our mainland region, there are the short term results we have seen and long term plans in play.
She mentioned E-Mobility laws to protect both sides of the equation.
We now have a Sunshine Coast waterways Authority instead of the previous adhoc approach.
The state government has allocated $4 million to the Caloundra Town square project.
There were lots of interesting questions from members and the VOT was delivered by Win.
Riki Tiki was won by our Guest Kendal Hatcher - Graeme Bowden will do the questions for Riki Tiki next week!
Mike Healy extracted many politically motivated fines and then the Raffle delivered multiple prizes including some fine wines donated by past Member Steve Thompson.
