Planning for a new normal – Cairns after COVID-19

A plan highlighting the human, social and economic effects of coronavirus has outlined strategies to make Cairns more resilient, better prepared, well-connected and more economically diverse within five years.

More than 100 local charity organisations, government agencies, education providers, businesses, industry groups and peak bodies have fed ideas and priorities into the recovery planning process.

The resulting COVID-19 Cairns Local Recovery Plan is a detailed list of staged tasks and actions – both completed and planned – that will help transform post-COVID Cairns into a more resilient and diverse community and economy.

The actions are wide-ranging and cover five pillars of recovery: economic, human and social, environment, built infrastructure and roads and transport.

The recovery tasks and objectives include:

Initiatives aimed at diversifying and strengthening the resilience of Cairns’ economic base within priority sectors/areas including: education and training; naval and marine; healthcare and social assistance; tourism and aviation; service centre for food and agriculture production; and leveraging the city’s strategic location and proximity to PNG and the Asia-Pacific region.Investigating region-specific incentives to drive employment and population growth in Cairns.Unlocking local manufacturing and value-adding of existing supply chains.Neighbourhood-based activities and events that connect people and strengthen communities.Advocacy and lobbying for projects that support the creation of new experiences, infrastructure and jobs such as Wangetti Trail, Cairns Gallery Precinct and Indigenous-led cultural experiencesEstablishing a pandemic-specific communications plan.Backing research and development for better-integrated social service delivery models and long-term resilience planning.

Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said most organisations had focused on “survival and response” in the early days of the pandemic, but it was time now to look towards planning for the future.

“Obviously, at the start of this crisis, we needed to look at ways of simply responding and surviving,” Cr Manning said.

“Council has worked with health authorities, governments, agencies, the business sector and social services to coordinate support efforts for our community since the beginning of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020.

“We have also been looking towards the future, working together to put frameworks and strategies into place to help the community recover from a disaster unlike any we have seen before.

“We need to consider what long-term recovery and resilience should look like within our community over the next 12 months, two years, and beyond.”

The Plan is an operational document that will be used by the Cairns Regional Council’s Local Recovery Committee to direct their work and monitor progress.

Cr Manning also called on the State and Federal Governments to incorporate and refer to the COVID-19 Cairns Local Recovery Plan in wider recovery efforts and planning.

“To successfully implement this plan, we’ll need the support of all three levels of government as well as the Cairns community,” Cr Manning said.

“It’s why I’m calling on both the State and Federal Governments to also endorse our local plan so we can work together to build a brighter future for our city and our community.”

Find out more about the plan at https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/council/covid19/cairns-recovery-planning