Enough is Enough

Letter sent out today to all of Tourism Whitsundays Membership calling for an Extraordinary Meeting.

From: Philip Batty [mailto:philip.batty@bigpond.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 15 February 2011 11:36 AM
To: 'philip.batty@bigpond.com'
Subject: Mainland Whitsundays Really Does Exist- But Apparently not

I have done as the Chair of Tourism Whitsundays asked me to do and not sent anything out publicly to the membership since the 13 December 2010 following which I had a meeting with the Chair followed by a meeting with the Chair and CEO.

That meeting was over 5 weeks ago with assurances that certain things would be addressed. Until I e mailed the CEO last Friday I had heard nothing from the meeting yet the simplest of things had not been fixed despite my offer to go and fix them for TW.

Then today I receive a tweet from Tourism Whitsundays who are representing the region at AIME in Melbourne announcing that “WhitsundaysQLD Tourism Whitsundays

Anthony Hayes and Tourism Queensland launch www.queenslandincentives.com at AIME http://yfrog.com/hskvyygj” great I thought until I went to the www.queenslandincentives.com to have a look. What I found is a total lack of any mention of Airlie Beach, The Mainland or ANY business other than Hamilton Island and Hayman Island.

Go take a look for yourself and wonder why this town is dying around us. The federal and state government has provided $10 million  of assistance to the tourism sector in Queensland and this is how it is getting used.

Over the past several weeks I have personally met with the Minister for Tourism Peter Lawler, his senior policy advisers and George Christensen, Federal Member for Dawson as well as several operators in the area. I have asked for and received a copy of the “Rules” governing Tourism Whitsundays and I now propose to seek support to call an Special General Meeting under rule 23.1.a.ii under which I believe I need the support of 11 members in order to call this meeting. Everyone I have spoken with says it is time to act now.

I also need to produce an agenda ahead of the meeting, I would like to ask you as members what items you would like to see on this agenda and seek to rally support to call the meeting. Please e mail me back as soon as possible with your comments/suggestions and agenda items. If you have a suitable venue also for the meeting you would like to donate again please let me know. I am trying to seek better representation generally for the region and much better representation for the mainland as part of that strategy.

Thanks and regards

Philip Batty

0412297512