Barry O'Rourke | Community

Barry O'Rourke

Phone: +61 7 4994 2100

Address: Level 1, 192 Quay Street 4700 Rockhampton, QLD, Australia

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25.01.2022 Congratulations to Splash About Swim School, which has secured one of the Palaszczuk Government’s COVID Adaption Grants. Shane and the team have invested the money into getting the business back on track following COVID closures and local advertising. You can find them under Stockland and they offer baby classes, swimming lessons and Aquafit classes. Check out their website for more: http://www.splashaboutswimschool.com.au... It’s great there is this support available and I know it has been really well received by a lot of local businesses over the past few months but remember we’ve all got a role to play when it comes to supporting local businesses. PS Round 2 of these grants is still open for central Queensland, head here for more: https://www.business.qld.gov.au//advice-su/grants/adaption #SupportLocal

24.01.2022 Just more evidence of where the LNP and One Nation stand when it comes to protecting workers Pauline Hanson has yet again teamed up with the Liberals - this time to kill off a sensible amendment that would have protected older workers. https://www.google.com.au//coalition-rejects-changes-to-pr

24.01.2022 I remember this. It was disgraceful

23.01.2022 I find this really disturbing In South Australia right now the LNP government has bureaucrats telling doctors to turn away older patients because they can’t afford to treat everyone following budget cuts. I mention this because here in Queensland, Deb Frecklington and the LNP have made $24b worth of unfunded commitments. That’s a huge sum and they won’t say what they will cut or sell to pay for it.... We know what happened last they were in though: they cut health spending, sacked staff and put our system under greater pressure. Story here: https://www.abc.net.au//manager-urges-surgeons-to/12717132

22.01.2022 I’ve got to say, this one gave me a bit of a laugh Same old lies from the LNP, of course, but what’s interesting is they are apparently afraid to put their leader Deb Frecklington on a billboard. Instead they’ve got a federal senator who’s name isn’t on any ballot this election as far as I know. What a bizarre move ... I’ll be running primarily on my own record and vision for our region this election but I certainly won’t be embarrassed about having my photo next to Annastacia Palaszczuk MP’s. And for the record, if I need to say it again: I support new coal mining projects and so does the Palaszczuk government, which has approved more than $20b worth of projects

22.01.2022 COVID-19 update with the Premier and Chief Health Officer.

22.01.2022 BREAKING: Some restrictions will ease early thanks to the strong health response of Queenslanders. From 4pm today, Friday October 16: - Up to 40 people can dance at weddings with a COVID Safe Plan... - Dancing will be permitted at Year 12 school formals - Gatherings of 40 people will be allowed in homes and public places - Outings from aged care facilities can resume See more

22.01.2022 The Prime Minister should use this visit to CQ today to do the decent thing and apologise for trying to force open our border. Scott Morrison and Deb Frecklington worked together to pressure the Premier to ignore medical advice and open the border to all states even as the COVID case numbers spiralled in Victoria. The attacks were relentless, especially as people like Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer joined the pile on, but fortunately Annastacia Palaszczuk stood strong and k...ept us safe. Because of that we can now focus on our economic recovery. Our pubs are open, our local tourism sector is doing well and businesses are advertising hundreds of job vacancies. I wouldn’t want to be living anywhere else in the world right now. But just think of what it would have been like if we’d had a Victorian-style second wave and shutdown. What if we’d had outbreaks on our mine sites or at the meatworks? What if we’d had to close pubs and restaurants again? The risk to our economy, and the health of our communities could have been significant. Now is the time for the PM and Deb Frecklington to admit they got it wrong. Story here: https://m.cqnews.com.au//admit-you-were-wrong-mps/4118158/

21.01.2022 Tune in for a live Central Queensland Q&A with the Premier tonight at 6pm. Send your questions to: m.me/annastaciamp

21.01.2022 Another newly opened Rocky business - Le Craft Industries at 79 East Street. They opened about three months ago and Zoe and the team describe themselves as a collective of cosmetic artists. They offer a range of services, including cosmetic tatooing, traditional tatooing, professional make up application, eyelash extensions and body piercing. You can find out more by visiting their Facebook page or Instagram: https://instagram.com/lecraft.industries?igshid=u3z358woz7i5... Great to see new businesss like this opening, especially with all the disruption from COVID-19. It’s vital we all continue to support local operators whenever we can. Please let me know if you see any other new businesses opening up (or if you are opening one yourself) - I’d love to highlight them. #supportLocal

20.01.2022 No comment https://www.google.com.au//us-president-donald-trump-and-f

20.01.2022 Annastacia Palaszczuk has never been afraid to stand-up for Queensland - regardless of what the LNP, One Nation and people like Clive Palmer throw at her. Lets stick with her today. We can’t risk Deb Frecklington and the LNP.

20.01.2022 Clive Palmer keeps trying to get people to believe his lies about a death tax Please don’t fall for it, and if you hear someone repeating it, call it out.

19.01.2022 One thing I’m very proud of is that we’ve reopened the QBuild depot on North St that was closed by the LNP after their sacking spree. I know from my time with the Housing department how important QBuild is it’s an outstanding training ground for apprentices and does great work in our community especially when it comes to the clean-up and repair after natural disasters. Yet the last LNP government axed 1500 people from QBuild across the state and closed down depots like th...is one. The Palaszczuk Labor government has now reopened this depot and will hire more than 300 tradies and apprentices across the state over the next two years. This is just another example of why we can’t risk Deb Frecklington and the LNP. They’ve currently got $25b worth of unfunded promises and won’t say what they will cut or who they will sack to pay for them.

18.01.2022 This is Dale, he’s very generously agreed to put up one of our signs. I asked him why and he said because people need to remember Labor is for the worker. Absolutely mate ... Ps if you’re able to have one of these signs at your place please let me know by filling this form out: https://www.barryorourke.com/support-baz

18.01.2022 I know this will be warmly welcomed by many local businesses The Premier has announced today that, in line with medical advice, businesses like pubs and restaurants can increase their number of patrons outdoors from one per 4sqm to one per 2sqm from Oct 1. This is the result of our world leading health response. While places like Victoria remain under lockdown and others like the UK are having to introduce new restrictions amid a big increase in cases, we’re able to focus on our economic recovery (without being complacent).

17.01.2022 Agree 100% Supporting jobs and businesses needs to be our priority at the moment.

17.01.2022 A strong announcement for our region from the Palaszczuk Government today - 150 new police This is a good move that will help keep our community safe and is part of a record increase in police numbers statewide by 2025. Contrast that with the LNP, which slashed the police budget and sacked more than 300 personnel between 2012 and 2015.

17.01.2022 150 new police for CQ - an important investment for the future.

17.01.2022 Absolutely. So many local business owners and workers have told me how glad the Premier stood strong against the pressure from Deb Frecklington, Scott Morrison and Pauline Hanson and kept our borders secure. Because we got that health response right, we’ve been able to focus on getting our economy going again - something the Palaszczuk government is supporting with our economic recovery plan.

16.01.2022 Congratulations to Rob Crow and the Browne Park team. They've been pushing to upgrade our local home of rugby league for years and now we've secured the money to start stage 1 of the redevelopment. This project will create local jobs, now and in the future and is an important part of our local economic recovery plan. Well done Rob, and thank you to Annastacia Palaszczuk MP for supporting this important project. ... #CQJobs #EconomicRecovery #GettingItDone

16.01.2022 This is a worrying look at what the LNP’s plan will mean for our economic recovery - 30,000 job loses. We need a a strong stable government to continue our economic recovery and focus on job creation, not cuts - that’s something only Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor can deliver this election. https://www.abc.net.au//qld-election-lnp-budget-/12770292

15.01.2022 Today is Remembrance Day. As always, it’s an important opportunity for us all to remember the sacrifices made on our behalf by our great servicemen and women. Don’t forget the one minute silence at 11am today - you can watch today’s service live on the RSL’s Facebook page.

14.01.2022 Predictions for Queensland’s 2020-21 storm season from the Bureau of Meteorology.

13.01.2022 Let me be very clear on this - Margaret Strelow did not have to resign No one asked her to. The tribunal finding did not require her resignation. Ratepayers did not expect her to or want her to. She simply should not have done it. She has behaved selfishly and not in the interest of ratepayers. I urge people to read the tribunal findings, rather than the disingenuous rubbish being spouted by Ms Strelow and the LNP. They show that this is entirely a mess of Ms Strelow’s o...wn creation, and something she could have easily put to bed at any point over the past few years. If the failure to declare was a genuine error, she could have resolved it when the department identified it in 2018. Even with this adverse finding from the tribunal, Ms Strelow could have put everything behind her with a simple apology at a council meeting hardly a big deal. Alternatively, she could have chosen to continue fighting this at QCAT. There was simply no reason to resign and her decision cannot be justified rationally. It’s either a childish tantrum or a stunt designed to cause a completely unnecesary by-election. Nonetheless, a by-election is what will happen now. I’ve made it clear to colleagues over the past few months that we got the balance wrong with this year’s law change and it needs to be rectified. The Premier had already committed to doing that but now the amendment will be brought forward as a priority. That’s the right move in the circumstances. The downside is ratepayers will of course be forced to wear the cost, which is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Having put us through this unnecessary expense - I call on Ms Strelow to do the right thing and rule out running again. It’s time to draw a line under this sorry episode and allow the community to move on. To all the budding community leaders out there this is your chance, and I’d urge you to take it. Finally, I’m disappointed to read the Member for Capricornia considers it draconian that Mayors and Councillors are required to maintain a register of interests. These exist to keep elected officials accountable voters have every right to expect this kind of transparency and everyone has to abide by the rules. It’s unfathomable to me that anyone would think otherwise.

13.01.2022 Thank you Rocky! The ECQ has just declared the result in the seat of Rockhampton. I’m beyond thrilled to have been elected for a second term and would like to say a big thank you to our community for putting your faith in me again. There’s lots of work to be done - my focus will be on making sure the government delivers on our local election commitments and our economic recovery plan. As always, I’ll be doing all I can to support local workers, families, small businesses and ...community groups. Thank you to everyone who supported me along the way, our fantastic team of volunteers and everyone I’ve met and worked with over the past three years. I’d also like to wish my opponents all the best. It was a hard fought campaign, as these things should be, but the great thing about this country is that we can have a free and open contest of ideas and let voters make the decisions. That’s something we shouldn’t take for granted - especially not when you look at how things are in many other countries.

13.01.2022 Great to see We got the health response right, now we can focus on the economic recovery. Imagine if we’d done as the LNP and One Nation wanted and opened the border to all states in June!

12.01.2022 Great news - we've committed $2.5m for a new Aquaquaculture research facility at Rocky High. Aquaculture is expected to become an increasingly important part of our economy in the future and it's vital that locals can get the training they need here to fill the jobs that are created in this sector. This new facility will complement Rocky High's fantastic ag program and give students an entryway into this growing industry.... I'm thrilled that we've been able to secure this commitment, which would be delivered by a re-elected Palaszczuk Labor government.

12.01.2022 One of the local projects I’m most excited about is the upgrade to the Capricornia Correctional Centre, which will create 232 permanent full-time jobs in our community. These are good, secure local jobs, which means 232 additional pay-packets going into our economy every week. The construction of this $243m project has also provided a major boost to our economy, supporting local businesses and local jobs. This is just one of many projects being delivered by the Palasazcuk Gov...ernment here in CQ, alongside: Rookwood Weir Browne Park Stage 1 Upgrade of Lawrie Street at Gracemere Northern Access Upgrade Capricorn Highway Duplication to Gracemere Rockhampton Ring Rd #Gettingonwithit #CQJobs

11.01.2022 Great news for Rocky - a re-elected Palaszczuk Government will revive Rockhampton’s rail industry by making it a maintenance, manufacturing and logistics centre for railway production.

11.01.2022 Today is National Police Remembrance Day. It’s an important moment to reflect on the sacrifice that police officers have made to keep our community safe. Everyone should be safe at work, but our police don’t always have that luxury and have to insert themselves into dangerous situations in our name. We owe them all a tremendous debt.

10.01.2022 Thanks to everyone who’s taken on one of our lawn signs. If you haven’t got one yet and you’d be happy to have one in your front yard, please let me know via the form below there’s more coming soon. You’ll hopefully also start seeing our I’m backing Baz stickers around town. There are a few local businesses distributing them let me know via a direct message if you’d like one and I’ll tell you where you can find them. Here’s the form for the signs: https://www.barryorou...rke.com/support-baz Thanks again everyone I’ve been really blown away by the support and positive comments we are seeing.

10.01.2022 A huge win for local manufacturing, creating more than 500 Rocky jobs - but only possible under a re-elected Palaszczuk government

09.01.2022 Fantastic to see another CQ coal mine going ahead. This will create around 500 construction jobs and 1000 ongoing positions once it’s finished. The Palaszczuk government has now approved more than $21b worth of resources projects since 2015.

09.01.2022 An incredible 200 businesses in Rocky and Gracemere have benefited from the Palaszczuk government’s COVID Adaption grants over the past few months. That’s $1.7m in support that has flowed directly to local businesses in our community to help them through this challenging time. Supporting local businesses is a vital part of our economic recovery plan - and it’s something we can all play a part in. Please support locally owned businesses whenever you can - they are the backbone... of our local economy and a vital part of our community. Ps these grants are still open for regional Queensland. You can find out more here: https://www.business.qld.gov.au//advice-su/grants/adaption #SupportLocal #EconomicRecovery

09.01.2022 Someone sent this to me...the attack billboard the LNP weren’t game to run in Rocky Who do you think has Queenslanders’ backs? I’m proud to stand behind Annastacia Palaszczuk on that question. She has stood strong against the attacks from Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer and made the tough decisions to keep Queenslanders safe - which means we can now focus on our economic recovery.

08.01.2022 This is incredible - it turns out the LNP’s two biggest campaign promises were both fake. They promised to fully deliver a four lane Bruce Highway within 15 years and build the Bradfield Scheme. Turns out they will do neither, at least not for another decade or so (which is about three terms of government away). They’ve also admitted they will strip $700m out of regional roads funding to pay for a second M1 in the southeast, which would likely see the Lawrie Street upgrade at... Gracemere scrapped. That’s what an LNP-One Nation government would get us. We can’t risk it.

08.01.2022 Here is a big win for local manufacturing that will create 500 local jobs A re-elected Palaszczuk government will convert the old Aurizon workshops into a rail maintenance, manufacturing and logistics centre. Once it’s up and running, it will mean local suppliers can manufacture the components for new trains being built at Maryborough. This will support local businesses, create around 500 local jobs and provide a major boost to our manufacturing sector. It will help drive ...our economic recovery. But it’s something only the Palaszczuk government will deliver - the LNP is on the record saying they don’t believe Australia is good at building trains and that we need to be purchasing them from overseas. By contrast, we’ve brought train manufacturing back to Queensland and have just announced a $1b investment to bring it to the next level which is something I’m very proud to support. Ps We’ve also recently completed a new $400,000 Queensland Rail workshop at Gracemere to house the 34 QR staff currently working at that site.

08.01.2022 We’re building a new warehouse here in Rocky to hold 730 pallets of PPE supplies for healthcare workers. This will ensure health staff have access to a reliable supply of personal protective equipment to guard against any potential future waves of COVID or other pandemics. An important move to ensure we’re keeping health workers safe.

08.01.2022 It’s White Ribbon Day - an important opportunity to talk about what we can all do to stamp out domestic and family violence. Tragedies like the one in Jonty’s family are still far, far too common. You can find out more here: https://www.whiteribbon.org.au

07.01.2022 Fantastic to see East Street looking so busy today

07.01.2022 This is a very bad look for Deb Frecklington and the LNP At best, it shows terrible judgement - and we can’t afford to risk that at the moment. We need a strong, stable government to continue our economy recovery - and that’s something only Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor can deliver this election.

05.01.2022 Great news https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au//queensland-to-reopen-bor

05.01.2022 This is me with my brothers and sisters - all 13 of us! It’s hard to get us all together in the one place but we managed it yesterday with a catch up in Brisbane. Looking back, I don’t know how my mum and dad did it, though of course we all had to pitch in and do our bit and the older siblings helped raise the younger ones. We certainly all learned the importance of hard work from a young age. The great thing about having such a big family is you’ve always got a large support base - we’re all there for each other and always have been (comes in handy around election time, let me tell you ).

04.01.2022 Beers at the bar are back on from this afternoon so I popped into Bartlett's Tavern to celebrate We’ve also announced an updated roadmap to the further easing of restrictions, including the opening of the NSW border next month if community transmission remains low. Queensland got the health response right, now it’s time to focus on the economic recovery.

04.01.2022 Central Queensland, tune in for our Q&A live from Yeppoon with Annastacia Palaszczuk.

03.01.2022 This is a great sign for our region as we continue our economic recovery - more than 650 jobs available in CQ at the moment. These are across a range of fields, including healthcare, retail and hospitality. There’s also a significant number of jobs available for tradies, thanks in part to all the great pipeline of infrastructure projects we’ve got. We just need to make sure we keep this economic recovery on track - and we need a strong, stable government to do that, somethin...g only Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor can deliver. Story here: https://m.themorningbulletin.com.au//650-jobs-the/4117689/

02.01.2022 This is very welcome news: beers at the bar are back from this afternoon We’ve also just announced the border will reopen to NSW from November 1 if community transmission remains under control. And dancing at weddings for up to 40 people will be back from the start of November as well.... We’ve got the heath response right. Now we can focus on the economic recovery. #economicrecovery