Billions for the North. Here's How It Actually Gets Done.
There are people in this city doing work most of us never see.
No highlight reel. No fanfare. Just years of showing up, building relationships, and making the case for a region that too often gets overlooked.
Jennifer Spilsbury is one of those people.
Jennifer is the CEO of Advance Cairns — the peak economic advocacy body for Far North Queensland — and a woman with over 30 years in journalism, including a stint as editor of the Cairns Post. She recently sat down with Isaac McCarthy on the How Good Are Humans podcast, and the conversation that followed was one of the most grounded, honest, and genuinely hopeful things I've heard about the future of Cairns in a long time.
This article pulls together everything they covered, with key insights and practical actions for anyone who lives here, works here, or is invested in what this city becomes.
Read it. Refer back to it. Share it with people who care about Cairns as much as you do.
1. What Advance Cairns Actually Does
A lot of people hear "economic advocacy" and tune out. Strip it back and the job is simple to understand, even if it's hard to do.
Bridges, roads, hospitals, and defence infrastructure don't fund themselves. Someone has to get into the room with state and federal governments, lay out the case, and put their name behind it. That's what Advance Cairns does for the Far North.
Jennifer explained it clearly on the podcast. Advance Cairns is not government-linked. It is member-based and independent — roughly 100 members drawn from business, industry, and nearly all of the councils across the far northern region. The footprint runs from Cardwell to the Torres Strait and out to the Northern Territory border. It's a big region, and the issues that affect it don't stop at the Cairns city limits.
Their role is to engage with key stakeholders and government departments to advocate for the initiatives that make the biggest difference for the most people — the things that will make the region grow and prosper together.
2025 marks the organisation's 25th year. Jennifer has only recently stepped into the CEO chair, arriving fresh from a stint in the not-for-profit sector and bringing with her three decades of journalism instincts — stakeholder engagement, public accountability, and a sharp sense of what a community actually needs.
She drew a direct parallel between running a newspaper and leading an advocacy organisation. Both require you to hold the powerful to account while still working with them toward better outcomes. Both demand that you build trust across the entire spectrum of a community, not just its loudest voices.
As Jennifer put it: "The role of Advance Cairns is to engage with key stakeholders and advocate for those things that make a big difference — all the way down to the average person."
If you've ever wondered who fights for Cairns when the cameras aren't rolling, the answer — in significant part — is Advance Cairns.
What you can do: Follow Advance Cairns on social media and share their advocacy posts. Reach amplifies the message to politicians. Read the Toward 2035 strategic plan on their website so you know what's being fought for. If you're a business owner, consider membership — the organisation's strength is its collective voice.
2. The Big Projects Being Fought For Right Now
This is the section to share with anyone who thinks Cairns isn't going anywhere. These are real projects, real money, and real impact on real people's lives.
The $1 Billion Cairns Hospital
Jennifer called it possibly one of the biggest announcements in the north that she can remember. The funding includes a surgical innovation centre, deeper links with tertiary institutions, and positions Cairns as a centre of excellence in tropical health — conditions and expertise that don't exist anywhere else in Australia.
She gave a practical illustration that stuck with me. As a journalist covering emergencies, she got to a point where she no longer bothered calling the Cairns Hospital for head trauma cases. She knew the patient was already on a helicopter to Townsville or Brisbane because the local facilities simply couldn't handle it. That is the gap this investment is closing — permanently.
It goes beyond the obvious. Jennifer walked through the ripple effect: skilled families considering a move to Cairns will factor in health infrastructure. A nurse, a teacher, a marine engineer relocating with their family wants to know the hospital can handle whatever comes their way. A city that can answer that question confidently is a city that can attract and retain talent. One that can't loses people to Perth, Brisbane, and beyond.
Jennifer gave enormous credit to Lena Singh, the Cairns Hospital CEO, and the board. She was also clear that Advance Cairns had a long advocacy role in the journey that led to this result — years of conversations before she even took the chair.
The 5,000-Tonne Common User Ship Lift
Around 5,000 people in the Far North work in marine-related industries. The current biggest ship lift, operated by Tropical Reef Shipyard, handles 3,000 tonnes. A 5,000-tonne facility would allow bigger vessels — defence ships, commercial craft, leisure boats — to be lifted out, maintained, and repaired right here in Cairns.
The "common user" part matters. Multiple businesses working on multiple vessels simultaneously, rather than a single-operator bottleneck. The jobs created in construction alone are significant. The ongoing economic flow-on from a growing maritime maintenance hub is generational.
Isaac drew a sharp comparison to Cairns Airport, where a new aviation maintenance precinct is being built to do something similar for aircraft. Larger aircraft maintained and repaired in Cairns means airlines and operators have a reason to base here rather than fly south for servicing. Both facilities answer the same question: why would you stay in Cairns rather than go somewhere else? When the answer is "because the infrastructure is here," investment follows.
The Cairns Western Arterial Road
When an ambulance can't get through, someone's life is at risk. When supply chains are cut by flooding, food prices spike. When commuters sit in gridlock, productivity takes a hit. The Western Arterial Road is not just a convenience project — it is a resilience project.
Jennifer confirmed milestones are ticking off. The advocacy is working.
The Mount Peter Priority Development Area
Housing is one of the most critical enablers of everything else on this list. You can't attract skilled workers to a city they can't afford to live in or find a home in. The Mount Peter PDA is the city's biggest planned residential corridor — but it needs trunk infrastructure to go ahead. Roads, water, sewage, the foundational services that make a suburb function.
Advance Cairns has this on their federal and state budget submission list. It is a hand-up, not a hand-out — government investment that unlocks private development and creates thousands of homes.
The common thread across all of these projects is leverage. A dollar of public infrastructure unlocks multiples of private investment and decades of economic activity. Advance Cairns understands this, and they're making that case in the right rooms.
What you can do: Contact your local MP and express support for these projects. Advance Cairns needs community voice behind them, not just board-level advocacy. Share wins publicly when they happen — the $1 billion hospital announcement was massive and most people scrolled past it. Talk to local business owners about the marine and aviation precincts. These industries need local supply chain partners.
3. Population Growth — Whether We're Ready or Not
Cairns is projected to grow by 40,000 to 80,000 people by 2035. Annual visitor numbers are targeted to grow from around 600,000 to close to one million. The university system is working to attract more international students. Population growth is not a future scenario. It is already underway.
Jennifer's position was direct: people are coming whether we're ready or not. The question is whether we plan well enough to make that growth an advantage rather than a strain.
The strain is real. Isaac raised the housing report from Cairns Regional Council, which identified a need for around 11,000 additional homes over the decade. Transport networks are already at capacity. Water infrastructure struggles when big weather events hit. Food supply chains are fragile.
Jennifer pushed back on the pessimism. She pointed out that when regions grow in spite of not getting everything they want from the public purse, they tend to develop an entrepreneurial culture and a can-do attitude that becomes one of their greatest assets. She believes the people of Far North Queensland already have that in abundance.
"I would like people to think a little bit like I do," she said. "I reckon one of our number one assets here is actually our people."
She also made a point about newcomers. When people arrive from other cities, they bring fresh eyes. They see things locals have stopped seeing. They ask why roads are the way they are, why services work the way they do. Sometimes that's uncomfortable. Often it's the catalyst for improvement.
Growth is not the enemy. Poor planning is the enemy. And the job of organisations like Advance Cairns is to make sure the planning happens before the people arrive, not after.
What you can do: Engage in local planning consultations — Council holds them regularly and your voice shapes how growth is managed in your suburb. If you're in business, start thinking five years out because a larger workforce and more visitors changes your market significantly. Support housing development in appropriate corridors. A city that needs 11,000 homes cannot afford to resist all development.
4. Cairns' Role in Geopolitics and Defence
Most people in Cairns don't think of themselves as living in a strategically significant city. They should.
Cairns is closer to Port Moresby than it is to Brisbane. It is a launching pad to Pacific nations and sits at the interface between Australia and a part of the world where geopolitical tensions are real and growing.
Jennifer noted that the 2026 National Defence Strategy — released just days before this episode was recorded — explicitly leans into the importance of Northern Australia. Cairns sits at the top of that priority zone, literally.
This isn't abstract. The upgrade to the HMAS Cairns wharf is a $250 million project already underway. Local company Babinda Electrics already holds a contract within that project, employing workers from Cairns to the Torres Strait. Visiting foreign navies are already making Cairns a port of call. Defence is not a future opportunity — it is a present reality that is growing.
The 5,000-tonne ship lift covered in the previous section connects directly here. Defence vessels need maintenance. If Cairns has the facility, those contracts stay local. If it doesn't, they go elsewhere.
Jennifer's message was that Cairns has matured in how it understands and presents its defence role. The rest of Australia is starting to catch up to what people here have always known — that Far North Queensland is not the edge of the country. It is the front door to a significant part of the world.
What you can do: Stay informed on defence investment announcements in the north. Support local businesses already in the defence supply chain — they are building the case for more. When the conversation comes up with people from down south, push back on the idea that Cairns is remote. It is strategically central to Australia's future.
5. Insurance, Food Supply, and the Cost of Living Under Pressure
Two issues that affect every person and every business in the Far North came up in this conversation, and they deserve more public attention than they get.
Insurance
Insurance costs are rising every year and the Far North bears a disproportionate share of that burden. Cyclone risk, flood risk, extreme heat — insurers price all of it in, and residents and businesses pay the result.
Jennifer confirmed that Advance Cairns is actively engaging with the federal reinsurance pool process, reaching out to government contacts to make the case that these costs are genuinely hurting people in the Far North. This is one of those slow, grinding advocacy fights with no single announcement attached to it. But it matters enormously to household budgets and business viability.
Food Supply
Far North Queensland is one of Australia's food bowls. The Atherton Tablelands alone produce extraordinary volumes of food. And yet much of that produce doesn't stay local.
Isaac laid it out bluntly: trucks come down the Palmerston Highway from the Tablelands, hit Innisfail, and turn right toward Brisbane — not left toward Cairns. The produce goes south. Then Cairns supermarkets import it back from Brisbane markets. When the Bruce Highway floods, that supply chain breaks, and prices spike.
A regional distribution hub at Innisfail was floated as a practical solution — somewhere trucks can offload produce headed north, with smaller vehicles completing the run to Cairns. Jennifer acknowledged Innisfail's importance as a transport convergence point, with road, port, and rail all running through it, and left the door open for exactly this kind of thinking.
The Koranda Range road is also part of this conversation. It comes up regularly in discussions about supply chain resilience, and Jennifer confirmed Advance Cairns keeps it on the radar, even though the economics and existing contracts make change slow.
The practical reality is this: a city expecting to grow by up to 80,000 people cannot afford to have a food supply that breaks every wet season. Getting ahead of this is not optional.
What you can do: Buy local produce where you can — the more demand stays local, the stronger the case to keep supply local. Write to your MP about the northern Australia reinsurance pool. It is a real policy lever and needs public pressure. Pay attention to supply chain discussions in local media and support reporting that holds this issue in public view.
6. Cairns Is More Than Tourism — Much More
This is the story Cairns has been telling badly for decades.
Mention Cairns to someone from Sydney or Melbourne and you'll get one of two responses: the reef and rainforest, or cyclones, crocodiles, and youth crime. Neither is the full picture. Neither is close to it.
Jennifer was emphatic on this point. Cairns is one of the most diversified regional economies in Australia. The active industries here include health, marine, aviation, agriculture, critical minerals, and defence — all operating out of the same city, all generating employment and investment.
Tourism is the sugar hit, as Jennifer put it. It is massive. It generates enormous revenue and fills restaurants, hotels, and tour boats. But it is susceptible to global impacts — a pandemic, an exchange rate shift, an international incident — in ways that the other industries are not. The marine sector, the health sector, the aviation sector, and the emerging critical minerals industry do the heavy lifting day in and day out regardless of what's happening in the world.
The 2035 goals in Advance Cairns' Toward 2035 document reflect this diversity. They include growing the visitor economy, yes, but also deepening the health, defence, and industrial base so that Cairns is never again entirely dependent on whether international tourists feel like visiting.
Jennifer also spoke about the Olympics. The 2032 Brisbane Games represent a window for Cairns to get eyeballs — from athletes, officials, journalists, investors, and tourists who might extend their stay northward. Her point was not about hosting events. It was about being ready with a compelling, evidence-based story about Cairns as a place to live, work, and invest. That work starts now.
"It's an attractive destination. It's an important destination," she said. "My hope is that we can market ourselves as that place that is so liveable."
What you can do: Tell the Cairns story accurately when you're talking to people from down south. Every conversation is a marketing opportunity for this region. Share content from Advance Cairns, Cairns Airport, the Port of Cairns, and CQU that highlights the broader economy — not just the reef and rainforest. Challenge the negative narrative when you see it.
7. Getting the Money In — How Advocacy Actually Works
This part of the conversation is worth understanding because most people don't know how regional investment actually gets secured.
Jennifer laid it out plainly. There is only so much in the public purse at any given time. Cairns will always have to fight for its share. The fight happens at state and federal budget time, during election cycles, and in the quiet meetings that happen year-round between advocates and decision-makers.
Advance Cairns maintains active relationships on both sides of the political aisle. Jennifer visited Queensland Parliament recently to meet with both government and opposition representatives. She described the reception as positive — the organisation has a strong reputation built over 25 years, and politicians know that Advance Cairns will give them straight information rather than spin.
The advocacy flows in two directions. Advance Cairns pushes the region's priorities upward to government. But government also uses organisations like Advance Cairns as a sense check — a credible, independent read on what the Far North actually needs and what the community will support.
Local members of parliament are a critical part of this chain. They carry the message from the region into the chambers where budget decisions are made. The relationship between local MPs, advocacy organisations, and their membership base is what turns a project from a wish list item into a funded commitment.
The election cycle matters too. Jennifer noted that the organisation is already working on what to prioritise as the next state and federal election cycles approach. This is when governments are most receptive to regional asks, and Advance Cairns needs to be ready with a clear, funded-and-costed list.
What you can do: Stay engaged with your local federal and state members. They need to know this community is paying attention. When budget time comes around, look at what Advance Cairns has submitted and amplify it. Advocacy that stays inside boardrooms has less power than advocacy with visible community support behind it.
8. The State of Regional Journalism
Jennifer spent 30 years in journalism before stepping into the advocacy role, so Isaac asked her directly: what does the future of regional journalism look like, and does it matter?
Her answer was unambiguous. We need more journalists, not fewer.
In an era where artificial intelligence can generate content at scale and social media allows anyone to publish anything without accountability, the function of a trained, edited, legally reviewed newsroom becomes more critical, not less. People are already struggling to distinguish fact from fabrication. Local journalism — when it works — is one of the few sources of genuinely verified information about the place where you live.
She acknowledged the business model has always been difficult. The Cairns Post, which ticked over its 140th anniversary a couple of years ago — older than The Australian, older than many major international mastheads — has navigated more than a century of disruption. The current disruption is real, but it is not unprecedented.
Jennifer also pushed back on a particular hypocrisy she encounters often. People criticise the local paper, then turn to social media posts from anonymous accounts for their "facts." Traditional media is heavily regulated, internally scrutinised, and legally accountable. Social media is none of those things. You can't dismiss one and trust the other.
Isaac gave a shoutout to his own mentors from his time at the Cairns Post — Matthew Newton and current editor Sian Jeffries — as people who made him a better journalist and, in his words, probably a better person. Jennifer echoed the sentiment about what good mentorship in a newsroom can do.
What you can do: Subscribe to local news. It is not expensive and it keeps journalists employed and accountability alive. Be critical of what you read on social media — if it has no byline and no editor, treat it accordingly. When local journalists do good work, tell them. The feedback loop matters.
9. Leadership — What It Actually Looks Like
The final thread of the conversation was about leadership, and Jennifer brought the same directness to it that she brought to every other topic.
She described herself as old school, and meant it as a point of pride. The principles that drive her now are the same ones she picked up from her parents and her best mentors across three decades — most recently from her journalism career, where bylines meant accountability and accountability meant everything.
"If your name's on it," she said, "it better mean something. It better stand for something."
She talked about collaboration as a genuine value, not a corporate buzzword. She wants buy-in from her team, not just compliance. When everyone has contributed to an outcome, the outcome is more durable and the team is more committed. She feeds off people's strengths rather than trying to be the smartest person in every conversation.
She also spoke about the tension every leader faces between pushing people hard and understanding their limits. She has never asked anyone to do something she isn't prepared to do herself. But she watches for where people's potential ends and where burnout begins — and she tries to stretch the goals just enough to surprise people with what they can achieve.
Her summary: leadership is about people and purpose. Not titles. Not press releases. Not positioning. Just showing up, rolling your sleeves up, and getting it done alongside the people you lead.
For anyone in a leadership role in Cairns — in business, in community organisations, in churches, in local sport — that framework applies. The city runs on people who show up without being asked.
A Final Word on Isaac McCarthy and How Good Are Humans
Before you go, a word about the man who made this conversation happen.
Isaac McCarthy built the How Good Are Humans podcast on a simple premise: the world has enough bad news. He wanted to find the people doing extraordinary things for the communities around them and make sure those stories got told.
What makes this particular episode meaningful is the personal connection at its centre. Jennifer Spilsbury was Isaac's first newspaper editor. She gave him a job interview process he still talks about — no forms, no HR formalities, just "pitch me three stories and write the best one in 24 hours." If you can do the job, you've got the job.
Now Isaac is the one with the microphone, and Jennifer is in the guest chair. He handled the conversation with genuine curiosity, deep local knowledge, and a respect for Jennifer's time and expertise that made the whole episode worth 54 minutes of yours.
The podcast is called How Good Are Humans for a reason. This episode was a perfect example of that mission done well.
Go and listen to it. Then come back and re-read this.
Find the episode — Bringing in the Billions | Jennifer Spilsbury and Advance Cairns — on the How Good Are Humans podcast, Season 7, Episode 4, available on all podcast platforms.