Many regard the southern Gold Coast in Queensland to be one of the most enviable places to live in Australia, but some locals are frustrated by how rapidly the area is growing. The LNP won the state seat of Currumbin in a 2020 by-election, with the tightest of margins. Now, a prominent independent is running, making for an interesting race to the polls.
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00:00A slice of paradise being loved to death.
00:05Everyone loves this place, that's the trouble.
00:07The Gattos moved to the southern Gold Coast in 1989.
00:11We didn't see the Gold Coast as a city, we saw it more as a great place to go and live and have fun.
00:18Since then their children and grandkids have moved to North Queensland.
00:23It's too expensive for them to live here anymore.
00:26The development, beachside in particular, the height of the high rises, it is a shame.
00:34They live in the state seat of Corumbin, which covers the southernmost suburbs of the Gold Coast.
00:40It's been held by the LNP for 20 years, but is their most marginal seat at just 0.5%.
00:48To stand up for my community, but also to fight for my community on things like housing, cost of living and crime.
00:55If the LNP is voted in later this month and Ms Gerber is re-elected, she'll become the Youth Justice Minister.
01:03When I'm talking with locals, I've never met so many people that have been impacted by crime.
01:08Labor has pre-selected a former soldier in the battle for Corumbin.
01:12We build infrastructure, the critical stuff that we need, such as the Tugan Satellite Hospital.
01:18We're upgrading our schools, we're widening the M1.
01:22One of Corumbin's most divisive issues is the 13km expansion of the city's light rail to Koolangatta Airport.
01:31It's being pushed by the city's council with initial support from the state government.
01:38The LNP, however, says it would halt the project for community consultation.
01:43An anti-light rail development candidate might prove to be a thorn in the LNP's side.
01:50Enter independent candidate Cath Down.
01:54She came just a few hundred votes short of unseating a veteran Gold Coast city councillor in the March local government elections.
02:02Her platform is anti-light rail and anti-development.
02:07I stand for heavy rail to be completed to the airport, zero emission buses and east-west connections that already have transport
02:15to allow for some development, whether it be three or four storey walk-ups of affordable housing.
02:21Anything to keep this piece of paradise as is.