Cooya Beach resident frustrated about recent voting process to attain mail services
NOT TRANSPARENT
A FRUSTRATED Cooya beach resident has spoken out claiming a voting process to determine if locals should have finally received a regular mail system was flawed from the beginning.
As it stands neighbouring locations such as Wonga Beach, Oak Beach and those in the Daintree have their mail delivered and aren’t required to personally attend local post offices to retrieve their correspondence.
However, Newsport understands those living in Cooya or Newell Beaches do not have a regular service and must personally visit Mossman Post Office, where they can access their P.O Boxes.
A vote was recently held to see if Cooya Beach locals wanted a full-time mail service and it’s this very process that Catherine Rosenbrauer believes lacked transparency or credibility.
“After finally being emailed the result it said just 43% of residents voted yes to wanting a mail service, however I believe it was an unfair voting process because not everyone got the chance to vote,” Ms Rosenbrauer suggested.
“Australia Post said everyone had the chance to vote because they delivered voting forms to all residents in Cooya Beach, dropped them in their P.O boxes, or locals could access forms at Mossman post office.
“However, I just don’t think that was the case – not everyone received or had access to a form to submit their vote.”
"No one can explain to me why Cooya Beach doesn’t have a postal service, it doesn’t make any sense.”
In her effort to seek answers regarding the voting process Ms Rosenbrauer recently emailed a representative at Cairns Post Office.
In her email Ms Rosenbrauer queried how many voting forms were distributed, how many votes in total were received, how many voted, yes/no, the delivery of voting forms verified against the number of households and how was the final percentage of votes calculated?
A written response from a Cairns mail operative support staffer noted the following.
“The outcome of the vote will be posted to residents over the next week or so,” the reply to Ms Rosenbrauer read.
“The latest map of residents was emailed from Douglas Regional Council, all letters we were unable to deliver were left at Mossman post office for collection and were held there for 2 weeks.
“Also spares (voting forms) were also left at the post office for anyone who wished to collect them.
“Everybody had the opportunity to vote.”
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