No one should be under any illusions about the level of community support that exists for Mayor Bob Abbot’s desire to slow the rate of growth on the Sunshine Coast.

Those that are should re-examine the division by division, polling booth by polling booth returns from the recent local government elections.

Voters in every section of the Sunshine Coast overwhelmingly saw the former Noosa mayor as best able to deliver the sort of future they wanted for themselves, their children and the environment.

Equally, those voters should be under no illusion about the difficulties ahead.

What is being discussed right now is the region’s economy, which for the past 30 years has increasingly been dependent on the construction industry, tourism, and, as the population grew, the retail sector.

That is why Mr Abbot’s time frames are so modest.

His goal is to bring this region’s growth in line with the national average by 2026.

It will take that long at least to develop a diversified regional economic base.

It is a process that should have started a long time ago but which has been constantly distracted by the tantalising prospect of short-term riches in the property sector.

As the Australian and world economies continue to slow this year, fingers will be pointed in blame in many directions.

They will be pointed at Mr Abbot.

Hopefully, the voters who elected him will see those facile accusations for what they are worth.

There can be no doubt that it is time for this region to get smarter about the way it does business and the way it plans its future.

It can’t do that if it continues to trade away good town planning outcomes in favour of short-term, poor economic fixes.

Sporting hypocrisy

The hypocrisy of sport: I’ve stayed away from the Nick D’Arcy Olympic ban in this column, but some things need to be said.

The Australian Olympic Committee should restrict itself to the determining whether or not athletes who represent this country have won selection on merit.

The ban on D’Arcy and the recent order for swim star Stephanie Gilmour and other athletes to remove pictures from their MySpace pages have nothing to do with moral indignation.

It’s all about image or, to put it in its proper light, the perceived commercial interests of the AOC.

Don’t worry about D’Arcy’s right for the matters he has been accused of to have a fair hearing in a court of law or for adult swimmers to have the right to freedom of expression, things that this country is supposed to stand for and for which our soldiers are allegedly still fighting.

Those things that are supposed to be cornerstones of our democracy appear to count for nought if they are perceived to be any threat to the gravy train.

Equally, all the brouhaha about a bunch of young footballers losing control in an under-20 rugby league game the other night sits oddly on the sports pages below a story about Carl Webb and Paul Gallern being selected as “enforcers” for the Centenary Test.

I suppose talk of “war” is one tired old way to try and build a crowd for a Test in Sydney against an adversary Australia thrashed 56-0 in New Zealand less than six months ago.

But I bet its left one group of youngsters mighty confused as they prepare to front the judiciary for sticking up for their mates.

Rudd’s ‘good’ war

Talking of war, there are a couple of real ones still happening around the place.

One in Iraq we are about to leave seems to have been designated a “bad” war by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and he won’t get any argument from me on that.

But oddly, our new PM appears to have embraced Afghanistan as a “good” war and is busily steeling the nation for further loss of life.

Nothing good can come of it and Mr Rudd has a duty to the soldiers, their families and the rest of us to explain without the rhetoric just what we are doing there, how that task will be accomplished, in what time frames and to what net benefit to both this nation and Afghanistan.

And while he’s at it he might also explain the seeming indifference to the plight of Zimbabweans now well and truly in the grip of genocide.

Weren’t we playing cricket there 18 months ago?