Toowoomba icon steps aside
TOOWOOMBA'S political landscape has been filled with remarkable figures. From the omnipotence of Clive Berghoffer to the larrikinism of Di Thorley - the Garden City has been the stomping ground for a multitude of powerful politicians.
One of the most loved though has been Michael James Horan. Mr Horan has been the Queensland parliament's representative for Toowoomba South since May 18, 1991. For 20 years Mike has served the region and come the next election, he plans to clear out his well-worn, much-visited office at 566 Ruthven Street.
"I came to Toowoomba in 1978, appointed as the CEO of the Toowoomba Showgrounds," Mr Horan remembered fondly.
"I ran that at the old showgrounds in Campbell Street from 1978 to 1985 and then at the new showgrounds from 1985 to 1991 when I got elected to parliament.
"We ran home shows, motor shows, rock and roll, speedway, pony club events – a whole range of events."
Mr Horan notes the smooth transition from the old showgrounds to the current home of the Toowoomba Show as one of his proudest achievements - even in a lifetime in politics.
"We moved holus bolus from the old showground to the new showground and we had our first show there in 1986 – so we didn’t miss a show," Mr Horan said, triumphant.
"That was pretty momentous – it took a lot of work and effort to do that."
After 13 years with the Royal Agricultural Society, a vacant lot became available for Mr Horan to purchase and buy into politics.
"In 1991, just at the time of the Toowoomba show, legislation had been passed in parliament saying that you couldn’t be in parliament and in local government at the same time.
"Clive Berghoffer at that time was the mayor of Toowoomba and the member for Toowoomba South – so he elected to be the mayor and that made Toowoomba South a vacant seat.
"I made the decision to stand for pre-selection – so I joined the National party and got pre-selected a week later and I was in parliament four weeks after that – it was a bit quick."
During his career Mr Horan has served as the leader of the National Party, the leader of the Opposition, Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for Police and Shadow Primary Industries Minister.
However, it's with particular felicity that Mr Horan recalls one of his posts.
"The highlight of my political career without a doubt has been the time when I was Minister for Health, I absolutely loved the job and I think I was very fortunate I’d had a lot of experience in management."
"In that time as Health Minister I immediately removed one level of bureaucracy.
"There were three levels of bureaucracy running health and I made it a flatter, more de-centralised organisation.
"The money saved went to a program I’d developed called 'surgery on time’ and as a result we were able to do many thousands more operations a year.
"In the two years I was there, we started well over 100 projects, ranging from big projects like the Royal Brisbane hospital rebuild and the rebuild of the PA Hospital down to little nurses quarters in country towns and parking stations at hospitals.
"It was all very satisfying to me because I felt that I really pulled Queensland Health together as a team.
"I believed in them and I got that belief through to the people that they were a great organisation and that I’d back them and support them and lead them.
"It became far more practical, it became far more orientated on doing surgery and patient care rather than bureaucracy and fluffy stuff- we were focused on doing all that we could possibly do."
Making time for loved ones has proved difficult for Mr Horan - working in the tumult of politics made scheduling 'family time' an arduous task.
When he walks away from parliament, Mike hopes that he's referred to as "The Honorable" less often than he's called "Dad".
"It was a pretty full on job," Mr Horan admitted, with more than a hint of stoicism.
"One of the reasons that I’m retiring is that I turn 67 this year, so I think that's a good time in terms of age.
"I plan to spend more time with family.
"Helen and I have three kids and seven grand-kids and they're spread over England, Sydney and Brisbane - we'd like to have a bit more time with them."
For sports fans, Mike is probably not considered foremost as a well respected Queensland politician, but as Tim's father.
Mike saw his son - rugby union great Tim Horan, member of three Australian World Cup sides - play in one game in those competitions.
"I missed the first one and the second one and the third one when they made the final I jumped on a plane on Thursday night, flew over and watched the game and came back" - such was the nature of life as a parliamentarian.
"There comes a time too – it can be pretty hard on your spouse – you’re away a lot and so there comes a time to pay her back a bit."
Mr Horan said he'll be staying put in Toowoomba and plans to invest his time in the growth of the city.
"We’ll be here forever.
"I’m involved in Downs Rugby, I’m on the board of the PCYC and I’ll probably do a number of other things around town.
"We’ve got a farm on the edge of town, only a small one, a couple of hundred acres - we breed Australian stock horses, I’ve always mucked around with horses and I want to continue to do that."
Over 20 years Mr Horan said he'd seen a lot of change in the Garden City, but hopes it never loses it's idyllic, country charm.
"There are still enormously strong links between the city and country here.
"It’s still a rural based type of city and when there’s a good season on the Downs there’s a good economy in Toowoomba.
"I suppose the most obvious change though is we now have peak hour traffic and we have peak hour traffic from half past two to half past five.
"The second range crossing has almost been a social blight on the city – you’ve got these 5000 B-doubles a day going through our main east-west street – hence the congestion we’ve got in the city.
"In fact, I think if three key pieces of infrastructure would happen the future of Toowoomba is nearly limitless.
"We need the Toowoomba bypass, we need a proper planned industrial area in the west of the city (right on the bypass) and the proposed inland railway that would link southern Australia with Gladstone and one day Darwin and we need a big airport.
"The city has kept it’s garden city, beautiful city image and I hope it always has that.
"When I was in Sydney playing football I saw the tired people on the trains, making the two hour trip home to the Blue Mountains or the western suburbs and I just thought what a terrible life.
"I’ve always hoped we could be self reliant here - people could live here and enjoy Toowoomba and find satisfying employment and business opportunities here without having to travel to another city.
"I think that’s a possibility here..."
