Mayor's Column - Leaders in the Leader 28-8-2020

Thanks for joining me for another of my fortnightly updates. I’m enjoying the opportunity to share a little bit of what’s going on at Council with you. 

We’ve received a response from Minister Grace informing us that our application to declare 16 November 2020 a special holiday has been approved. The date commemorates the 100th birthday of Qantas and it’s great that we’ll be able to mark this significant occasion for our region this way. We’re expecting the holiday to be officially gazetted in the Queensland Government Gazette today (Friday).

Last Thursday, at our Council meeting in Yaraka, Council also agreed on the nominated dates for next year’s Special Holiday. We had a great reaction from the community to our survey with many more responses than last year, when we ran a similar process. The results of the survey were clear and the nominated dates, which we have submitted to the Office of Industrial Relations, are Friday 14 May for Longreach – Associated with the Longreach Show – and Wednesday 8 September for Ilfracombe, Isisford, and Yaraka – Associated with Westech. 

I’d like to thank everyone who had their say – it’s important we get this kind of engagement from our community when we put the call out. The more people engage with us, the better the outcomes are that we can achieve.

There will be another opportunity to engage with us at our bi-annual Community Consultation Forums, which are fast approaching. I would like as many people as possible to join us on 8 September in Ilfracombe, 9 September in Yaraka and Isisford, and 10 September in Longreach.

We missed out on the forum we would have had earlier this year due to Covid restrictions, so my fellow Councillors and I are looking forward to hearing directly from our community on the matters which are important to them. If we don’t hear directly from people what their desired outcomes are, it’s harder for us to make decisions about our future, so I encourage everyone to come along and engage with us directly. That’s why this year I took the time to send letters to all of our residents directly inviting them to come, because we want to hear from as many different people as possible.

The Councillors and I took part in ‘Elected Member Update’ training delivered by the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) this week. It’s an important briefing that LGAQ deliver in-person, briefing us on matters that are impacting the Local Government sector state-wide. It keeps us, as elected members, up to date with best practice, upcoming legislation, emerging trends, and professional development.

It’s also a chance for us to brief them on important local and regional matters, so they can represent us effectively as an association. The LGAQ annual conference is coming up in October and joining me there will be Deputy Mayor Nunn, and new Councillors Cr Bignell and Cr Hatch. It’s a valuable opportunity for them, as first-term councillors, to learn more about local government in Queensland and make connections with other key decision-makers.

While Councillors undertook professional development with LGAQ this week, our staff were also undertaking professional development in two days of training run by the Queensland Ombudsman. The Queensland Ombudsman has a remit to improve the quality of decision-making and administrative practice in government and public sector agencies. We took the opportunity to invite the Ombudsman to deliver their Complaints Management and Good Decision-Making training programs in-region to our relevant staff.

We strive for continuous improvement at Council and professional development opportunities like these are important in maintaining our focus on better outcomes for our community.

Until next time, please don’t hesitate to contact Council directly on (07) 4658 4111 (24hrs), or email assist@longreach.qld.gov.au.  You can find also find email and phone numbers for me and all of my fellow Councillors on our website at longreach.qld.gov.au/elected-members.