Mayor's Column: Leaders in the Leader 6-11-2020
Another busy couple of weeks since I last put pen to paper here, culminating in a state election last weekend. I would like to take a moment to congratulate everyone who put up their hand to represent their communities, successfully or otherwise. Council is proudly apolitical – what matters most to us are policy outcomes that can advance our region’s interests. We’re proud to have good working relationships with both our local members, and our state and federal governments.
We’re always advocating with government, but that advocacy takes on even more importance in the build up to a budget. So it’s back to work now; and back to advocating for our region with both sides of politics.
That’s what the CEO and I will be doing next week when we head to Canberra to meet with several cabinet ministers and decision makers. We make a point of visiting Canberra where possible to advocate for projects on behalf of our region. We have a full calendar of meetings with the Ministers for Regional Tourism, Road Safety and Freight Transport, Agriculture, Drought, and Emergency Management, Resources, Water and Northern Australia, Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government, Regional Development and Territories, Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.
Some of the topics up for discussion will be our weirs and water security projects, our childcare centre and its funding model, our regional roads, and the development of our tourism industry. We’ll also be discussing Covid and our region’s economic recovery more generally. These are important opportunities, particularly when you consider how much of our budget each year relies on state and federal funding support. On the whole, we enjoy good access to key decision makers, thanks to the assistance of our local MP, Minister David Littleproud.
In other news, we’re following up a consultation we ran with the Isisford Community regarding the former Isisford Crusher Paddock. As promised at that consultation, we’re distributing a survey for the community to complete. The survey is for residents in the Isisford locality and it presents three options to choose from. For more information residents can get in touch with our branch office in Isisford.
Earlier this year Council agreed to dissolve the Advancing Agriculture Advisory Group so it could be truly independent and undertake its own fundraising and start its own initiatives. The newly formed entity, ‘GroWQ’, will be a member driven organisation championing the development of agriculture and agribusiness in our region. It’s holding its first event this Friday (the day this column goes to print); a tag-along tour of some of the latest ag-industry developments in Longreach. The field trip will include visits to the Western Queensland Livestock Exchange (WQLX) – where $10M in upgrades have been approved, Western Game Processing – the Longreach based Kangaroo processing facility which is experiencing very strong growth, and the slaughterhouse at the former Longreach Pastoral College – which has been taken on by Jed and Erin Marks of Savages Butchery.
No doubt the event will be a great opportunity to go behind the scenes at these innovative new businesses and meet others interested in advancing our primary industries. If you missed out, please keep an eye out for the next event and get behind this new community group to support the Ag industry in our region.
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 also find email and phone numbers for each of my fellow Councillors and I on our website at longreach.qld.gov.au/elected-members.