Mayor's Column - Longreach Leader 23 April 2021

This column first appeared in the Longreach Leader on Friday 23 April 2021.

As always, it’s been another busy fortnight for your Mayor! As chair of RAPAD I had the opportunity to represent our region at the Regional Organisation of Councils Assembly recently. The assembly was held online, and attended by state ministers and departmental representatives. These are important chances to compare notes with other regions across Queensland, and build consensus on issues we all face.

I also virtually attended meetings of the Western Queensland Alliance of Councils leadership group. The Western Queensland Alliance of Councils is a very strong alliance, formed in Longreach last year, of the 21 Councils that make up Queensland’s North West, Central West, and South West. Together, we’ve engaged the Regional Australia Institute to conduct a study into market failures in housing in Western Queensland. Regional Australia Institute Senior Economist Diwa Hopkins was in Longreach recently to interview stakeholders and conduct preliminary research. We’re hoping by quantifying the nature of the problem we can identify the required policy response, and advocate more effectively to government and industry for the solutions required.

The CEO and I were in Roma recently attending some important Disaster Management training. It’s just one of the many facets of our roles as civic leaders – I chair the Local Disaster Management Group, and the CEO is our Local Disaster Coordinator. Together we joined other Mayors and CEOs to attend a High Consequence Decision Making Masterclass delivered by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. It was an outstanding course and a subject matter I take very seriously as your Mayor. We are blessed in our region with a good disaster management community and it’s important to continually sharpen our focus on prevention, preparation, response, and recovery.

We have an outstanding record of service in our communities and we get an opportunity to reflect on that this weekend as we commemorate ANZAC Day.

There are commemorations in each of our communities and I encourage everyone to try and attend on of the services in your area, particularly after commemorations were restricted last year. ANZAC Day reminds us that there are things that transcend the disparate groups and categories we often break society into. We salute not only the spirit of the ANZACs but, in paying tribute to them, we take the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to striving for our communities as they did – and upholding their finest qualities of courage, commitment, endurance and mateship. For more information on ANZAC services in our region, please contact Council on (07) 4658 4111.

Before I go, just a reminder that we’re holding our bi-annual Community Consultation Forums next week. We proudly hold these twice a year in each of our four communities twice a year. As your elected members, the forums are a vital chance not only for you to engage with us and ask questions, but for us to engage with you face to face. I urge you to come along, particularly if you’ve never been to one before – the more people we hear from the better.

Of course, we always try and remind people, you don’t have to wait for the forums to talk to us. My colleagues and I make our direct contact details available on the Council website, and we always encourage people to reach out to us directly if there’s anything they want to discuss. 

You can also find email and direct phone numbers for myself and each of my fellow Councillors at longreach.qld.gov.au/elected-members. If you want to know anything at all, reach out, or contact Council directly on (07) 4658 4111 (24hrs), or via email to assist@longreach.qld.gov.au.