WELCOME Welcome to the QLGRA newsletter for April and May 2014. Be warned – this newsletter is long! But with lots of interesting reading:

• Recent Actions of the Management committee • Ken’s Report from Capella • The progress of the de-amalgamating shires • Media guidelines for members

So hope you enjoy your reading and please feel free to provide feedback. But first, I have a CORRECTION. In the last edition we mentioned the motion by two Scenic Rim Councillors (Nigel Waistell and Nadia O’Carroll) to reduce their remuneration increase to 2.7% pa. to match CPI. In fact they asked for 1.9%pa in line with the CPI rate as was also recommended by members of the QLGRA. Please accept my apology – Joanna Kesteven (Secretary/Editor). __________________________________________________________

The QLGRA Management Committee meets at least monthly and has been busy undertaking the following activities: • Enhancing the look of the QLGRA website by adding a banner heading

and a ‘slide show’ of Affiliate member’s photos. Please take a look and all feedback is welcome. Please find it at: http://qlgralliance.org.au/

• Approaching other groups interested or involved in reform-demerger of their local council areas offering our assistance, support and advice.

• Letter to Premier Newman – after the Redcliffe by election we wrote to the Premier asking for a meeting reminding him of his promise to ‘do the right thing in the future’. One of his staff replied deflecting the response to Minister Crisafulli. We are still awaiting the Minister’s response...........

• Letter to the Labor Party - one member personally approached various Labor Party Members at May Day 2014 with a letter imploring them to recant on the amalgamation policy of 2008. Recipients of the letter included Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, Joanne Miller (Member for Bundamba), Yvette D’arth (Member for Redcliffe) Cameron Dick, Stirling Hinchcliffe, Jackie Trad's (Member for South Brisbane) Secretary. Verbal response was mixed. At the time of writing no formal response had been received.

QLGRA Primary

goals:. To promote community acceptable natural Local Government boundaries that reflect locally held beliefs about community and identity, and provide local amenity and service;

Recognition in the State Constitution of

Local Government as a legal entity with a clearly articulated

role in governing, such that

it can only be changed after a majority vote

in a properly constituted

referendum;

Retention and maintenance of

reasonable levels of State and Federal

Grants and Subsidies to support the necessary and

important role of Local

Government in providing and

supporting rural and

regional infrastructure

serving not only local communities but also

the state and the nation.

Strategic goals:

To promote the benefits of effective, community based ‘local’ government throughout the general public

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and as an area of learning and study in tertiary

institutions;

To share the commonality of our cause with all amalgamated shires

and promote the sharing of

strategy and resources to overcome barriers to deamalgamation and boundary changes.

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Approaching other political parties – we are in the process of approaching all other political parties to seek their endorsement of QLGRA policy. To date there is limited information to report as their responses are tardy. We believe endorsement by them will pressure the major parties to reconsider their stance. • Letter to the Chamber of Commerce – we have approached 35

Chambers of Commerce across Queensland inviting them to join our organisation as Associates and to complete a survey regarding the impact of amalgamation.

Loss of business and businesses associated with Regional Council formation is putting them under significant financial pressure. We are hoping for responses by 30 June.

• Response to the request for submissions by ECQ after the Redcliffe byelection – two members at least put in submissions regarding the Electoral Commission Queensland review. The Commission has now made recommendations and there is some concern about this. See our recommendation in the last news item in this newsletter.

• Unite against Unity – the Caboolture and Redcliffe members of our group, in particular Rodney Hansen have been very active in promoting the fight against amalgamated water services. As many would know, water services were amalgamated at the same time as Councils. The outcome has been similar – spiralling costs for the water users, centralised decision making, increasing executive management costs and so on. The fight for the return of water services to proper public control is recommended by the QLGRA.

Take a look at the Website http://www.uniteagainstunity.info/ and buy one of their great stickers.

• Fundraising – we now need to become actively involved in fundraising for our organisation. With the State Election only 9 months away we need funds to help get our message across. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

• Advice to Candidates in the state election – we intend to approach all individual candidates for the next state election with regard to our policies. A letter is currently being drafted.

• AGM preparation – we are currently discussing when and where to hold our AGM. Venues proposed include Brisbane, Toowoomba, Kingaroy, Bundaberg, Dalby, Early August is likely to be the date and we are approaching possible speakers. Pease let us have your ideas as soon as possible and before our 25th June 14 Management Meeting.

• Website articles are required. Please give this some thought, and let our IT officer (through the email address qlgra@gmail.com) have relevant stories and ideas from your groups. Your thoughts on the current format are also welcome. Photos are also most welcome.

Management Committee:

Chairman Bob

Johnson, Stanthorpe

07 4681 0871

Secretary Joanna Kesteven

Boonah 07 5463 5304

Vice Chair Colin

Hewett Redcliffe

07 3283 7208

Treasurer Jack Muller, Monto

07 4166 1497

Asst Secretary Geoff McKay,

The Hills 07 33517993

Membership Secretary

Sue Johnson, Dalcouth

0420 920389

Committee Members:

David Horner, Childers

07 4125 1001

Joseph Monsour, Boonah

07 5463 5304

Rodney Hansen, Caboolture

07 5498 6995

Chris Ellem, Waroo/Surat 07 4626 5421

EMAIL ADDRESS: qlgra@gmail.com

WEBSITE ADDRESS: qlgralliance.org.au/

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“New Peak Downs Demerger Group”

In February this year, Strategy Officer Ken Park visited the group in Capella. Ken made some interesting observations about the area and about the public meeting with the group on the 14th February. This is his report: Ken’s Report Capella ‘New Peak Downs’ Demerger Group: Tour of the area: Joe Bridgeman took my wife Frankie and I for an extensive tour of the old shire, town and rural. The previous council had done a remarkable job, largely helped by excellent cooperation between the council and the community. The complaints with the regional council are exactly the same as in my Moreton Bay and elsewhere, with a few notable differences: The old council had some very good sources of income: - contributions from the mines in their area and - profits from a very successful quarry. The mine income is now spread over the whole regional council’s area; and having taken over the quarry, the regional council proceeded to kill the goose by premature overdevelopment. That income has now been lost to Capella. These incomes permitted the old council to keep rates quite low. The regional council, based at Emerald, decided to do away with divisions. Consequently Capella has only one councillor who “sort of” represents their interests. Their share of the expenditure can be expected to continue to decline without voting. The Public meeting: About 20 people attended. I addressed them for about 30 minutes and was attentively received, with many questions and discussion following. The group is quite supportive of QLGRA and its objectives, and were very supportive of Len Thomas’ election nomination [they donated $100]. It was pleasing to see a good number of under 50 year olds, all well informed and keen. Ken also advised that the Capella group had a meeting with Minister Crisafulli and similar to his other meetings with demerger groups he said “I am not here to discuss deamalgamation, but to explore ways to make the regional council work better”. They took him at his word, mentioned two projects of the old council that had been shelved. They were started the next day. That band aid

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worked, but all realise that it can never be a permanent solution.

De-amalgamation Costs and Progress

The QLGRA has been monitoring the progress and costs of de-amalgamation in the four Queensland shires that were allowed to exercise their democratic rights – Noosa, Yeppoon, Mareeba and Port Douglas. Here is a summary of publicly available documents from each Shire. They give you some idea of the issues that have arisen but also that the original estimations of cost by the QTC are under question. The full articles can be found on our website.

As most would be aware the Qld Treasury Corporation prior to the de-amalgamation estimated the likely cost for each of the four shires. In a review of the estimated cost of de-amalgamation for Mareeba by the QTC , they estimated that the cost would be in the vicinity of $8m http://dlgcrr.qld.gov.au/bc/). However the cost record kept by the council transfer committee is currently sitting at $4.27m as of March 2014. (http://msc.qld.gov.au/de - amalgamation/ - Meeting of 22 April 2014 Appendix 1)

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This article is an extract from a direct transcript taken from the ABC NEWS 20 May 2014 “No general rate rise expected in new Noosa Council's first budget” By Jo Skinner (ABC Reporter) The Noosa Council says some staff will be redeployed to lower paid jobs to balance the authority's first budget and keep rates down. Mayor Noel Playford says despite the costs of de-amalgamation, there should be no general rate rise in the council's first budget to be handed down next month. (Note that a previous report indicated that Noosa’s demerger costs were about 60% less than the Treasury estimates.) He says community organisations will have cuts to their funding and some council staff who were transferred over from the Sunshine Coast council will not be happy either. "There'll be pain for some staff ... because many of them have had different jobs in the regional council - in some cases, jobs at a much higher level," he said. "They were transferred back to Noosa and the job that suits them is going to be paid a lot lower and we're in the process of doing the new job descriptions for them and some of them are going to find their salaries cut. "Currently we're preparing a budget that has no general rate increase. There'll be some small increases in fees and charges and there will be an increase to cover increased costs in the waste area but that's relatively minor in the whole scheme of things." First posted Tue 20 May 2014, 10:09am AEST - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014 - 05 - 20/no general - rate - rise - expected - in - new - noosa/5464120 De-amalgamation costs and progress cont’d:

– In his budget speech for 2014, Mayor Bill Ludwig made the following comments: “ One of the key elements for ratepayers is the rate rise which, in contrast to the foreshadowed 16% projections suggested prior to the de-amalgamation vote, has come in at 5% across the board. The budget has maintained a healthy capital works program for our growing Shire while also focusing on restoring the service levels that our ratepayers expect, and deserve. Maintenance in particular will be increased, particularly in our high profile spaces, CBD areas and parks. This budget has also restored ‘common sense’ in areas like waste management.

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Deamalgamation has brought with it the obligation for Livingstone to meet all the deamalgamation costs of both Livingstone and the remaining RRC. To their credit the majority of Livingstone voters accepted this onerous condition in exchange for the freedom to determine our own future as an independent Local Government area. As anticipated the true de-amalgamation costs look set to come in well under the $10 million projected by the Queensland Treasury, and with prudent management, the other good news is the Livingstone budget should be in a surplus position within 2 years.” You can read the rest of his speech at https://www.livingstone.qld.gov.au/158/2014 - Budget . It has some very interesting comments.

This article is taken directly from the Douglas Shire Council website:

Better than expected opening financial position for Council Posted On 30 Apr 2014 By : Greg McLean Douglas Shire Council has officially financially separated from Cairns Regional Council with a better than expected opening position. Independent auditor Grant Thornton has signed off on the final financial statements prepared by the Financial Due Diligence Working Group. The final financial statements show a net cash balance of $19.371 million for Douglas Shire Council as at December 31, 2013. This figure includes de-amalgamation costs of $2.938 million. The better than anticipated opening financial position means de-amalgamation costs have been absorbed without rate increases and the drawdown of a Queensland Treasury Corporation working capital facility has been avoided. Douglas Shire Council Mayor Julia Leu said the strong opening financial position was a fantastic result, especially considering Queensland Treasury Corporation’s estimate of a closing cash balance as at June 30, 2012, of $9.085 million was exceeded for the same period by more than 60 per cent.“These are just a few examples of what Council has achieved in a very short timeframe while also managing the de-amalgamation process and a damaging cyclone and it should give confidence to our communities that their future is in very capable hands.”

The full speech can be found at http://douglas.qld.gov.au/better-expected-opening-financial-position-council/

Media guidelines The QLGRA Management Committee would encourage all members to consider engaging the media wherever you can – especially at the local level in the next 6 months as we lead up to the state State election. If you have an enquiry from the media at a national or state level, please direct the enquiry to President Bob Johnson or Vice President Colin Hewett. However if it is a local media enquiry we have compiled some suggestions on topics that you might wish to cover and some wording you might use. You can say the same thing in many different ways to ensure that your key points are not excluded from the article. You can check our website for a full list of guidelines, points and comments, Included are notes to guide Interviewees, Positive points for de-merger of Shires as well as Negative aspect of amalgamations. Refer to the website for the full list.

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http://qlgralliance.org.au/ - Member Resources.

Changing the rules on elections – Have Your Say:

We have been notified that the ECQ has made 9 recommendations to the Attorney General regarding changing the rules pertaining to Election Booths as a result of the Redcliffe by-election See the ECQ website http://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/. (If you have no access to the internet and wish to see a copy, please let me know by ringing on 07 54635304 – I will forward a copy of the recommendations to you by mail). The recommendations include:

• Discretion to include a building’s enclosed grounds as part of a polling booth for the purposes of regulating canvassing etc.

• Create the offence of obstructing a person entering a polling booth • Empower an officer of the Commission to give reasonable directions within, and in

the immediate vicinity of, a polling booth • Prohibit the use of loudspeakers etc. which may be heard at a polling booth. • Restrict the display of election material at a polling booth before 6am • Consideration be given to restricting the size of signs and banners at polling booths • All how-to-vote cards to be approved by the Commission prior to distribution • Limit scrutineer numbers • Introduction of legislation governing scrutineer behaviour

The Attorney General will make his recommendation to Parliament after 13th June 2014. It is recommended that everyone write to the Attorney General asking to please not change the existing rules; but simply ensure the current rules are understood and adhered to by everyone; and if they are not please ensure they are policed.

Flood him with letters from everyone you know. All letters and submissions must be in the AG’s hands before 13th June.

attorney@ministerial.qld.gov.au attorney@ministerial.qld.gov.au

Hon J P Bleijie MP Member for Kawana

PO Box 1200 BUDDINA QLD 4575

______________________________________________________________See you next newsletter!

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