The LGAQ is officially on the road delivering elected member updates to councils across Queensland. LGAQ General Manager of Assist Glen Beckett talks about the program (in the video below), which will continue to run for the next 10 weeks leading up to the Annual Conference in October.
94 days to go until polling day.
LGAQ CEO Greg Hallam often dedicates these wraps of the importance of unity in ensuring councils continue to secure the best deals possible for their communities from the State and the Commonwealth. Queensland councils have a much stronger voice than their interstate counterparts because they are united.
This was a key focus of the inaugural meeting of the Western Alliance of Queensland Councils in Longreach on Monday.It was a major theme of the 2020 ROC (Regional Organisation of Councils) Assembly in Brisbane on Wednesday and Thursday. And today, the power of local leadership was writ large during the first Indigenous Leaders Forum of the term, held virtually.
Right now, just 92 days out from the October 31 State Election, that leadership, that united voice is more important than ever. You only have to look at the social media accounts of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers - or Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington and her shadow cabinet - to see the election campaign is under way and has been for weeks. There would not be a marginal seat in Queensland that has not been visited at least once since restrictions were lifted.
Now is the time for councils to turn up the volume to ensure Queensland’s political leaders are listening to what your communities need and that they are promising to fulfill those needs should they be successful on polling day. The next parliamentary term will be the first fixed, four-year term. Stimulus money is flowing from the State and the Commonwealth right now but those government belts will tighten in the coming years as the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it has caused continue to take a toll on revenues and debt continues to rise.
For local communities to thrive over the next four years, councils need the right policy settings and funding arrangements in place to ensure they can provide the services and the infrastructure their constituents need.
Whichever side of politics wins must have a plan to work in partnership with councils to achieve just that.
- Sarah Vogler, LGAQ Media Executive