It was a week of renewal at the LGAQ as the Association's new Policy Executive convened its first formal meeting for the term.Your colleagues elected Townsville Mayor Cr Jenny Hill Mayor to the position of Acting President of the Association and Chair of LGAQ Ltd , and also appointed Sunshine Coast Mayor Cr Mark Jamieson Cr Ray Brown of the Western Downs Regional council as directors on the LGAQ Board. Redlands Mayor Cr Karen Williams joins Cr Hill as the two LGAQ directors on the Australian Local Government Association board.
The vote for the permanent LGAQ President will be held at the Association’s Annual Conference on the Gold Coast in October. Any elected member in Queensland is eligible to nominate and all member councils present get to vote for the position.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, Assistant Minister for Local Government Jennifer Howard and Director General of the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning Frankie Carroll all joined the Policy Executive for a 90 minute discussion over lunch yesterday. Ms Palaszczuk is the first Premier ever to visit the current Local Government House and sup with the Policy Executive.
Of course, the LGAQ board will not be the only election held this week given a certain event happening tomorrow. Despite the marathon federal election campaign, it was only earlier this week that the LGAQ received the final responses from the major political parties to its 10 Point Federal Election plan. It was late and we had to drag them screaming to get even the responses we did - a sad state of affairs, really. A summary of those responses from the major parties was circulated to all councils yesterday. There wasn't a whole lot of joy in them, with the ALP’s nose marginally in front. Having said that, the Coalition were kind to councils in the most recent federal budget where we scored some serious extra money.
In other news from around the state, we've invited 32 Great Barrier Reef catchment councils to a Reef Councils Roundtable in Cairns today. The Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan will head the agenda - the Plan identifes local government as either lead or partner in almost 40 actions. Councils will spend the day teasing out what these will mean in practice.
Remember the famous words of Banjo Patterson no matter who ever you vote for on Saturday you will have elected a politician come Monday. Happy voting to you all.