G’day for the last time in 2019.
There are three things I want to share with you in the next few minutes.
Firstly, there is the LGAQ’s big media push this week around drought and guaranteeing rural towns a reliable quality water supply. We had the pedal to the metal - and some.
We had wall to wall prime-time TV news across the state, news radio sessions, drive time chats, and a run in almost all Queensland daily newspapers, including a 550-word feature article in the Courier-Mail.
But the real media cut-through came from the four, five-minute vignettes produced by our Acting Media Executive Kim Skubris who finishes with us today. ‘Skubes’ as we call her, together with a freelance cameraman, used her 20 years’ of on-air television craft to produce 21 stories across a range of rural towns over four days. It featured everyone from farmers to school kids, business folks, senior citizens, families and good old-fashioned locals. Incredibly intimate, totally authentic and poignant viewing - which has already been downloaded thousands of times this week. It’s a great example of the LGAQ helping councils to tell their communities stories.
Speaking of telling Council stories, I learned this week that the LGAQ’s My Council Story benchmarking site is now being utilised by 42 Queensland Councils. It is, of course, the public view of the Ready.Set.Go council internal benchmarking tool.
A lot of Queenslanders can simply jump onto to that site and compare their shire, towns and cities to similar councils across the state. The graphic interface is world-class technology, visually appealing and simple to navigate. Better still, it improves councils transparency in the community.
The last subject I will visit is the LGAQ’s Christmas present to councils and their communities - the Better Communities app. This is a community engagement and consensus building tool and mobile game and is being launched today! The game is available through either the Apple or Android App stores. Search for Better Communities and download – bingo!
This app took 18 months to develop and cost $100,000 to build. As with everything at LGAQ, we used our five-step operating model to produce it. That’s understand, design, build, deliver and track - validating the process with councils and users at multiple points along the way. It’s entirely free and available to the public and councils. So, download and have a play with it over the festive and holiday season.
Finally, a big Merry Christmas and happy New Year from me and my wonderful staff to all of our friends in local government land. Councils are the backbones of their communities, who do all the hard yards - and some. While we, at your Association, are the hired help to assist you in building better communities - as we say the LGAQ is on tap, not on top.
My column will resume on Friday 17 January 2020 – see you in the New Year.