Weekly column from Council Courier e-newsletter by CEO Greg Hallam, Friday, 11 August 2017.
The Bush Councils Convention 2017 was a ripper - every aspect of it.
The World Theatre at Charters Towers was a wonderful venue. We had close to 140 participants over two full days. Local Government Minister Mark Furner, Shadow Minister Andrew Powell and four Directors-General including the head of Premier and Cabinet Dave Stewart and Under Treasurer Jim Murphy were all there. The mountain came to Mohamed.
The speaker line up was amazing not a dud amongst them, some absolute beauties like tech guru Neil Glentworth, entrepreneur Daniel Johnsen, tourism boss Daniel Gschwind and Blockchain expert Katrina Donaghy. Best of all, country councils rocked with lots of fantastic stories and case studies.
Our bush brethren are doing some amazing things. As a sphere of government, we are really in a purple patch despite all the crap that Rob Pyne and his motley band of fellow travellers try to dish up under parliamentary privilege. To quote the Queensland Treasury Corporation chief executive Phillip Noble, the world is full of two types of people: energy givers and energy suckers. That divide was fully on display this week in Charters Towers and by one individual in Parliament House.
This week marked the start of my 26th year as chief executive of the LGAQ (I was a child bride) and I've never been prouder of councils and my LGAQ team mates. Collectively we are doing great things for Queensland - champions all.