LGAQ Conf
In mid-October, I attended the Local Government Association Queensland (LGAQ) conference that brings together Councillors from across all the 77 local governments in Qld. This is a very worthwhile conference as it allows councillors to network and compare our strategies with other councils from across the state. I came back from this conference with several different initiatives that we could implement in our own council and will discuss these with my fellow councillors.
COVID
The other thing I (and two of my fellow councillors) brought back from the conference is a severe dose of Covid. We are not sure if we picked it up at the conference or during the plane flight, but we should all still be aware to keep washing our hands when in a social event. My fellow councillors and I self isolated for the week which also involved participating in the Ordinary meeting via video that was also live streamed and I thank our IT team for getting the technology organised to allow that to happen.
TRANSPERANCY
As I have discussed previously, we have increased our transparency at Council by now publishing the Agenda Items from both our Strategic Workshops and our Briefings meetings that we have monthly. These are closed meetings as we can then talk about all aspects of the item without fear of breaking any confidential restrictions that may be in place, this happens across of not only all levels government but business as well.
I can assure ratepayers that we do not make any back-room decisions in these meetings , all decisions are made in the open to the public Ordinary meeting that is also live streamed.
CLEANAWAY
It was great to see the announcement from Cleanaway to build a $700 million facility in Bromelton to generate electricity from non-recyclable waste diverted from landfill. Cleanaway’s proposed Energy from Waste (EfW) facility will provide 800 jobs during construction and 50 long term skilled jobs to the region.
I am hopeful that this is the start of the development of Bromelton Industrial Area so that the increased population that is coming over the next 20 years has meaningful work in the local area.
Quote of the day – Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch
