February 27, 2014
Death threats – and the understanding that there’s almost no chance the Labor Party could ever win the ultra-conservative State seat of Nanango – have not stopped Nanango man Craig Prickett from re-forming a local branch of the ALP.
The first meeting of the new South Burnett branch was held in November at the Nanango RSL Club. Just eight people turned up.
Mr Prickett said the party now had about 30 members in the South Burnett area, based from Blackbutt to Murgon, and was continuing to grow.
The unusual thing to outsiders is that there are no “politicians” in the branch, only people wanting to make a difference, he said.
The ALP has had branches in the local area previously but there has been no meetings held locally for many years.
Mr Prickett said the new branch had been formed at the request of ALP members living locally to help connect them into the political process.
But there was also a local need, he said. He had already been approached by residents seeking assistance with problems related to government bureaucracy that he had been able to point in the right direction to get assistance.
However the news of the branch’s formation has not been greeted warmly by everyone.
“I have had a few people come and say they’re going to shoot me and my wife. But they’re just idiots,” Mr Prickett said.
“I know they’re not serious so I don’t report it.
“I feel sorry for the LNP because if something did happen they would get the blame. But it’s not LNP members who say it.”
The South Burnett ALP branch meets on the first Saturday of every month. Currently they’re meeting in Nanango however they have plans to rotate the meeting around different venues in the South Burnett, partly for the benefit of members and partly for security reasons.
Mr Prickett said he had “a couple of local people in mind” to contest pre-selection for Nanango but there was no guarantee that the candidate would come from the South Burnett branch as the ALP branch of Somerset was also based in the electorate.
The ALP also believed two Divisions in the South Burnett Regional Council were “winnable”.
“But we won’t run anyone for Council unless they are good local people,” he said.
* * *
Mr Prickett grew up in a very working class area of Brisbane.
He said he had been around the Labor Party all his life although he had only rejoined recently. And although he was a union member he had never been an activist or organiser in the union movement; his strengths lay in gathering and collating information.
He is currently working on a report for the ALP on the suicide rate in the local area and relating it to programs that have been done in the Dalby and St George areas.
Mr Prickett said coal seam gas mining was another important local issue.
“I am trying to put pressure on the ALP to change its policy on CSG. I’m not against CSG as such, I just don’t want it in agricultural areas,” he said.
He was concerned that much of the South Burnett had not been deemed prime agricultural land by the State Government which could leave it open to future exploitation by CSG miners.
“I think it is an issue that will be coming in here,” he said. “We already have tenements through much of the area.
“My major concern is not with the chemicals they use. My concern is with the aquifer. What will farmers do if they can no longer pump water from the aquifer?
“I am happy to work with any parties about CSG – The Greens, Katter’s Australian Party or Palmer United.
“Just because you’re in Labor doesn’t mean you don’t care about agricultural issues.”
Mr Prickett said he hoped that after a while South Burnett residents would get used to the fact that the ALP was back in the region again.
The branch can be contacted via its Facebook page
