July 23, 2014
Local Government Minister David Crisafulli paid a surprise visit to the South Burnett today.
Minister Crisafulli sat in on the South Burnett Regional Council’s monthly general meeting with Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington, then gave an impromptu address to councillors and the public gallery at the invitation of Mayor Wayne Kratzmann.
The Minister said he was taking advantage of a brief break in his ministerial work schedule to visit several councils but said he always particularly enjoyed visiting the South Burnett.
He began his talk by speaking briefly about the challenges of getting the State Budget back to a good footing.
He said he was proud of his government’s move to simplify and streamline flood recovery efforts, and praised Queensland councils for their suggestions on how to improve the system.
The Minister also said he was proud of the State Government’s “Royalties For The Regions” program, and wanted to see it expanded in future.
Reflecting on the recent abolition of the Carbon Tax, the Minister thought it would be hard to quantify the savings that would flow from its removal at a Council level.
But he thought there’d be some savings in electricity and fuel costs, and believed these should be passed on to ratepayers.
The Minister said he thought the South Burnett was ideally poised for growth under the State Government’s “4 Pillar” approach to building the State’s economy, providing Council laid down the necessary infrastructure to support future growth.
Reflecting on his time as Deputy Mayor of Townsville City Council, he said he was surprised recently when he looked at statistics to see that all towns in the Townsville region were growing except his boyhood home town of Ingham.
He said the most likely reason he could think of was that Ingham hadn’t built to support future growth.
He warned that no town or region had the option of “standing still” and if an area wasn’t planning for future growth, then it had to expect decline.
Mr Crisafulli said he supported the State Government’s “Strong Choices” program and believed that if a State-owned asset could be sold or leased to help reduce debt and free up resources to invest in new infrastructure, then this was what needed to be done.
Afterwards, the Mayor had a private meeting with the Minister.
