August 6, 2014
The newly formed South Burnett Residents Action Group (self-styled “S-BRAG”) held a public meeting at Wondai RSL on Tuesday night to explain its aims and objectives to the public.
Tingoora resident Don Pinwill, who introduced himself as the chairman of S-BRAG’s Management Committee, opened proceedings shortly after 7:30pm, saying he was pleased to see such a good attendance and also pleased to see two South Burnett regional councillors in the audience: Cr Ros Heit and Cr Kathy Duff.
He said the purpose of the night’s meeting was not to discuss any specific issues, problems or ideas.
Instead, it was to set out the group’s aims and objectives so the 60 people attending could decide if they wanted to join S-BRAG or not.
Mr Pinwill said before he did this, he wanted to make it clear he had twice been a candidate in South Burnett Regional Council elections, and had failed to be elected on both occasions.
He rejected any allegation he was involved in S-BRAG to raise his political profile, saying he would not be running as a local government candidate again.
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Mr Pinwill said S-BRAG was designed to be an organisation that represented residents, and membership was open to any South Burnett ratepayer or resident.
However, sitting councillors or Council directors could not be members because of “conflict of interest” issues.
He said the new organisation had been specifically designed to be “non-confrontational” and had rejected the idea of calling itself a “ratepayers association” because the name had “negative connotations”.
Mr Pinwill said that since the 2008 council amalgamations there had been unrest and an “us and them” attitude between some residents and councillors.
He said if residents of the area wanted better outcomes, they needed to become more involved and S-BRAG hoped to offer a way to do this.
Mr Pinwill said a small group of people – the Foundation Committee – had created S-BRAG and recently incorporated the group as a not-for-profit association.
There were seven members on this committee which included Mr Pinwill, secretary/treasurer Terry Gordon and his wife; Windera residents Ralph and Deb Percy and Mr Victor Jackson from the National Civic Council.
The organisation’s aim, he said, was to create a platform that would enable the community to voice their concerns about issues that had a wide impact, and assist council to achieve better local government in terms of services, rates and so forth.
“This is true grass-roots democracy,” he said.
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Mr Pinwill said the group had adopted the Model Constitution but had made some changes to it to ensure S-BRAG would “function effectively”.
One of these was that in order for the organisation to take action on any particular issue, S-BRAG’s Constitition specified the issue had to have the support of two-thirds of the group’s membership.
Where there was not a clear majority vote on any particular matter, then the organisation’s role was to act as an informal facilitator between the community and other parties.
Mr Pinwill said the group had only recently started up but it hoped to form sub-branches in South Burnett towns. Each sub-branch would then elect delegates to attend meetings of the group’s central Management Committee.
The Management Committee itself would be composed of the original foundation members, who would be in charge of the group’s membership register; auditing and finances; newsletter and web page.
S-BRAG sub-branch members would not vote for any of the Management Committee members – only their sub-branch executives.
Mr Pinwill did not elaborate on how residents could join the group’s central Management Committee, or who belonged to it apart from the six foundation members he named.
Membership fees had yet to be decided because the final size of the organisation was as yet unknown, Mr Pinwill said.
But since the group expected it would need a budget of around $2000 a year to run effectively, initial membership fees were likely to be $20 per adult or $25 per couple.
However, he stressed this was likely to be lowered if membership numbers made it possible to do so.
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Mr Pinwill then went on to explain some examples of where an organisation like S-BRAG might be useful.
- There was no mobile phone coverage in Tingoora, he said, and a petition had been taken up by some members and forwarded to Telstra on the matter
- Some residents in the Proston area had water issues, and a group like S-BRAG might be able to assist with this
- In the last Council by-election, Mr Pinwill said he had not met one person who knew all the eight candidates, which meant many residents were voting “in the dark”; S-BRAG could organise a “Candidate’s Night” in such situations
Mr Pinwill said there was not much more to say except that S-BRAG wouldn’t work unless it got a good, solid membership base.
“In the world of today we’re all pushed and struggling,” he said.
“If we’re going to survive we have to get our act together.”
Mr Pinwill said South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann was on record as saying he would consult with residents, so he was hopeful that both the Mayor and Councillors would be onside with the group’s aims.
He also hoped the Council would “grab this with both hands”, and thought if the Council seriously wanted community consultation they should be promoting SBRAG membership.
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Mr Pinwill then introduced fellow Management Committee member Ralph Percy, who is in charge of the group’s newsletter – the Burnett Free Press – and website.
Mr Percy said S-BRAG had called their newsletter “Free Press” because there was “too much political control of media” in the region.
And while the internet was a useful way to distribute information, the group thought few people used it, so they had decided S-BRAG would print a newspaper as well.
“We will print the facts other media won’t publish,” Mr Percy told the meeting, before going on to explain that due to technical issues the first edition of the newsletter had only a limited print run.
The second would not come out for a few weeks until broken parts of his printing press had been replaced.
Mr Percy said the Burnett Free Press would “give S-BRAG a voice” and said he thought the group would not get a voice in traditional media.
“We print what we get from people … what is the truth,” Mr Percy said.
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The meeting was then thrown open to the audience for a question and answer session.
Cr Kathy Duff thanked the group for the opportunity to come along, and agreed it was difficult to get to hear “the voice of the people”.
After amalgamation, she said, the South Burnett Regional Council had run public forums in every town to explore local concerns, “but very few people wanted to come out”. As a result, she and other Councillors now attend as many group meetings as possible to gather feedback on public concerns, so she was broadly supportive of what S-BRAG was trying to do.
Wondai businessman Chris Kennedy said he also broadly supported the idea of having a forum for community concerns but said he had read “Ralph’s mudslinging on his site and part of his paper” and didn’t want to see the group continue along this line.
Other people questioned why the meeting was so poorly promoted and why the group’s newsletter wasn’t distributed in local shops.
Mr Pinwill said the group needed volunteers to distribute its material, and Mr Percy said his experience was that if the newsletter was distributed in local shops, copies quickly disappeared into garbage cans because “some people don’t like it”.
In response to another questioner who asked where Mr Percy got his facts from and how he could be sure they were accurate, Mr Percy said they came from government web sites.
But when Cr Ros Heit invited anyone who had concerns about any of the material published by Mr Percy to contact herself or any other Councillor to receive official information, Mr Percy objected.
“It’s government files and accurate – are you an expert?”
The meeting wound up soon afterwards about 8:30pm.
Footnote: The first edition of Burnett Free Press carries a disclaimer on Page 5 which states, amongst other things, that “the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information is not guaranteed”.
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[UPDATED with correction. An earlier version of this report stated that Mt McEuen resident Bill Christian, publisher of the Burnett Free Press, was also on the S-BRAG management committee. Mr Pinwill did not name the seventh member of the committee.]
