October 25, 2014
by Deb Frecklington
I’d like to thank southburnett.com.au for offering me the opportunity to write a column for their website.
I’m hoping to use it to provide a bit of a glimpse into my role as the local state member, and also highlight some of the great work being done across our local community.
As many of you may know, I was elected into the position of the State Member for the Electorate of Nanango in March 2012.
This was a great privilege and one which I am very honoured to fulfill on a daily basis.
In fact, this honour has been afforded to only five members before me in the past 100 years. So I am always very conscious of representing the Electorate of Nanango with the same vision and enthusiasm as my predecessors.
So what does daily life as the local member entail?
Well, it can be a juggling act at times, as behind the scenes I’m also a mother of three girls, a wife to my husband Jason (who is also a small business owner) and an active member of several community groups.
This makes life is extremely busy!
On a weekly basis, I generally spend most Mondays and Tuesdays in Brisbane in my role as the Assistant Minister to the Premeir.
During this time, I’m involved in meetings with key Ministers and Department heads.
Lately, I have also been very involved in the preparation for the G20 Summit being held in Brisbane on November 15-16.
I’ve taken on this role with the aim of always grabbing opportunities with the Premier and his Ministerial team to shine a spotlight on our regional areas.
It means I can be in a position to really push the issues which affect us locally, when it really matters.
For the remainder of the week and on the weekends, I can generally be found driving around the Nanango Electorate, which means I could be anywhere in between Esk in the south, Jimna to the east, Wooroolin to the north or Cabarlah, near Toowoomba.
It is a very large electorate, but one which I try to cover on a monthly basis so I can attend as many community events as possible, community meetings and run my mobile office.
Fridays are normally spent in Kingaroy meeting with people at my Electorate office and catching up on my paperwork.
It’s the best day of the week for me as I love to pick my girls up from school on Friday afternoon and spend some time with them.
The other large part of my role are, of course, the Parliamentary Sitting weeks, where all members have their chance to represent their electorate and debate and vote on various pieces of legislation.
Sittings are run over three days, sometimes twice a month, so while I’m away from the Electorate I try to contact as many people as possible by phone or through email.
Thank goodness for technology!
That generally sums up my week: it’s full-on, but I love it and really am very passionate about getting the best outcomes for our region.
As always, I am happy to hear from you about any State Government issues that you’d like me to be aware of.
Just call my office on (07) 4162-1381 or send me an email. Plus, I’m on Facebook, so you can look me up there too, if you prefer.
