(Photo: SBRC)
January 13, 2016
A proposal to adopt a South Burnett Regional Tourism Strategy was laid on the table at Wednesday’s Council meeting after Cr Kathy Duff called for the matter to be given more consideration.
The strategy paper, prepared by economic advisory group South Burnett Directions, would guide the SBRC’s actions for the next three years.
It proposes, amongst other things, the Council continue its involvement with Southern Queensland Country regional tourism board, Tourism and Events Queensland and highway promotional organisations such as Country Way.
Cr Duff said she had received “a lot of negative feedback” about the strategy paper, and thought it needed more work and should be put through a public consultation process before it was adopted.
She moved a motion the report be laid on the table until this had occurred.
Cr Barry Green said he also had some concerns about the strategy.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said he was happy to conduct a workshop on the proposal, and suggested the report lay on the table until Council’s next meeting on February 3.
But Cr Duff disagreed.
“Shouldn’t this really be something the next Council decides on?” she asked
Cr Barry Green said he disagreed with this.
“We’re the Council right now. But if the next Council don’t like it, they can toss it out.”
Cr Keith Campbell said he thought the strategy was very good but agreed with Cr Green.
“Personally, I’d like to see more work on the key performance indicators,” Cr Campbell said.
“But this is only a strategy document.”
Cr Damien Tessmann said he believed tourism would be “a big thing” for the next Council to deal with, but agreed there would be nothing to stop the incoming Council overturning the strategy if they thought it was misguided.
Because of this, he was inclined to agree with Cr Duff the matter be left on the table for the succeeding Council.
But he was willing to be guided by what the majority of his fellow Councillors thought.
In the end, Councillors voted to leave the report on the table until the February 3 meeting.
