February 19, 2016
by Anne Miller
It seems only 540 people in Kingaroy want a new Public Hospital … officially.
In October, Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington launched a Parliamentary e-Petition calling on Health Minister Cameron Dick to commit funds to build a new Kingaroy Public Hospital.
She launched the e-Petition shortly after an unofficial Change.org petition called for the same thing, and shortly after Mr Dick said that Kingaroy had a “strong” public hospital.
“The Minister has never visited the Kingaroy Hospital and certainly doesn’t understand the desperate need for a brand new Public Hospital in Kingaroy,” she said.
Mrs Frecklington also said at the time that the strength of the e-Petition was that Mr Dick had to provide a response within a month of it being tabled.
However, the State Government has no legal requirement to even consider the Change.org petition
There is another important difference: the e-Petition collects the names and addresses of the people who sign, and there are penalties if people provide incorrect information; the Change.org petition has no such penalties and people can sign multiple times simply by supplying different names and email addresses.
On Tuesday, the Clerk of the Parliament presented the e-Petition. It attracted just 393 signatures.
A paper version of the petition, also presented by the Clerk, contained 147 signatures.
At the time of writing, the Change.org petition, which can be ignored by the State Government, had 839 signatures.
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Other petitions affecting issues in the South Burnett were presented to State Parliament during this week.
Mrs Frecklington also tabled three petitions in relation to proposed changes to the Queensland tick line.
A petition, signed by 203 petitioners, requested that the zone in the Coolabunia-Malar region be tick free and the tick line not be moved.
Informal petitions regarding the tick line in Coolabunia and in the Yarraman/Cooyar area were also tabled.
