A Win For Common Sense

April 3, 2016

by Dafyd Martindale

The recent local government elections on March 19 appear to have been a win for common sense.

Not only in the South Burnett, but everywhere else locally as well.

While the counting that began after the polls dragged on interminably, enough votes were counted by returning officers on the first night to provide a fairly clear picture of the outcome.

Mayors Paul Antonio and Mick Curran were both returned by overwhelming margins in Toowoomba and Gympie, respectively.

Arnold Murray took the top job in Cherbourg. And former Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell, who looked set to become the South Burnett’s next Mayor by 8:30pm on polling night, was finally confirmed in the role today after preferences were distributed.

In the South Burnett’s Divisions, Cr Kathy Duff was returned unopposed in Division 5 for the second time in a row.

Roz Frohloff is the new representative for Division 1; Gavin Jones has taken Division 2; Danita Potter, Division 3; and Terry Fleischfresser and Cr Ros Heit have both been confirmed in Divisions 4 and 6.

This means the South Burnett will be led by an experienced Mayor and will have three other Councillors aboard – Kathy Duff, Ros Heit and Terry Fleischfresser – with previous local government experience.

Their depth of knowledge will no doubt be of great assistance to first-time Councillors Roz Frohloff, Gavin Jones and Danita Potter as they begin the long learning curve involved with settling into their new jobs.

It should also help ensure continuity and a smooth transition from the old Council to the new.

We think that’s a very big win for all our region’s residents because nothing can upset the applecart as quickly – or cause as much pain in the hip pocket – as a badly run Council.

* * *

But if Saturday’s elections were a win for common sense and a vote for the status quo, they were also a spectacularly embarrassing loss for one particular group in our region.

The South Burnett Residents Action Group – along with their spin-offs South Burnett Council Watch, the South Burnett Free Press and Nanango & Districts SBRAG – saw all their candidates and fellow-travellers comprehensively rejected at the ballot box.

While none of SBRAG’s candidates had the courage to openly fly their group’s flag during the election campaign, it seems most residents were awake to them.

Each one received the drubbing at the ballot box they deserved – in our opinion, anyway.

One Mayoral candidate, in fact, was so completely rejected he managed to be beaten by informal votes and was the only local candidate to forfeit his $250 nomination deposit.

This is probably the most humiliating defeat ever seen in a local election.

SBRAG should be perfectly clear on this: their two-year campaign of attempting to whip up hatred and division in our communities failed on March 19.

It failed comprehensively and spectacularly.

Instead of the “new faces and new ideas” they championed, this nasty little group saw many thousands of hours of their work – and many thousands of dollars spent printing and distributing shameful leaflets and newsletters – go up in smoke.

They also saw what few shards of credibility they may have retained with their most die-hard followers blown to smithereens.

Voters turned their backs en masse to the lies and smears that have hallmarked SBRAG’s two years of disgraceful behavior, and opted for honesty and decency instead.

That, too, is a victory for common sense.

* * *

One final thing this election showed is that the procedures currently being used by the Electoral Commission Of Queensland need a root and branch overhaul.

It is unacceptable that Queenslanders needed to wait more than two weeks for election results to be declared.

There is clearly something wrong with any system that turns in this sort of Third World result.

In the South Burnett, the delay in declaring the March 19 election has already lead to the postponement of an induction course for new Councillors; and it threatened to lead to a postponement of the new Council’s first meeting.

As former Mayor Wayne Kratzmann pointed out last week, we would not accept this sort of delay in a State or Federal election.

We should not be expected to accept this in a local government election, either.

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