September 8, 2016
by Anne Miller
R U Ok? Well, actually no … I am quite disturbed.
It came to our attention today that a social photograph we published recently has caused grief to a hard-working local public servant.
We snapped the photo at an event and depicted this person standing near a politician.
Frankly, this is not at all unusual in the South Burnett where there are councillors, and very often MPs, at many, many events that we cover.
We have a joke in our office that everyone who is anyone eventually comes to the South Burnett to be photographed.
We have lost track of the number of politicians we have met since we moved to a daily news format in 2012.
It is not unusual at all for us to push a group of people together for a “happy snap” at some event. And, sometimes, these groups will include a councillor or MP.
We believe these photos add flavour to our coverage.
While critics only whinge about councillors and MPs “socialising”, the more sensible people in our community realise these politicians are talking to constituents, gathering views … in other words, doing their jobs as our elected representatives.
That is why I was so concerned when I heard today – from different sources – about this incident.
We are unsure if the public servant involved has been officially reprimanded, or rather it’s simply displeasure from above which has rained down.
Either way, it is manifestly unfair.
This person has a “real job”, seeing things and doing things in the course of their working day that no Minister or Departmental pen pusher would ever have the skills or guts to do.
In fact, I believe most MPs would be quickly applying for stress leave if they were put in this role.
So for some George Street johnny to express displeasure because of a photograph is ridiculous, and indicates that someone somewhere has a very thin skin.
And by the way, we were not tipped off to this by the public servant involved … so there is no excuse to toss more brickbats in that direction.
We suggest the people in Brisbane stop getting their knickers in a knot over the trivia of life, and start concentrating on the real issues that affect the South Burnett.
Such as … when are we going to get a new Kingaroy Hospital?
It is the largest non-specialist birthing unit in Queensland, yet there are only two birthing suites.
Women have at times been forced to deliver babies in the general wards, and the toilet facilities for maternity patients are a joke.
Start thinking about these issues, and stop worrying about who stands next to whom in a quick social photograph.
