March 29, 2017
The South Burnett has a new LNP branch after the Wondai branch agreed on Tuesday to join with Murgon to form a new Barambah branch that will cover both towns.
The new branch held its first meeting at Murgon RSL on Tuesday night, which was attended by Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington and outgoing Member for Callide Jeff Seeney, who has announced he will be stepping down at the next election after 19 years in office.
Both said they thought it was great to see a new LNP branch in the area.
Jason Kinsella, who was elected branch chairman at the meeting, said Murgon used to have its own branch but membership had steadily fallen away over the years.
However the recent Nanango electorate boundary change, which will see the entire region included in the same electorate for the first time since 1998, had prompted the move.
“We decided to call it the Barambah branch because Barambah Creek is common to both towns,” Jason said.
Deb Frecklington said she was very pleased to see the new branch, which will join existing branches at Hivesville-Proston, Kingaroy and Cooyar.
“It’s really exciting to have an enthusiastic and progressive new branch formed to represent the Wondai/Murgon area,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“It’s also great to see that everyone is very keen to step up support for the next state election, and planning has already started for some events.”
Mrs Frecklington said she was looking forward to working with the new branch.
“I’ve already started visiting businesses in Wondai and Murgon and over the next few months I hope to catch up with more people and get to know the issues in this part of the region,” she said.
Jason said apart from the boundary change, another reason to form the new branch was that he believed Mrs Frecklington was “a genuinely outstanding candidate” who deserved local support.
“The South Burnett shares a common community of interest, and Deb has worked her socks off for our region ever since she was first elected,” Jason said.
“When you have a candidate this good, it doesn’t really matter which side of the political fence they’re on – you have to support them because they’re hard workers who take people’s concerns seriously, and go in to bat for them.
“It just happens she’s on the LNP side.”
The position of branch secretary/treasurer will be filled by Jason’s son Geoffrey.
