March 13, 2023
SBRC Councillors voted at a Special Meeting on Monday to defer any further discussions on moving from a divided to an undivided Council until after the next Council elections in March 2024.
They also voted that any proposed change could only occur if it came after a comprehensive community consultation process showed that the change was wanted by the majority of the region’s residents.
The decision means that if an undivided system were introduced, the earliest this could occur would be the 2028 Council elections.
At present, the South Burnett has six Divisions. All residents vote for the Mayor and one divisional Councillor.
But under an undivided system, residents would vote for the Mayor and all six Councillors.
The decision to defer any further consideration of the issue came after Councillors received a report from CEO Mark Pitt PSM.
Mr Pitt told the meeting he had been advised by the State Government that any submission seeking a change to the current system was likely to take at least two years.
Councillors said if this were the case it would be inappropriate for them to progress the topic any further, given that they were in the final year of their term.
Instead, this was a question an incoming 2024 Council could look at if it wished to do so.
The motion to leave the question up to the 2024 Council was carried unanimously.
- Related article: Council To Discuss Divisions
Watching the debate on this issue was a complete embarrassment to the South Burnett. I had no idea there was so much division and pettiness amongst all Councillors. Throw the lot out and start afresh. Please!
I was speaking to a Council worker yesterday and happened to mention that of late I had noticed some tension among the Councillors (more than usual). Their response was that the general public don’t know the half of it and (it) is much worse than we realise. Perhaps the Councillors should look at some team building or professional group development?
Have a listen to the SBRC link to this meeting.
It looks like this public meeting was purposely run with the intent to publicly humiliate a female councillor who dared to raise a motion for this issue to be on the table for discussion. The tone taken in the Chamber against our female representatives is appalling and needs to stop. I wonder if there are more instances of this happening or do they just move on? International Women’s Day was only last week.
I certainly hope the mayor does not talk to everyone like this, or maybe this is the standard for female councillors?
Roger C., I too have heard that the back-stabbing and in-fighting is worse behind closed doors from all of them. I think it’s too late for team building. Please everyone, vote them out.
Daphne, please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Ask ourselves, who deliberately doctored council expenditure figures to include separate business units to make Kingaroy look overdone. Who shared those figures and knew or should have known they were not correct. What was their motive?
Who in council when figures were presented immediately expressed reservation as to their accuracy. Who has been the finance portfolio holder for three years and would or should know the figures inside out.
So much is coming out about our team leader.
Strange former councillor Frohloff made reference to our leader’s lack of referencing local councillors. Now Cr Erkens references grandstanding and queue-jumping.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the situation has been festering since day one.
The result for the election of Deputy Mayor has never been accepted in certain corners. I have been told an independent mediator was brought in early in the council term.
The Mayor’s manner of talking to other councillors needs to change.
Perhaps he should try taking them for lunch on meeting days as a first step to unity.
After having read the above comments, I would just like to defend our mayor by saying a few good, true and complimentary things about him. Things which the general public, understandably, would not be aware of.
I have known (and worked in a voluntary capacity with) Mayor Brett Otto for just over three years and he has always treated me with the utmost respect and consideration. Also, he has always listened intently to every resident he has encountered and treated them in the same manner.
I have got to know Brett Otto and believe him to be a good, caring, family man who genuinely cares for the communities in which he serves.
I certainly don’t need to express my views but I would like people to try and understand and appreciate what Mayor Brett Otto does for the South Burnett region.
I am one of the female Councillors and I believe there is a serious lack of respect for the position of the Mayor.
Please watch the livestream at the end of the special Council Meeting and the actions of one of the female Councillors shutting the Mayor down, so you can see what he is dealing with.
Please attend the meetings or listen to the livestreams or attend one of his catch-ups so that you can see firsthand that he is a decent, caring, hard-working, humble person simply batting for better outcomes for our community.
Please note these are my personal views only.
Link to the Special Meeting: https://youtu.be/_rtb0pK98K0
Maybe good will come out of all of this. Let us hope so.
I would hope that from that meeting, councillors can look back, cast a critical eye over their respective conduct and work on how they can move forward and think about what they can do differently.
There are some serious accusations in some of the previous comments and these are pretty vicious and unhelpful.
The courage and strength of the councillor who moved the procedural motion to bring to a halt the intended public humiliation and intimidation of a woman councillor showed real leadership in action.
The discussion about how the region’s governance is best formed in the coming years is a question every elector has a democratic right to ask, or provide a response to. Hardly a question to be afraid if progressing the South Burnett is the outcome wanted by the leader.
In my view, the councillor drew a line for women and raised the bar for men, especially men entrusted with a responsible position as to whether they are actually a safe set of hands.
I commend the Mayor for calling this meeting to hopefully put residents and ratepayers minds at rest. He said he was blindsided by the original motion – I wonder if other councillors were also blindsided or were they in on it?
The original motion being put forward 3 words at a time was laughable and shows total disrespect for the council and its processes. The mover could have read the motion normally and then passed it to the minute taker to ensure the wording was correct.
As I watched this special meeting it was very interesting to see a councillor attempt, several times, to falsify the original motion as in the minutes and basically refuse to admit the mistake. The tension in this council was really on show here with the Mayor having no choice but to attempt to correct the error as per the minutes. It’s not a good look when a councillor refuses to acknowledge a mistake.
I see some responders have tried to make the exchanges as male versus female. I believe that is one of those red herrings trying to disrupt the real business. The council came to the only sensible outcome they could and I commend Cr Jones for putting the basis for that motion forward.
This tension in the council chambers has been evident since Day 1 of this council as the elections did not go the way certain sitting councillors had predicted and expected. Some had their noses out of joint because their personal plans were thwarted by the voters. How dare voters express their opinions!