{"id":329833,"date":"2023-03-13T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T05:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=329833"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T09:24:14","slug":"council-defers-division-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/03\/13\/council-defers-division-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Defers Division Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Any decision on changing the South Burnett from a divided to an undivided local government area will need to wait until after the 2024 Council elections (Photo: AEC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 13, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The decision means that if an undivided system were introduced, the earliest this could occur would be the 2028 Council elections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At present, the South Burnett has six Divisions. All residents vote for the Mayor and one divisional Councillor.<\/p>\n

But under an undivided system, residents would vote for the Mayor and all six Councillors.<\/p>\n

The decision to defer any further consideration of the issue came after Councillors received a report from CEO Mark Pitt PSM.<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Instead, this was a question an incoming 2024 Council could look at if it wished to do so.<\/p>\n

The motion to leave the question up to the 2024 Council was carried unanimously.<\/p>\n