{"id":361922,"date":"2025-06-24T21:18:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T11:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=361922"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T11:28:32","slug":"majority-backs-new-airport-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority Backs New Airport Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Emergency services aircraft would be exempt from the new landing charges at Kingaroy Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 24, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strong lobbying by airport users – and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff – has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.<\/p>\n

Mayor Duff argued the imposition of landing fees would deter usage of the airport, which is what she believed had happened at Gympie Airport.<\/p>\n

However, other councillors argued that the airport was costing Council money, and airport users had been consulted while the new charges were being drafted.<\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor Jane Erkens said she believed that users who could “well afford” to own or operate aircraft should not be subsidised by South Burnett ratepayers.<\/p>\n

“I like to use the Council pool and I have to pay my entry to the pool,” Cr Erkens said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think it’s a huge amount and user pays. I think they’ve had a fair run with no fees.”<\/p>\n

Cr Ros Heit said people who were struggling to pay their rates were subsidising airport users, most of whom do not live locally.<\/p>\n

The new fees will take effect from September 1 this year.<\/p>\n

Gliders would be charged $5.50 per landing, and general aviation aircraft $13.20 per tonne of maximum take-off weight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Training “tap-and-go” flights would be $13.20 for an unlimited number of landings.<\/p>\n

The Royal Flying Doctor Service, LifeFlight and other emergency services, would be exempt from the charges.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The motion to approve the fees and charges was passed 6-1, with Mayor Duff voting against it.<\/p>\n

As well, CEO Mark Pitt was authorised to finalise an agreement with the Kingaroy Soaring Club for an annual airport usage permit of $2440 (including GST).<\/p>\n

A delegation of airport users expressed their anger at the proposed changes at the Kingaroy community meeting held in May which had been organised to discuss Council’s 2025-30 Corporate Plan and Draft Community Plans.<\/p>\n

A series of speakers took to the floor during the meeting in the Kingaroy Town Hall Reception Room to argue vehemently against the proposals.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mayor Kathy Duff has warned that the upcoming Council Budget was going to be “challenging” because of the recent land valuations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She said Council’s focus was on delivering a responsible Budget.<\/p>\n

“The valuations have not been consistent in the categories as we had hoped,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There are large variations across most of the categories. Some valuations have increased by 50 per cent and some up by 150 per cent.<\/p>\n

“There is no way with what has happened that we can stop some rates going up and some rates going down.<\/p>\n

“We will adopt a ‘rate-in-the-dollar’ but there will still be large variances across the categories.<\/p>\n

“We are using three-year averaging and also considering capping.<\/p>\n

“All these things are being looked at as we navigate the process if keeping rates as affordable as possible.”<\/p>\n

Mayor Duff was speaking during her monthly councillor update at the June meeting.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Councillors approved the 18 draft Community Plans which have been developed by Council staff following the public consultations held around the region in April and May.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will now be a second stage of community consultation with a report to be presented to the August Council meeting for consideration.<\/p>\n

The draft reports – which cover Blackbutt and Benarkin, Bunya Mountains, Coolabunia, Crawford, Durong, Hivesville, Kingaroy, Kumbia, Maidenwell, Memerambi, Moffatdale, Murgon, Nanango, Proston, Tingoora, Wondai, Wooroolin and Other Localities – aim to capture as much as possible of the community feedback and input.<\/p>\n

They will now be refined before the final drafts of the plans are prepared for the August meeting.<\/p>\n

These first drafts can be viewed in the Agenda<\/b><\/a> (667kb PDF) of the June meeting (pp132-204)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 2026 Ekka Show Holiday will be held in the South Burnett on Monday, August 10, 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Council has agreed to lease a portion of Sunstrup Park in Wondai to the Wondai & District Men\u2019s Shed for 10 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Council CEO Mark Pitt has been delegated to negotiate, finalise and execute the lease.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The “Hivesville Amnesty” project – developed by Council as an incentive for Hivesville residents to get their buildings up to legal minimum standards – was discussed behind closed doors at the June meeting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The amnesty to work out an arrangement with Council, which followed complaints from other Hivesville residents about health and safety issues in the town, was approved at a Council meeting in March last year and began on July 1. Residents had until December 20 to contact Council.<\/p>\n

After the confidential discussion, Councillors voted in the open meeting to refuse to waive any building or plumbing fees.<\/p>\n

The CEO would progress building and plumbing applications “on approval of a suitable payment plan where applicable”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strong lobbying by airport users has failed to stop the SBRC from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":243601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[1131],"yoast_head":"\nMajority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Majority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-24T11:18:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-24T11:28:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190908bomber.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/\",\"name\":\"Majority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-24T11:18:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-24T11:28:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Majority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au","description":"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Majority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2025-06-24T11:18:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-24T11:28:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":385,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/20190908bomber.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/","name":"Majority Backs New Airport Fees - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-24T11:18:01+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-24T11:28:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"Strong lobbying by airport users - and opposition from Mayor Kathy Duff - has failed to stop the South Burnett Regional Council from imposing new landing fees at Kingaroy Airport.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/24\/majority-backs-new-airport-fees\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361922"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361968,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361922\/revisions\/361968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}