{"id":84162,"date":"2014-10-09T01:04:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T15:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=84162"},"modified":"2020-06-30T20:49:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T10:49:58","slug":"s-brag-woos-nanango-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/10\/09\/s-brag-woos-nanango-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"S-BRAG Woos Nanango Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Don<\/a>
S-BRAG Chairman Don Pinwill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

October 8, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Nanango branch of the South Burnett Residents Action Group (S-BRAG) looks set to be formed after a public meeting was held in Nanango on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The group set up a Wondai branch in August and called the Nanango meeting to assess local interest in the concept.<\/p>\n

The meeting, at the Nanango Darts Club,\u00a0was attended by S-BRAG chairman Don Pinwill, who chaired the night, secretary Terry Gordon and about 30 members of the public.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill outlined the group’s aims and objectives, structure and rules, and then took questions from the floor.<\/p>\n

He said the purpose of S-BRAG was to offer a platform for South Burnett communities to voice ideas and concerns about broad issues that affected them.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill said the forced council amalgamations in 2008 had changed the region from being one composed of small shires, each with their own major centre, to a much bigger Shire with a single regional centre surrounded by smaller towns.<\/p>\n

He said this had “changed the dynamics” of the system and both residents and Council had yet to fully adjust to this.<\/p>\n

The consequence was that there were now far fewer councillors covering much wider geographic areas than previously.<\/p>\n

This carried the risk they could lose touch with grass-roots issues, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill saw S-BRAG’s role as improving communication as well as acting as a “scrutineer” of Council decisions.<\/p>\n

“We tend to elect and forget,” he said.<\/p>\n

One result was that no one scrutinised Council decisions or looked at the outcomes of Council programs.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill said this would be a natural role for the group.<\/p>\n

He said S-BRAG had been started by seven people who now made up the management committee; these would face election at the group’s Annual General Meeting and all branch members would be entitled to a vote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serving Councillors and Council Directors are ineligible to become members of the group and any S-BRAG member who wished to run for election would be required to resign from the group.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Pinwill said, this didn’t mean S-BRAG held any animosity towards the Council.<\/p>\n

He said two Councillors who had attended the Wondai meeting in August had been supportive of the concept.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill said S-BRAG hoped to put up a website soon and also distribute a printed newsletter.<\/p>\n

In the question and answer session that followed his presentation, Mr Pinwill said no one from his group had yet held any discussions with the Council or individual Councillors.<\/p>\n

This was because S-BRAG was new and was still discovering what issues were most important to its members.<\/p>\n

But, he added, the group had recently asked its Wondai members to nominate the five top local government issues they faced from 12 possible topics.<\/p>\n

From this, he said, more than three-quarters of members who completed the survey had nominated rates “as one of their top three issues”.<\/p>\n

Mr Pinwill then handed out a three-page report prepared by S-BRAG which, he said, proved South Burnett rates were 15-20 per cent higher than neighbouring shires.<\/p>\n

He invited those present to take a copy of the report home and challenged southburnett.com.au<\/strong> to print it.<\/p>\n