Southern Cross Party Ltd

Here we go again, the Premier has set himself up as judge and executioner on what is good for the State of Queensland, we now have a dictator running the state, the 'Boy' Minister Andrew Fraser is also showing himself to be rude and arrogant with no regard for the local government act or the wishes of the Queensland people, his attitude is to be of great concern if this is the face of labor politics in the future.

In the small western shires most will not meet the 5000 population requirements, this means that we will need to amalgamate two or three shires to be in the 'new state order', this will further erode the viability of these small western towns.
The closure of some council offices will see about 8 to 12 people lose their jobs in administration, without the loses in the work force as skeleton crews will replace the present workforce, these families will need to move somewhere else for employment taking with them their families, the impact on the business community will be devastating.

Children leaving the town with these families will impact on school numbers affecting student/teacher ratios, so we will lose teachers as well, this will also affect the quality of education as we see more composite classes in the schools.

The idea that shire's need 5000 people to be viable is pure rubbish, how some 'shiny bum government official' can put that up as a reason for amalgation is laughable, population isn't the reason for under performing councils, as much as it is poor council administration and management.

I served as a councillor on the Richmond shire in Western Queensland for nine years with a population of under 2000 I can verify that population is not the deciding factor in running a successful shire, in recent years Richmond shire has been a stand out shire in terms of growth and development, clearly if Richmond can achieve this other small shires can do the same.

Southern Cross Party will not be supporting any change to shire boundaries unless those changes are by mutual consent of the shires involved.