Prelude to the 20/20 Summit.

Australia 2020 is an important initiative to harness the best
ideas for building a modern Australia that is ready for the
challenges of the future.
With the complex challenges that Australia is facing, we need to get the best
ideas we can from all Australians - business, experts, community leaders and
everyday Australians.
I know that from travelling around the country that many of the most creative
solutions to our big future challenges are in the minds of Australians whose
voices normally aren’t heard in our national Parliament
The Summit will help us shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future– covering the economy,
education, skills and training, the nation’s infrastructure, our environment, our farmers, health care,
indigenous Australians, the arts, national security, how we improve our system of government, and how
we strengthen our communities and ensure nobody is left out of Australia’s future.
I urge you to take the time and participate in the Forde 2020 Summit.

BRETT RAGUSE MP Federal Member for Forde
presents the Forde 2020 Summit

North Tamborine
Vonda Youngman Community Centre
Tuesday 1 April 2008
10 am- 12pm

Beenleigh
Beenleigh Community Centre
Thursday 3 April 2008
6:30pm- 8:30pm

Beaudesert
The Centre, Beaudesert
Friday 4 April 2008
6:30pm- 8:30pm

Numbers are limited, please register for only one session and advise of policy
interest.
RSVP: 5pm, Friday 28th March 2008
Email: annette.curry@aph.gov.au
PH: 3807 6340 or 1300 301 916 (Cost of local call for regional areas)
Mail: PO Box 1414 Beenleigh QLD 4207

Who's telling Porky's?

This story was given to me by a candidate at the recent Logan Council elections, it is of interest because I have been against the way the amalgamations were done and the outcomes which put some very different areas together with an obvious agenda and left some shires in an interesting position considering the adage that the whole deal was about stronger (read financially) Councils.

Here is a story from the Gold Coast Bulletin ;

Hundreds tear up ballots in protest

Leah Fineran
17Mar08

LOCAL government stalwart Ray Hackwood watched in horror on election day as hundreds of Beenleigh locals tore up ballot papers in an angry protest at the contentious State Government boundary changes.
LOCAL government stalwart Ray Hackwood watched in horror on election day as hundreds of Beenleigh locals tore up ballot papers in an angry protest at the contentious State Government boundary changes.
Almost 700 informal votes were recorded in the suburbs of Beenleigh and Eagleby, which were excised from the Gold Coast into Logan City as part of the council realignments.
The former Gold Coast Division 1 officially became Logan City's new Division 12 on Saturday, but Cr Hackwood said residents' actions showed they were still angry about not being given a say in the change by the State Government.
Cr Hackwood said he watched voters at all six Division 12 polling booths tear up and dump their ballot papers without voting on Saturday.
What I saw were people registering so they wouldn't be fined, then taking their ballot papers outside and throwing them in the bin," he said.
The numbers clearly show that people are still upset and angry over this decision."
The informal voting trend cost Cr Hackwood his usual 80 per cent win, but he still romped home with almost 50 per cent of the vote against opponents Jennie Breene and Peter Eather.
The statistics show the former Gold Coast and Albert Shire councillor still has the people's vote despite the area's third council shuffle in 14 years.
The northern suburbs were under Albert Shire Council until 1994, when they were resumed by the Gold Coast City Council before being excised to Logan City Council.
Cr Hackwood said the backlash had marred victory but he was optimistic that Beenleigh and surrounding suburbs would receive better treatment under the larger Logan City Council.

OK so, on contacting the returning officer to find out that no significant number of ballots were short compared to those crossed off the roll, this candidate wondered why the news paper hadn't checked before putting out an obviously untrue story, and on hearing the story i did too.

Now I know candidates try to gee up the public before elections and are prone to putting out stories to try to form perception in the minds of the public that the candidate is on their side and the others will make life difficult etc. but this story was after the election and was plainly made up.

I have advised the candidate to contact the editor or reporter to get their side of the story, and hopefully I will be able to add that here if there is an answer of any kind.

In the meantime what can the ratepayers of Division and Logan in general expect from someone who has told reporters a story that has no credibility and no facts to back it up? Very little I'd expect.

NEW TITLE

Since the amalgamations are now set in stone, and the North of the Beaudesert Sire has barely whimpered (thanks to our pathetic, complicit, gormless Councillors) into becoming a part of Logan Council, effectively now giving it the numbers to actually go with its full name "Logan City"

I still believe that most people don't want to be a part of Logan and DO want to retain their own identity with in that enforced conjoining of two very different areas with only one thing in common, Logan's desire for more and more development and North Beaudesert's large areas of rural and rural residential land.

Logan have steadfastly refused to consider a name change and now that they actually do include the Logan River within their boundary I suppose they have at least that in favour.

I was considering some options for naming our area to differentiate it from the area we all know by reputation as Logan that might be acceptable to both us and them and I'm not even considering those early (very funny though) attempts, Beau'gan or Bogan! BUT we will have to face the fact that Beaudesert is gone and we WILL be called LOGAN in some form or other.

Here are some suggested names for our part of a new Council authority;

• LOGAN SOUTH
• LOGAN RIVER AREA
• LOGAN COUNTRY
• UPPER LOGAN
• RURAL LOGAN
• GREATER LOGAN
• COUNTRY LOGAN
• SOUTHERN LOGAN

There's some food for thought to get you started, of course feel free to make suggestions and your opinions known.

As you all know I vehemently detest being forced to accept this change with out having the say of the majority and to all the Labor sympathisers who say the non turn out at the plebiscite showed support for it, wrong! it showed that the millions of tax payer dollars in advertising saying you can't stop it happening made people even more apathetic than they already were, and I'm over those gloating type of comments.

EARTH HOUR

IS IT JUST A WASTE OF TIME ?

In Queensland, Australia, the State Government is so heavily influenced (financially) by large Overseas Developers that growth of high density urban (bungalow style house on minimum size allotments) is becoming the only allowably type of development in the the South East region and in fact across the whole State.

That means that for every watt of power we save there will be a new (or several new) users added to use it up and even more, and that goes without saying for water too.

The South East Queensland Area is at the point of a development frenzy which will be pushing into the traditionally rural and rural residential areas which will push our population levels to way beyond the sustainable limit for our whole State let alone this one region of it.

So I'm not going to even bother with the whole process of turning everything off, waiting for an hour and then turning everything back on and resetting the clocks and listening to all the help cries from all the appliances while I'm doing it.

I know there will be an outcry from all the caring people who say every little bit counts, and they are right in a way but in the long term it's just games to see how much people are willing to do without, like the water restrictions, whilst those in Government make decisions that place our resources under even more pressure and increase use at greater and greater levels.

ULDA - New Powers, NO watchdog.

The Urban Land Development Authority has been set up by the State Government of Queensland to address issues of housing affordability, differences in Council planning schemes, the time factor in preparing Development Applications and having them approved and provision of infrastructure and the costs associated with it.

I have previously posted about this ULDA and what I believe it is and its intended purpose in the future and recent changes to give the ULDA more powers seem to give weight to the fact that after public land stock diminishes, the Authority will begin to look for private land.

What is a problem here is that there is no higher body looking on to the activities of the ULDA, no right of appeal to their decisions and the ULDA and Developers they nominate with have the power to write their own by-laws, open and close roads, levy their own rates and even enter buildings without a warrant ; and noone has the right to say no to any of it.

I have looked into some of the latest project home areas and I am at a loss to believe that they do actually constitute affordable housing, with basic homes calling for repayments of over $500 a week and typical family homes going from mid Three hundre to over Five hundred Thousand Dollars on minimum size allotments.

The additional power to levy rates gives the UDLA the opportunity to make new residents "pay off" infrastructure provision perhaps over 20 years, making the claim that it will reduce upfront costs.

In an era where we are seeing caravan park style "over 50's" accomidation becoming popular with pricess well over 200 thousand dollars on strata title, it seems incredible that there is an absurd notion that house and land packages can be affordable just by making it all happen quicker.

This is definately one to watch!

Logan Village Master Plan

A click on the word will take you to the Flyer that now is the official version after some confusion as to which was correct when several different ones were being given out to people in Logan Village, according to a reliable source.

The plan itself is being rushed through its consultation period with the only information session for the public held outside a shop in the centre a week into the comment submission period which is also questionable due to it being held over the Christmas break and the last day being the 4th January 2008.

I have to say the stories coming out of Logan Village of late are disturbing and there are many more serious allegations which I don't have background information to back up so I'm certainly not publishing them, but let me outline this one as it has been told to me.

It seems the OUM left the planning process in the urban footprint of Logan Village to Council and I assume that money was budgeted for the purpose but the work may not have been done until now, and given that after January 8th 2008 Council has no ability to make major planning decisions due to the impending amalgamation, it needs to be finalised before then and hence the big rush is on.

Council has used 'Tract Consultants', a town planning firm, for other projects including the recent Logan Village Green upgrade that also didn't consult with the community except for a select group before being given the green light, so it was easy to get them to quickly put something together, and it seems that is exactly what they did with ideas and images put forward in the proposal that come from all over Australia and date back more than ten years and are hardly relevant to the quiet rural amenity of the area under question.

Information from community members and business owners in Logan Village is that until a letter to the Editor of the local Paper alerted them they hadn't heard of the concept and a letter to them looking like an information circular was written and sent days after a letter of complaint was received by Council and yet gave no response or answer to it leading one to believe that if there was no letter in the paper the Plan could have been snuck through.

An information session was held then, another week later, and attended by Councillors and officers who tried to explain to locals about the plan and how it wouldn't affect zoning and how the Master Plan was in fact only policy underlying the town plan which would have no effect on property values and wouldn't change the character of the Village until such time as it was implemented and that it was done at the request of Logan City so that the would have it locked in before the Transition was complete. You believe all that ?

So the question is why does Logan Village need a Master Plan for development unless there is going to be some? and if there is development, where is the water and sewerage coming from? and Who gave the consultants the briefing on Logan Village to get it so wrong anyway?

Unowho

Scenic Rim Community Briefing

The Transition between Beaudesert and Boonah Shire Councils continues to happen and at this stage it appears there will be some community information available. As a sceptic, I suspect it will be an opportunity for the mayors to put their case for re-election out due the the good job they are doing dismantling our shire .

It does puzzle me to see the recent action by a group from the south, which will be in the Scenic Rim Council now making a lot of noise about moving the BSC/Logan boundary further north now that it has become apparent how weak, financially, the new Council will probably be for quite some time even if the go is given for that State Development Area along the Logan River, and it prompts the question; where were you all when the first group organised petitions to ask the AEC to hold a referendum to determine if our shire wanted the mergers or not?

It seems that the Mayor is also backing the new group and even thought her Council eventually capitulated and asked for the Plebiscite to be run on their behalf (rather than a community group) I feel the motive is more about increasing the rate base than doing the right thing for residents of the North who will be in Logan on March 16 Next year.

Any way, you can hear for yourself according to a notice in last week's Beaudesert Times about a community briefing to be held about the new Scenic Rim council -

7pm Wednesday 12 December
The Centre, 82 Brisbane St, Beaudesert

10 am Saturday 15 December
Boonah District Cultural Centre, 3 High St Boonah

Guest speakers will include - Joy Drescher, John Brent (Boonah Mayor), Mr Ian Flint (Interim CEO Scenic Rim Council).

Armistice Day --- Logan Village Lions Attack the Church

In what appears to be a most disrespectful act on Remembrance day, November 11th, the congregation arrived at the Logan Village Church to find the locks removed from the church, padlocks cut away from the container and outbuilding, it seems by the Logan village Lions, and in a further attack a new eviction letter from their Lawyers and an unsigned hand written threat was gutlessly taped to the front door of that Church, assumedly also by a member of the Lions.

The Legal letter states that there has been a Building Hire agreement dated October 1st 2006 , as yet the lions have failed to provide an original , unaltered document to base this on, let alone a "Clause 20" of the agreement under which the Lions claim the right to terminate said agreement.

The legal letter also states that the Church have to right to access the property until Friday 23rd November, but the Hand written accompaniment states that all rights to access, are terminated after services , at midday 11th November , and that any further access will be considered Trespass on the Lions Property.

It leaves an observer to wonder why, since the Lions have acquired a property and a community Hall for free, basically taken a community property for themselves with an outstanding debt remaining unpaid, and the Lions also accepted money from the Property Trust that was greater than that debt, and refuse to pay it, and now it seems the greed of the Logan Village Lions has expanded to now want the Church out, and to keep the Church, and all the other items owned by the Church that are there.



There is fear amongst the community that the St. Andrews Church and the Logan Village Community Hall are to be Bulldozed for Development.

St Andrews, Logan Village, under attack.

Recent comments in another blog by someone who knows more than they are letting on provoked me to put some of the facts together in the form of a reply, but since it is and archived article, I decided to put the reply here.

There have been other allegations and actions against this small church , its clergy and parishioners, which when out together paint a very carefully concocted scenario, designed to get sole control over the property which is home to the Logan Village Community Hall and by virtue of a 99 year lease the St Andrews Church and ancillaries.

The Lions of Logan Village have (disputed) ownership of the property which was gifted to them ,in secrecy in the period of time between the dissolution of the last council and the swearing in of this edition, although the councillor for the division remained, and now claim private ownership of a community property which was given to the people of Logan Village, run by a committee of them until being pushed to incorporate (at request of Council) to accept much needed money ($120,000) for upgrade and renovations, and council support has extended to recently granting many thousands of ratepayers dollars for its painting.

The Lions are autonomous and have seen fit to attempt since acquiring the property, to remove the church by several means, and have made various threats and also attempted to sell church possessions using an agreement which may have been obtained from an unauthorised person and under duress.

I will put my aforementioned reply here,

Unowho said...

The fact that the church was assisting its congregation with before and
after school child minding must have irked some of the local Daycare Operators
who charge a fee for that same service, and it was one of them ,correct me if
I'm wrong, who alerted the media to the fact that during afternoon minding at
the church some of the children were using computers in a retro fitted insulated
shipping container (it has full size windows).

It would be an interesting exercise to see who was interested in purchasing
a Day Care Centre who could have profited by attracting more children from say,
shutting down a church minding group, because I feel that this is the only
explanation for events as they have occurred.

If one of the Day care Centre operators was involved, and if someone
senior in the Police is involved there should be action taken to mount a proper
investigation, and the Police person should be stood down for using intimidation
and Police facilities for personal use.

To date no one has been able to to give substantial evidence that the
gifting of the Public hall occurred within the terms of the hall association
constitution, and the number of people who have been implicated as having
knowledge of it and deny that knowledge is growing.

The only certain thing is that everyone is scared of the Police person, and
for some there is not just fear of intimidation but fear of assault or even
murder.People have begun leaving the church and attendances have been down on
Sundays, and I expect that's the intent, but it is horrific to have to suffer
this kind of harassment, and no one should have to.

So the list of people who haven't offered to help the church when
approached is growing to now include anonymous blog commentors, who may be or
are keeping company with State Ministers, Government Departments, senior Police,
Council and the Local councillor who has sided with the protagonists it
seems.

It is quite obvious that the Lions claim ownership of the property, and
want the church congregation to leave, and not just that, but leave their church
building, their own fittings and fixtures and the aforementioned shipping
container for the profit of the Lions.

This defies what i think of when I think Lions, because I've never heard
of a Lions Club trying desperately to own a community property, let alone force
another community group out of their lease and demand ownership of their
property also.

Lions Australia and World wide should be ashamed.

So I ask the Question, will the community let the Police and the Lions bully and intimidate the church until they go?

Bromelton, "need to know only" for information so far.

In Councils recent submission to the Local Government Reform Commission, it touted the massive Bromelton Industrial Precinct as being a boon for the shire and used it and the investment Council would have to make to provide infrastructure and services as a valid reason to annex a portion of Logan (a portion which was previously in Beaudesert) to expand the rate base for the needed extra revenue.

The State Government has seen this the opposite way it seems, and has decided to take over the precinct as a State Development Area and consequently we are hearing a little more about it as the consultation period allows public comment , for a very short time.

There is a Draft Document available for perusal at the Department website; http://www.infrastructure.qld.gov.au/infrastructure/sda_bromelton_scheme.shtm

There are also Two meetings, which are open for the public to attend and since there are plenty of empty desks at Council due to the amalgamations and some staff being offered better deals elsewhere, morale being so low and uncertainty of future employment, they will be held at Council.

You can contact Anne Caerdinal on 3225 8322 or Council. Meetings will be held on :

Mon 29 Oct 2-4.45 ----and----Thurs 1 Nov 11-2pm

Already, the rumours of land in the south of the precinct being kept aside for potential Nuclear Power Generation, which could be at odds with the present laws our State Government has on that subject, but nevertheless there is potential for it and also for irradiation plants and chemical manufacturing.

This has to have some basis in reality because all the most nasty rumours about plans the State Government has had for this shire in the past have all come true and in fact exceeded those rumours, and throughout all this our council keeps the secret, claiming it doesn't want people to get an advantage from the release of information.

I would urge people to look at the Draft Document and the Maps which are enlargeable and make your very valuable submission to this part of the process.

Vale Traveston Crossing

With the Queensland Government releasing the 1600 page Environmental Impact Statement for the Dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing, and it's availability for public comment from the Coordinator Generals Office, we see those same words that control and focus opinion and objection, and negate many of the underlying relevant issues by omitting them for the 'Terms of Refference"

The Mary river and it's inhabitant native fauna have survived generations of human interferance and unsustainable uses, even providing some of the highest quality primary production land in Queensland, and it is against all odds that this has happened, yet still it has.

Sadly until now, the Mary river has never had to sustain itself against the evil of all evils, money, or the one land use from which there is no turning back, development.

People who have known the valley at traveston , and have fished that river section, or watched the turtles ripple the surface, or just relaxed and swam there, will know this is a good place and should be left untouched.


Why ?

It seems that Party politics is at the heart of this, and I know it's a long hop from a creek bed to Parliament House, but the route is far trickier and more dangerous, because it is lined with money.

One of the main things holding back development in SEQ is lack of infrastructure, because in this term the Beattie/ Bligh Government nas barely provided any to meet the needs of the growth they have pro actively sought for this region, and growth has been significant and has already strained existing infrastructure to breaking point, yet still the Bligh Government calls for more.

Water provision has been one of the main issues and development north of Brisbane would have been increased if there was water to provide but there isn't any, all SEQ dams are low so development in greenfield sites has been held up by councils wanting developers to pay their share of infrastructure provision costs, which is , of course, at odds with a high profit bottom line.

Added to that is the fact tha many developers contribute millions of dollars to the electoral funds of politicians and even though they get huge taxation advantages from it they still want a second return on that money and the enormous profit as well.

The utter arrogance and self intrest of the Qld Labor Party Leader, Anna Bligh, just defies description and if this is an example of what we can expect in the Federal Labor Leader then No thanks.

Will the candidate for Forde resign, NOW ?

These are some paragraphs from an article in the Courier Mail, about Councillors and doing the right thing for those they represent.


STAR Labor candidate Kerry Rea has finally quit her $110,000-a-year council job to devote 100 per cent to winning the ultra-marginal Brisbane seat of Bonner.But two other local government representatives running for Federal Parliament have refused to relinquish their civic posts.
After a 10-year stint as the councillor for Holland Park, Cr Rea yesterday decided it was time to make the transition to full-time federal candidate.

While Labor's Eddy Sarroff has no plans to quit his job on the Gold Coast City Council, he has agreed to forgo his salary while he battles to wrestle the seat of McPherson from the Liberal's Margaret May.

Ms May said Cr Sarroff's refusal to step down from the council was unfair to the residents he was meant to represent.

Nationals candidate Hajnal Ban is also being paid as a councillor while she campaigns to win the seat of Forde.


The actions of councillors who continue to take ratepayers money while effectively doing something else is deplorable and arrogant, and of the three in Qld who are running for federal seats there is now only one who continues to draw ratepayer money while campaigning.

Now that Kerry Rea has resigned from Council and Eddy Sarroff has decided to forgo his salary while campaigning, only Hajnal Ban continues to suck ratepayer money out of a very troubled and future financially weak council to pursue her own aspirations.

Maybe this is a matter for a CMC investigation, to determine whether it's appropriate to draw a salary from the ratepayers , whilst actually campaigning for a federal seat, although with all the changes it probably is legal even if it is morally wrong and unfair to ratepayers in division 4.