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.