Gympie Regional Council Divisions
What are Divisions?
Divisions are simply a way of dividing up the Council area (also known as Wards in Brisbane) where the community in each division has the opportunity to elect a candidate living in their Divisional area to Council and that Councillor has responsibility for their Division. Cooloola Shire Council was divided into 5 Divisions (as per the map below) and ech divison was represented by 2 or 3 Councillors depending on the populating in the Division.
On the announcement of the amalgamation of the Shires of Cooloola, Kilkivan and Division 3 of Tiaro Shire, the State Government rules required the formation of a Local Transitional Committee (LTC) to oversee the process of uniting the 3 Councils. The LTC had to make a decision on retaining or abolishing Divisions for the first election of the new Council. At the first meeting of the LTC, the meeting was closed to the public and Divisions were abolished in a secret vote following a secret deal on membership of the LTC for incumbent Councillors and appointment of the Interim CEO. This is history now as we know that the deal was broken delivering the balance of power on the LTC to Cooloola Shire. Councillors voting to abolish Divisions and your rights to local representation on the new Gympie Regional Council.
INTEGRITY WILL REINSTATE DIVISIONS
Integrity candidates are committed to working with the Electoral Commission to calculate the necessary Divisional boundaries to be put in place of the 2012 election. This will be a procedural formality. The only real problem is the lack of willingness that some people have toward implementing such a simple process and returning your rights.
In the interim before the system of formal divisions can be re-instated, Integrity will mark our 4 divisions or administrative areas (North, South, East and West) following main arterial roads radiating from the Centre of Gympie. Subject to community comment and fine tuning, this will be an effective divisional structure to manage the sheer size of the new Council with its reduced representation.
Gympie Regional Council- QLD Govt Amalgamation Map
Dual Representation.
Two Councillors will be allocated to each Interim Division, based as much as possible upon each Councillor's location and their area of familiarity. Each Division will then have two contacts who will be responsible for it and for you as a resident.
Each Division will have one Councillor concentrating on on a quarter of the Gympie City sector and another looking after the regional area beyond the City. They will assist each other as or when required. This will help to keep a good balance between city and rural needs.
This plan will ensure the Gympie Regional Council is properly informed so that all Councillors will know, as decisions demand it, exactly what is going on in each and every part of the new Shire. A competent and fair Council finds out what people need most, what they want and will work with them to achieve it.
A Start.
This is the Integrity Gympie starting point. Integrity believes it is a solid base from which to forge a better Shire with representatives that care about you and your area.
Urban Myths
Some people, including those responsible for their demise, say that Divisions are "no great loss because they never really worked anyway". This ignores the fact that most existing Councillors did not respect the purpose and function of Divisions, nor properly represented theirs. How could anything work well when it is not use correctly? Divisions could never be returned by people who have abused them for years, or by the Councillors above who voted to abolish them.
Local Government must stay Local
VOTE INTEGRITY FOR THE CERTAIN RETURN OF DIVISIONS
