State Member for Scenic Rim, Jon Krause, has expressed his disappointment over proposed changes to the management of rural water boards, including Roadvale Water Board, that would remove local voices, with local knowledge, replacing democratic elections with a process where directors are subject ultimately to Ministerial appointment.
“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the Minster for Natural Resources has failed to listen to the community who clearly voiced its opposition to the anti-democratic move by this Labor Government to remove elections for the Roadvale Water Board.”
The community was very keen to see the Roadvale Water Board remain in the hands of local voices with local knowledge and this point was vigorously put to representatives of Minister Anthony Lynham by Roadvale locals and Mr Krause at a meeting held in the Executive Building at 1 William Street, Brisbane. A community meeting also unanimously opposed the change.
“This ‘Brisbane knows best’ attitude from the Labor Government also saw it ignore the unanimous rejection of the changes to the appointment process that we saw at a meeting held in Roadvale with community representatives last year.”
“Removing elections is an insult to locals who have managed this Board for over 50 years.”
“The Labor Government is using legislation that was set up to facilitate local water boards to launch a hostile takeover of locally run water assets – assets that the people of this region built, paid for and efficiently managed.”
The changes would see the Minister ultimately select four Directors from six nominations provided by the Water Board. A small concession is that there is no longer a requirement for the establishment of a nomination committee and the Board can nominate candidates through a recruitment process or an ‘election for nomination’ process.
“At this point, no decision has been taken to actually change the boards and I will continue to lobby against this change.”
“Of all the things that need fixing in Queensland – and there are many: power prices, the child safety system, our almost $80 billion State debt – the fact that the Labor Government is fiddling with a water board that serves only 298 water users speaks volumes about their lack of a real agenda for Queensland,” Mr Krause said.