Community & Business
2 July, 2024
No divisions for Toowoomba Region
Hope that some of the Toowoomba Region’s councillors will specifically represent those living outside of Toowoomba City has been quashed following a vote at last week’s Council meeting.
Cr Kerry Shine was spearheading an electoral arrangement review which could see divisions brought to Toowoomba Regional Council, potentially providing areas outside of Toowoomba with their own councillor or councillors.
As a recommendation was not provided by Council officers, Cr Shine moved a motion to delay a decision until after the upcoming budget, which was defeated by eight votes to three.
Only Cr Shine, Cr Rebecca Vonhoff and Cr Tim McMahon voted for it.
In response, Cr Bill Cahill put forward a motion to take no further action, which passed nine votes to two.
At a Regional Council meeting in October last year, the Council resolved to engage a qualified consultant to prepare, by June 2024, a Divisional Election Arrangement paper for Council to consider, i.e. electoral divisions (a mapped area), and number of Councillors to represent the electoral division.
A report presented to councillors last week, authored by Bailey Garcha, Manager Governance and Legal Services, said management has not engaged a qualified consultant at this stage as it is not the consultant’s views Council is seeking on Electoral Divisions and Councillor member representation.
“Councillors in favour of an electoral division will need to provide feedback to independent consultants to enable preparation of the community consultation process, in particular the Electoral Division Structure,” Mr Garcha said.
The significant time and cost to explore implemented a divisional structure, which may or may not be approved by the state government, was documented in the report by Mr Garcha.
The report said the project would likely include, in order, community consultation, public information session, community feedback considered and analysed, report submitted to the Minister for Local Government; the State government’s Change Commission receives referral from the Minister for
Local Government; publication of the Change Commission’s proposal; public comments on the Change Commission’s proposal; public comments on the Change Commission’s proposal considered; and publication of the Change Commission’s final determination.
The cost of the project is estimated to be in the order of $650,000 to $1,400,000.
