By Dominique Tassell
Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) has finalised the motions they will be taking to the Local Government Association of Queensland’s (LGAQ) Annual Conference.
The LGAQ Annual Conference is scheduled to be held from 24 to 27 October 2021.
Any motions put forward need to be approved by Council first.
SDRC is putting forward four motions.
The first motion calls on LGAQ to lobby the State Government for the continuation of the 105 per cent waste levy advance payments for councils within the State Government Waste Levy Zone in order to cover the costs associated with the disposal of municipal solid waste to landfill.
The motion states that “these payments should be maintained until viable markets to divert waste from landfill have been established across Queensland and until local councils and the State Government have agreed to a sustainable phased reduction in the payments”.
The second motion calls on LGAQ to lobby the State Government to provide seed funding from the revenue raised by the Waste Levy so Councils can undertake organic and other innovative waste and resource recovery trials at the local level.
The third motion calls on LGAQ to request that the State Government resource additional biosecurity officers across Queensland in order to support local governments and the community to fulfil their requirements under the Biosecurity Act 2014.
The fourth and final motion calls on LGAQ to request that the State Government updates Biodiversity Planning Assessments to ensure planning decisions about appropriate land use are based on current terrestrial ecological values.
In the Council meeting, Mayor Vic Pennisi stated that the motions had been thoroughly discussed, having gone to an information session previously.
“We talked about the most important ones, the ones we thought would be most relevant to the topic of the day, and the ones we’d take to the conference,” he stated.
Councillor Stephen Tancred stated that he supported all four motions.
He stated that the motion “on the completion and update of biodiversity planning assessments I think is very important”.
“If these assessments are out of date, or non-existent, councils run the risk of making ill-informed decisions and that’s not what we want to be doing.
“We’ve been charged with biosecurity responsibilities for the state and if we’re going to make good decisions and be good stewards we need them to assist us.
“So I particularly support that motion.”
Councillor Jo McNally encouraged the mayor to send the four motions to the Darling Downs Council of Mayors to get their support as well.
The motion was moved by Councillor McNally, seconded by Councillor Cameron Gow and moved unanimously.
