General News
30 October, 2024
Cloncurry scoops the prize pool at LGAQ state conference
The North West council picked up two gongs in Brisbane last week.
Cloncurry Shire mayor Greg Campbell has heaped praise on his CEO Philip Keirle and the council staff after the shire collected two gongs at last week’s LGAQ conference in Brisbane.
On the back of last year’s win, which saw the council pick up a $10,000 tourism bursary which ultimately led to the Curry Crawl initiative, Cloncurry Shire added two new trophies to its collection – the Butch Lenton Memorial Bush Council Innovation Award and the Risk Excellence Award.
Cr Campbell said he was thrilled to get up on stage with the CEO and accept the awards on behalf of the council.
“Especially the Butch Lenton award, which is in honour of the former mayor of Winton Shire ... I had a good relationship with Butch and to get the award in his honour for our Meeting of the Mines was very special,” the mayor said.
“I was on a panel at the conference and spoke about Meeting of the Mines. And I said we try not to do things just for one reason at the council.
“So Meeting of the Mines was obviously to highlight how important mining is to our region and especially our shire.
“But the conference also generates a lot of income for all of the town’s hotels and motels and other businesses and it just gives Cloncurry the spotlight again.
“It’s keeping our community front of mind, especially in Brisbane and Canberra, that then leads to other success with grant funding or getting the right people to hear about us. So, when we go with an issue or a request, the door’s already half opened.”
The Butch Lenton Memorial Bush Council Innovation Award came with a $10,000 cheque, which Cr Campbell said could be used to further enhance the mining conference.
“Whether we use it to kick Meeting of the Minds into another gear by broadening the scope of it, or getting another speaker but we haven’t had a chance to decide on even a short list of ideas yet,” he told North West Weekly.
The other award, was for work the shire did to avoid an expensive “upgrade” on a council asset.
“It’s nowhere near as exciting as the Meeting of the Mines but we had consultants telling us that we would be looking at spending upwards of $15 million on the dam wall at Chinaman Creek Dam and potentially end up with less water to meet these new standards,” Cr Campbell said.
“And we just said, firmly, ‘no, that makes no sense’.
“Even if we had got it fully funded, it seemed like just a complete waste of money.
“I think that’s an example of where the elected people and the executive clearly understood each other’s direction, or us giving strong, clear direction to the CEO, and he went and found the right team and put the right scope of work out to get a good outcome where our dam now meets all the upgraded rules and all of our records are accurate.
“The project cost about half a million dollars to do; we got funding for that but it was just a good result that you don’t see a lot in local government where you get a good, sensible, practical outcome amid a tornado of bureaucracy.”
The mayor said councils were increasingly being asked to do more work and that Cloncurry Shire was in a fortunate position to have qualified and eager staff.
“The stigma of council workers is leaning on the shovel, not doing much. That’s definitely not the expectation or how our council operates,” Cr Campbell said.
“Probably one of the most common things that’s mentioned at the LGAQ state conference, is that local government is the level of government closest to the people and seen as the most accountable.
“Through the LGAQ we need to probably do better and make that delineation more clear on what’s a federal issue, what’s a state issue, what’s a local government issue.
“One of the other things that makes it even harder for councils like ours and most rural councils, as the state government pulls back on the services that it should do and local government picks it up.
“It just keeps muddying that line because we want our communities to not miss out.
“So we just keep picking up the slack and doing more. So the people just see if there’s a problem, then the expectation just grows on local government to fix it. And it’s a vicious cycle because we do it because we have got that commitment to our communities.”
The mayor said none of the good work achieved by the elected council could happen without the support of the CEO.
Cr Campbell said the appointment of Mr Keirle in 2021 was one of the best decisions he had made during his time with the council.
“The CEO is that connection position within the council, that pinch point,” he said.
“It’s essentially the head of the operational part of the council, so all the staff in the organisation answer to that position and that’s the only position that answers to the council, so it’s a real literal pinch point.
“The outcomes have to be driven through the CEO. So, if you haven’t got a good relationship and a hardworking CEO, all the work by the mayor and the councillors really doesn’t go anywhere.
“Having your CEO working with you is critical.”
Cr Campbell said the council’s next priority was to keep the cost of living as low as possible for ratepayers.
“It’s been front of mind since I’ve been the mayor to make sure that our rate increases were kept to a bare minimum to keep the organisation going and to the standard of service delivery that were our expectation to deliver,” he said.
“We’ll look to grow our own source revenue to offset the need for rate rises, but also we’re always looking at what our costs are to make sure that we’re delivering a high standard of service but not letting those costs blow out.”