By Jenel Hunt
“I’m calling a division, Mr Mayor.”
So said Councillor Cynthia McDonald after a vote to accept a report by Councillor Stephen Tancred was passed by the narrowest of margins at the Southern Downs Regional Council meeting that was held in Stanthorpe last week (12 April).
For the town of Stanthorpe, water is an emotive issue as the town ran out of water 15 months before the end of the last drought.
The Queensland Government’s Regional Water Assessment Program is looking into options to increase water security to Southern Queensland and has a very keen focus on Stanthorpe’s situation for water for the town and for industry and primary production.
What landed Cr Tancred in hot water with some of the councillors was the brevity of his account and the lack of accompanying paperwork for a report he wrote in his role as a representative of the Southern and Darling Downs Regional Water Assessment Working Group.
After the division was called, the vote was physically counted. Councillors in favour of accepting the report were Crs Gow, Tancred, Gale, Bartley and Mayor Pennisi. Those against were Crs Gliori, Windle, McNally and McDonald.
The report had eight lines listing the membership of the group and five lines on the actual meeting. When asked by the Mayor if he wished to speak to the report, Cr Tancred replied, “No, Mayor, just to say there’s a very good group of organisations and people involved in this process and council’s playing an active part. That’s all.”
But that was not all, and what ensued was a very long discussion about the short report.
Cr McDonald started by asking about the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) that Cr Tancred had mentioned in the report then made it clear she wanted to know about the initial options that were explored and the ones that were selected for consideration in the ongoing quest for water security for the Granite Belt. She questioned why she could see information that was ‘out in the community’ yet it was not being presented to councillors in the report.
The proposed Emu Swamp Dam 9 (now called Granite Belt Irrigation project) received some airplay but the four options that had filtered through to a list of options for further research were never named, despite a number of questions being asked about them. (Last week’s Stanthorpe Today listed the options that had progressed to a more thorough analysis and also the unsuccessful options.)
Cr McDonald straight out asked Cr Tancred: “There were seven initial options given, can you let us know what they were? And there were four that were selected to move forward”.
Cr Tancred said the State Government was releasing information progressively. When he found out that Cr McDonald’s information had come from outside the State Government, he told her she’d ‘probably have to go and ask them’ as he was just reporting his attendance.
“I suppose the State Government will make quite a fanfare when we get to different milestones,” he said.
Cr McDonald said, “Just for transparency, you don’t know what those four projects were?”
“I do,” replied Cr Tancred.
“Can we have them for clarification for the community?” Cr McDonald asked.
The Mayor intervened.
“What Cr Tancred is saying, it’s really not our role to release those, it’s the government’s role because they’re running that and we should ask the government if they wish to release it.”
But it was already an open source, McDonald argued.
“Not from us and we shouldn’t breach that confidence,” said Cr Pennisi.
“It’s not in confidence, Mr Mayor,” she said.
When questioned, CEO Dave Burgess clarified that, “The relevant department has indicated that we can disseminate information. We’ve informed other parties that we don’t take the lead role in that, we’re happy for the State Government to take the lead role. But there is no secret business happening.“
Cr McDonald’s wish to speak about it openly was never granted even though she said she was pleased there was no secret business happening.
“I would like to know. I think the community would like to know. Water security is very important in this region and most of us campaigned on water security, so I really feel quite passionate about this being explored so that the community can see – in a transparent manner – what is going on in these various forums,” she said.
Cr Jo McNally said Cr Tancred was appointed to the organisation to report back to the Councillors.
“The information coming back was scant, at least. Why aren’t all the papers from that meeting included like they have been included by other organisations that attended the meeting? Their members have been able to access that, but as councillors we’re left in the dark. Cr Tancred is the appointed rep and that information should be coming back to Councillors. Why aren’t the minutes included? If there’s something confidential that’s fine but if it’s not confidential – and I don’t think it is – why do we as Councillors not have that information?”
As she spoke, Cr McNally had in her hand a copy of paperwork that she had accessed outside of council.
At that stage Cr Pennisi declared a morning tea break and when the meeting restarted after the break he said he did not believe that it was appropriate to debate the quality of the report.
“Many of us are on other committees and you often don’t see a report at all,” he said.
“I’m going to refer to the CEO to refer to the group to see if we can get what the appropriate protocol is in relation to releasing that information, and then once he has that he can circulate that information to Councillors.”
Cr McDonald called a point of order. “I’m looking for transparency for the community, not just for the Councillors. That’s who we work for – the community. Those reports coming back to us as council also have information that’s pertinent to the community.”
“Until the CEO has discovered the appropriate protocol there will be nothing released here, not today but maybe into the future, based on that protocol,” the Mayor said.
Cr McDonald had one more try.
“The CEO already said it could be released; it wasn’t confidential,” she said.
