GREENS LOOKING TO REPRESENT
I would like to announce to the community that there are two Greens candidates running in the next council election. Steven Everson, with a Masters in Business Administration, is running for Division 1. He has had vast experience in his own business, together with small and international business, as well as local government.

I am running in Division 2. I am a nurse, midwife and small business owner. I have had a long history of advocating for environmental causes and supporting and promoting good quality maternity care.
Both of us are particularly driven to future-proof our community. Developing sustainable business and infrastructure that recognises the climate emergency. Some of our goals will be to gain water security for Tamborine Mountain, support funding of the Long Road Sports Plan, fight the thermal incinerator proposal for Bromelton, connect communities through accessibility, arts and culture.
Nicole Thompson
Spokesperson for the Scenic Rim Greens

CANDIDATES MUST BE ALLOWED TO BE EFFECTIVE
The election of Councillors on 16 March gives an opportunity for the Scenic Rim. We can start climbing out of the Council dysfunction of such concern to so many residents.
I applaud the commitment of Mayoral candidate Tom Sharp to a review of the management strategies. This is particularly so with regard to those strategies causing problems for Councillors in representing residents’ interests. It is no coincidence that, during its last two terms, the Scenic Rim Regional Council has failed to implement the Principles of Local Government. These are clearly set out in the Local Government Act and are legal requirements, not just lofty aspirations.
A major item on Tom Sharp’s list for review is ‘Transparency’. This happens to be the first word in the first Principle. Unfortunately, in our Council, every possible bit seems to have been painted over.
Another is the suffocating confidentiality policy which seems to specify damaging penalties for Councillors if they make meaningful comment about anything.
Combine this secrecy with restrictions on debate in open Council and the ability of Councillors to adequately represent the interests of residents is improperly prejudiced.
To me, the Scenic Rim has many of the characteristics of a big business, with the Councillors as the Board of Directors, the Mayor as the Chairman and the residents the shareholders, but involved to a greater than normal degree. It seems Tom Sharp would be a good fit.
Cr Christensen’s autocratic management style seems not to accord with the Principles of Local Government. It has much to answer for. Particularly on Tamborine Mountain, there has been some disregard of well-founded local priorities. Despite its high population density, the locality has preserved the semi-rural ambience so valued by residents and visitors. Destroy this by permitting tourism intrusion into areas not permitted in the Planning Scheme and that ambience is irretrievably lost.
No doubt Cr Christensen believed his approach was best but it has not worked. The State Government appointed an Adviser but it was too little, too late.
The third Mayoral candidate, Jeff McConnell leaves me in an uncertain state of mind. I live on the plateau but at the south end which puts me in Division 2. Jeff McConnell, as my Councillor, has done a generally good job. Also, I agree with most of what he is saying during his mayoral campaign. However, he has introduced a real problem. He has repeatedly stated that. as Mayor, he would adopt military leadership principles based on his 23-year experience in the military. Unfortunately, for me this presents the possibility of a further period of autocratic management. That might not accord with how Local Government is supposed to work.
Phil Giffard

MARCH 2024 COUNCIL ELECTIONS
I was a little disappointed that the Tamborine Mountain Chamber of Commerce sponsored “Meet the Candidates” night at the high school auditorium on Tuesday 13th February was focused mainly on business and tourism and how the candidates would enhance and protect them. Nothing about shire liveability or development as it affects the environment and ambience of the ratepaying public or the sometime adverse effects tourism has on certain local communities, to mention just a few other relevant topics.
I did ask the Mayor, Cr Christensen, why he elected to bankrupt the 108-year-old Tamborine Mountain Progress Assn (TMPA) by the pursuit of court costs. I should have held on to the microphone to respond to his waffling answer about the Planning and Environment court granting costs to council. My response would have been that the pursuit of costs was not obligatory, and that council, in line with a long-held convention that adversaries in that court paid their own expenses, had the discretion to drop the matter.
The TMPA has always been a not-for-profit community betterment organisation with all surplus funds donated to local bodies such as the rural fire brigade etc.
I believe that Mayor Christensen, having attended some of TMPAs meetings, was aware of that body’s probable financial position, and the pursuit of costs incurred in the court during the Eagles Retreat Place appeal was a deliberate ploy to bankrupt the organisation and thus rid council of an association that consistently took it to task over its lack of adherence to the gazetted shire planning scheme. It is relevant to note that council originally opposed that development and was on the same side as TMPA. Inexplicably council then took a 180 degree turn in the matter, leaving TMPA holding the bag as the lone supporter of the severely affected nearby residents.
It is germane that I now pose the same question to mayoral candidate, Division 2 councillor Jeff McConnell: “Jeff, your constituency includes numerous ratepayers from the southern section of Tamborine Mountain. Please explain why you voted to pursue court costs against the TMPA, a stratagem guaranteed to bankrupt that organisation.”
It is relevant to state here that the desperate attempt to emasculate the Progress Association and thereby reduce scrutiny of council procedures and shortcomings has failed miserably. The old TMPA is no more, but there is now, up and running, a new TMPA, the officially registered Tamborine Mountain Preservation Association, which is ready and able to continue critical scrutiny of council and its top-heavy bureaucracy. Carpe diem.
Roland Lindenmayer

MUST BE AN ELECTION COMING UP!
We are being swamped with election material in our letter boxes prior to the upcoming council elections on 16 March.
Except for Division 1 Cr. Amanda Hay, who has decided to save the trees and go paperless this election, standing on her past performance and integrity. That’s original!
We have the Mayor and Deputy Mayor spreading the love, far and wide, campaigning for re-election while enjoying the benefits of council salary, car and expenses, on the public purse.
The independents have to take time off work and fund their own campaigns, like the other Mayoral candidate, Tom Sharp.
The council meetings have become part of the campaign it seems, with Council now voting to reject a Development Application at Young St that the community has been fighting against for the past 2.5 years. Love the timing, weeks before an election.
What happens when the Developer goes to court over this? Will Council roll over, as the previous council did with Eagles Retreat Cl.? Depends on who we put in council.
Remember when Mayor Greg Christensen and Cr Jeff McConnell, now both tearing each other apart at the podium, were voting together? It’s all on record.
• Overturning the heritage listing of the Beaudesert Saleyards. $250 000?
• Claiming legal costs against the TMPA knowing they would be unable to pay and be forced to close, after 108 years of defending the environment?
• Suing Cr Hay for legal costs after backing Council in a court action they withdrew from that is so similar to the Young St DA, that they are rejecting now?
• Unrelenting attacks on poor Derek Swanborough, leaving him no option but to resign?
• Allowing Eagles Retreat Cl development to proceed, after strong local opposition?
• The famous Alpine Tce footpath, with guard rails appropriate for the Alps?
• The ever-increasing rates, and neglect of services?
Judge these candidates on their performance over the past four years. Do they deserve another go?
Then there are The Greens, who miraculously emerge before each election and the Mountain comes alive with off-Mountain Greens supporters.
If those Greens candidates are serious about local issues, why don’t they stand as independents, alongside the other independent candidates?
Instead, they align themselves with a Federal Political machine to unfairly influence voters, who don’t understand that party politics does not have a seat in local council.
We need change in Council and we need the candidates who are the best qualified. It’s not a popularity contest.
Give the new candidates a go. They could hardly do worse.
Julie Wilkinson