Booking.com has announced the recipients of its 10th annual Traveller Review Awards, where Tasmania has once again secured a spot in the top 10 most welcoming regions in the world, the only one in Australia, and Tamborine Mountain came in 2nd in the top 10 most welcoming towns in Australia. The number one was Maleny. This is a testament to the strength of our Mountain accommodation providers and the experience their guests have when coming to the Mountain.

Why it is significant is that Booking.com do data mining across the online reviews of their 1,261,273 accommodations registered with them worldwide. Multiply this figure by the likely number of reviews posted per property, and you can safely say tens of millions of reviews are considered. There is no better judge of the quality of customer service and experience than to analyse what customers are saying in an unbiased and objective way. It doesn’t rely on an assessment by expert judges who may have subjectiveness or bias or other influences built into their assessment. 

COUNCIL TO PURCHASE LAND ON TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN FOR PARKING AND OTHER USES ON GALLERY WALK 
At the Ordinary Meeting of Council last Tuesday, Council considered options for the purchase of land for Gallery Walk parking. This was done in a confidential session as negotiations will now proceed. I can’t comment much more than to say what I said when the vote was taken when it proceeded to a resolution in open Council. I said I supported the decision and the land purchase but felt the methodology of what was proposed to acquire it was a very high risk to all the ratepayers in Scenic Rim. That’s why I couldn’t vote for it. 

If and when a sale is completed, the value of the sale will be revealed in RP DATA to all real estate agents and will become public, and it will then be up to Council to release the basis for its decision. Presently the Council resolution is that the reports on this matter will remain confidential forever. It will require another Council resolution to change this. I suspect if and when this information is released to you, this will be very controversial, given the economic climate we are in. 

PRE-POLLING IN FEDERAL ELECTION
No Federal election Pre-polling on Tamborine Mountain, but the AEC provided them in Beaudesert and Jimboomba. There is none in Boonah. I think I know the reason why this happened, but I am making further enquiries and will report back to you. Whatever the reason, it is simply wrong, and the decision-makers or those who participated in the decision need to be called to account. 

This has caused hardship to the largest population centre in the Scenic Rim. We do not have functional public transport to a larger centre and have an elderly population, and we have been treated unfairly. Many people may be disenfranchised from their right to vote if their circumstances deny them attendance at this Saturday’s election. 

POTHOLES ON ROADS
The quality of our roads is not satisfactory, and every year they’re getting worse. We all understand the wet weather, but a good road is able to withstand wet weather. How many times are our potholes filled on a temporary basis, and the next rain event, the bitumen simply bounces out, the road seal is broken again, causing leakage into the subgrade, and we get worse potholes? This is very evident at the moment. Perhaps a Change petition to the State and petition to Council is required for them to increase road funding for the Mountain and provide long-term fixes, not just band-aid solutions. I think it would be well supported. 

Derek Swanborough
 Councillor. Division
 derek.s@scenicrim.qld.gov.au
 Ph 0436 351 567