Your Council wants more for the North Burnett

As someone who has never been particularly interested in politics until the last 4/5 years (much to my mother’s disgust and perhaps to some of your surprise) I have spent many an election night wishing a good movie was on instead of the election coverage. Oh how life changes. Last Saturday night, not only was I glued to the screen, listening to the commentary and speeches, but I was also checking social media and predicting my own outcomes by analyzing the electoral commission website.

Knowing many of these people (in every party) across the State put a personal spin on things. It’s one thing to look at a corflute or a billboard but entirely another to be able to match that up with experience as to the person they are behind it. After working with MP’s from the Labor party for 20 months and meeting with Shadow ministry for the same amount of time, I have seen the good, bad and indifferent in both sides. We are all human and people who enter politics are no different to those who enter any other career – some fall into it, some know from an early age that’s the career for them, some love it, others just do it because they don’t know what else to do. Therefore there are some politicians who are brilliant at their job and others who… should look for another one.

One thing which has cut through loud and clear, once again in this election is the disillusionment of people with our political parties, politicians and systems. Conal Hanna, digital editor for the Brisbane Times summed it up by saying “The Queensland election is a choice between Brisbane rail tunnel and a North Queensland power plant and dams. That’s about it really. It’s a hardly inspiring contest. It certainly isn’t a battle of ideas”. When I read this, I was sad. It’s 2017 (almost 2018 actually), we  are capable of amazing things, we are a country full of ideas and opportunity, yet in politics we seem to never reach for the stars, instead pretending we are all comfortable in maintaining the status quo. Status quo is a safe place for a politician – you don’t do anything good, but you also don’t do anything bad.

In this age of high turnover at all levels of politics there are many who are playing it safe for career longevity, but safe isn’t going to get our region where we want to go. We want more for our region, our state and our country and we (your council) are prepared to put it all on the line to see results because as Mark Zuckerberg said “…In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

Talk soon.