Shaun Zorro Radnedge, Murweh Mayor – LGAQ Meeting (31 March)

Rural Queensland today on the Resonate Broadcast Network, Ben Doblin with you this morning.

We're going to start the show 31st of March. Sean Ratnidge joined us this morning.

The great Zoro, the mayor, a shy mayor, and what a hell of a mess we're in at the moment

with this fuel.

There is a lot going on at the moment.

Zoro, good morning, and thanks so much for giving us some time on this Tuesday morning.

I will start firstly with, mate, can I ask just how the local government association

council conference went last week and obviously all the mayors of Queensland getting together

in Brisbane.

Was it fruitful?

Morning, Doblin.

Good morning to all the listeners, and yeah, last week the LGAQ Civic Leader was held

in Brisbane and from all reports, Doblin was in Canberra early in the week with South

West Rockman.

Unfortunately, I come home on that Wednesday afternoon, so I missed the Civic Leaders,

but while all reports talking to my colleagues in colleagues that it was successful, it's

the networking that really makes a difference in those conferences, but on the Tuesday night

they got the opportunity to mix with government, the politicians, the ministers, opposition,

and lots of coming out of that, but there go, there's lots of challenges we're all facing

in local government at the moment.

Everyone is having the same and it all comes back to those departments.

Two months, we're talking about the gravel pits, we're talking about debtsy.

Every single thing we seem to go to in local government is red tape.

It is just getting out of control and we really need the premier to really stand up.

We did a red tape reduction for them into that weather, asking the government, how do we

fix this?

And I believe that Andrew Chestman, it was huge what he put forward, but seriously, nothing's

been done and just seems to be any worse.

So that made, like I say, all reports, it was a successful couple of days.

So it's okay, let's talk about firstly the gravel pit situation, I'm going to get to

the fuel, right, and what a mess it is.

The gravel pit situation has been festering for four, you know, two years.

Are we any closer to getting through this red tape because it's a debacle at the moment?

Well, we've seen the big deal, because it overlaps in the several different departments,

it really causes challenges.

So, you know, it comes out of agriculture, but it also slides in the debtsy as well.

You know, all these, these rules that are put in place, seriously, it just seems out

of control.

What's the big problem with it all is, though, is compliance has lifted two to three hundred

percent in any avenues in which you go to, but unfortunately, the funding hasn't been

provided to follow that rise, which we all know that comes down to just a general cost

of living that, you know, will never ever get to that, but the compliance has been put

on through governments over the last five to ten years is just out of control.

So I really like to say that it does seem to have died down a little bit in the gravel

pit situation, but I can just tell you with our situation with the gravel pit, we've

got to bring in 50,000 cubes for that 65 blocks of the vision.

Now, that's being cleared to be done by DRNM, it's being cleared, but then debtsy have

come back and said it because it's a change of use of what it's designed for, this gravel

pit hasn't been used for 60 years for my dad, close to pound, it will save money, but because

it's a material change of use, we need to apply through the government agencies, which

is going to cost and time, just the ridiculous amount of money.

We're working with the DG, Trisha Calegan and Minister Andrew Powell in this space to

try and come up with a solution, but seriously, just the time implications and the work that

needs to go into this government, I haven't seen any red tape reduction coming through

local government, I'll just say that.

Yeah, and that's the worry, okay, fuel, yesterday they come up, they're going to have the

exhaust for three months, I mean, seriously, I mean, seriously, like in the whole thing,

how big a situation is that for you at the present moment?

Well, it's an olive branch that should have been done three weeks ago, let's face it,

Prime Minister Almanese, no, we're too hot to use, so not only is the mayor of the

mayor, but also the Chair of OQTA at the moment, outback Queensland tourism, this is a huge

challenge to all operators throughout the whole Western Queensland in the fact that we've

done a bit of pressure about this, I shouldn't say a little, it's been quite huge

the last couple of days, but seriously, this is going to have ramifications, the ripples are

going to turn into waves, it's going to just filter through, that dry tourism is our biggest

tourism market that we have here in Western Queensland, we have operators that last year,

we had flooding in two parts of outback Queensland tourism, Central, West and South West,

those operators just scraped through the end of the season, now they're facing this

calamity, which is being made, once again, is an absolute, I just can't fave them.

I can say, Dobbo, that we are working along in different ways, there's going to be some

press put out there, they're trying to work with government and the agency's TQ have been great

in this space, but we're finding, Dobbo, the travellers, I had eight or nine through the

British shop yesterday from Sydney, with the bridge of blue, they're not too concerned about the

price of the fuel, it's the availability of where they can go and where they can get it, they don't

want to be an imposter, but at this point in time, to my knowledge, throughout the whole

OKTA footprint, there has been no fuel station in Western Queensland running out of fuel.

Yeah, so seriously, the availability is there, we just need the people to travel with.

Yeah, what I don't understand is zero, and this is honestly, crude oil price on Sunday was

$103 a barrel, and unleaded fuel is near three bucks. Now, crude oil in 2008 was $127 a barrel,

and unleaded was $1.66 a liter, like something is not right, and the government can say what they want,

but there's somebody making some money out of all this, and the people that are suffering,

are people in Australia and regionally are suffering more than anybody, it's embarrassing.

Well, Dobbo, let's get down to the nitty-gritty, and let's do the politics. Let's you and I talk

about it. They're earning $0.10 a liter more in GST than what they were a month ago. This is

a federal government. Now, let's break all that down. Now, that GST flills us back through the

through the stage. That's what they say, but every time you go through a level of government,

they clip a ticket, so it's less and less and less, so by the time it gets down to the grass

roots, it's really next to nothing, but seriously, treasurer Jim Charmers and Prime Minister

Albanese for years, let's not this down. They've left it there for a month, Dobbo. So,

there are only $0.10 a liter more than what they were a month ago. Just think about that money,

where that money is going to, and then all of a sudden, the cut that exercise in half,

it is going to be a huge challenge for all of us. I, every single invoice or email you open

here for business at the moment has a fuel levy on it. It's risen to 35% in some, some are even higher,

so that's, this is going to have ramifications. Everything is made with fuel. So, Prime Minister,

if you're going to do something, you need to do it. Now, we're going to find out how good you

guys really are. Well, they rushed the fuel exercise out without budget offset sparking in a

flashing warning from every economist, and the banks are just looking at it, and you know what

happens with an inflation warning? You get interest rate types. That's as simple as that now. That's

the worry that the government is inept in trying to get this under control. Can I ask you quickly,

and I, and I really value the big red bash this year has been postponed. It hasn't been canceled

forever. It has been put on hold. That's obviously because of the season and what has transpired out

there, but that has a huge impact on everybody from birdsville all the way along that track that

are going to miss out on the tourism dial that is so heavily needed. As we talked about before,

double as far as OKTA, we've been working with Greg Donovan, the organiser of the big red bash

over the last month, because we're just going to put it in perspective also. The birds were still

inflating. I was talking to the French as Mary on Friday. So, there is still water everywhere

out of birds, or it is subsiding. Now, we've been working with Greg Donovan. He had a cup of

options to shift the event, but chose to postpone that for 12 months. Now, he's working with TQ,

and allegedly there's going to be something tapped on to the back of the camel tour that goes all

through that outback area. But just another kick in the face of Outback Queensland that all of a

sudden, once again, you go back to those ripples. We see the fuel, and then we've got cancelations.

The Augustella radio has been canceled on Saturday for lack of nominations, because people kind of

forward to travel. These things, like to say, ripples will turn in the way. So, once again,

this is why we need this sorted. And as I say, when this is your lifeblood, it's quite funny,

the premier, I believe, is potentially having a meeting with the tourism RTAs and the peak bodies

today to say that this is a federal problem, not a state. Well, premier, this seriously, we're

going back to COVID. It's like it feels like it's at the start of COVID again, Dobbo. It's just

the matter of people are so reactive that they just put the shutters up and let's shut it all

down, and then we'll figure it out. Now, that's fine, but we need some direction. We need some

leadership. Once again, we're working on plans with Southwest Rock this morning about

fuel availability, about how do we set up a platform that you can potentially move forward so

people can have a look where their next town is, that there's fuel availability. Now, the information

we're receiving is that that's a positive. But if that's coming out of a six-shars war,

can't that be done by government? Once again, there's a lot of questions to be asked. And to, yeah,

my luck, it's going to be one of those things that we're just going to have to wait and see. I mean,

we will get through this, but there's going to be some people do it very, very tough. But at the end

of the line, at the end of the day, I should say, we need people to travel. We need them to come

out into this. And if there's implications that have been put in front by government,

we need them to clear the pathway for that to be lifted.

Can I ask you this just quickly? And you're so right. And the tourism dollar is so important.

Completely separate to that. The regional tech hub has been around for some time.

You know, Christy Sparrows, who was the co-founder of Betterington and for regional rule and remote,

has been a part of it to begin with. And then this organisation was established in response to

long-standing advocacy to try and get better and more practical connectivity advice. There's

a lot of tech happening. Now, it's $2 million a year, right? It's $2 million a year. Can you believe

that their contract runs out in June? And we're going to dig into this a little bit more, but

Annika Wells and the Labor Government are not blocking, but are yet to give a commitment,

whether or not they'll give $2 million of funding a year to continue this organisation going,

which has done unbelievable things for the regions.

I can double. We met with Annika Wells' chief advisor on this space last Monday morning.

First meeting of the day was our first rock. And you are 100% right. The tech hub has been a

game changer for Outback Queensland. There is no two ways. Our process one is based in

Twomba. And they were actually out there. In Aramanga, Liam was in Quilpe, and then he came to

welcome the Charvel event and had a great night here in Charvel where he'd seen over 60 people

helping sort through their tech problems. And that's what they do. But Dobby, you're so right,

there is no commitment for their funding moving forward. And we talked about this. So when we

talked about our challenges with our little towns, especially with the connectivity around

Telstra, that we have fiber to the premise in the middle of a shot to all our three towns.

Now, the uptake on that, how do you tell someone in their late 60s to 80s that you need to get on

WiFi calling? And you know what the chief advisor's advice was, you need to get onto the tech hub.

So luckily enough, I've had that conversation with Krusty Sparrow and just to say that, well,

how can they do that when their funding hasn't been approved? They're sitting on a limb.

They'll take them two months to wind up and here we are three months out. So here's the government

actually saying that the tech hub is good, but there's minister cannot commit to their $2 million.

It's an absolutely joke. Once again, it's, yeah, I'm a quite sure, Dobby, but I admire that

the organisation that the tech hub has done and what they do for these areas and for the government

to just even not even go there. Once again, prime minister and minister, and it's a world

you need to stand up here and to me and Dobby, they'd waste more than that in Parliament.

I'm an ambassador. It's embarrassing. It's just absolutely embarrassing what's going on.

Zora, we could talk all day. Appreciate your time, mate. Thanks for being with us this morning

on Rural Queensland today. Thanks, Dolor, and much appreciate it for all your support.

And once again, to all our members of OQTA, we are working hard behind the scenes to try and get

this mess sorted. And honestly, I think we can get there or just kind of take us a bit of time

get through Easter, and then we get some people to visit us and keep those businesses viable.

Thanks, Dobby. Good on you, Sean Radnitch. We'll take a break. Come back. Still plenty more to

get through. This is Rural Queensland today.