In a whirl of activities, meetings, quick information sessions and one nice dinner event, the Southern Downs hosted the Darling Downs and Southwest Council of Mayors and CEOS for a two-day conference last week.
The group includes the mayors and CEOs from Toowoomba, the Southern Downs and councils to the western border of Queensland.
The Journal was able to speak with Mayor Hamilton who was catching her breath from the big week.
“This was my first one,” she said, referring to inter-council meetings. “It was really productive and it was good to get everyone together after elections; there’s been some changes.”
Besides getting to know each other and discussing the issues in common, the state government sent a crew out to work with the assembled politicians and CEOs. Nearly half the mayors in the region are now women which brought a more diverse complexion to the overall discussions.
“It was a real mix of older statesmen, like Lawrence Springborg, and new faces”, the Mayor said.
Unsurprisingly, the main points of discussion were renewables and the future of renewables in the area, water security and transport.
State government folk gave a presentation about the inland rail and the next stage of that project.
Mayor Hamilton was particularly keen on the sessions about waste management, which, for local councils, makes up a huge amount of annual expenditure.
“It was interesting because that plan was all about how we reduce waste going to landfill, and how to transition to a circular economy,” she said, pointing out that it is early days yet in the overall planning but the prospects look positive.
The regional waste plan “recognises that making progress on waste is more possible at a regional level, rather than for individual Councils. It's why continuing to strengthen the relationship with our neighbours is so important, as we look at ways to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill,” she said.
“The costs just keep rising, and there’s a significant cost to ratepayers to open a new landfill. We need to make them last as long as possible.”
The event dinner was enlivened by State of Origin results (men) and the prospective outcome of the women’s game on Thursday night. The Toowoomba representatives were particularly keen since a couple of the stars are from the Darling Downs.
