AEC makes a special trip to irate CWQ

CARING enough to lodge over 90 objections to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the people of Aramac, Barcaldine, Blackall, Isisford, Ilfracombe, Longreach, Tambo and Winton have won themselves the right to present their arguments over the proposed new electorate of Wright face-to-face.

Written submissions closed on July 21 and, following a period of comment, the AEC have decided to hold an inquiry on the new seat by sending a representative panel to Longreach, to field public comments, in 10-days time.

Rosemary Champion believes while the AEC has obviously been mulling over the discontent from the bush, it will still take a large turnout at the August 21 forum to convince the federal Government to leave the electorate of Maranoa intact.

"The large number of written objections received by the commission has resulted in getting a meeting out here, but the fight is not over yet.

"Eighty-nine of [the written objections] were from people from the Central Western shires who will be lumped in with Gladstone, a coastal town we have no shared interest with at all.
"We have a chance to tell the commission in person why this decision is so ridiculous.
"Winton has been in four different electorates over the last 10 years and without people coming to the meeting this is just going to continue."

Mrs Champion said now is not the time for lethargy as the meeting will be the one and only chance for residents and business owners alike to prove how passionately they care for the region.

"If we have any chance of holding onto Maranoa in its current form we need people power to tell the commission we are against this.

"We really need to fill that room to capacity with people from all walks of life. You don’t have to speak, you can come to support those who are taking to the stage."

The meeting is due to start at 8.30am in the Fairmount Room at the Civic Centre in Longreach on August 21.

Both individual residents and organisations affected by the rezoning need to register their interest to speak by contacting the Queensland Redistribution Secretariat in writing at GPO Box 2590, Brisbane QLD 4001 or via email on qld.redistribution@aec.gov.au by August 15.