Petition to The Hon. Stirling Hinchliffe MP, Qld Minister for Local Government.

We, the signed petitioners who have an interest of some type in the Western Downs Regional Council (“WDRC”) Local Government area, respectfully request that the current system of representation in the Local Government area WDRC be changed to implement Divisions.

Divisional representation whereby the WDRC area is divided roughly equally by numbers of electors into Electoral Divisions, will provide electors, ratepayers, and interested parties with a Councillor directly responsible for each Division. This will encourage a higher level of meaningful community consultation, communication, transparency & accountability.

The current system of undivided representation makes it very difficult to judge how individual elected representatives have performed in representing the interests of electors and ratepayers, as they are all responsible for the entire WDRC area.

Being in the public interest we the signed petitioners ask you as Minister for Local Government in Qld to exercise your powers to propose to the Local Government Change Commission the introduction of divisions to the Local Government area Western Downs Regional Council.