Council elections

This past weekend started with the elections for the new regional council. It has been interesting discussing candidates over the past few weeks, and comparing notes and recommendations. We do not get the local paper so we relied on the internet for profiles and it was good to find a useful site and be able to email candidates with questions which were promptly responded to. I also found some other sites which gave some other perspectives. On Saturday morning I was able to construct a fairly well researched how-to-vote card to take to the polling booth. We now await the results.

The new Toowoomba Regional Council

Last night we went to a public meeting at Gowrie Junction to find out more about the new council which we will elect on 15 March. We waited outside in the cold and wet with a few others until a woman rushed in at 5 to 7 to unlock and put some lights on. It was due to start at 7. They then proceeded to set up about 28 chairs in a small room. Some remained unoccupied but apparently only 9 people turned up to the Toowoomba meeting. Most of those present last night were councillors, staff or candidates - perhaps 10 were citizens seeking information?
When commenting on the poor turnout for most of the eleven previous regional meetings, the organisers aforementioned did not seem to consider that perhaps the public was not aware of it?
We certainly could not find any information on the new regional council website and had to search the Jondaryan Shire website to confirm the note in my diary.
It was difficult to talk and hear under the low ceiling of the foyer after the meeting due to the poor acoustics, so we left after meeting only two candidates.