The Lockyer October 22 2020

LETTERS, COMMENT & ANNOUNCEMENTS
RESPONSE TO LETTER BY
‘VIVIENNE SCHNELL’
Isn’t it incredible the lengths some will go to in
an attempt to do reputational damage three
weeks before an election.
A recent example of this was the Letter to the
Editor published last week penned by a ‘Ms
Vivienne Schnell’.
‘Ms Schnell’ vainly attempts to question my
character and efforts as the Member for
Lockyer through false claims and outright lies.
I seek to set the record straight.
I am incredibly proud of the work my team
and I have done over the last three years.
Our achievements are well known and have
been outlined in the pages of this publication
on numerous occasions.
‘Ms Schnell’ is correct in one claim.
Ahead of the previous state government
election I did pledge to fix the intersection of
Fairway Drive and the Warrego Highway and I
stand by this pledge.
What ‘Ms Schnell’ fails to mention is the small
detail that this pledge was made based on the
successful election of an LNP government.
The LNP will fix this and a number of other
dangerous intersections on the Warrego
Highway should we be successful at the
upcoming state election from our $75 million
road safety pledge.
‘Ms Schnell’s’ claims that I and the LNP have
turned our backs on Lockyer are about as valid
as her existence.
I note ‘Ms Schnell’s’ statement that she plans to
vote independent at the upcoming election.
I am sure the independent candidate would
be grateful for ‘Vivienne’s’ support, though he
may be somewhat alarmed to learn that the
name ‘Vivienne Schnell’ does not appear on
the electoral roll in Lockyer.
I suspect ‘Ms Schnell’ is simply a pseudonym of
a person hellbent on saying whatever he/ she
can to put my character and commitment to
this electorate into question.
‘Vivienne’ your attacks do nothing but call into
question your own character.
I would suggest you take a break from
Facebook, head to the ECQ’s website and get
your enrolment completed so that you can
contribute to democracy rather than simply
being a commentator.
Jim McDonald
Member for Lockyer
LABOR EQUALS LNP
Never in my memory have I seen the Labor
Party try to gift a seat in parliament to their so
called idealogical opposite, the LNP.
Whilst I have no affiliation with either, I do of
course know many fine decent people in both
parties.
My farther voted Liberal yet always said there
was a place for good Labor principals, and if
there wasn't a Labor Party no-one would have
had a pay rise in the last 50 years.
So, regardless of your political persuasion it is
troubling to see one major party support the
other at the expense of their own supporters.
What is the Labor party doing, and why?
Of course Labor voters do NOT have to follow
the party How to Vote card if they don't want
to.
Your vote and preferences are yours alone.
That is why I do not even have preferences as I
have made no deals with either side.
Jim Savage
Independent candidate for Lockyer
news@thelockyer.com.au
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JIM SAVAGE’S PLAN TO REVERT
LOCKYER NATIONAL PARK TO
STATE FOREST IS A WINNER
Independent Candidate for Lockyer, Jim
Savage, has won praise from recreational
forest user representatives, for his plan to
revert the Lockyer National Park back to state
forest, paving the way for greater commercial
and recreational use.
The 18,000 hectare Lockyer National Park
was previously a state forest, which was
transferred to state forest in 2008 under
the South East Queensland Native Forestry
Agreement.
“Jim Savage’s plan to revert Lockyer National
Park to state forest, recognises the reality that
Labor’s lock it up and leave approach to native
forests has failed. Our national parks are
overgrown with weeds, overrun by feral pests
and are prone to bushfires”, said Rhys Bosley,
Campaign Manager for the Queensland State
Forest User Alliance and the State Forest
Hunting for Queensland Campaigns.
“Mr Savage’s advocacy for the New South
Wales Forestry Corporation model of
state forest management to be applied
in Queensland, makes him the only local
candidate to have realised that this is the
gold standard for forestry management in
Australia”, Mr Bosley said.
In the NSW model the upkeep of forests is
funded through sustainable logging, with
only 1% of native timber being harvested per
annum and with wide ranging commercial
and recreational use of forests being
permitted. If adopted in Queensland, this
would generate hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of extra value, much of which
would come to electorates like Lockyer, and
would result in better forest management.
Mr Bosley said “Mr Savage has been a longterm
advocate for Lockyer, for regional
Queensland and for legal hunting of feral
pests in Queensland state forests. This
commitment for better managed and utilised
native forests in the electorate represents
another innovative policy from Mr Savage”.
The Queensland State Forest User Alliance
and State Forest Hunting for Queensland
campaigns are online campaigns that have
collectively attracted over 4500 supporters
and have cooperated with groups in the
hunting, recreational prospecting and
fossicking, four-wheel driving, trail bike riding,
mountain bike riding, logging and agricultural
communities.
The campaigns supported two petitions to
Queensland Parliament, one that that raised
13,576 signatures supporting the legalization
of state forest hunting in Queensland, and
another that raised 6080 signatures to prevent
the lockup of Queensland state forests into
national parks. Both petitions were knocked
back by the Labor Government.
Rhys Bosley
Campaign Manager
Queensland State Forest User Alliance and State
Forest Hunting for Queensland Campaigns
THANK YOU ‘THE LOCKYER’
I would just like to congratulate The Lockyer
on the great newspaper you produce. It has
been a few months now that I look forward
to Thursday rolling around to pop down and
pick one up from the local shops.
It is packed full of local stories about our
region and also informs me of any upcoming
events in the area plus I love the format and
focus on our community.
I even keep one for a friend that has left the
area but still likes to keep updated on the
news.
Thanks again for filling the void left in our
region. keep up the great work and come on
Thursday!!!
W. King
Regency Downs
LABOR VOTERS TOLD TO VOTE
LNP?
We keep hearing from big party powerbrokers
how the opponent party will destroy our state
with various predictions of job apocalypses,
climate disasters, financial Armageddon, etc,
ad nauseam, if voters elect the 'other' party.
Both claim the high moral ground in
denouncing the other, every single day on
radio, television, print and social media.
Imagine my surprise then to find that the
LABOR party has preferenced the Greens, and
then the LNP.
Those who have followed politics in the
Lockyer electorate know that Labor won't win
this seat, but their preferences largely decide
who does.
Are we to believe now that Labor wants the
LNP to win the seat of Lockyer?
After all that talk about an LNP government
being some diabolical outcome, and
expensive advertising campaigns waxing
hysterical about imagined job purges and so
forth if the LNP were to win, here we see the
Labor party indicating that they actually do
want the LNP to win this seat rather than a
small party or independent candidate.
Do Labor voters know that their candidate
Janet Butler and previous candidate Nicole
Lincoln were the ladies who intervened to
protect Jim Savage's wife Jackie when the
current LNP member physically attacked her
in the street outside the pre-polling centre
in Gatton just prior to the previous state
election?
People should phone them, and ask why they
would agree to give preferences to a man
who assaulted a woman on a public street.
I would have to wonder whether faceless
powerbrokers in the ALP made this decision.
I am not willing to believe that ladies who
had to physically intervene to protect another
candidate's wife from the LNP candidate
would now agree to have their voter's
preferences go to such a man.
I certainly hope voters supporting Labor will
think about who their preferences are going
to help elect.
No point whinging about the LNP when you
are handing them the seat of Lockyer, is there?
Vivienne Schnell
Regency Downs
ALL POLITICIANS SHOULD BE
DRUG TESTED
Hurray, at last! WIth two local papers Lockyer
Valley residents may get accurate reporting of
local news and perhaps a full accounting of
and coverage of so called suicides, illicit drug
activity and various criminalities.
I shouldn't have to read that my state MP
was subject to CCC investigation from a
neighbouring newspaper The Toowoomba
Chronicle of October 18, 2018.
As regards the then local newspaper, The
Gatton Star, this is unacceptable, also the
refusal regarding our local right of opinion
with letters to the editor. For example a letter
to the editor suggesting that the then muted
correctional centre become a purpose built
detox and rehabilitation centre exclusively
for young drug offenders to keep them apart
from hardened long term criminals.
Despite all the media exposure creating
Shapelle Corby as some sort of celebrity there
is no positive side to drugs. All politicians
should be drug tested and detoxed if
necessary, and then sacked if proving positive.
One wonders if all our political candidates
would be happy to comply with drug testing
as it is time to drain the swamp known as
parliament. How about Gatton? It's time we
got savage on drugs.
Perry J. B. Jewell
President and Spokesman
Attack Dangerous Drugs Injustice Corruption
Taskforce (A.D.D.I.C.T.) Association
The Lockyer Valley
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COUNCIL SEALS
DEAL ON ROAD
IMPROVEMENT
NATHAN GREAVES
nathan@thelockyer.com.au
With approximately 500 kilometres
of unsealed road to manage, the
Lockyer Valley Regional Council
deals with dozens of requests
and requirements to repair and
resurface roads.
The latest road section to be considered for
these works is a steep section along Beutels
Road, at Mount Whitestone.
The section in question rises approximately 20
metres in elevation over a 130-metre length,
and residents have reported having issues
with vehicles losing traction on the steep
section of road in both periods of wet weather
and extended periods of dry weather, which
the region has endured for quite some time.
Being a “lower order” road that only services
four properties, works on this section have
not been considered in previous budgets, but
following a site visit by Mayor Tanya Milligan
and Councillor Janice Holstein, consideration
was given to granting requests to improve the
road.
Their visit was in regards to one resident in
particular, who is wheelchair-bound and
unable to safely leave his property using the
steep road in the event of an evacuation being
necessary.
“After meeting with him, and speaking with
him, I’m very sympathetic,” Cr. Holstein said.
“He isn’t some city guy who’s moved out here
and demanded things be changed to suit
him. He was a long-term resident before his
accident.”
She also noted that sealing the surface on
this section of the road would help reduce
maintenance costs for the council.
The council voted to include the road sealing
as part of Councils Capital Works Program for
the 2020/21 financial year.
THE LOCKYER - Thursday October 22, 2020 - Page 4