In this episode of the Breckie Club on West Bremer Radio, join Damo as he sits down with Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding for an insightful conversation. They kick off by celebrating the success of the 151st Ipswich Show, where Mayor Harding shares her experiences and highlights the community spirit with over 400 volunteers making it all possible. VIP guests, including Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and other prominent politicians, also made appearances, underscoring the event’s significance.
Mayor Harding discusses the Queensland Government’s move to seek community feedback on new regulations for compost facilities, aimed at minimizing odour impacts. This initiative follows persistent advocacy from the Council and community frustration over the noxious odours.
They also preview the upcoming Festival of Horsepower in June, packed with adrenaline-filled events like the Winter Nationals, Ipswich Cup, and the Queensland Kart Championships. Mayor Harding encourages the community to get involved and enjoy the festivities.
Finally, they touch on the Voluntary Home Buyback Program, marking the start of demolitions for flood-affected properties in Goodna, and celebrate a local grant awarded to the South Brisbane Chargers remote control car club.
Tune in for an engaging discussion on community efforts, upcoming events, and how the Council is working to improve life in Ipswich. Don’t miss out—get all the details in this episode!
00:00
It is a Tuesday morning here on the Breckie Club. And of course you’re listening on West streaming live on the app and also on Amazon Alexa and Google Smart Home speakers. Well, the show is done and dusted for 2024. The 151st show was a huge success. Lots of people coming through the gates and someone who had their own personal turnstile there was the Mayor, Teresa Harding. Good morning. How are you, Teresa? Morning, David. It was lovely to see you there.
00:28
each of the three days, it was a beautiful weekend. Yeah, it certainly was and as we said, so many people and of course, we had some VIPs coming through too, didn’t we? Yeah, we did. Apart from the show society president, Darren Zarno, who’s also our state MP, we also had on Sunday, the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers came in, Minister Murray Watt, who’s the Minister for
00:49
Agricultural fisheries and emergency management came on the at the opening as well as Java Christopher the opposition leader was there Saturday as well So yeah, it’s good to see and I obviously we always trying to pitch to get funding in our area so it was a great opportunity for that to showcase if switch meet these rich people and and Hit them up for some money. Well, hopefully they liked us and they’ll go away and start working on those budgets What do you reckon? That’s right. Absolutely Well, congratulations to all of the team and of course
01:17
Being Volunteers Week to all of the volunteers who make it happen, they did a sterling job too, didn’t they? They did, and the show actually had over 400 volunteers, just incredible. Just, you know, everyone has just got a great spirit, and it’s not just shows, it’s a lot of volunteers, like at the Ipswich Hospital Foundation, they were looking after gate five and the information booths. You know, so, you know, just all around the place, so many community groups came together to be part of that huge,
01:46
Ipswich show experience and I think our community is very grateful for it and really appreciative. And you know what, I met so many wonderful people. I met the lady and her family who used to run the open air skating rink in Ipswich. And it used to be down near the IGA there at West Ipswich and it got flooded out. And when they couldn’t get it all back together, all of the animals that they had there at the skating rink, they had snakes and everything, were all sold off to the Ipswich Show Society.
02:16
So there you go, that’s back in the day. Lots of stories at the show. There certainly is. All right, lots of stories we need to talk about too. And of course, the Queensland Government is now seeking community feedback on proposed stronger regulations requiring compost facilities to minimise odour impacts. This is a godsend for people in those suburbs struggling. Yeah, really happy. The Queensland Government have opened up for community feedback and consultation.
02:44
They’re proposing regulations that will include, given the regulator, the power to require composting facilities that are close to residential places to enclose or invest all their operations if they’re receiving odorous waste. I really encourage our community to participate. I spoke with the Minister for the Environment, Leon Linnard, back in September last year when I met with her suggesting this and our council wrote to her asking for this to happen. So look, that consultation is now open until the 14th of June. So I do encourage you to go on there.
03:14
and do that. It’s a really important step to making sure that we can get rid of these odours in Ipswich. And of course I know that Council has been advocating for this for quite some time, quite strongly and the many, many months and years residents have had to endure the stench of those waste odours. You know, we just need to find that solution now, don’t we? We do. It’s beyond the joke and you know, this Council last four years has had a very strong stance.
03:43
We have spent over $8 million on legal fees to stop expanding landfill, but the noxious odors and the stink is, is dreadful. And also the state government won’t do a public health inquiry. So look, it’s really important that the community give their feedback. I certainly will be and certainly be, and I will certainly be fighting to make sure that any of the composting facilities that have noxious odors are in vessel and in vessel or encased in a concrete structure.
04:11
or a hard structure, not just with textiles or a Gore-Tex. It needs to be a proper structure. Yes, certainly does. All right, that is good news on that front. Now something else that we can look forward to, just after the show, we’ve now got the big Festival of Horsepower. Well, I know everyone’s sad that the show’s over, but we’ve got something to put a smile on everyone’s dial. June is our Festival of Horsepower month. So we’ve got a number of adrenaline packed events that are on. We have…
04:39
the Gulf Western Oil Winter Nets on the 6th to the 9th of June. We have the TAB Ipswich Cup on the 22nd of June. We have the Western Star Feature Race Day on the 23rd of June. And a new one for this. We have the Queensland Kart Championships on the 28th to the 30th of June, as well as the Two Days of Thunder on the 29th to the 30th of June. So what’s happening? There certainly is. And of course, you can cruise the night as well. There’s the V8 Drift Experience. So
05:08
really is a lot to see and do and of course you can get behind all of those events, jump onto ipsw for all the information and get yourself booked in to go and see some of these great events for the Festival of Horsepower and before we let you go, one more little thing that we need to have a little look at and this is of course in some more good news for us the Voluntary Home Buyback Program, we saw the start of demolition
05:37
Yeah, so the voluntary home buyback program for people who were severely flooded. We’ve had our very first block of units or townhouses, it’s a strata title. So this is where in Mill Street in Goodna where all 20 homeowners had to agree otherwise it wouldn’t proceed. And they did all agree to that. So they’ve all had their townhouses bought back and the demolitions started last week. So that gives hope to 20 families. So it was really great to see that happen.
06:05
And of course, this is all part of that $741 million Resilient Homes Fund. And it’s good to see that money going to some good use. It is. And look, I guess these 20 units are just some of the 163 properties that have been bought back in the program. About 50 hectares of land have been bought back. And we expect to buy back about 300 homes courtesy of the Australian and the Queensland government’s program.
06:31
Yeah and it’s great too because I mean obviously to say people the hardship are going through further floods those land spaces will be turned into green space for the community. Yes look they’re being rezoned so you can’t build a dwelling there and you can’t build structures there so look some of them to me are pretty obvious like at Mill Street I love to see Western Spirit grounds get there we’d love great to have a few more soccer fields there as well but we’ll work with the community we’re going to be doing community consultation in a couple of months.
06:58
on what people want there. There’s quite a bit of green space that we do need to maintain there. So let’s get the best use out of it. Exactly. All right, before we let you go to congratulations to South Brisbane Chargers, the remote control car club picking up a grant. Oh, that’s fantastic. Isn’t it? It is, isn’t it? I think it’s- I’ll just encourage you just to put a grant in application. We’d love to, you know, we want to help our community groups. And so there’s-
07:21
quite a few grants that community groups can apply for. Yes, and I know that they just need to contact Council through the Council Call Centre and they can get information on any of those grants that are available to you, can’t they? They can, and we also run classes for community groups, master classes on attracting, you know, and volunteers fundraising, the constitution. So they’re really great courses for community groups who want to really get stronger. Exactly.
07:49
Thank you so much for joining us and you know talking through a number of issues. Well done on the show. I know also you were there part of Rotary in there selling beautiful strawberry sundaes. They’re very popular. We sold a lot, especially on Saturday. We sold a lot on Saturday. And on Sunday, because you came to see us and then we went off and bought them all. I did. Thank you for supporting local. I must have popped in to see you guys on Sunday afternoon.
08:13
At Sparkey came through with a few morale boosting strawberry sundaes. I think they were very much needed at that point in the afternoon. Let me tell you. Thank you so much, Theresa. Have a wonderful week. Thanks, Damo. There we go. Mayor Teresa Harding joining us to take a little look at what’s been happening in Ipswich in the past week. We’ll take a break. Come back with more in a moment.
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