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South Burnett Polls - What YOU Say About The Key Issues Of The Day

South Burnett Online introduced online polls in January 2004 so that our visitors could have a say on the important issues of the day. You can review the results of all the polls we've run below.

Please note that our polls are not necessarily representative of the views of all of our readers - just those who've participated. And since we have a wide audience outside the South Burnett, some people participating in polls may not be reflecting the views of South Burnett residents.

Poll #5: Should the Federal Government sell off the rest of Telstra?
(Poll ran for 264 days from 04-Mar-05 to 22-Nov-05 - 157 votes)
Yes  
17 votes - 10.8%
No  
140 votes - 89.2%
Notes: In mid-2005 the Federal Government used its control of both houses of Parliament to pass new laws which will allow it to sell off its remaining majority stake in Telstra at some future time.

The new laws were passed despite clear evidence that the move to privatise the company was strongly opposed by the majority of Australians. And in the South Burnett's case (as this poll showed) roughly 90% of residents viewed any further privatisation of Telstra as a backward step.

The clear views of South Burnett residents were ignored by the Member for Blair
Mr Cameron Thompson and the Member for Wide Bay Mr Warren Truss.
They both voted in favour of the new laws.

 
Poll #4: What's the prettiest town (ie more than 500 people) in the South Burnett?
(Poll ran for 167 days from 18-Sep-04 to 03-Mar-05 - 177 votes)
Blackbutt  
32 votes - 18.2%
Yarraman 
13 votes - 7.4%
Nanango 
14 votes - 7.5%
Kingaroy 
20 votes - 11.4%
Wondai 
61 votes - 34.6%
Murgon 
37 votes - 20.9%
Notes: The topic of this poll was similar to the poll the preceded it (the prettiest village in he South Burnett) and was chosen - once again - to include both South Burnett residents and visitors. In order to minimise the chance of parochialism playing a big part in the voting process, we ran this poll for a looooong time.

Interestingly, the winner of this poll by a very wide margin was Wondai (which also won the "Friendliest Town" section of the annual Tidy Towns competition last year). A decade ago Wondai would likely have come last - but thanks to extensive CBD beautification and streetscaping by Wondai Shire Council and community groups during he 1990s, we think most people will agree that it deserves top of the tree status.

Pleasingly, Wondai was followed by Murgon - which has also begun to invest a lot in greening its CBD over the last few years - and Blackbutt, where community groups have been working on brightening the town's CBD and are continuing to do so.

Plainly the other the towns in the poll (which include two of the region's biggest towns) still have some work to do. So we'll re-run this poll in a few years and see if you think they have!

 
Poll #3: What's the prettiest village (ie 500 people or less) in the South Burnett?
(Poll ran for 138 days from 01-May-04 to 17-Sep-04 - 277 votes)
Kilkivan  
109 votes - 39.3%
Goomeri 
23 votes - 8.3%
Tingoora 
18 votes - 6.5%
Proston 
8 votes - 2.8%
Hivesville 
7 votes - 2.5%
Wooroolin 
14 votes - 5.0%
Kumbia 
64 votes - 23.2%
Maidenwell 
23 votes - 8.3%
Cooyar 
6 votes - 2.2%
Benarkin 
5 votes - 1.9%
Notes: The topic of this poll was chosen to include both South Burnett residents and visitors. While it's highly likely that parochialism may have played some part in the voting process (that is to say, locals may have voted for their own home town) the results do tend to accord with reports received from tourists at the region's Visitor Information Centres.

In this poll, the two prettiest villages in the region are Kilkivan and Kumbia - both leafy, green and welcoming places with their own unique charm. Maidenwell and Goomeri both bring up the second tier at some distance from the leaders. They have fewer trees but each, too, has its own unique character.

These were then followed very closely by Tingoora and Wooroolin, the two principal waystation villages on the highway between Kingaroy and Wondai.

 
Poll #2: In terms of vision, growth strategy and community involvement,
who's the best Mayor in the South Burnett?
(Poll ran for 82 days from 07-Feb-04 to 30-Apr-04 - 339 votes)
Reg McCallum (Nanango) 
31 votes - 9.1%
Noel Strohfeld (Rosalie) 
34 votes - 10.1%
Roger Nunn (Kingaroy) 
89 votes - 26.3%
Percy Iszlaub (Wondai) 
37 votes - 10.9%
Warren Hubner (Murgon) 
6 votes - 1.7%
David Lahiff (Kilkivan) 
142 votes - 41.9%
Notes: The topic of this poll was deliberately chosen to exclude non-South Burnett residents and it ran from a period beginning 7 weeks before the 2004 Local Government elections to a period roughly 5 weeks afterwards. In those elections, former Wondai Shire Mayor Percy Iszlaub chose to retire and his place was taken by the Shire's former Deputy Mayor David Carter.

Interestingly, all the South Burnett Mayors who stood in the 2004 elections were returned with the exception of our top pollster (Kilkivan's David Lahiff) who was narrowly beaten by Ron Dyne.

Mr Lahiff appears to have been a victim of a wave of dissatisfaction that swept through rural areas in the 2004 polls. In most areas outside the South Burnett - and part of Kilkivan Shire exists outside the region - incumbent Mayors were swept away in an almost unprecedented landslide (for example, nearly all the Mayors in the adjoining North Burnett region lost their seats).

Poll #1: How will you vote in the State Election in February 2004?
(Poll ran for 33 days from 06-Jan-04 to 07-Feb-04 - 152 votes)
National 
69 votes - 45.4%
Liberal 
7 votes - 4.6%
Labor 
33 votes - 21.7%
Independent 
33 votes - 21.7%
Greens 
7 votes - 4.6%
Democrats 
1 vote - 0.7%
One Nation 
1 vote - 0.7%
Other 
1 vote - 0.7%
Notes: The Queensland State Election was held on February 7th 2004. In the electorates of Nanango and Callide (which both cover the South Burnett) the incumbents were returned. There was a swing of 4.2% against the Independent member for Nanango and a swing of 19.3% in favour of the National member for Callide. The votes of both the ALP and One Nation collapsed in both electorates. No candidates for either the Liberals or the Democrats ran in either seat.

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