Rockhampton to withdraw from CQROC

Published on 17 June 2019

Rockhampton Regional Council today announced it will not be part of the Central Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (CQROC) when it moves into formal Incorporation later this month.

CQROC is a collaboration of six Councils with an annual rotating Chair.

Mayor Margaret Strelow said while the CQROC was dealing with broader regional issues such as highway funding and disaster management or while it was advocating for ‘whole of region’ issues like flood monitoring improvements, Council was very happy to be significant partners.

“However once it flagged rule changes that would allow the ROC to offer support to one member council against another, it crossed a line for us,” Mayor Strelow said.

“We had tried to avoid the circumstances that have come about but we respect the choices that the other Councils have taken.

“The rule change that has been adopted to take effect at incorporation allows the ROC to support one Council over another when two Councils are competing for the same Grant or when two Councils are vying to attract the same developer to an area.

‘We really couldn’t support a group which might work against our own community’s interests.”

Mayor Strelow said that she was disappointed at the missed opportunity for formal collaboration but that RRC remains committed to working together with other Local Governments on broader regional goals.

“We remain committed to being a foundation member of the larger Alliance of Councils, which was proposed by Central Highlands Regional Council, and which has an agenda of general regional advocacy.”

Rockhampton Regional Council remains a member of LGAQ, Regional Capitals Australia, and of the Capricornia Pest Management Group as well as a number of other Local Government groups including the Airport Owners Group and LAWMAC, and tourism groups such as the Drive Inland Promotions Association which promotes the drive market to Grey Nomads.