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Week commencing Thursday, 1 June | 2017 | Edition 878
13750 copies delivered weekly
www.freetimes.com.au
O’Dempsey sentence today
New face at the RSL
Photographers on show
Casey’s Spin
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PAGES 18-19
Town Hall is set to rock... By Jeremy Sollars Warwick State High School’s ’Great Australian Rock Musical’ premieres tonight at the Warwick Town Hall - tickets are still available for tonight, some are still up for grabs for Friday night; Saturday night is a sell-out. See page 17 for more...
Saleyards secrecy? By Jeremy Sollars Minutes of the Southern Downs Regional Council’s Saleyards Advisory Committee remain under a shroud of secrecy following last week’s council meeting where it was announced expressions of interest would be sought for external management of the Warwick Saleyards. As previously reported in the Free Times, the Saleyards Advisory Committee first met in December last year, when it discussed the expressions of
interest (EOI) option, along with the potential demolition of the Warwick Saleyards and the building of a new $15 million facility nearby. Since then the committee has only held one ordinary meeting - in March with a ‘special meeting’ held on Friday 5 May. But the only minutes which have been publicly released to date are those of the December meeting, and when the Free Times asked the council on Monday 22 May why the March Committee minutes had not yet been made
publicly available - and when the next meeting was due - a council spokeswoman did not mention the special meeting on 5 May, and advised the next committee meeting was due “in late June”. The 5 May special meeting was noted in the last item of the confidential agenda section of the May meeting of the council, held last week in Stanthorpe. Further inquiries to the council about the confidential minutes resulted in the following response from a coun-
cil spokeswoman. “Due to the confidential nature of these minutes, it was identified that these would be presented to council incamera. The next meeting is still to be held in June. This is the next meeting of the committee.” Reaction to the announcement that EOIs would be called for outside management of the Warwick Saleyards has been mixed, with many producers left asking why this option would be explored if the saleyards turn an annual profit.
Many are also concerned that an external private operator could increase selling costs for cattle and sheep, which could drive producers to online livestock sales which are growing in popularity. The Free Times asked the council for details of the Warwick Saleyards annual profit, and if the idea to call for EOIs originated with the Saleyards Advisory Committee or with the mayor and councillors. Continued page 3
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