We will not waver in our campaign for the right to know

IF THE Morrisson Federal Government, the Paluszczuk State Government and Curran Gympie Council think our campaign to break through their walls of secrecy is going away any time soon they should think again.

If they believe we are going to run out of energy or passion on this subject, they should think again.

Right now they think if they wait it out - bunker down - the pesky campaign for truth will go away. It will not.

The very future of democracy and freedom in this country depends on it.

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien is a good bloke, but he is part of an increasingly secretive Federal Government that hates to be embarrassed by the “negative media”.

Fun fact: “negative” is a word politicans love to use to make journalists feel bad about what they do - inform the people and keep the bastards honest.

We asked Llew, Tony and Mick what they thought about press freedom and they avoided straight answers.

The Mayor tried to blame “legislation” for the secrecy of his council, but no legislation forced him to kill general business, a move which effectively shut down all unrehearsed, unvetted, unapproved public comment or debate from this region’s democratically elected councillors.

And we have had to go through arduous, time consuming RTI procedures to prise out of the council’s clutches information we all all had every right to all along.

So, once again, Llew, Tony and Mick, I call on you - especially Llew, the most powerful and influential person in our region and who is part of the reigning national government - to help us open the door to truth and freedom of information.

We have already revealed the 11 times Gympie Regional Council recently did everything it could to keep information from us that we were entitled to. There is more where that came from.

We want to hear from you: what are the issues you want out in the open; the things you want to know?

Email editor@gympietimes.com.