Bert van Manen MP, Federal Member for Forde hosted the Beenleigh Community Forum on Thursday night, where local community members were given the opportunity to ask questions about Logan City and Beenleigh, to three levels of government.
Melissa McMahon, State Member for Macalister; Councillor Karen Murphy, Division 12 Logan City Council, and Inspector Glenn Allen and Senior Sergeant Corinne Brown from Logan Police, Beenleigh made up the remainder of the Q and A panel.
Cr Jon Raven even made an impromptu appearance on the panel to help address local residents concerns.
130 local residents attended, and all of their questions were answered by the panel.
The questions and concerns addressed at the panel were very broad, and covered a wide range of topics from youth crime, the town centre beautification, dangerous roundabouts and intersections, the PRS clinic in the city square, to a new service station in town.
Mr Van Manen said he believed the Beenleigh community forum was a positive step forward for the community.
“I’ve organised this Forum to give people the opportunity to discuss issues, concerns and ideas for working together to improve our community,” he said.
“I’m delighted that all three levels of government, plus the Queensland Police, are coming together at the Community Forum.
“We all share a common goal, which is for Beenleigh to be a safe, thriving, fantastic place to live and raise our families.
“We’ll be running a series of these (the community forums) around the electorate over the coming 12 months.
“I thought it was very positive because people got to voice their concerns, hear from three levels of government on what we’re doing in that space, what we’re considering doing, and how we’re trying to resolve these issues.”
Mr Van Manen said the community forum was also an opportunity to help explain to locals the complexity of some of the issues raised.
“Sometimes in an email or a phone call you don’t necessarily get to hear that, or maybe one person does but then the broader community doesn’t,” he said.
“The benefit of having so many people here is that a much broader range of the community gets to hear the complexity of some of the problems we’re dealing with.”
Mr Van Manen also shared his gratitude to the local residents who attended the night.
“The success of these nights is dictated by the communities willingness to be involved .”
