As he shares the one department Rachel Nolan in Queensland Transport and Main Roads, it can be assumed that he will inform her of the meeting.
The Townsville members will confront Mr Wallace in his office as their local MP to insist that he support the petitions when they hit parliament. It will put him on notice that the drivers have issues and want action.
The Townsville member organising the meeting had a great idea. I would love to give proper credit but, at this stage, it is best policy to not publish names. Pity because the driver deserves high praise.
The suggestion made was that this tactic may have an effect on other MP's. It will certainly stir things up if cabbies around the state suddenly start appearing in their local MPs' offices all pushing the same issue.
I would like you to consider whether you can get a number of cabbies to form a group, make an appointment and see your MP to present the arguments in the petitions and demand support.
Never presume that they actually know about the issues. If aware, it should add weight to our push for the reforms. It will likely become the talk around George Street.
I helped prepare the written material for Craig Wallace's meeting and I would be happy to supply you with the same if you want to present it. It is basically the same content on the web site under January Petitions and Fair and Just Treatment.
Let me know what you think?
Peter Wellington
It is also appropriate here, in fact long overdue, to thank Peter Wellington MP, Member for NIcklin, for his invaluable assistance with his sponsorship of the petitions. It took a few weeks after I was stalled by Julie Attwood MP and Fiona Simpson MP, who for reasons unstated were reluctant to immediately agree to supporting our petitions. Neither actually refused but after waiting between two and three weeks, I approached Peter who immediately recognised the significance of our case and did not hesitate to support us. I saw him on a Friday at 2pm and received confirmation that the E-Petitions would be on the web site by early on the Monday morning. They were operating by 5pm that day.
What more could you ask for?
The delay in attaining the support has probably cost us the impact with the E-Petitions but there is still a week for people to sign on-line. However, even though we were banned at key places from attaining signatures we will have a strong number on the printed forms by the end of the week.
Again, need I say it? Tell everyone to sign the E-Petitions. It is open to all Queensland residents.
Lee
