Kylie Berryman and Ian Wall, along with a network of contacts from the shires of Murray River and Edward River, told The Riv they had been spurred into action on the back of concerns about the seemingly never-ending Murray River Energy ethanol plant project.
And, until now, they have been operating in the background.
“We have made the decision to go public, so to speak, because there is just too much happening for us to not be more outspoken about the way councils operate,” Mr Wall said.
The complicated ethanol plant proposal fell flat midway through its proposed establishment and only recently has council managed to reclaim funds it loaned to the proposed developer.
Ms Berryman and Mr Wall said they had been moved to make the establishment of their group a matter for public record because of the impending micro-abattoir development at Barham.
A public hearing about the reclassification of land on Gonn Rd at Barham will be held on Thursday, February 3, at the Barham Riverside Reception Centre at 6pm.
The group has followed the development closely and has questions it hopes to raise at the public hearing.
The Murray River Council website has full details of the meeting and the proposal.
There is no suggestion from the group that the micro-abattoir is “another Murray River Energy”, but they do have fears in regard to the information sharing by local government authorities with the public.
“Not all is well when it comes to the activities of local government. And they haven’t been for some time,” Mr Wall said.
Ms Berryman, who is well known to Murray River Council’s executive, said she had learnt a lot in the past two years, such as how to find things of public interest, how to access information and how to action those items.
She said such was the passion for the community to have matters investigated that she had regularly been provided with leads on issues that people “were not prepared to follow up”.
“I’ve had things dropped in my mail box, phone calls from people I don’t know and various requests to act on people’s behalf,” she said.
The ratepayers’ group is not an incorporated body, but does conduct its own meetings “when it is warranted” and “when things come up”.
“We talk quite regularly, but we pay any research or work we do ourselves, on our own time,” Ms Berryman said.
She described the group as a “forum where we can discuss topics of interest to ratepayers”.
“A lot of people are contacting us to look at stuff on their behalf. Within the group there is a wide variety of backgrounds,” she said.
She said the group was open to approaches from community members to speak on their behalf.
When asked why she didn’t just stand for council and have a direct line to the decision makers, she said she could have a greater impact “on the outside”.
“People have asked me ‘why don’t you stand for council?’,” she said.
“I believe we can do more good work for our ratepayers and our community not being on council.
“We can get more done in a group like this.”
Ms Berryman said she was not ready to be “banging her head up against a brick wall”.
The group is hoping it can “hold people to account’’ over matters like the ethanol plant.
“If we do not say anything, then we probably deserve what we get,” Ms Berryman said.