Mayor Thorley - where's that 70% hiding?

The so called "independent" group associated with the Council who have been out trawling for signatures to support Mayor Thorley's controversial recycled sewage project must be wondering where the elusive 70% the Mayor says support her are hiding.

Wherever they are they certainly aren't stepping up to sign the petition to support the embattled Mayor.

The Chronicle on 10 March 2006 reported that the Council support group had extended the date by which it would have all its signatures and present it to Federal parliament.

Originally planning to present the petition in January, the group postponed to 17 March and now are postponing again until after the Council releases its $41,000 Water Book.

(Interestingly, the group planned to have the petition presented to Federal parliament on 22 March. For a group which includes teachers and academics, they did precious little homework - Federal parliament isn't sitting that week!)

What happened?

"We have already got something in the vicinity of 1500 sheets out there in just a few days," Mr Nolan said. (Toowoomba Chronicle 9 December 2005)

"So far we have distributed 78 petitions of 10 pages each (200 signatures each petition) and are well on our way to securing 20,000 signatures all up." (Barbara Ryan - 15 December 2005)

Mr Nolan said that even before yesterday's launch, there had been an overwhelming response from people saying "thank goodness someone is going [sic] this", "how can I get involved" and "what can I do to help". (Toowoomba Chronicle 16 December 2005)

"They were confident of securing 20,000 signatures by next month." Spokesman Jeff Nolan said 80 people had copies of the petition. (Toowoomba Chronicle 20 January 2006)

Was it all just PR spin?

They "expected to get 20,000 signatures in favour of Water Futures including its proposal to recycle effluent for drinking. Mr Nolan said that number was now considered over ambitious." (Toowoomba Chronicle 10 March 2006)

But if Mayor Thorley is truthful when she says 70% of the community support her plans, wouldn't it be easy to get them all to sign the petition supporting her?

Could it be that they have discovered what many people already know - that the majority of the Toowoomba community do not want to drink recycled sewage ...