Put your money where your heart is - buy local

Published 23 April 2020

Premier Palaszczuk instructed Queenslanders to “stay in your village” through Easter, now Council wants you to “shop in your village”.

Moreton Bay Regional Mayor Peter Flannery said that was surprisingly easy, thanks to the transformations undertaken by industrious local businesses to keep trading through COVID-19 restrictions.

“While some local businesses have gone into hibernation, many are continuing to trade,” he said.

“They need your help to survive this period and we will need those businesses on the other side of this pandemic to rebuild our community.

“I’ll be talking to Councillors about that at our meeting next week.

“Independent local businesses are more likely to use local suppliers, hire locals, and create local opportunities.

“And this is so important for the health of our local economies across the region by injecting a cash flow when it’s most needed.

“Local businesses are embracing the #MoretonBayTough mantra, they’re innovating day-by-day to keep their doors open and keep serving our community.

“Bribie Island RSL is now offering free home delivery for dinners and pre-ordered lunches, which is invaluable for the island’s elderly and at-risk residents.

“The Golden Ox seafood restaurant at Margate has shown after 43 years of business it can still adapt to the current times by introducing a new online and phone order menu.

“World Gym Burpengary is helping locals stay healthy at home by offering fresh and frozen meals with minimal calories.

“Businesses who continue to evolve or provide an invaluable service to the community during unusual times will always standout and potentially even thrive.

“Council is heeding its own advice by ensuring we shop locally wherever we possibly can too.

“We’re keeping the bulk of our existing contracts while also hiring new employees and providers for new work that we’ve accelerated to stimulate the economy.

“One example of this is our monthly spend on our many regular suppliers such as Peninsula Auto Spares who helps us with parts for maintenance of our more than 1000 heavy and light fleet vehicles.

“We’re also sourcing hundreds of litres of sanitiser and other cleaning products from multiple local suppliers that will then be distributed across Council sites and workshops to ensure our employees are practising good hygiene.

“We recently printed out 950 corflutes and 1000 stickers from three different printing and sign companies from Caboolture to Strathpine. These will be used for various coronavirus related messaging in public spaces.

“Council is looking to hire new temporary staff in the asset maintenance team to work on various labour jobs on our parks and roads.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg for what Council is doing to ensure locals have jobs through these testing times, but we know ratepayers are #MoretonBayTough and we’ll get through this together.”