Resolute Queensland disability pensioner Wes Walker couldn’t think of a better 58th birthday present than the phone call he got from Lockyer MP Jim McDonald this week.
Weeks after Walker’s herculean sit-in at the Gatton pads began in protest of the absence of amenities there, McDonald, a long-time campaign supporter, rang Walker to inform him they’d had a breakthrough.
He told Walker that both the University of Queensland, who oversees the adjoining fields, and the local council had signed off on the push for a toilet/shower block at the decoupling facility.
Initially the TMR had informed Big Rigs that it had nixed the idea of toilets at Gatton because the university advised them they would be too much of a bio-security threat.
But after viewing Walker’s graphic photos of the state the site is in now without them, they have backflipped.
McDonald tells Big Rigs that with no impediments now in the way, the only thing stopping the building of a toilet/shower block is the TMR who he is hoping to meet with in the next week or two to seal the deal.
He estimates the cost of construction to be only $30,000-$50,000, a far cry from the $18 million it cost to build the facility.
McDonald says he’ll also be reinforcing the fact that six of the 15 other decoupling sites in the state already have toilets.
“We’ve beat the bastards – there are no excuses now,” said a triumphant Walker.