Mitch Robson

4:05 Councillor Wilkie: The first deputation is from Mr. Mitch Robson, Mr. Matthew Nofty and Mr. Greg Wood. Mr. Robson, would you like to come to the podium? I'm not going to come up first. Yes. That's all right. Yep. We have 15 minutes. That's allocated for your deputation. You have to go. Entirely.

4:24 Matthew Nofty: Entirely. Hello.

4:27 My name is Matthew Nofty, I'm from Kipkula, Kooroola and the three of us are here to speak with you in regards to the Kooroola Great Walk eco-tourism proposal. Firstly, you may be asking yourself, what does the proposal have to do with Noosa Council? We are more than aware that this project is being delivered by the State Government, but over the years that this project has been developed, Noosa Council has been given opportunities to provide feedback on the proposal and can still give feedback. This is evident through Noosa Council's 2019 submission and then also as Noosa Council has been listed as a key stakeholder in the State Government's 2020 consultation activities document. Noosa Council has also met with CABIN, the selected tenderer. Yet, for some reason, Noosa Council has not met with the Noosa community, the people that they represent. In regards to the proposal, I believe that we have all been misled, led down the garden path. The main structural problem with the Kooroola Great Walk eco-tourism proposal is that it failed miserably in its community consultation. This has led to less than mediocre outcomes and has resulted in major transparency issues. If the State Government had genuinely intervened, we would not have been able to deliver this proposal. Noosa Council included the community in its decision-making process from day one.

5:44 This proposal could have provided great environmental outcomes for the park and genuine opportunities for Kabi people. Many people live in Noosa because of the natural environment and we are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such pristine and accessible natural landscapes. Yet, these are only available to us now because of the tireless work by certain community members that stood up for parks' protection. Every year, urban development slowly erodes our green space. But luckily, we have national parks to act as a buffer zone. After years of campaigning, the most common response we get from people who hear about the proposal for the first time is, How can they do this? It is a national park. National parks are a place for nature to thrive. They are places that are free from commercial pressures and degrading infrastructure developments. Well, after speaking with many of your fellow constituents, that is what they believe. But unfortunately, no mistaken. That is what national parks should be and we believe that you can help to better protect them as currently the legislation that is supposed to protect national parks is obviously simply and plainly not good enough. This proposal has been presented as being necessary to address current degradation within the national park. We have lowered the bar down so far that in order to fix degradation within the park, we first have to agree to degrading the park.

7:04 This proposal has also been presented as being delivered to First Nations people. You don't have to look very far to realise that this is simply not true. These hollow misrepresentations by the state government don't only cover up the real issue. They distract us away from the simple fact that developments and unnecessary commercial pressures have no place in national parks. I believe that Noosa Council has also been drawn into these false narratives and are possibly circulating incorrect historical information that has been used to justify the Great Walk proposal. Therefore, I would again like to form a request that the Noosa Council see this proposal as being necessary. I would like to finish with a rhetorical question. When did it become acceptable for government departments to marginalise people for wanting to protect the environmental values of a national park? Shutting people out of proposals and decision-making processes that will clearly impact them is not the kind of governance we should be accepting in the 21st century. It only radicalises people as it forces them to jump up and down, make noise to be heard. It's such a waste of energy. It leads to transparency issues, which opens the door to corruption. We can do better. The community needs conversations and consultation. This is the only way to achieve successful outcomes for the environment and the people who live here.

8:20 Mitch would now like to speak with you about the precise nature of the problem we are all facing.