Deputations and public questions to council, each opening on what council's minutes record of it.
2026-01-22
Public question
Ordinary Meeting
John Spencer
Heard at the meeting. Council's recording has these questions from 23:27; our transcript is below.
▶ Hear it — council's recording, from 23:27
The feed timestamps the whole public question block rather than each speaker, so this starts at the top of that block.
What the minutes record
Question 1
Would it not be better for Council to conduct community consultation surveys through an appropriate independent third party. This would almost certainly provide more detailed and accurate information and remove the perception of bias which is inherent in council run surveys. Does the council not think that this would improve community confidence that their views were being adequately represented particularly if the results were published in full and in a timely fashion?
Response from Acting Chief Executive Officer, Richard MacGillivray
Thank you, Mr Spencer, for your question.
Council is committed to meaningful engagement that is reflective of the broader community and its practices are underpinned by the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2), globally recognised for its best practice approach to community engagement. Council also has a Community Engagement framework to provide the context on how to plan, design and implement the community engagement process for identified projects, strategies, and decision-making processes.
Surveys are one part of the conversation with our community, as we adopt an integrated approach to community engagement which is consistent with best practice. There are a range of options offered, including face-to-face engagement and the opportunity to provide written submissions.
Council staff make an operational decision to design, develop and test community engagement surveys in-house and these are developed by highly skilled engagement professionals. The cost to engage an independent third party to provide this service can be significant. For some of the complex or high-profile community engagement projects, such as the Noosaville Foreshore Infrastructure Master Plan, Pomona Place Plan and Housing Strategy, we have partnered with specialised consultants to assist with survey design and the analysis of data. In line with our Community Engagement Framework, we endeavour to “close the loop” with the community by reporting back what we heard and how it influenced Council’s decision-making.
We acknowledge there have been some delays in providing reports for some of our recent engagement projects. We continually review and investigate methods to enhance our engagement and encourage members of the community to sign up to be part of our newly formed Community Engagement Feedback panel for future projects
Question 2
Would the Council please improve the sound system in the Council Chamber so that the person asking a public question is heard on the video proceedings with as much volume and clarity as the person responding for Council?
Response from Acting Director Corporate Services, Margaret Gatt
Regarding the public question about improving the sound system in the Council Chamber to ensure that public questions are heard as clearly as the responses, I propose an immediate and a longer-term solution. For the immediate solution, we can utilise the portable PA system with two mobile microphones. This system is already used effectively during our remote Council meetings throughout the region. By using the PA system, we can amplify the questions so that the streaming audio picks them up clearly, ensuring that the public question is heard with much more volume and clarity.
In the long term, we plan to look at further permanent upgrades for the Council Chambers.
This is council's own minuted record, in council's words. Nothing is reworded: the questions, headings and bullets are laid out as the printed minutes set them. Left out are the speaker's name (it heads this page), the minutes' page-header dates, and any “meeting adjourned” line the extract caught. Where an officer answered, the answer is minuted with the question and appears above.
Transcript of the recording
What this is. Transcript of council's recording, produced by automatic speech recognition and not checked line by line against the video. Names and figures are where this kind of transcript fails first. It is our transcript, not council's record. Recording © Noosa Shire Council. Council's own recording is linked above; where the two differ, the recording governs.
23:27 Mayor Wilkie: The next application with two questions is from Mr John Spencer. Spencer, welcome to the line. The question 1 will be answered by Acting CEO Richard MacGillivray. Question 2 will be answered by Acting Director of Court Services, Mark Batchelor. Thank you, Chairman.
23:47 Speaker 7: Thank you, Chairman. My question has partly been raised by a previous speaker. The background to my question is that Mr Spencer is currently the Chief Executive Officer of These are the ways in which Noosa Council gathers information on community opinions, as is required by the relevant statutory acts. The background is that these consultation processes or surveys are often conducted, as we've heard, in-house using council staff. The results are often presented as a very brief summary with no detailed analysis or breakdown and only superficial mention of the methodology. This type of consultation, as we've heard, does not inspire community confidence, as there will always be a perception of bias towards pre-existing council plans. Adverse community reaction to the Noosa River Forefront Plan and now the new Destination Management Plan indicates that carrying out an in-house community consultation process is not always entirely satisfactory. Determining public opinion on any subject is a skilled process, and organisations exist which specialise in this.
25:09 One such company claims it is used by 60% of local governments throughout Australia. Obtaining detailed information on public opinion in this way, as part of the planning process, would be cost-effective as time and money spent on plans are unacceptable to the community. My question, therefore, very simply is, would it not improve community confidence in the consultation process if council conducted surveys and opinion polls through an appropriately qualified independent third party?
Others who spoke that day