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00:00:00 Councillor Wilkie: Yes, thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I guess I'll charge you some money. I'm ready to bloody charge. We'll keep going. Councillor Wilkie: Right. Oh, sorry, Chris. Speaker 7: Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Welcome back, everybody. We have declared the meeting open, and we're out to item seven on the agenda, which is the council meeting schedule, January to March 2020, which is page three of the services and organisation committee agenda. Council Jurisdict has moved the motion, and Joe... Councillor Jurisevic: This is business as usual to formalise the meeting process up until the election, so... Okay. Can I suggest we ask her a question? Can I suggest... Councillor Jackson: Yeah, so my question is, of the CEO, as the election's on March 28th, how does the council proceed to decide on a meeting for April? Speaker 7: It doesn't. Under the Act, there's a thing called the post-election meeting. It's a post-election meeting, which the CEO has authority to call.
00:01:00 So you might recall in this term where you get sworn in. They're very correct. So that date is then dependent upon the declaration of the poll. So the complicating thing this time will be we've got Easter in that declaration of the poll period, so it'll be interesting to see how quick ECQ can get the poll counted. So what we do is they have the declaration of the poll, and I'm doing this from every day, I can't recall how many days, I have to call a post-election meeting, but we then swear in the councillors, and it's at that meeting you recall that we would then set the timetable for future dates for meetings and so on. So that meeting will happen in April, but the date can't be set at this stage because you don't know when the... Councillor Jackson: Oh, you couldn't be set. I just, in fact, I'm beginning to think there probably can't be a normal meeting in April. Speaker 7: Oh, no, it's not a normal meeting. No, no. It is in the declaration of the poll, yes, but also at that meeting it sets the framework for the dates for future meetings and so on, which is what we did last time. There are a couple of other things that must be dealt with at this. One of them is actually council remuneration for expenses, policies, and things like that.
00:02:00 There are some prescribed things that need to be dealt with at that meeting, but it's really a procedural meeting to get sworn in and get going, and then the body of work, if you like, commences in May. Councillor Jackson: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: It'd be a pleasant change to hear a sworn in and not sworn out. Councillor Wilkie: Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? Jody, would you close? Councillor Jurisevic: That was it. Councillor Wilkie: Okay, put the motion in favour. Against? The motion is carried unanimously. Next up is item eight, which is the social strategy implementation update. Eltham. 2018 and 19. I'm happy to move that one. Kerry and Alison. Moved by Councillor Jackson, seconded by Councillor Jurisevic. Speaker 7: What have you been doing? Councillor Wilkie: I'm sleeping. Wow. Councillor Jackson, you wish to speak to the motion? Councillor Jackson: Yes, I will. I'd like to say and thank staff. I think there is evidence of a large amount of work being done to support our community
00:03:00 and to support our community. And I think the social strategy has covered a lot of areas and a lot of those have been progressed. And I think this is a very important element of our role in the council. And the request is to consider resourcing appropriately a review of the social strategy, which I think is a timely thing to do. I think there's been a lot of work done and it's a good time to have another look at that. Obviously, it's going to be in the new term of the next council and things will have been changing and it will be important to have another look to see what can be done. So, yeah, I'm very supportive of this motion. Councillor Wilkie: Any questions of staff or councillors?
00:04:00 Can the councillors just speak, councillor Park? Councillor Pardon: Yeah, I'll speak to the motion. Absolutely. I think our staff are a bit unheralded here with regards to the work that they do, community development, et cetera. Massive job, really. If you look, they've dot-pointed many things in the report here and you can condense them. You can do a lot of dot-points and put a lot of things beside. But the work for each of those dot-points and the work for each of those dot-points that's gone in to making that section and our community socially a lot more robust, the inclusiveness, et cetera. Some of the stuff going forward, I think it's good to have a review. It's always good to have a look at where you are and where you're going going forward, obviously. But figures like 1.7 million plus that staff have helped, community organisations, go
00:05:00 for grants, et cetera. And I'll go back years here where originally we did not have community development in the old council way back. And then we got community development officers on-side. Yeah. And the contribution, they pay for themselves more than twice over, I think. You couldn't count their contribution in dollars, I guess. With regards to the social capital they build as well, I mean, how do you cost social capital? It's massive. But in dollar terms, given that, if I go back to about 1997, the report that's on the record somewhere where Noosa Shire got about two bucks a head, $2 a head in grants, Maroochydore
00:06:00 was about $12 a head, and I think Caloundra was about $16 a head with regards to state and federal funding and grant opportunities. Now, I don't know how much a head this is, but 1.7 million. And these millions come every year, it's not just one year, massive amount of funding injected. That our people... When I say our people, the organisations within our community didn't have the skills, a lot of them, the wherewithal to actually apply for these grants. So the whole Shire was missing out big time, but not anymore. And we're probably more on the front foot, or at least matching, I would say, most of the Shires across the state of Queensland with regards to... The money that community development officers helped bring in here, and the staff.
00:07:00 So it's a tremendous, tremendous effort by them. And the result of that is building that, as I say, social capital, big time. And some of the letters, that one with regards to, on page eight down at the bottom, the social services hub at Tate Duke Cottage has changed my life, I was able to not only access housing, but also I received excellent service from Centrelink, Sunny Street, and Red Cross Employment Services. Thank you for offering this service to the Noosa community, much appreciated. Now this hub at Tate Duke, that our community services virtually set up, and meet with the various services across the Shire, to help people. Whether it's housing. Other problems. Where to go. And what to do. There's a tremendous outreach service there.
00:08:00 And I think once a month, or whatever, they meet there. I send people there now. You send them to Tate Duke. They go there, and they get the knowledge. Whether it's the CES, unemployment benefits they're looking at, whether it's housing, et cetera, et cetera. Tremendous service. And hats off to Tate Duke. And their achievements. So in the big picture, I just can't say enough about our staff. Going forward, with regards to funding, we always have debates about local governments, what we should fund, what the state should fund, and what the feds should fund. And we'll always have those debates. But it just turns out most of the time, not most of the time, all the time, we're at the coalface. We live here. We are part of our community. And thus it falls on our shoulders.
00:09:00 Much of the time, whether it's job creation, affordable housing, whatever, we pick up the tab quite often. And so we need to partner as much as we do now with state and federal opportunities with funding from them. And we do. This is never going to stop. This work will go on forever and a day. Affordable housing, I think going forward, we're looking at a policy now to put together. And I think council will do more in this space with regards to affordable housing. Whatever terminology you want to use, affordable housing, social housing, there's all different terminologies. I think in the planning scheme, they talk about social housing. Doesn't matter. The point is we have parks here with people sleeping in them and under bridges, et cetera. You're never going to have enough money to house them or have enough opportunity, but we will try and do our best for them because it's part of building that social capital.
00:10:00 But tremendous work that's done. Can't say enough, give enough accolades to staff with regards to this. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Stroud. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Stockwell. Yeah, I'll speak. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Councillor Stockwell. Councillor Stockwell. It's interesting when we, I reflected back on this report compared to the one we just had on the environment grants and the motion that included reference to tangible outcomes. And so while this report lists a great deal of very good outputs, we have to look into it in terms of the quote that Councillor Pardon used for outcomes and we know there are outcomes. And I think perhaps when we do the review, the themes are really important. We've got to look at the outcomes and we may, and when this gets reviewed, it'll probably get reviewed in line with the types of monetary evaluation and performance targets we've been
00:11:00 putting into the more recent strategies. But I would just like to use this opportunity to say that if there was ever a great demonstration of what a cohesive and resilient community looks like, it was last week, that never in my life have I heard over the media, stop helping. We've got too much food. I think it's, it is exactly what as elected representatives is, what we experienced last week was the dream you'd have of how a community would respond to an emergency situation. We're very fortunate that the emergency didn't turn into a significant disaster. And what it did was demonstrate the impact that it had on the community.
00:12:00 I think it's really good to reflect on a strategy that's been in place for a long time and it's one which unfortunately we're going to have to continue to build the cohesiveness and the resilience of our community because the nature of emergencies are likely to be more significant and more frequent going into the future. But a job well done and just that one note that as we review, let's look at how we turn those scenes and do targeted outcomes. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Jurisevic. Yeah, anybody out there that believes council's about roads, rates and rubbish needs to have a read of this report and see the valuable work this small and dynamic group within our council team does. I well up when I think about it. I think about some of the things that go on here, I'm very immensely proud of the work that gets undertaken on behalf of our community in here, things like resilience.
00:13:00 We know how difficult it is to maintain community organisations and get volunteers, so we're supporting with president, secretaries and treasurer's meetups and workshops to build that resilience and build that fundamental understanding of the roles within community organisations to keep them functioning. And I think that's really important. And occurring councillor, pardon alluded to one area that in particular is going extremely well and that is our social services hub and I can't thank the staff enough for the work and all the community groups that are associated with that and all the networking that goes on to provide facilities and services for those in need within our community. None more. Yeah. Councillor Stockwell alluded to it. None more. I can say for the past two weeks or in the past week we're ongoing with our recovery group and the same group of people within council that are associated with ensuring that this community has all the resources they need to recover from a fairly dramatic
00:14:00 event, although short lived, that will go on and on being an impact on our community for a long, long time. You don't recover from this overnight, this impact on our community for a long time. And again very, very, very proud. Looking at our sporting facilities and the complex mate spaces that are gut in here. To make sure that we do have growth and development of these facilities for years to come. And they provide a great place to enjoy activities for the community. Come on Fridays to keep kids getting involved. I mean, the community grants that we've been getting out there, the external assistance that Councillor Pardon alluded to with regard to finances and working with our community groups to try and tap into all of those finances so that we can have the best facilities. Libraries, RETF programs, all those creative and involved areas as well. I mean, I've said that it just goes on and on and on.
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00:15:00 So I'm immensely proud of what Council does in this year. And I look forward to the ongoing work that this team continues to deliver for our community for the years to come. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Warnes. Mayor Wellington: Yeah, look, I concur with my fellow councillors. I think we're very lucky to have such capability. We have such a capable director, such capable managers and such terrific staff in our community services department. I just want to point out that in particular, prior to last week's somewhat exceptional events, I'd received in the week before some four different situations where community groups thanked me for the efforts of our community services staff in helping them deliver to their community and helping them reach their capacity. In sorting out internal issues, our staff were always there to help. And thankfully, they're very much appreciated by the community.
00:16:00 Councillor Glasgow: Jess, yeah, I'll just keep it brief as well. You, both you and your team go above and beyond. I see it every day. And obviously being in the RATF, I see it hand on heart how it goes directly to the young, inspiring artists in our beautiful community. So I'll just say you go above and beyond and you've seen what we've done. And last week, Emily even swiped away the mic on Sunday with her eyes hanging out of her head going back there. So it never stops, does it? So thank you, I appreciate it. No worries. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, I'd also like to say thank you. You and your staff are the human face of the organisation. This report shows that you're smart, you're strategic, you're hardworking, very hardworking, responsive, effective, but most of all, you're compassionate. That was demonstrated. Last week, in the evacuation centres turned out to be a bit of a Peregian reunion. And the feedback universally was that they all felt very well supported by you and your staff.
00:17:00 They felt that it was a quick response, it was an effective response. And they certainly felt that the council had their back, if I could put it that way, and nothing but praise for your efforts. And as councillor, pardon me, the other councillor said, the amount of work that you're undertaking, have completed and are yet to undertake as a result of social strategy is enormous. And as councillor Jackson said, the element of the motion that is a review of the resourcing to make sure that's adequate is certainly appropriate now. And the least we can do. So thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Jackson was closed. No, I don't think so. Yeah. I put the motion in motion. All those in favour? Against? That's carried unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I didn't want you to do that. No. Here.
00:18:00 Next item we have the Noosa Spit. No, sorry. No, Spit. Sureline Erosion Update. And moved councillor Glasgow is quick off the mark. I'll second it. Seconded councillor Pardon. Welcome, Carl. Welcome, Daniel. Councillor Glasgow: Just. Yeah, I'll just briefly touch on the opening. I mean, this is a tremendous what you've done here in the update and how it's going forward. It's such an integral part of that. And we always talk about what our residents do here rather than, you know, everyone else. We could say that this is hugely a location that's used by our community so much down there. And you put in so much thought into this, how to get fix it and, you know, the, how the wall of the West is not working and so forth. And I just want to commend that the work you're doing and then hopefully this scenario of a breakthrough never happens. Questions. Councillor Jackson: Question. Speed in the breakthrough. I'm just looking at page 20 where it says a Noosa Spit breakthrough would result in
00:19:00 high tides being higher along Noosa Sound in the order of 10 to 15 centimetres during peak spring tides. First of all, how do you know that? And then it says, what are the modelling is being undertaken to quantify the effect of this change during storm tide events? Given that we're working on the coastal hazard adaptation plan and the climate change adaptation plan, which seems to indicate higher sea level rising and more storm surges as a result of more weather events, is that being fed into the calculations here about the impacts of potential breakthrough in new society? Speaker 2: Yes, they are. So the, so as the report says, so the first lot of modelling is just kind of looking at the day to day differences. And then we've got, our consultants are going back to look at what those differences are with storm tide as well. So. Councillor Jackson: Well, you mentioned storm tide, but that's actually not taking into account sea level
00:20:00 rise and, and extreme weather events. So. Speaker 2: Yeah. So the sea level rise. What we're looking at is what the difference is between, you know, if that land mass is there and if it isn't. So the sea level rise is such a slow moving process that there's no kind of differential difference. So what we're looking for is those short events where, where the water, you know, takes a long time to move around the spit versus whether it can kind of come straight through the spit. So the sea level rise, there shouldn't be too much of a difference between the spit being there and not. It's only in those kind of the tidal peaks or those short kind of, yeah, storm tides. Speaker 7: I, I assume that that would be because the modelling here, the timeframe would be the five or 10 year type of rise rather than a 50 or 100 year type of modelling. Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I mean the sea level rise is obviously going to come up and it's going to impact there. But what we're looking at is if, if we have a breakthrough there, whether there's, it's going to be more or less protected during those.
00:21:00 So just the sea level rising up, all the water will basically come up at the same rate. But with the tides kind of moving in and moving out quickly, it takes quite a long time for those tides to come around to notice the sound at the moment. Whereas if it comes straight through, the tides have kind of a great opportunity to get, to reach their peak. Councillor Wilkie: Is that also, because I, I was having, I had questions around that particular item as well. If that land mass wasn't there, is the, the tide likely to be 10, 15 centimeters higher as you're suggesting? Because the wave action wouldn't be mitigated? Speaker 2: No, it's basically because the, the tide can get into Noosa Sound more quickly before the tide turns and the tide starts going back out again. Councillor Wilkie: So that means currently the tide rises quicker on the beach than it does on Noosa Sound. Correct. Yeah. Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. I thought the, the, the two opening statements under modelling were the same.
00:22:00 The first statement says the geotextile training wall at the western end of the spit has undoubtedly been successful in alleviating erosion pressures towards the western end of the beach. And then the second statement says recent erosion in the middle of the spit was worse under the current configuration than under any other configuration. So are they or are they not effective? And should we be looking at, you know, ultimately the, those geotextile training walls at the geotextile training wall as to, as to whether it should, should remain? Speaker 2: Yeah. So the, the original plan that was put in place back in 2012 had kind of three parts to it. It had the protection of the western end, which is the big kind of training wall. It had protection of the eastern end, which is a submerged structure and then a future stage, which was to protect the middle. So the training wall has protected the area that it was intended to, but that middle section. Councillor Jurisevic: But it might have impacted another area. Yeah. Speaker 2: The middle section, which wasn't protected is, is now getting higher water velocity than at any other time. Councillor Jurisevic: So overall the set will come up with a plan that tries to mitigate all areas rather than
00:23:00 just any one area. Yeah, correct. As I said, since the review, since the July quarterly update, the spit has remained fairly stable with the review of recent area photography. So, so it all, all depends on what the events are going forward as to how effective all of these measures will be. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, some of the modelling that happened early on, I mean, it's, there's quite a lot that goes into changing those and, you know, with the coastal modelling, you try to make the best estimate you can with the information available. And so, you know, there's, there's a lot of factors that go on that have made that kind of spit in that middle section a lot worse. So. Speaker 7: I didn't get a chance to catch up last week. I mean, I wanted to ask a question about the report. The, it's good news that we don't have the same level of erosion occurring in that, in that particular area. Is that due to, is it time of year, weather events, location of the channel, boat movement? What's the, what's the major reason why the, or do we know what the major reason why the
00:24:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, mainly because that, that central channel has opened up. And so some of the kind of peak water velocities can go straight through that central channel now. Speaker 7: Yeah. Speaker 2: So there's potential that that becomes kind of a, a spit again, and we only have one channel going around to pass Noosa Sound. Speaker 7: So. So that, that central spit, how open is that at the moment? Speaker 2: Not open enough really for boat traffic. So it's, it's fairly shallow through there at the moment. Councillor Wynton. Mayor Wellington: Yeah. My understanding is that the final Skeletor report may have some bearing on our approach to the River Mout. Are you aware of when that final Skeletor report is going to happen? Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So we should have a draft report probably in the next month. Mayor Wellington: No, the Skeletor report. Greg's, Professor Greg Skeletor. No, I'm not aware of that, sorry. Is doing the study of the benthic layer.
00:25:00 And my understanding is that part of his consideration will be looking at whether or not under the current configuration, the lake system is getting flushed regularly enough to avoid siltation buildup. So that might have some bearing. You might want to keep your eye on that because I do, I understand it's imminent. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. No, I wasn't aware of that, but I will. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Craig should know. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Jackson. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Are you, following on, I know when we approved this project, we asked for the modelling to go up a bit further and then talk about lower estuary. So what, my question is around the extent of the modelling and how it may or may not be useful in the future. One of the issues would be if there is a recommendation for some enhancement to allow desiltation. You mentioned about the, the, the fabric bags, but not about the rock wall that was put in.
00:26:00 Will the modelling be robust enough to say, well, do we need to come and pull it out and make it back to a sand replacement? That sort of thing. So it is the questions around modelling. Speaker 2: Yeah. So the model is, is designed as like a, as a flexible model. So it can be set up for quite a fairly wide range and then it can be refined in certain areas. So the model extent goes from Point Cartwright to Double Island Point and then up all the tidal areas of the Noosa River. So up through both of the lakes. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Through the Noosa River at this point in time. Speaker 2: And so then, yeah, you can basically just add more resolution in the area that you want to resolve. And for this project, it's kind of in that lower area. But yeah, we can kind of do that at any point. But does that answer your question? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just a question about the rock wall. That could be another requirement if we find that actually it'd be better to, to manage a navigable channel and use beach replenishment. That'd be something we could look at in that model? Yeah, absolutely. Even the rocks at the end of Doggy Beach. Yeah. I don't call it that.
00:27:00 I call it the beach protection beach that saves the people from water sand. But someone at the Sunshine Coast Council even put a sign up that was incorrect. Yeah. All right. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Jackson. Councillor Jackson: Yeah. I'm just interested also in the stakeholder consultation. So I notice here in your report, number six, number seven, and number eight, it's all coming up quite soon. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the stakeholder engagement and the consultation, how that will proceed? What that will look like? Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. So with the project control group, we talked a lot about consultation and how we wanted to go forward with it. And the thought was that we've done similar type of work, consultation with the coastal hazards work. So we didn't want to kind of go out to the public immediately after and kind of confuse that messaging. So once we get the draft report and that's gone through the council here, we will put that out to a public consultation and question period. Councillor Jackson: So that's the sort of thing of going onto the URC website and keeping track of what's
00:28:00 Speaker 2: going on. Councillor Jackson: The stakeholder engagement workshop, it says. Yeah. Speaker 2: Sorry. That was for the internal. Councillor Jackson: It wasn't really a stakeholder engagement. No. No. So it was to discuss the stakeholder. Speaker 7: Yeah. Mayor Wellington: What stakeholders would it be? Councillor Jackson: We call them stakeholders. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mayor Wellington: Councillor Ike. Yeah. I've got a question for Councillor Stockwell. Would you prefer that we stop referring to Noosa Spit as Noosa Spit and instead refer to it as the project to protect Hayes Island? When it was originally constructed, it was the project to protect Hayes Island. Maybe we could refer to the Spit as that. Thank you for that. Is that a rhetorical question?
00:29:00 Councillor Glasgow: No. I expected that. We'll take that as a comment. Speaker 6: Yeah. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: You can take that on notice. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Obviously, we've got a lot of work to do. I would acknowledge that the role in the recreational and social role of the beach plays, I think, in part, and particularly when this particular project in the Sunshine Coast Council era was conducted, I think, far too much weight was placed on the role to walk dogs compared to its primary role. I think when you're making decisions about large-scale changes to the estuary of Noosa River, it is much more important to look at the primary objective and how best to efficiently protect the beach. That's why I think it was inappropriate in the Sunshine Coast Council era to call it Doggy Beach. Councillor Wilkie: It sounds harder to answer. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Well, not really. Mayor Wellington: Okay. Right. Anybody else? The name Doggy Beach didn't come from the Sunshine Coast Council. It came from residents who were using the beach, and they were the ones that established the name colloquially.
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00:30:00 Colloquially, yeah. Sunshine Coast Council. Councillor Wilkie: You didn't have to put a sign there. All right. Councillor Pardon. Councillor Pardon: Yeah. Question? No. I'll speak to it. Go on. No question. I'll speak to it. Just because you heard that. Councillor Wilkie: Speaking to it. Yeah. Councillor Pardon: Speak to the motion. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Regardless of its name, whatever you want to call it, the primary purpose of Noosa Spit was to protect the infrastructure along Noosa Sound. After a developer put that development in, and so they built that spit to protect, yeah, as I say, future housing, et cetera. And given that, it falls upon us, I suppose, now, well, it does, as a council, to make sure that there isn't any breakthroughs and there isn't any damage, I would say, to infrastructure
00:31:00 along Noosa Sound. Simple maintenance, usually, as we do to roads or anything else. This spit, groin, whatever you want to call it, needs constant attention in some way or other. Same as Noosa Beach needs attention with sand replenishment, et cetera. With regards to putting rock walls, et cetera in, I'm anti-rock walls, always have been. But with my engineer's hat on, I could fix this in a couple of months, going forward. But I'll see what the experts say in a report coming back. Because I know how we protected it in the old council. It was a simple matter of building a berm, pumping up some sand to build a sandbar to protect the doggy beach, whatever you want to call it.
00:32:00 Yeah. But the main aim here was to protect the infrastructure of Noosa Sound. And I note in the report, we have a legal opinion, and it seems while we're going forward and doing these studies, et cetera, I suppose it will always be arguable if we had a breakthrough, one legal opinion will be different to another legal opinion in regards to our obligations and what we actually did here, or do here, to protect the infrastructure. So, I'll be interested to see. I'm expecting a report next round of meetings, if we're saying a month, but I don't really know. By the time it gets through it won't be next month. No, it won't be. So, the question is, we said, I thought I heard in a month or so, we were looking at
00:33:00 getting the information. Mayor Wellington: That's the skill of the report, mate. Yeah. Councillor Pardon: The next report will be coming through in the month's time. So you said a month. Speaker 2: Yeah, the draft SEMP report will probably be handed over in two to three weeks. But yeah, by the time that gets through this process, it probably won't make it to the next round. Councillor Pardon: Okay, so it'll be November, November round. Okay, so then off that we'll be able to go forward and put the recommendations of that report through. And yeah, do something to stop a breakthrough down there. Councillor Wilkie: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Wymant. Mayor Wellington: Yeah, look, it's unfortunate, but it's true that we will be forever playing catch up here because the natural river mouth has been so altered that it no longer can behave in the way that nature intended it to.
00:34:00 Before the spit was extended, of course, the development of the Hayes Island area began. Which we now refer to as Noosa Sound. And then in the late 70s, there were a couple of bladder cyclones, which caused panic about the impact that the ocean could have on that development, as a result of which the spit was extended, the berms and rock walls were put in, etc. And we now have a situation where the river mouth wants to do what it traditionally should be doing, and that is moving up and down the coast. And instead, we're trying to keep it in one place, trying to train it. And the end result is that we will forever be throwing money at our river mouth and our main beach because we've created an artificial situation there, which forever requires repair. And one thing we do know is that every time you make a change to a dynamic system in one place, it has impact elsewhere. So that's why the modelling that we're doing is so important.
00:35:00 But it's also the case that the work that was done to protect what, you've admitted, mystically is known as Doggy Beach under the Sunshine Coast Council, is going to inevitably have all manner of repercussions, which we're only gradually discovering. Every time you put in a hard surface in a dynamic river system, you change the opportunity for the river system to do what it wants to do. And you never know really what the repercussions are going to be. I accept that in the past, you know, dredging, etc. was considered to be an appropriate response. It would be nice if we were gathering. It would be nice if we were gathering greater information about how to deal with dynamic systems like the river mouth so that into the future, we can spend less money on trying to control Mother Nature and prevent the sort of activities that she wants to engage in such as moving the sand around. Councillor Wilkie: I think that Councillor White there. Councillor Jackson: Oh, my God. Councillor Jackson. Yeah.
00:36:00 I'll just probably say that I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of all this work because I think it's really important. It is important that we're having expert input and that, you know, we will then be able to see what the experts are suggesting to be done. I think even for the donkeys, it's important. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Any other councillors? Councillor John. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I can hear all the comments of the Mayor. It's, you know, something that was artificially created. A lot of people that visit don't realise it, that, you know, the spit is artificially created. We've got a river mouth that used to be and is now being tried to control and when you try to control nature, these are the issues you have and you face. So the ongoing costs and remediation is trying to find the most ideal solution, I guess, going forward or rather than just relying on the resource or the ideas of the past. It may be that we resort to the same sort of thing, but then I await this step with
00:37:00 bated breath to see what happens. I think that's the solution is the future. And I hasten to add that we know the manmade solutions that have been thrown in there in the past seem to create more issues somewhere else. You know, they may resolve one issue, but clearly they create problems elsewhere. So trying to find a solution to this for the long term will be a challenge. I wonder if we can ever meet. But anyway. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I think from the project perspective, having a fairly up to date and robust model will help both staff and ourselves make decisions about a very complex system. And I think the mayor quite rightly referred to it as a dynamic system. And it is a system in all true words with inputs and outputs. And it's always good if you can have science to support making decisions about how to most
00:38:00 effectively, efficiently and at least cost with minimal impact on other values, achieve the objectives of beach protection. And in the past and goes much further back than then, the Sunshine Coast Council got a lot picking on. And I think that's a pretty good example of one of the key issues that we've found is that too frequently the engineering solutions to the current set of erosion have been adopted. Too little understanding of impacts are resulting in at times other erosion problems. And this is what a model will help you avoid is to try and understand the potential flow on effects of different interventions in different locations. And as I said, trying to achieve the main objective, which is beach protection. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Glasgow: As you can see, it's a very warmed bit of beach or whatever you want to call it, rock wall or doggy beach or protection in the community.
00:39:00 I don't think there's ever been any angst about not doing any investigation here and spending any money on getting this right because it's someone who's spent a lot of time there over the years. It's integral we get it right. And I'd just like to say that what we've done at Main Beach earlier, we've only done it this morning, this is how we can bring Sands back and bring the beach back to a way that it's meant to be. So hopefully in the future we will save Mr Parade or whatever we're doing now. I'm sure I have full faith in you two, lovely gentlemen, it'll get done. So, good work. Councillor Wilkie: Put the motion does in favour. The against is carried unanimously. Thanks, Daniel. Thank you. Thank you, Carl. Next up. We have the Waste Management Annual Report. Welcome, Wayne Schaffer and Ian Florence. It's done. Councillor Jurisevic: My name is Kiro.
00:40:00 Councillor Wilkie: And Kerry. Keep them under control. Councillor Wilkie: Any questions for the staff? Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: Expenditure in the report indicates that total expenditure was over budget, but in the in the report, it mentions operational expenditure was below budget. So what was the significant movement in finance costs that related to the annual review, that related to the expenditure going over budget? Speaker 7: I'm sure Councillor Jurisdict will remember that discussion at the audit committee, which is about the provision of the landfill restoration. Councillor Jurisevic: For those that are listening online. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
00:41:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I think the expectations of waste going forward, I think it's a good outcome from the staff, again this year and I want to acknowledge the hard work done by the staff and thank them for all their efforts for this year. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Anyone else? Councillor Stockwell? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just briefly, I think the one element of the report there about the change over in our doggiehof was. I think that's a really interesting exercise in terms of that changeover in our doggy dis-bag
00:42:00 I think it's a great idea just to change the way so we, it's much easier to see someone standing there pulling one off at a time for a thousand than it would be rolling them off. I just think it's really interesting in terms of waste management and education about behaviour change, about how people perceive public infrastructure and what's there for. It's a lesson well learned. Councillor Pardon: You're right, Councillor Stockwell, it is interesting. Always the knock-on effects, isn't there, without really realising what can happen. Just the, I suppose a question to start, from Riviera, the feedback from the community I'm getting is the prices have gone up.
00:43:00 And thus, you know, there's less movement of goods out there, but having read the report, that doesn't seem to be. So what's your, what would your reply be to the general public, a perception or a reality that the second-hand goods, et cetera, that's sold at the tip are becoming sort of exclusive, more expensive, et cetera, et cetera? Speaker 1: I suppose generally speaking, yes. Generally, the feedback is that the shop's doing well, and they're moving a lot more than they had previously, and they're retrieving a lot more than previously. Price-wise, they run their own business. We do cast an eye over their pricing matrices, and they seem to be reasonable. But like I say, they run their own business, and what we want to see from them is that material is moving through the shop and being reused. And by all their reports, material's moving through.
00:44:00 Councillor Pardon: Yeah, no, thanks for that. It's in the report, and I just thought I would share with you some public opinion, and that's because there's perception and reality, and I understand that as a councillor. So yeah, capturing a lot more. There's still a lot going to landfill, and we see an increase. So why do you think that's happening? Is there some? We do the annual kerbside pickup. Why do you think a lot of people, I know some people have gone there with furniture, et cetera, and no, they fall, they can't handle it, so why do you think that this is happening? Just throw away society? Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's basically what it comes down to, year on year, as a general community, and wider than just us, waste has been produced. Yeah. And more every year.
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00:45:00 Councillor Pardon: Yeah. Well, the point is, there is a lot more capture. You've got the figures, you know your tonnage, et cetera, so that's the upside. Throw away society, can't do nothing much about that. Thanks, Mr Chair. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, I had a question also. That excellent report, extremely comprehensive. Councillor Parton touched on and went to the heart of a really worrying aspect, and that's the difficulty in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. You are recycling more, you're earning more, yet still the amount going to landfill continues to increase. Do you have an opinion on what the answer is, whether it be at a federal or a state level, is there any answer to this? Speaker 6: I, Mr Chair, I attended a forum with LGAQ about a week ago, and the comment was made by the President of WACRA, which is the Waste Management Association of Australia, and it said,
00:46:00 that local government should be doing more to prevent the generation of waste at the source. I thought that was an incredible comment to make, when we have no control over what's manufactured or what comes in from overseas. The federal government, in my opinion, needs to make a greater effort in terms of manufacturing goods, ensuring that manufactured goods can be recycled. It happens overseas in European countries, it doesn't happen very much in Australia. We're moving in that direction, but not quickly enough. The problem we've got is that our recycling rate is lower than our generation rate. We're a throwaway society, particularly with goods coming from overseas. How we solve that problem, if I had the answer to that, I'd be able to solve the world's problems with waste.
00:47:00 I don't have an answer. Councillor Wilkie: The other question I have, well added to the amount of green waste, reduce the amount of green waste going to landfill, I want to have, has there been a measurable decrease in the amount of methane that's been cleared as a result? Speaker 6: Ian's probably more up to speed with our methane volumes. Speaker 1: The methane amount that we're capturing has dropped a little bit in the last 12 months, but that's more of an operational issue with where we are with regard to our filling of the landfill. So we've moved from an area that we were able to cap into a new cell, and you can't cap and capture the methane out of the new cell, because it's a shallow, sort of short lift. But in the next two or three months, we'll be capturing methane from that cell as well.
00:48:00 So we're hoping it's going to go up significantly then. Councillor Wilkie: So it will go up, but the amount of, well, are you able to ascertain that the total amount of methane generated by the landfill has significantly reduced as a result of you converting more green waste from going to landfill? Speaker 1: The experts... Councillor Wilkie: The rate per square meter, for a cubic meter, for example. Speaker 1: The experts tell us that the amount of green waste that we're taking out won't significantly affect our methane extraction. Why? Not to a significant degree. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor, just to see... Speaker 7: Just a quick question about diversion rates and recycling. So we're currently sitting at 42 percent. We've got a goal, a state-imposed goal, of getting to 55 percent by 2015. So two questions. One is, are we going to make it? And second is, who else out there might make it? And what are they doing that's different to us?
00:49:00 So are we doing any benchmarking? Looking at diversion rates compared to other councils or similar councils? Those are two parts of the question. Good question. Speaker 1: Yeah, very good question. We're probably on a par with most councils. I was previously in Cairns. They were doing slightly better with the bad mincer system, but there's been a lot of costs and challenges with that. So we're on a par. And I suppose long-term, meeting that 55 percent, the two probably best ways of approaching that, one is the behaviour change, which we're starting on, and changing the behaviour of the community and what's actually going in the bins and the way they throw away waste and generate waste. And the other is obviously discussions with other councils and organisations within the region to send food and green waste to a process. So it's a processing facility where they can use it. Speaker 7: But in terms of volume, that latter one's not that big, is it? No. We're not going to... The diversion rates? Speaker 6: If we went down the path of waste to energy, we'd meet our goals.
00:50:00 A waste to energy plant for the region is in the order of $400 million. Ooh. And if you say it quickly, it's not a big thing, Andy. I'm not sure where we're at with the arrangement with our MOU because Moreton Shire is dealing with an EOI at the moment and we can't really get information out of where they're headed for a couple of months. Councillor Wilkie: Just for clarity, the MOU you're referring to is between the three shareholders of Unity Work? Unity Council, yes. Sometimes that's council. And Unity Water. And Unity Water. And Unity Water. Speaker 5: So it's moving through a process at the moment, which is obviously a confidential process if they move through. And there's some parallel processes occurring in individual councils.
00:51:00 So hoping to see a resolution of that at the later stage. Speaker 7: What it is, is waste to energy and how councils use or look at their waste as a resource, not a problem, is really a bit of an emerging issue. And every council's probably got two or three chips in different games. There's different cohorts coming together and some are looking on their own or some are trying to partner here or there. Everyone's got a bit of a bit of skin in each game just to see where it goes. I think it'll be two or three years before that's a bit more certain. Councillor Jurisevic: The other element of that is the Federal Government starting with the issues with regard to recycled waste going overseas. No longer being able to go there. The Federal Government are now starting to step in and are having a finger in the pie, All of the State and Environment Ministers are trying to come up with a standardised approach, more looking at stewardship programs and the like. You mentioned packaging. There is a covenant on packaging coming into effect in 2023 off the top of my head, where all of the producers of packaging will have to have a new strategy in place, more of a stewardship program, so they take that packaging back and make it recyclable so that it does come back through the process.
00:52:00 Is that something that has been, that's one of the first projects that's been agreed upon by all the State and Environment Ministers with regard to a national standard, in essence, with regard to packaging and how that's affected. There are many stewardship programs that are already in place that are very effective, and TARS is probably one of the leading ones, one of the ones that I think we need. Councillor Jackson: Point of order, if I was making a speech like that, I'd be prevented from doing it. Chairman, is this relevant? Councillor Jurisevic: If you like. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah, you talk too much. Thank you, Chairman. Oh, sorry, Joe. Is this a? Oh, sorry. You've opened. Sorry, I'll have to be closed. Councillor Jurisevic: That could be better. I won't close. Councillor Wilkie: You can probably be closed. Councillor Jurisevic: Five questions. I was answering your question, then I don't know if I'm going to stop. Councillor Wilkie: And just to clarify, there's no discrimination against any councillors around this table?
00:53:00 Speaker 5: I just, in, I guess, in answer to what your question was, Brett, you know, what is the solution, it's not a single solution. Speaker 4: No. Speaker 5: So it would be a multifaceted response, and it requires change from our community, and it requires us to be continuing to trial different approaches, so being focused on looking at a response and then testing that response to actually see what sort of an impact that has. So the behavioural change that we're doing at the moment, really looking to see if we put certain measures in place, can we then impact our customers' behaviour. So it will be multifaceted. There will not be a single silver bullet. Councillor Wilkie: And the benefit of those listening at home, this MOU involving Unity Water, who usually deal with waste water. Yes. Can you explain why they're involved in this project, converting waste to land, land which is usually solids? Yeah. Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:54:00 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they're involved in this project because they're involved in the process of producing a sludge from their treatment process. And they're having difficulty in sending that sludge away to farms, etc. to use it as a fertiliser. They would like to look at a process of anaerobic digestion, which will improve the quality of the product, generate or take methane or the process. And use that to generate electricity as a means of reducing the costs of the process. Councillor Wilkie: So would your council's green waste go towards that, for example, and food waste? Speaker 6: Green waste is not the most suitable product for anaerobic digestion. And that's one of the issues that we need to work our way through. But food waste is. Food waste is certainly available for anaerobic digestion.
00:55:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yep. Yep. So the question I had is, have we looked at the challenge that you enunciated, provided to local government about affecting packaging upstream? Have we looked at the potential levers, either through a local law or the planning scheme, such that local manufacturers and retailers have a whole of life cycle product responsibility? Is there an opportunity to lead some of the custodianship, local management, and the industry thinks there's an acceptable timeframe to do what they should be doing for the last 20 years? I don't think it's acceptable in Noosa. I think it's something we should actively look at is, can we have conditions in planning approvals? Or conditions are local? Or which says, if you're selling a product you're responsible for a whole of life cycle, you have to have it coming back. Speaker 7: I think there's a question hidden in there somewhere. The short answer is no.
00:56:00 From a planning perspective, a town planning perspective, we can deal with the land use. It's not about individual product or what products do and don't do. So it's not something that we can deal with through a planning process. We might look at other incentives or whatever, but ultimately, product control is the remit of the federal and state governments. And all of their sort of requirements, but it's not something that we can do at an individual level. Speaker 5: However, what we are doing is in those areas where we do have either some area of control, or influence, we are looking at that upstream element. So for example, our own facilities within council, or the organisations that we might support who are doing events, et cetera. We would be encouraging them and providing them with information on how they could better reduce their waste. Or procurement would be another one. Councillor Jurisevic: If we were actually procuring a product, we could have that as a remit. Speaker 5: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. Councillor Dixon. Yeah, with regard to behaviour change and some of the bid auditing that we've started wanting to take. I know that that's, since waste leavers have been introduced in southern states and
00:57:00 the like, it's been a fairly prevalent mechanism for trying to drive behaviour change in those years. But as far as Queensland goes, are we one of the first councils to undertake bid audits? Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. I have another question. This municipal garden waste, that refers to the amount of garden waste that municipal council collects? Speaker 6: Yes. In the yellow. Yes. I know that's related to the That's not council operations. Speaker 7: It's a community thing. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? Jan, do you wish to close? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I thought I was actually sort of alluding to answering some of the questions that have been raised through the process there previously, so I apologise if I continued on and actually went into closing arguments. But no, I think some of the changes have been made. The challenges going forward will be things like stewardship programs from a federal level and how the waste levy is managed and utilised from a state level to drive new programs and new incentives, which will ultimately be the ways and means which we get that try to achieve our target rates for diversion.
00:58:00 One of the points mentioned within this, and Councillor Pardon talked about Reviva, Reviva have been processing nearly 4,000 mattresses, recovering and recycling a further 12 and a half tonnes of foam and that. But programs where council have been left to deal with the manufacturer's product and have to then break it up and try to dispose of it all the rest of it rather than the manufacturer. And those sort of stewardship programs, I think, are... are things that could certainly save us a lot of time and effort, our community a lot of time and effort, and having stores take back products that they supply in the first place and having those responsibilities are, I think, the ways of the future that the federal government and state environment ministers will be looking at with regard to the future.
00:59:00 Councillor Wilkie: Do you have a motion to ask in favour? Against? Motion's carried unanimously. Councillor Blaston is absent. Thanks. Thank you, Ian. Thanks, Gary. Thank you, Wayne. Councillor Pardon: Thanks, guys. Councillor Wilkie: Thanks, guys. Goodbye. Next item is the July 2019 rate levy overview. Welcome, Kelly. Pass the questions for Kelly. Speaker 7: The number of properties playing the tourism and economic levy, has that increased since the last... Letty? Speaker 3: Only marginally, we're still getting quite a few people filling the mozzarellagroup declaration forms... Speaker 7: ...advising the loan... ...in and then we've got it ... Yeah. Yes. Speaker 3: So it's ... yeah, it hasn't been any significant increase.
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01:00:00 Councillor Wilkie: I'll move it. Okay. Thank you. The cash , second it. Speaker 6: There you go. Councillor Pardon: No, I had a question. You second it. I'm just going crook. I didn't. I should sign up and get the $1,000. Who's got the $1,000 prize? Councillor Wilkie: Jess will have to speak to us before you can ask questions in the spring. Councillor Pardon: No, I can ask the questions. Oh, he changed it. I know he changed it. Councillor Glasgow: Jess, you're way too right to. No, no, once again, Kelly, I'm just from, you know, I'm not an expert in this field at all, but tireless efforts from you. You know, you always get the teeter-crossing dot tied, and I don't know how it works out to become whatever it becomes in the end of it, but it's amazing. Thank you. Now you can go, Frank. Oh, yeah, sorry. Speaker 2: I should have known that one, Brian. Councillor Pardon: Oh, I get old and tired.
01:01:00 Yeah, so someone won the $1,000. Speaker 3: Yes, it was a lady from Victoria, actually, who wasn't even aware that the competition was on. She just signed up on the July 3rd, a few days after it started, so she was done. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Can I add to the story, because it is a nice story? Yeah. The lady happens to be the daughter of a community stalwart who passed away some years ago, Dan Chandler. Oh, there you go. So when Ron advised that she won, she then said, Oh, had Brian followed up on my request to give Stan a commitment? They're building it now. Councillor Wilkie: Right, any of our councillors have any questions for Kelly? It was to speak to the motion. Any problems? Have you been keeping her awake at night, Kelly?
01:02:00 Speaker 3: No, it was a good levy, considering the amount of changes that were put in place. It went through quite smoothly. All the changes to the waste and to the differential structure seemed to... Well, not caused too much angst or unrest in the community. Councillor Wilkie: Just a question, the amount attached to the rates notice for the, is it the Rural and Emergency Services levy? Speaker 3: The Rural Fire levy. Councillor Wilkie: Rural Fire levy. Mm-hmm. What does each property contribute towards that? Do you remember the amount? $25. $25. Thank you. Councillor Glasgow: All right, Jess, you're supposed to... Yeah, like, just like I said, it's for so many reasons. We're not doing more levies, and the way you're doing the waste this year, it's been very intricate. So keep it up, and onwards and upwards. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: If the motion goes in favour, advance motion carried unanimously. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. If you're guessing any Peregian residents might like to contribute to the Rural Fire levy here, well, they do already.
01:03:00 Councillor Wilkie: No, I wouldn't allow that. Can't they copy that to the area? Okay, minor change, this is a report directed to the general committee. The minor change to the development approval for material change of use of premises and recreation for reconfigure of a lock at 215 Daverloe Way in Peregian Beach. There is a request? Speaker 4: Yes, there is. Speaker 7: Jeff came out lying the process, how we've got to hear him. That would be a good idea, thank you. Speaker 4: Sure. Councillors, you'll recall this application was decided by the courts, it was subject to an appeal, which makes any requested changes to this approval, makes the court the assessment manager. So the applicant was seeking some changes to this approval. They have two options to do that.
01:04:00 They can make an application to council for a pre-response request, which is to get an indication. of whether council would support or not their request to change, or they can go directly to the court, and then the court asks council for their response. In this situation, the applicant had made an application to council for a pre-request response, however, had not paid the fee for that application, which is part of the application process. We, in error, processed that application, which resulted in the report coming to council. Our system said the fee had been paid and then hadn't, and that was quite a conscious thing by the applicant. They actually were not wanting the council to pursue the pre-request. So it was an officer error that processed it and flicked it, saying it's been paid and we've done the report. So the applicant's intention is to go straight to the court.
01:05:00 They've got, like I said, two avenues. They're going to go straight to the court, and at some stage, subject to what they put to the court, council will be asked to have a position and response, and at that point, we'll bring a report to council. So there's an alternative recommendation reflecting the applicant's intention, and that this matter not be, or can't be, considered by council today. Okay, one of them. Councillor Wilkie: Move, Councillor Jackson. Seconded, Councillor Blasco. Speaker 7: Can I suggest that the recommendation, the proposed motion be read out to those who are watching at home? Councillor Wilkie: Okay, the recommendation, or the motion as it stands now is that council note the report by the coordinator planning to the general committee meeting dated 16th of September 2019 regarding application number MCU16-0153.01 and REC16-0041 for a pre-request response.
01:06:00 To change conditions of the development approval for 215 David Lowe Way, Perigee and Beach, and note that the applicant no longer intends to pursue their request for a pre-request response from council, and now intends to go directly to the Planning and Environment Court on this matter. Any councillors wish to speak to the motion? Okay, I'll put the motion in those in favour. The gain is carried unanimously. Thank you, Kim. Speaker 7: Trent. Speaker 6: Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Can we move on to the final report, which is the financial performance report for the month of August. Rob Trent. Thank you. Councillor, there's questions for Trent. Councillor Jackson. Councillor Jackson: I have a little question. On page 20, under the... usually measures for financial sustainability, how can measures for financial sustainability be considered in any way statistically valid after two months?
01:07:00 And it seems to me that it's too early to assess that. Speaker 8: We've compiled quite a range of statistical indicators. You'll see, obviously, the summary at the top, as well as the further ones later in the report. The idea is to provide better understanding, obviously, to the community, as well as the users of the financial report, how those statistics change during the course of the year, but also a regular update as to what our fiscal flexibility is. For example, net financial liabilities ratio doesn't move significantly during the course of the year, unless we have a major event or we undertake significant borrowings. So the idea is, by putting these up, we're providing some more transparency. Transparency about our financial position, our flexibility. Some of them will move during the year.
01:08:00 So, obviously, early in the year, the position is very different to the end. An example of that would be the operating surplus ratio. But it is also explainable because it's very clear that we have a very large profit at the start of the year in our July and August positions because the revenue comes in and we haven't spent it yet. So you'll see that trend, and we forecast that trend during the course of the year so that we will end up at the end of the year with basically a zero surplus ratio. The same way our operating surplus is higher at the start of the year than it is by the end. So it's just to try and help show those trends. I'll just add to that. Speaker 7: So, for example, the third one, the cash cover ratio, that's a good one to have throughout the year because you can see how much cash we've got to pay our debts. And that one will move up and down if we, now that we get the cash in and we spend it, that will come down. The last one's a bit more interesting, the asset sustainability ratio, because that really is then going to be hooked into our capital program. And that one probably needs a bit of explanation perhaps underneath or something about how that will actually ramp up as we go through the year.
01:09:00 Because if you look at that at the moment, 8%, you're going, well, the target's 80. That's really a point in time one that will change as we go up. Whereas the cash cover ratio is something that's going to change throughout the year as we go through our cash holdings, go up and down or whatever it might be. So I think your point's valid in terms of some of these are really at a point in time and they're quite relevant to us at that point in time. Others are the journey through the financial year and they're two different types in there. Speaker 8: And it is in that similar aspect like us tracking a year-to-date budget versus a full budget. And there is supporting information on page 25. Okay. Where it shows, for a lot of those ratios, how that trend looks as we course over the year. Councillor Jackson: Yeah. Sorry, I didn't see that. Make sure you find it. Just to... Councillor Wilkie: Okay, thank you. Also clarifying explanation for you, Trent, for those who are looking at the net financial liabilities ratio, the target is less than 60% is a good place to be.
01:10:00 We're currently at negative 7%. Sorry, the current, the budget would be at negative 7%, but the actual is negative 41%. How can you be at negative 41% of this ratio? Can you explain what it means, please? Speaker 8: It means that our net financial liabilities, which is how much we owe, if you like, in terms of our borrowings, versus how much cash and our assets we have, our current assets we have, divided by our liabilities is less. So we owe a lot less than what we actually have in cash. So that's where it starts to go into negative. So for those organisations, and the old ratio that they used to use is what called the debt equity ratio, is what they used to talk about. By being in negative, we're basically saying that the cash we have far outstrips in our current assets in terms of our debtors far outstrips what our liabilities are for our loans. Speaker 7: So to run it another way, if you've got a $100,000 home mortgage and you've got a $50,000 term deposit,
01:11:00 then you're going to be a positive one. If you've got a $100,000 mortgage and you've got a $200,000 term deposit, you're in negative territory and that's a good thing. Councillor Wilkie: So negative is actually desirable for those who are looking at this for the first time. Speaker 8: That's right. So anything under 60 is considered by QTC to be a safe or sustainable position to be in. Obviously, an ideal would be zero. And we're in a very strong position. We're bringing in negative. And that's indicative of the fact that we need a liquidity ratio. We've done a liquidity analysis with Queensland Treasury last year. They identified that we did have long-term surplus cash and it enabled us to make that early loan repayment last financial year. And we're obviously still in quite a healthy, sustainable cash position with our liquidity, which means we can reassess what we do with that cash again in six to 12 months' time again, Councillor.
01:12:00 And we are a handful of councils around the state. Councillor Jackson: Oh, I saw another question, really. Of course. So relating to the trends on page 25, each of the charts on page 25 have a different horizontal axis. One goes 1 to 345 to 12, one goes to August, one goes to June. Why are they different axes? Speaker 8: It depends on the nature of these. My apologies there. With the operating surplus ratio, you've probably picked an error of mine there. It should be July through June, not 1 through to 12. For some of the others, like cash expense cover, what we were trying to show there is that over the period of 12 months, the cycle moves up and down as those rates come in. So the idea by showing a move in 12 months is to show that we are very at the susceptibility of our twice a year cash cycle with our rates. So some of those with the cash expense cover and also for rates and arrears. So whilst we, if I were to report just a flat figure for rates and arrears, for example,
01:13:00 in December, when a lot of the ratepayers who are on payment programs come to the end of their payment cycle before the new rates come in, it would look, we have an exceptionally low arrears ratio, which would be fantastic. But if I then gave you a snapshot in July, it wouldn't necessarily be indicative. So for those ones, we're aiming to move it to show the cycle. That's good. For some of the ones that are static for July to June, it's about the fact that we have an end of cycle. We've got a good financial year ratio to report. So the asset sustainability ratio, for example, is one that is in our statements that we're finalising this week with the Queensland Audit Office. And so our target is the 30th of June figure. It's can we get above 90% with our renewals? Thank you. Councillor Jackson: Thanks. Councillor Pardon: Yeah, just going forward, Trent, with regards to interest rate trends dropping dramatically worldwide.
01:14:00 And then Australia starting to have a look at this and following, I guess. But yeah, so, but even so, the question, I would not think given our current position, the impact would be all that great. There'd be obviously some impact. We're not going to get the return on investment, but I don't think it's going to be too great going forward on us. Speaker 8: On us? Well, in the short term for this budget cycle, for the 9th and 20th budget, we'll obviously have a small risk in terms of earning as much interest revenue as we had in previous years. We've just had our last round of term deposits mature this month. Some of those were at 2.8%. And the best the banks can offer me this week is 1.5, 1.6%. The bond rate is down to 1%. So that's our short term.
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01:15:00 That's how obviously our short term risk, our interest revenue isn't enough to obviously significantly impact our bottom line. But it does then enable us to, as I said before, we reassess our cash and our debt position towards the end of every financial year now, moving forward to see, well, are we better off borrowing at a low interest rate, investing? What's our surplus cash looking like? And actually having a more rigorous discussion about our liquidity each year. Councillor Pardon: Yeah, just supplementary. So going forward, given the possible borrowing rates, and as you said, we paid off that 10 million. Do you feel we might have a discussion with regards to possible paying off in the future? So more money that we're tied up to at about 6.1 or 2, whatever it was. Speaker 8: I think with each financial year as we come as part of the budget process, it is an astute thing to do. Once we know what our capital is,
01:16:00 what our works program looks like, we know what our 10-year commitments in terms of expenditure looks like, we then reassess what our debt and borrowing should be for the coming year. That's okay. Councillor Wilkie: Chris, you wanted to move this? Yeah, I'll move it. I'll sit down. Seconded by Councillor Glasgow, seconded by Councillor Jurisdict. Yes. Who's to speak? Motion? No, I'm closed. You can open it or close it. I'm closed. What? Can I have the councillor's wish to speak for the motion? Councillor Jurisevic: I'm just pleased to see that the MOU with Unity Water is netting another $11,000 towards water bottle filling stations for the region. And Mr. CEO, I'm glad to see the staff training is, whilst it's a strapped below budget, that another $3,000 is committed for future spending. I'll keep a close eye on making sure our staff are getting there. Couldn't go without . Councillor Pardon: You're a consistent councillor, guys. I'm a councillor. And we just wish to thank the staff for the time, and, yeah, it'll be interesting, going
01:17:00 forward. We're fortunate that we're in such a strong financial position that we can actually look at possibly discussing in the future options here, where a lot of councils across the state of Queensland just couldn't even consider reducing debt. Absolutely. So, yeah, thank you for your rigour and the staff and finance. We're in a good spot. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I just had a question, Trent, about the Cooroy Butter, under Materials and Services, Cooroy Butter Factory, $59,000 below the year-to-date budget, 3% or 5K, 148K budget spent. Is that a major... Is that maintenance work on the budget? Speaker 8: No, that's a grant, and it's just timing of the grant, so we assume that by the end of August we would have paid that contribution,
01:18:00 and it'll likely come through next month. Councillor Wilkie: I just thought under Materials and Services, I wondered, could it be the grant under that? It was. Thank you. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? Councillor Glasgow: I guess she was to close. Yeah, just briefly for the enjoyment of our audience about how we just have to remember we are, if you talk about it in a business respect, we're only a six... a seven-year-old business running now. You know, we're in such good financial state. You know, I am the pleasure of living on a brand-new road that's been just done up, being no-to-drive. I tell you, it is, you know, an adamant scooter rider with little wheels on the scooter and a new flat road. You know, we still get our core business done, roads, rates and rubbish. Yes, we have some hiccups here and there, but every business does. And we continually come into a... We just paid off $10 million as councillor, pardon. You know, we still come into a small circus every year and we fight the good fight to keep our residents happy.
01:19:00 And we've got... It's still just a new business, six years old, and we get terror stories from our beloved CEO about who's going down. But our mayor runs the budget great, and we have to remember that it's still early, such early days. We lost so many of these years, as you can see, from our direct right from the amalgamation. And we just have to tell our public and everyone else involved that we're only going upwards and it's just the beginning. So I just want to say thank you to you and your team, Trent. Councillor Pardon: Thanks. Just a question, Mr Chair. Did I vote to do up Councillor Glasgow road? I'm worried that he lives on the road Councillor Jurisevic: and I'm on a road in the road, but there you go. OK, we live in a shoebox in the middle of the road. Councillor Wilkie: Look at it. That's your man, unanimous. Thank you, Trent. Thank you, Councillor. Mayor Wellington: Thank you.