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00:01:00 Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Meeting of 2021. I declare the meeting open. We begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians on the land of which we meet. That is the Kabi Kabi or Gabi Gabi people. We pay our respects to the elders past, present, and emerging. We have no apologies today for complement of councillors. Councillor Jurisevic is not here. Councillor Jurisevic is actually in the building and he's getting a cup of coffee. Thank you.
00:02:00 The first meeting of the year, the General Committee is up first. We have done without the two portfolio meetings where we do have an opportunity to ask questions and glean a lot of information from staff. So today is an opportunity to use questions, but specifically just to glean facts before we start our debate, so that's just generally a reminder about that. We do have, the first, we do have some guests today and the first item is the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation. Oh sorry, the confirmation of meeting, minutes from the General Committee meeting held on 17 December 2020, moved by Mayor Stewart, seconded by Councillor Finzel, all in favour? Carried. First item, we have no, we have presentations related to some of the items on the agenda, but no. No presentations on their, on their own, no deputations, and no items referred from
00:03:00 committees. And the first item is the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation Annual Report, and we'd like to welcome Chair Rex Helverson and Greg Schuman, the Deputy Chair, and we also have the Environmental Manager Craig Doolan here. And Rex, you're here to. Speaker 2: Well I'm prepared to do a one hour presentation. Speaker 1: Can you, give us a one hour presentation. Speaker 2: Karen's looking for coffee right now. Speaker 1: Can you give us a one hour presentation. Yeah. Speaker 2: It's always good to open for pay. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: For three to five minutes. Speaker 2: I figure maybe we just, I assume you've done your homework and you read the annual report, and I don't want to duplicate too much there, but just to highlight a few things. It has been a challenging year, we don't need to overstress that. And for me, I took over in late December after the AGM and immediately was thrown into the fire crisis and the COVID. So while things were slowed down because of that, we were able to deliver on some of the projects. Most notably, I wanted to point out the Noosa Trail Network that you'd be aware of.
00:04:00 Keep it in Kin Kin version two, which is keep on keeping it in Kin Kin. And we're now working on keep on, keep on working in Kin Kin. But, and the, of course the Skilter Report is sometimes known as the Biodiversity Report, which has fed into the river plan as well, bringing information on, on the benthic layer and how we're faring in river health from that standpoint. And of course the, the final stage or element of the Boister Trial. And I'm pleased to note that several of those have now attracted state or federal funding. So in addition to our initial investment, your initial investment, the community has benefited from additional funds that demonstrated the value of those ideas and scaled them up for even more return on investment. So I feel at the end, we had a good productive financial year. We've also seen something that's taken off with a life of its own, and that's the Noosa Environmental Educational Hub, if you may have come across in other areas and their
00:05:00 new youth initiative, as well as First Nations. And we look to bring representatives from both of those initiatives into our board meetings and our community outreach and engagement strategy. You've probably also seen from whether it was the Glossy Black Gala, our renewed Facebook and Instagram outreaches, and some of the other initiatives that we are now telling the Biosphere story in a much better fashion and starting to see a community greater understanding and the Biosphere itself and the value of it and then the value of our role within it. We're still averaging at least a three to one ratio of initial investment. So in in-kind and other cash contributions, we look forward to leverage the initial investment on behalf of the community and deliver more value, not just in the projects themselves, but in terms of making those dollars go further than just spending them.
00:06:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Let's see, what else? A couple of things. Speaker 2: This is still, the ink isn't dry on this one, so we are talking to the University of Sunshine Coast about increasing our partnership with the Memorandum of Understanding, and they've floated the idea of a couple of PhDs that they would largely fund with a little investment Councillor Jurisevic: from ourselves to deliver additional projects and knowledge and education to the community. Speaker 2: And as part of the conversation around more community engagement and involvement, I wanted to highlight we've moved to a symposium approach for a lot of projects where we bring in not just experts in the field, so we did one for Glossy Blacks that has happened since I wrote the annual report. But we bring in passionate people from the community, so in that case, Bob Carey and the Glossy Black Conservancy and other elements that are maybe not experts in the field, but they're experts in Noosa, and they're deeply rooted here. So out of that comes, first of all, just the opportunity to be collaborative for groups
00:07:00 that are working, doing good works, but separately and not necessarily taking advantage of synergies or opportunities to work together. Knowledge sharing, which we're helping to prompt. And then looking for the gaps that we can then say, what is the project or research or support that's needed to take that to the next level? So around that also, we've been trying to strengthen our relationship with other community groups such as NICA, certainly Tourism Noosa, and we were very pleased to partner with them on the Enter the Biosphere campaign, which has directly taken advantage of the Biosphere designation. And the results of that. And we're very proud of the commitment over the many decades from the people in the community and members of council to maintain this area in a special way. With that in mind, I'd like to play a clip from the Tourism Noosa campaign that this will actually, you can find this on our Facebook page as well, so it's available to the community
00:08:00 right now. Councillor Jurisevic: Anyone else out there? Okay. Speaker 2: And this goes in part to answer the questions that you've heard, what is a biosphere? What is the Noosa Biosphere Reserve? Councillor Jurisevic: Biosphere is what's where people live. Where everything lives. Biosphere is that thin slice of the planet where all life occurs. Speaker 2: The real question really is, what is the Biosphere Reserve? It's not a national monument. It's not a historical place. It is a living, breathing, thriving community where you found a notable balance between people and place. And what's unique, I think, about Noosa is not only do we have that notable balance in UNESCO culture, but we have a community of communities here. There's 400 volunteer groups in Noosa, and many of them are focused on one aspect or another of the environment. The Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation is a not-for-profit founded by Noosa Council to look after the biosphere specifically. To look for ways to enhance it.
00:09:00 To look for ways to promote sustainability, seed funding for new ideas that can maintain that balance, and enhance and, you know, improve on that balance. Noosa has that unique blend of people, economy, culture, along with natural experiences. Speaker 2: You can be shopping on Nation Street, and in 10 minutes you can be here. We're in a national park, just a few minutes walk from world-class shopping and restaurants. You can go just a little bit further away, you can be in one of the two Everglades systems in the world. And there's over 60 environmental, ecological centers around here, and 30 towns that are all unique and different. So it's a variety of experience, both natural and human, that brings people here. There's only a handful of biosphere reserves in Australia. So it's a very special place. But it's not an accident. Councillor Jurisevic: It's taking the will of the community to do this. Speaker 2: And that's part of a series of videos. There's other ones focusing on individual people like the Pandanus Project and the Koala Project from USC, etc.
00:10:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So with that, if there are any questions about the report, I'm happy to field them with Greg. Speaker 2: Here is my financial whiz. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm just concerned it's going to hold another glossy black gala fundraiser this year. It's going to cost me another fortune in raffle tickets. Speaker 2: Well, the next one will be on koalas. We've already booked the space. Councillor Wilkie: I've got a question. In the media lately, there's been some interest in the effect of shark nets on marine Speaker 2: species. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you for bringing that up. I note that you're doing some cutting edge work investigating alternatives. Can you speak a bit about where you're going with that? Speaker 3: Yes. I'll take that one, even though I'm here for the financial, because it's a pet project of mine. Look, we're following, I think, the success of the koala symposium, the black cockatoo one. We are aiming to have, again, a symposium probably around May or June this year, where
00:11:00 we get experts in. We'll have the fisheries and wildlife, sorry, agriculture and fisheries. They've already agreed that they will attend, because they're the owners of the asset. So, that's really important that they're there. We will ... Apparently, there's a new person who's just turned up with USC who has a grant on sharks, on tiger shark research and all that, so a number of experts we'll bring, but also community groups as well will be ... Ones like surf riders, we'd like to have the surf club. There's a surf club and other entities as well, and there's the Dolphins, Friends of the Dolphins, I think, also. So, we want to get a whole number of people that are very passionate about this area and start to look at what we can do to not only protect people, but also protect non-targeted
00:12:00 species in particular, because, you know, dolphins and turtles, et cetera. Yeah. And, you know, what are the smart sort of ideas? You know, there's things like smart, you know, smart ... What are they called? Drumlines. Drumlines. Those sort of things, which are drumlines, but you can ... It can detect when something's actually caught, and they've trawled that down in New South Wales, and those species are then ... Sharks actually relocate a 10K out or, you know, et cetera. Right. Yeah. And, you know, we've also got to be mindful that we are, in being a biosphere, some of the sharks that are caught, hammerheads, et cetera, are on the endangered species list. So that doesn't quite sort of sit right in a biosphere, I suspect, as well. But we're not, you know, we're certainly not advocating just take it all away, and, you
00:13:00 know, I think, you know, there must be a good compromise between, you know, the safety of humans and not needlessly killing marine species. So, yeah, that's ... So, yeah, look, we've really had success with the symposium format. It's a great way just to get everyone in the room to come up ... You know, I'm always a fan that you get enough smart people in the room, they'll come up with clever ideas. So ... Yeah. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: And the other one's obviously near to my heart that I saw you touching on, with Rowan coming on board, is the organic waste issue going forward. Yes. An opportunity to work not only with council, but with the wider community, and to look at what the possibilities are. That's right. Yeah. And, you know, the forefront of solutions for the future. Because it is a challenging and a very costly exercise to undertake, to develop the right
00:14:00 strategies. And we've been delving in some areas in trying to create partnerships. And opportunities on a scale. But maybe there are solutions that are, at a lesser scale, that we may not consider so. Speaker 2: You touched on one of the values that we bring that sometimes gets missed. And that is the value of the volunteer board members themselves. These are all people with a lot of expertise and experience in the years. Rowan, in particular, actually was part of one down in Mallacoota. So, he's actually gone through the process of getting community and industry together, and getting cooperation. Because that's a key part of it. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, that's a really strong tie-in with what you've got with rural enterprises, that you're looking at there. I mean, one of the solutions that may be that tie-in with the rural community, and how that circular economy can focus the product coming in, the product being created, and where it can go to further enhance and facilitate better crop generation.
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00:15:00 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah, and valuing carbon and how it, you know, not putting it in the landfill, et cetera, and really reusing that in both, you know, sort of flora sort of side, but also waste of, you know, food waste and all that. If we can get better at all of that, and adding value to, as you say, to land, et cetera. You know, it ties nicely in to keep it in Kin Kin, you know, as well. So, yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Clearly an advocacy role with the state government, too, with the waste week, and how that utilises the numbers as well. Yep. Councillor Lorentson: Just in reference to Rowan, you mentioned corporate volunteers. On page six, you make a reference. You put in dollar terms how we can actually look at this as a return on investment or a value to residents. I want to commend you.
00:16:00 I think you put a price at about $200. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think it's something that I'd like to encourage a lot of the community groups. Just the story we need to tell to the community is the value or the savings to residents by having this corporate volunteer group. We've got a wealth of experience and expertise. So, yeah. I commend you. And that was really good to read. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I don't think we've included that previously. Yeah. And you're right. There's a reason we have a board and that. So, yeah. Thank you. Yep. Councillor Lorentson: I'd also like to mention, on page, I think, page after, you say that the Biosphere Reserve Foundation has no significant capital assets. And you mentioned just the bank deposit, which was the grant, $389,445, as being the only
00:17:00 identified capital asset. Thank you. Can I ask, do you put, do you not put a value on your biodiversity database? Is there not, is that not an asset? Speaker 2: We have not done. No, we haven't. And it probably is something we could look at. I think one of the projects we've talked about, as Frank will know from years past, is actually doing a more conscious job of taking all the information, not just from ourselves, but from other groups and that, et cetera, and creating a database that would be accessible for anyone. And I don't think we've done enough around that, potentially. Speaker 3: I suppose we haven't thought of that as something that would actually generate revenue. Yes, it's valuable. We all agree that it's valuable. But I don't think we envisage it to be revenue generating. So, I'm not sure how I value an asset that's- Speaker 2: Yeah, we've never thought of it in terms of we would then generate revenue. It certainly has value, such as feeding into the work that Craig and others are doing in
00:18:00 the environmental department. But we haven't tried to put a value to the actual thing, other than the cost of the tool project. Councillor Wilkie: So, do you mean like on the balance sheet as an intangible asset? Councillor Lorentson: As a tangible asset, yeah. And I'm wondering whether Landcare does that, and I'm not sure whether they do. I do. I think they do. Speaker 5: Those intellectual property type issues are very difficult to value unless they're generating revenue. Okay. You can certainly benefit in commercial arms doing that, and they do do that. They put value on their brand, or whatever it might be, or their systems and things like that. It's much more difficult for not-for-profits to do that. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 5: And sometimes it's not worth the return at the cost of having to assess the value of that. Speaker 3: There is value there. It's just... Speaker 4: Okay. Following on from that, just a question about return on like knowledge and value. Are you measuring your carbon offsets to measure that, to be able to put that back as a value
00:19:00 to your organisation or the community, or back to council to help reach targets of carbon emissions?