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00:01:00 Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
00:02:00 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The elders of the west and the Bandtala to the north cared for this country. They shared its gift and wove a system of moral codes into the landscape that are still told and still relevant today. From many tens of thousands of generations, people have been here, loving and caring for this country. In gratitude then, I would like to acknowledge the many elders past, the elders present and the elders emerging. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Amelia. We have full compliment of councillors, no apologies, may we have confirmation of the minutes please. The general committee meeting held on the 18th of January, moved councillor Finzel,
00:03:00 seconded by councillor Wegener, all in favour? That's carried. Councillors, if it's all right with you, we have an item which is the Tourism Noosa annual report, item nine, but if it's okay with you we'll move that forward. I look forward to have a presentation from the Tourism Noosa chair and CEO now, if that's all right with you. Please come up to the table. Richard and Melanie. Speaker 2: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for having us. Good to see you. Appreciate the invite. Speaker 12: Yes. I'd also like to introduce a lawyer. Louise Formosa, who's my crime stopper partner as deputy chair and our new head of marketing, Adam Townsend. Speaker 3: Hi Adam. Speaker 12: Hello. Louise and Adam. Speaker 2: So, would you like me to just...
00:04:00 Yes, please. Speaker 8: Probably 10 minutes or so. Speaker 2: I know. We've got a long day. I know, it's a very long report because this is actually the report which is in a PowerPoint, so I'm just going to highlight a couple of things and move fairly quickly through it. If you have questions, please just stop me and ask me as we go through. Otherwise you'll have this for your records with detailed information on it. Last year was obviously a year we'll never forget, but we did postpone the six monthly catch up to this one due to COVID. So I'm going to be a bit more all encompassing for the whole of last year. I'd like to start with just sort of a state of play slide that I will spend a little bit of time on in so far as what you're seeing up here is some data from our Noosa dashboard that we've spent 12 months developing. But what this gives you a really good insight over is occupancy levels for our Shire over
00:05:00 2019, 2020, and green is 2021, but it's actually a dot on the top left-hand side because the memories just clicked over. So what I wanted to show you also was the average daily rate down on the bottom left and then the reservation window, which is the time it takes to make bookings happen. This is really a great snapshot because we can see where the effects of the bushfires and COVID hit and the red line where it dipped right down last year, but it also shows you how well we rebounded. And came back to almost on par with our record-breaking 2019 year. And as you can see at the end in the November, December period, we actually maintained the record-breaking visitation. What is interesting in this data analysis is that if you look at the average daily rate in the 12th month, you can see that this year we achieved a much higher average daily rate
00:06:00 than we did in our record-breaking year. So just to set the scene for last year in this report, bushfires, COVID-19, lockdowns, border closes, borders open, no international visitors, cancelled the NET event four weeks out prior to it happening, reduced eight staff and TN to focus back on the core marketing efforts. We tapped into our Tourism Nurser Contingency Fund for the first time ever. Because we needed to, we needed the financial support. We launched Enter the Biosphere campaign, which turned out to be the biggest campaign that Tourism NUSA has ever and the most successful campaign we've ever run. We had no head of marketing for three months. We had a new brand new board and we've got a record-breaking 903 Tourism NUSA members,
00:07:00 which is the highest in the state and probably Australia. So that's the scene. What a crazy year. It began with a fairly significant stakeholder engagement. We did the mapping, as you can see on the right-hand side, and all of you would know because we met with you to hear your thoughts and ideas about Tourism NUSA and where it should go and what it should focus on. We also went out to every single one of those stakeholders there. And as you can see, Tourism NUSA has significant interested parties, to say the least. But we did a very comprehensive survey, questionnaire, one-on-ones, forum groups, and we came up with a very rich piece of information to help inform the new strategy moving forward and to have a better understanding of what our community wants from us. This year, 2022, was a combination of 12 months, pretty intensive working with a company called
00:08:00 Locales. That is a bit of a startup company. But it's in the data analytics space. But it also has marketing data analytics experience to help us build a dashboard that tells us the future rather than the past. Tourism statistics are notorious for always being very vague and always retrospective. So Tourism TRA, which you're all aware of, because that's how we used to benchmark ourselves, is always almost six months in arrears. So helping us put our marketing dollar where it's at. And if we don't get the stats needed into the future, those stats are irrelevant. It's great to see how well we did. But let's look at the future and look at, particularly with COVID, where we're at as a Shire for accommodation. So this data dashboard is what the team use and what the stats, if you see anything coming from Tourism NUSA, is based on.
00:09:00 But it pulls sources from thousands of sites and sources. And it's a really good tool. It's quite a analytical program. I did get the creators to come in and speak to Brett just in so far as how we could work together with council on this because it is very much a leading sort of piece of work. I believe that other RTOs in the state of Queensland and Tourism Events Queensland are looking seriously at what we've done to replicate it across. So more work to be done. It's going to be fine. I know we're getting more and more un-tuned every day, it seems, but it's remarkable. So talking about retrospective data, this is what we've got from the TRA results, which is run by the federal government and maps out tourism across the whole of Australia. But I've just pulled out some of the data highlights for us. And this is that September last year. So within the year, not relevant now, but it is a good snapshot in how well we did around
00:10:00 COVID and bushfires. So you'll see out of all of the dramatic losses across Australia, Noosa performed the best out of Queensland with only a 10.4% drop in visitation and a 23% drop in spend, whereas other destinations within Queensland and Australia did much worse. So effectively, that graph shows that Noosa probably did the best out of the whole of Australia. So we're going to see a lot of recovery from and dealing with COVID. Probably did the least worst. Speaker 11: Yeah, least worst. Speaker 2: That's exactly it. Speaker 7: Exactly. Speaker 2: Mitigated the big fallout. So enter the biosphere. I'm going to flick through all of this now fairly quickly because it is just a year in review. We did the campaign. We started out with something really different and the shock value of the animated series.
00:11:00 We did that because there was so much money being allocated by governments to other destinations to do marketing. Cairns got 30 million. Gold Coast got 25 million. I spent six months trying to fight for 250,000. But it just goes to show you the disparity of like revenue that was put across the states. So we brainstormed internally just to really have a bit more cut through and a bit more attention grabbing. It worked. It worked. The Noosa locals majority didn't like it. They didn't think it was sophisticated enough. But we went marketing to them. So that was lucky. Because outside of the Shire, it was the top rating campaign. So sometimes you've got to be brave and do things that people won't like. But you do it with a fair amount of risk and just cross your fingers, really. Councillor Wilkie: No, you said that was the most successful campaign. How do you measure that?
00:12:00 Speaker 2: Yes. So with our analytics, the ongoing campaign here, it's still going. We've got a couple of months left of the cooperative component, the second cooperative component of it. So what we do is we put it through channels that we can manage and get reports back. So click through rates. These are the basic ones. Click through rates and cost per clicks, how industry benchmark marketing campaigns in reach. And as you can see, into the biosphere. We've got a lot. There was a 2.67, whereas industry rate was 0.63. And the cost per click. So that's really how much it cost us to do this work and get it out through the distribution channels was down to 33 cents against an industry average of $1.10. We've got lots of increases in other social media and other different mechanisms to measure that. And we'll be putting together a full report when that full campaign is finished and releasing
00:13:00 that for public. Councillor Jurisevic: I guess the industry benchmark, how does your usual advertising campaign go? Above the benchmark or? Speaker 2: Around benchmark and sometimes above, depending on the campaign. The last, the winter campaign that we run normally, which as you know, is the famous wrapping the Melbourne tram and all those sort of like ambush marketing that we had done in the past, were very successful for profile and publicity. We've got a couple of months left. Probably drawing the click through or the capturing of data is more difficult when you do something like that. You're in public and it's not attached. And so we are looking to do a winter campaign this year as well, albeit a bit more modified than what we've done previously, because we don't, the borders are probably shut and we're ready to go. But that's how we've sort of got to try and manoeuvre this work in COVID really. But we will be doing something soon.
00:14:00 So won't we, Adam? Yeah. So there's more information there, but this is the co-operative marketing. Again, another measure as to how successful the campaign is, is how much co-operative marketing contributions you get from members. So this is where we say we've reduced the cost to do this advertising by X amount because we're funding it and it's only going to cost you this, do you want in? And so we had a very strong participation in that program. And as you can see, some of the co-operative marketing advertising is there and EDM stats. So we've got the weekend edition. We did a huge puzzle of working and just keep reiterating that brand and Noosa. So that's great for us too in the year of COVID that we had the highest amount of co-op ever. End of last year was hectic. We got the Noosa holiday guide out, which went all over Australia, 50,000 copies. They go into information centers and anywhere where tourists gather information, the airport.
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00:15:00 For the first time ever this year too, as part of the membership, I had the directory of all tourism businesses in the back. So it was an easy go-to guide as well as the commentary and advertising in the front section. And we're going to make sure that's in every single Noosa holiday guide because sometimes when you're on holidays, you just want to know where's the pizza shop. Councillor Finzel: Go find it. Speaker 2: So aviation partnership. This has been a great partnership this COVID year. We have worked so well with the airport and VSC. We've been successful in attracting new airline routes from Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast. We've done Melbourne with Qantas, which was announced late last year. We've got opportunities. We've got a lot of opportunities. With Newcastle, albeit small aircraft, but still a new target market. And of course, reinstating the Sydney and Melbourne ones as per border shutdowns happen.
00:16:00 There's a big focus now on New Zealand and we're prepping up to do a big piece of work into New Zealand as we are hopefully going to be announcing in the next three months, a direct flight on a permanent basis into the Sunshine Coast. So there's a bit of work to be done there, but that's on the horizon. We kept up with our trade training because it's important for our products locally to be ready for the international market regardless. It's a good practice. It's good structure and rigor. And a lot of our businesses being small mums and dads or SMEs don't have that expertise or exposure to the standards that are expected. So we've moved VINCA more into the domestic focus rather than international. So just last week, we did a partnership with New Zealand. We had a booking agency and went and had meetings and talked to trade. So we're really in a focus on our different distribution channels domestically rather
00:17:00 than internationally, but keeping the international ones afloat. Interesting enough, our Europe person came back and said that Noosa was ranking one of the highest asked about destinations from the European market at their catch up trade shows. So that's great. Speaker 12: That virtual trade show we did international wise was just a boomer. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 12: As far as engagement and interest from international. Speaker 2: And one on ones and opportunities. Yeah. So media highlights. So we did a lot of media last year. And we had, as you would know, the Today Show in for a very long period of time. And then we did, we just went out everywhere we could to maximize any opportunity. And we had great feed responsiveness because people wanted to help these tourism destinations get their messaging out. So we had some great work done. But probably the best highlight out of last year is the Gourmet Traveller did a first ever five page spread on Noosa. Eight. Oh, sorry. Eight page. Eight page. My bad.
00:18:00 It was supposed to be five. They made it eight page spread on Noosa. We paid zero. The value of that was about half a million dollars in media spend. So astronomical. And to be honest, that's Susan's relationship with Gourmet Traveller. So she really did a great job there. But apart from that, we had TV shows on Road Less Travelled on different parts of Noosa and the Hinterland, which were played over and over again on Catch Up TV, which is awesome. We are negotiating for the second round of the TV show to help. And we've offered for VSC to jump in on that as well. How are we travelling now? Speaker 8: Almost finished. Speaker 2: Almost finished? Yes. Okay. Sorry. What was... How are you? Yeah. Not much more to go? Not much. Lots of media interviews, lots of social media growth, support for our segments, really pulling out food tourism events. We focused locally rather than on the signature events, just to help bump them up and market them to offer things for the tourists.
00:19:00 And you saw HSA did their 12 days of Christmas. Our Noosa Eat and Drink Festival motto is more events more often, so that we're not putting all of our risk and money into one big event each year. It's worked out really well. We've had sell out events, including Young Care this Friday and the Long Afternoon Tea this Saturday, both sold out. Membership 903, we're going through a process with the board this week to consider what our membership structure looks like for this next financial year. We did our usual membership. Training, everything from Google Analytics through to Eco, support for members and support for our community with COVID. We did our partnerships. Sustainable community, still an important underlying principle for Tourism Noosa. We co-hosted with the Biosphere a non-Melbourne Cup lunch to raise profile of the Black Glossy Cockatoo, which we're going to make that an annual event. And grant funding.
00:20:00 So in the World of Turmoil last year. And my contacts with governments. I was able to ascertain a lot of different government funding and secure that. So we have that all coming through as we speak. So that will show more in the next financial year's plan. Visitor Information Centre doing its thing. Plastic Free Noosa is just riding a huge wave of success. And underpinned a number of community cleanups. And of course, you've seen Tom's great example of our Noosa water. Which is everywhere in Noosa. So it's great. It's replacing enormous amounts of single-use plastic water bottles. We also have compostable as one of our major focus for events. Hinterland is a major focus, especially now that I live out there. And obviously, working in conjunction with Noosa Council for the Noosa Trails and securing the first $1.6 million for the first part of that.
00:21:00 Schoolies was a fun event. And just to finish on Destination Noosa strategy for 2020 to 2023. It was ratified by the board in late November last year. We are having a follow-up to that and how it's implemented at this week's board meeting. And we will hopefully have a Destination Noosa tourism plan, which will show how we get back to basics and deliver what we need to do. These are our main concepts. Champion the bridge. Brand Noosa. Market and promote. Value add for members. That is it. Keeping it simple and sweet. And actioning that as our main core focus. Thank you, Mel. Councils, any questions? Mayor Stewart: I've got a couple. Mel, in your report, you say we challenge ourselves to become more efficient, more innovative, and more data-driven. So obviously, data-driven, what we've seen is we're leading the way. Yeah. In a bit of, you know, you've got the compost, the end of the bias campaign, which was edgy,
00:22:00 the plastic-free, the water bottles, and the- Speaker 2: We're looking at new travel booking opportunities for the Visitor Information Center and how we can make that activated more and work better for us. And we've got our brand new website coming in end of this month, which is about a world away from the old current website, which falls apart. It falls apart every minute. So that will be able to drive more conversion statistics and analytics for the region. And more efficient. Mayor Stewart: I note that you've reduced, one of those slides said you reduced staff by seven or eight staff members. Speaker 2: For the last 12 months, the budget needed to be brought back into a workable sort of financial plan, and there was a steep rise in staff prior to my starting with a lot of different agendas. Yeah. For different pieces of work, but went through the, let's just get back to basics and do
00:23:00 what we do. Yeah. So that necessitated a reduction of some key, some of those roles that were created in the time prior to me arriving. We had a lot to do. Speaker 12: See, our strategy is evidence-based. Yeah. So it was just sort of with all the stakeholders. Yeah. And it all came back to back to basics. Yeah. And any fine-tuning in employment resources were totally in line with that. Mayor Stewart: Are you at a level now where you think you've got enough staff that you can manage that growth, but also that you've got the efficient, you're being efficient enough? Speaker 12: It's not about enough or numbers. So the fine-tuning, so we have a strategy moving forward to the end of the financial year. Yeah. And still fine-tuning. Now it's all in line with the strategy, right? So evidence-based strategy, and then we're working down to an operational plan. And then we have to ensure that Mel has the team and the resources to deliver on that. And is there some fine-tuning we still need to do? That's probably our, for me, I believe it's tourism, this is most urgent challenge is
00:24:00 to get that mix right, get our skill set right. Speaker 2: So we've got a bit of a process that we're going to go through, skills analysis, ascertaining what skills we need, matching and looking, and then we'll work that out. So that's over the next four months. Yes. Mayor Stewart: Okay. The only other question I have is to do with the financial accounts. Yeah. Tourism Noosa statement of financial position as at 30 June in cash on hand, 2019 was 710,000, 20 was 149. So discrepancy of 560, was that predominantly to do with having to cancel the Noosa Eat and Drink? Correct. Speaker 2: We had a pretty set up infrastructure, higher costs, et cetera, et cetera. So there was a big chunk of money that was lost in that space. Also other extraordinary costs ranged from severance pays for redundancies through to lots of different COVID measures and unexpended funds needed for that.
00:25:00 And hence us, yeah, going into that- Membership fees. Yeah, we waived money. Speaker 12: And general bushfire COVID across the line from Vic to all that. And then our membership escalated, which put greater expectation on TN, so that drove the expense because we had to obviously show some sort of value and pivot with what the members were seeking during COVID as well. Speaker 2: We will have a better end of year this year, especially with the grant funding, but we are- We're looking to repay that money back in for the marketing contingency. And I talked to Brett with that. And we're on track. And we have savings that will potentially go across to that too, but it's still another four months to go. And God knows what's going to be in front of us in that time. I don't think you're alone in having that problem. Mayor Stewart: I think we've all- Yeah, exactly. We're looking at our cash accounts.
00:26:00 Speaker 12: But importantly, just to finish that, we're very confident in our financial, all our checks and balances we have. So we have wrapped that up as well because COVID put so much financial pressure on us. So we have a wonderful finance committee that work with the team. And so I'm very confident now in our financial management. Mayor Stewart: Great. Thanks, Richard. Thanks, Nick. Any other councillors? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, Councillor Stockwell. Question to Richard. It's good to see your new strategic plan and you identify right at the top there the importance of brand champions to protect and enhance the experiences which trigger high value. Speaker 12: Or protect the visitor's experiences. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, the visitor's experience. And those visitor's experiences are all set within the destination. And I know you and I had a talk. And so my question to you, so the tourism news has now mapped out their territory and there's a twin to destination marketing and that's destination management. Correct. So do you think the time is right considering COVID and where we're at to actually have a detailed look at how we as a community and as a council and as a tourism industry start
00:27:00 approaching destination management at an innovative point? Speaker 12: Well, as you know, I'm a big advocate for this, right? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, I wouldn't have asked you the question if I didn't know that. Speaker 12: So without getting too convoluted. So the answer to that is 100%. Right. So I really, truly want to drive. Now, to me, it's council-owned and council-led, but we are very much there at the table. And we're there as influencers and representative of our membership. But destination management, I believe, we need to sit down and pull key stakeholders together and have some real agenda and actions come out of it. I mean, I look at what's come out of COVID, since we've even spoken, the changes in destination management. Right. So, yes, we've got the beach, we've got the national park and the river, but you look at the pressure on what COVID has created with housing, and that is creating a huge issue in tourism, right? So we're losing some crucial holiday stock to principal place of residence, people moving
00:28:00 in. Our staff have got absolutely no housing. I'm losing properties probably, you know, one every couple of weeks. And whilst it's temporary, because people are moving into their holiday homes, there's a frenzy to move out of the cities into regional areas. So that's something to address. I look at the hinterland, for example, right? And that, go back 10 years ago, that was a day trip. Now it's a true destination with the development of some of the most amazing accommodation out there. And Hastings has become the day trip. But look at the pressures on that, whether it be the trucks, the quarries and all that sort of thing. So these are areas that we need to be very aware and protect and do what we can. So that's just a snapshot, but yeah, very much, I would love to see that move forward with a true destination management round table, but yeah, some function where we can look at this day to day.
00:29:00 Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Jones. Councillor Jones. Yeah, my comments and questions sort of follow on a little bit from where Brian's gone. I mean, congratulations on the... On the take of Tourism Noosa on the environment and sustainability measures. That started... I know I've had that conversation with Juanita over the years and welcome to Noosa and Refresh Noosa sort of programs to being on board and championing elements like the water fountain, the water bottles, the... Cleanups. The cleanups, and the plastic free concept. Getting that across all of those operators proves that we're not just living off the fact of the work done by a great bunch of environmentalists to make Noosa that point of difference, but actually living and breathing and eating the ethos of this is why we're here. Couldn't agree more. We need to champion that and bring tourists along that journey to make them understand that when you do come here, you... Respect.
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00:30:00 You do respect what's here and we try to take that message away with us. So that's fantastic. The disappointment for me is that in your strategy for the next three years is that there may be an implication of it in there, but it's not actually clearly deployed as another element that you've been championing so well over the years. I mean, it's gone from a talk to real positive outcomes, but your strategy is missing that link for me. So I'd love to see that more clearly articulated. Speaker 2: I think we had lots... The board had lots of discussion about that aspect. So the strategy is handed to me as the operations. And then, so this week I'm putting up a Noosa destination plan, which we'll talk to how I extrapolate out what the board's given me to do, but it includes the sustainability aspects at that level, such as like food, tourism, sustainability. It becomes a sub sector of our tourism industry and rest assured it's a very important factor
00:31:00 for me too. I mean, it's half the reason I'm here. It's half the reason why I took the job to come to Noosa is to try and be leading in that sustainability issue with tourism. But you'll hopefully see that transpire. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, yeah, for me, I'm delighted to see the change from a plastic environment to one of embracing compostable containers and all the rest of it, to the point where you're actually pushing the door of council going, well, we've got these compostable containers, can't we need something to put them in? Speaker 2: We've chased up council a couple of times on stuff. Councillor Jurisevic: And you're actually giving us the poke and the prod that we need to try and to take that next step. Speaker 12: So that very much sits in the brand, championing the brand. And as Mel said, it'll drill down into our hopefully this week to be ratified operational plan. Councillor Jurisevic: If all our operators can embrace that philosophy, they understand the reason why they're here, which is great. Correct. Yeah. Speaker 2: And then the big parcel of work, educating the visitors will be the next step once we get. Yeah. Absolutely. Councillor Jurisevic: If they take that message home, we won't. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson, you had a question.
00:32:00 Councillor Lorentson: This is probably a question directed to Brett. Given the significant amount of funding that we provide tourism Noosa to $2.5 million, why am I representing council as an observer and not as a director on the tourism Noosa board? Speaker 8: That's a choice of council. So obviously under the constitution, you have a council that's a right to appoint either a director or an observer. We've always gone down the observer path. And a lot of that's about protecting the individual council, previously Councillor Wilkie and now yourself from individual director liability. So if you're a director, you have certain legal obligations as a director. If you're an observer, you can still engage as a councillor, but you don't have those individual director obligations. Councillor Lorentson: So my other question, Brett, is just under council's public liability and professional indemnity insurances, am I not covered for just any misstatements or any acts outside
00:33:00 the scope of my authorities? Sure. Speaker 8: There are protections under insurance for certain things, but it's something you can't insure for, as well as some things have become personal, whether it's workplace health and safety. So you can't insure for personal safety obligations. They attract to directors personally, not necessarily covered by insurance. There'd be other trade practices, there'd be other examples where liability attaches personally to a director, not just the insurance. Councillor Lorentson: Right. I'll be quick. Sorry. I will just continue on that line of thought. Yeah. My understanding is that provided I exercise a reasonable degree of due diligence and care, that I am protected. And I think that's a good point. So again, is council and other rate payers being disadvantaged by not having... I guess I'll cut to the heart of it. Speaker 8: If you want to become a director, you can be. The question is, you want to accept that personal liability. Councillor Lorentson: So that's individual.
00:34:00 Okay. Other question, contingency fund, Mel. Yeah. So the funding agreement between Noosa Council and Tourism Noosa, that was in 2020. So you had access to the marketing contingency fund. It's been reserved. Yes. How much was that? Speaker 2: $350,000. It's part of our agreement with council and the constitution to maintain a separate fund of 350,000 out of the allocation of the 250 that council provides at all times to have in cases of emergency and COVID and what happened was our emergency. So met with Brett and we agreed, got permission to access that funding. And we tapped into all but $120,000 of it, which remains in our term deposit. And then we'll just add back. We've got an agreement over three years to add back to get it back to 350.
00:35:00 Speaker 8: It's essentially a rate of no reserve that we've had under our funding agreement. And then in March last year, Tourism Noosa asked to apply or applied to access that reserve. And the council at the time, just before the election, passed a resolution to authorize that. Councillor Lorentson: And last question, which is probably not question, I think you've answered it, but our COVID environment has heavily influenced or informed the policy and strategies that you just presented to us. Yes. You're more events more often. Yeah. I think it is probably reflective of that. Do you want to just sort of elaborate, just for anyone listening, how important COVID was when preparing this meeting? Speaker 2: It was incredibly important. It really fundamentally changed our business structure from what I started with one month to the next month. It was completely different. We changed our target markets. We would never previously in the history of Tourism Noosa target the drug market of Southeast
00:36:00 Queensland. So we had to pivot and change our whole marketing strategy and direction to understand who could come and who were they and who had money and who didn't. And then also we had to update our marketing strategy and direction to understand who could So that we could immediately switch from the border being slammed that morning to the afternoon changing and taking all the marketing out of that state and putting it into whatever state we can. We looked at diversifying the direct flights, so we attracted the South Australia Adelaide flights for the first time ever so that we could pick somewhere that was fairly safe, that we had reliability, that we could have access. And Cairns was a good example of that too, which are both going very strong both ways on that traffic with the flights. We really had to change our business. There's nothing that was left the same from when I first, my first month of getting all my documents and stuff to what we are now.
00:37:00 We're completely a different sort of focus. Sustainability's probably remained the same thing, but now we have other emerging brand issues to deal with. Staffing issues, accommodation as Richard alluded to. So we have changed our business and that was why I did the whole stage. We had a stakeholder engagement program which took a month, it was very big, but it really sort of got to the grass roots of where we were at, where our community was at and where council was at and then trying to piece it all together to move forward. Councillor Jurisevic: Just as regards to those safe markets, the airport was sort of been safe through a class from Canberra of March or was that still on track? Speaker 2: Yes, yes it is, absolutely, pending, always. Councillor Scott, do I have his hand up? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yes, Melanie, I was one of those locals who really enjoyed the animation and I've proved to you I'd be the sort of person who'd visit here if I didn't live here. The question however in terms of its success, do you do or can you do the sort of equivalent of an exit survey?
00:38:00 Because one of it is that you got the social media environment right by using the animation, by grabbing the attention in a very cluttered market. Yes. The other one might be that the core value being expressed. Yes. By what makes Noosa different, through the Biosphere, is how successful that was of converting interest into action, and to me that would be the bigger question you'd want to do in a review, so is that something that you normally do or could do? Speaker 2: Do you know what, that's actually an excellent point, because it is a triple line reporting, isn't it, bottom line reporting, and there have been great gains in that space too, and education awareness and uplift, and we certainly work very closely with the Biosphere people too, and we've done a number of short vignettes explaining all the different issues with the environment, with scientists, and we sent that out through their channels rather than ours, but it connects the tourists to the actual education piece around the environment, so good point, I hadn't considered it, but I think it's
00:39:00 Good point. And the final Biosphere report, quite good, yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, it's interesting, because you don't take away, you don't take away only positives, I mean, there's also logically going to be negatives in any experience, and you've got to get that feedback to know where you can improve, and in the end, if you're not getting that feedback, how do you know? Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Does anyone care to move the motion? Tom, did you want to have a final question? Councillor Wegener: Just a quick one. I'd love to talk to you all day long, by the way. But I just want to say, boy, the facts speak for themselves with your campaign and your success for the last year. I love that, you know, the stakeholder engagement very early on to get the stakeholders involved in the response of the community. I was so incredibly impressed when you worked with the experts in with COVID and with pandemic that that gentleman from Peregian Beach was just spot on. Absolutely fantastic doing, you know, as a community organization, you can react very quickly to changes. Well, I think that council, this is the beauty of a community group or what Tourism Noosa versus the council is you can act very, very quickly with such things.
00:40:00 Quick note, destination management. I think that something that might complement that is that the schoolies, I know the schoolies got a horrible reputation. Everybody's up in arms. I would suggest that I'd love to see Tourism Noosa. You actually embrace the schoolies, but say, this is Noosa, this is the schoolies Noosa way. Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually had a great experience with Noosa and the Red Frogs report was probably the best of any year. And as you know, they're very conscious people and there was very low incident. And, you know, they all stood on the beach in the spotlight with no music, just drinking water all night. I don't know. I don't relate to them at all. No, but they will be in a couple of years time. Councillor Wegener: That's exactly it. Like time goes by very, very, very quickly. And if they have a good experience, all of a sudden they've got a family, they'll say, oh, I had a good time at Noosa. Speaker 2: A lot of the parents for the private schools have homes here or know people that have homes here, too.
00:41:00 So there's that link. Speaker 12: Yeah. Speaker 2: And actually. Speaker 12: A lot of the schoolies refer to them as the January kids, right? They're the ones that come up with their parents in January. Yeah. But this year they came to school. And it was amazing when it was announced that the Gold Coast was closing the event. It was just automatic reaction. Speaker 2: And New Year's Eve, too, was very popular with the 19 and 20 year olds, as you might have seen. But my niece is 19 and she had hundreds of people coming to Noosa for New Year's Eve. Councillor Wilkie: And we had a great deal of respect for her at the beach when they were finished. That's right, I do, too. Councillor Stewart has moved the motion to have a seconder, please. Councillor Stockwell, Councillor Stewart. Mayor Stewart: Oh, no, I just want to add, look, I didn't get a chance to congratulate Mel and Richard. You know, it's been a tough year. You guys have, you know, clearly, you know, all indication proves it onwards and upwards. And congratulations on all your hard work. You know, you mentioned all the things, the border closures, the international flights, you know, COVID.
00:42:00 You know, we know we had 1,200 jobs lost right here on Hastings Street. So we, and tourism was the biggest industry that was impacted. So we're acutely aware of what you've been through. So congratulations on what has been a very tough year and a great result. Okay, thank you. Speaker 12: Thank you. And can I just quickly, real quickly add to that. So basically, you know, you've seen the amount of work we do. We've got, you know, over 900 members. There's an enormous expectation on TN and demand. So it's like a plan to see that we can, there may be a discussion and that we review our funding going forward. Just planning to see. Speaker 2: An increase in the funding. It's, well, the, yeah. Speaker 8: Yeah, so I'd say the, we're in the form of a debate at the moment. And there's a process already in place for you to make a submission each year as part of that. Yeah, sure. Yeah, let me comment on that. It was just a. Speaker 2: Heads up. Speaker 8: Yeah. Speaker 2: Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lorentson. Congratulations.
00:43:00 Excellent report. And I know firsthand how dedicated and how skilled this group of people are that run tourism, Lisa. I do want to highlight, it is a concern that your expenditure has increased faster than the revenue growth. And as much as I'd like to dismiss that, it is a red flag. Yeah. But having said that, I'm confident with the calibre of people that are heading tourism, Lisa, that that's just, as you've mentioned, just a, you know, a small obstacle. Definitely. One that we can definitely overcome. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And you'll see now, closing the front edge. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, we'll be. Councillor Lorentson: We're in debate, sorry. Speaker 2: Sorry. Councillor Wilkie: Oh, sorry. Speaker 2: Sorry. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Let's have that say. Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, yeah. I think in terms of the past year, the term resilience was used. And that, in my lingo, is about the ability to recover from disturbance and get and retain basically the same functional structure going forward.
00:44:00 And I think what we've shown is how quickly we did recover and chose the results that results from the sort of connectivity and its sort of embedded nature of the tourism in this community has enjoyed for many years. So I think that's a great result in terms of the strategy. And actually, I think, you know, when I look at your strategic plans in the next three years, I think you've got it right in terms of narrowing it down to where tourism nooses core businesses, but, you know, right up top there about the brand and that sort of the, the brand adds considerable much to every business that has a visitor or accommodation basis, the brand is what gives us that extra dollar compared to the rest of Australia and that's what we really much like to protect. Councillor Jurisevic: Any other councillors, councillor Jurisevic? Yeah, it's not all about bright lights, glitz and glamour, the Gold Coast can keep their, their high-rises and that, it just shows that when you manage a destination and you market a destination for, you know, the, the ethos that Noosa has, has had for many, many years and that you can show that that's a sustainable outcome, that you actually deliver outcomes that, that people see makes a difference, you'll bring them here.
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00:45:00 I always thought Noosa would be the extremely resilient through, through technology. All the evidence is with your marketing and the destination that we have is that that's true in many people's minds. When things are going to hell in a hand basket like it has been for the last 12 months, people want to come to somewhere where they feel safe, they feel nurtured, they feel as one with nature and they feel like they can relax and enjoy, not stress out. So what we've produced and delivered over the years is certainly the proofs in the pudding that people want to come here and partake of what the offering is here locally. Well done. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? Councillor Wilkie: Mayor Stewart, would you like to close? Mayor Stewart: Yeah, look, again, I come back to your words, Mel, you know, efficient, innovative and more data driven. And I think, you know, what you've demonstrated last year, you know, the cash on hand was
00:46:00 my one red flag, but you've explained that well. And any business, if you look at their statements, their financial statements, they're all financial statements over the last 12 or 18 months, will be in a similar position. Even us as a council faced a deficit budget last year, our first one. So that's understandable. But look, I think, you know, as Councillor Stockwell said, you know, your strategic plan is right. Those words, you know, efficient, you've downed the size of your group, innovative, you've got so many different things on the go. And data driven, I mean, what we're seeing is a first for many regions. So I think, again, congratulations. And we look forward to working with you. Councillor Wilkie: All those in favour? Carried unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On to items referred from the committees, and those of you that were here last week know that there were very many questions asked during the course of the discussions last week, so we don't need to go over them again.
00:47:00 But for those that weren't here, we've got staff here, Lisa and Kerry. The first item is the Development Application for Material Change of Use for Shop and Short-Term Accommodation at 13 Noosa Drive, Noosa Heads. That's from page four of the Planning and Environment Committee Meeting Agenda. Tom? Councillor Wegener: Yeah. Tom. I have a conflict of interest. I, Councillor Wegener, inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter as I have a long-standing commercial relationship with Noosa Longboards, a surf shop located in Hastings Street Precinct, whereby I receive income from my royalties for the sale of my surfboards. The tenant in the application before Council is a commercial competitor of Noosa Longboards, and operates in the same precinct as this proposed development. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted upon. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Councillor Wegener.
00:48:00 If we don't have any questions, we can move to moving the motion, or does anyone have any questions? Councillor Jurisevic: I do have a question. I'll just clarify. I should have re-read this one over the weekend. It was the only one I didn't re-read. The lack of bicycle and scooter spaces being provided here is being conditioned in the terms of approval? Speaker 5: Yes, that's right. The Condition 14 requires the bicycle facility. Councillor Jurisevic: And with site cover at slightly more than the 45% maximum, there is no scope in any way, shape or form to provide any additional car parking spaces.
00:49:00 It's two spaces, as I understand it. Is that correct? Speaker 5: Yes, that's right. Councillor Jurisevic: And it would require nine normally, is that right? Speaker 5: Yes. So the development is being conditioned, or the recommendation is to condition it to comply with the maximum site cover. But it's also recommended to Council that they accept a contribution in lieu of on-site car parking, because the site is quite constrained inside, as well as it's accessed out onto the roundabout. So it is preferable to have a contribution in lieu of car parking in the systems, particularly for Hastings Street, public transport, pathways to the area. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you. Do we have a movement for the motion? Councillor Lorentson? I'll second it. Second it. Councillor Stewart? Councillor Lorentson? Amelia, you'll speak to the motion. Councillor Lorentson: I support the application and staff recommendation.
00:50:00 Councillor Wilkie: Any other councillors? Councillor Jurisevic: Joe? Yeah, look, apart from the issue of providing car parking, Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I think it's a great example of how having small lots amongst other larger lots in Hastings Street adds to the character of the place and so what we have here is I think a creative reuse of this site with the frontage, for all purposes, retained at the commercial front
00:51:00 but at the back we have a small short stay accommodation which has been designed quite simple set put and to me that's a great outcome. Councillor Wilkie: Any further, Amelia do you wish to close? No? Put the motion those in favour? That's carried unanimously. That's all we're going to do, come back in please. Next item is item two, application for material change of use for short term accommodation at 3 Robert Street, Noosaville. Again this was discussed at length last week, lots of questions but those that councillors that weren't here may have questions and there was also a broad ranging discussion on short term accommodation generally that occurred. Councillor Jurisevic: Joe. I know the matter came up when we were discussing short term, short stays within the planning scheme. And I acknowledge the input from the residents that are long term residents within this area,
00:52:00 being impacted by another short stay area. But at what point do we determine that there are sufficient short stay provisions within a street where long term residents live and the amenity of long term residents is considered in whether or not an application like this is approved. And what provisions are there in the planning scheme for that? Speaker 5: Yeah, so at the moment the scheme includes the words that should be predominantly used for permanent accommodation. And it's about predominant in the neighbourhoods, the residential neighbourhoods. So I would suggest that we should work on that and there actually be a little bit more guidance written into the scheme around what we consider as predominantly. So I would suggest that we should work on that and there actually be a little bit more guidance written into the scheme around what we consider as predominantly.
00:53:00 If the area is predominantly being used, the land area is mostly used for permanent accommodation, then it would be consistent with this provision. But it would help both development assessment officers and the community to understand exactly what that means and what we're asking for. Councillor Jurisevic: Is that something we've worked on in the first set of amendments for the scheme? Speaker 5: That's something we've put to our strategic planning team if they can have a look at for us. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. The second question in that regard is, what is the zoning here? Is it low density or medium density residential? Speaker 5: The site is residential, medium density. Councillor Jurisevic: Medium density. And in the planning scheme as it stands currently, medium, short stays are not inconsistent in that area. Speaker 5: That's right. They're actually identified as consistent and we're actually saying we want to see them in the medium density area. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Stockwell, then the councillor. Councillor Lorentson: I think we've had a discussion about short term accommodation. Can I just detour the application and just ask some questions about superseded applications,
00:54:00 Kerry? This is just some concerns and just some questions I wanted to ask. So at the moment, anyone living in low residential precincts can... Point of order. Councillor Wilkie: Sorry. Just to clarify. Oh, okay. This is not an application made under the superseded planning scheme? No. It's made under the current nursing plan. Okay. Is that... That's correct. I was just... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Sorry. I had a point of order. Sorry. Point of order is you can't introduce new business. This is introducing new business. It's not addressing the matter at hand. It's a discussion for another time. Councillor Wilkie: Actually, Councillor Stockwell is quite correct. I accept that. Yeah. That's right. I'll... Yeah. Questions about the application itself and... Councillor Lorentson: Okay. So... No. I don't. I'll keep it for another time. Thank you. I have pages of questions. Keep it for another discussion. Mayor Stewart: I'll look forward to that. Kerry's going to look forward to that one.
00:55:00 Councillor Wegener: Yeah. Speaker 5: Go for Dave. Councillor Wilkie: Questions about the application before us? Tom? Councillor Wegener: Can we talk about the conditions? Yeah. And the... If... In the enforcement of the conditions, say... So... Will got an email last night from Warwick, and he had a problem with a... Not even... Actually, not a short-term... Sorry, Brian. Councillor Wilkie: I don't think... Tom, that doesn't pertain to this particular... No. Okay. Councillor Wegener: Okay. Okay. But enforcement of the conditions, how is that going to work? How is that going to pan out? Because from what I understand, we're not actually... At this time, Noosa Council is not in the business of enforcing these sorts of conditions. How do you see that planning out in the future? Speaker 5: Yeah. I'll just clarify. The email I think Council has received relates to a site that potentially has existing use rights. So our scope to enforce things is limited until we bring in a local law.
00:56:00 With this one, we're issuing an approval, and it has conditions on it. Yeah. So like all development, we have a compliance officer who's charged with ensuring development complies with the conditions of approval. That will be assisted again when we bring in a local law, and will help us with enforcement. Now, enforcement and compliance is not an easy matter, but there's tools under the legislation that we can use. To ensure people meet their conditions. When we start with an educational approach and ask them, point out that they're not complying with the condition, ask them to comply. Obviously, we can step that up if we don't get appropriate responses and people comply through issues of fines, formal notices under the Act. So there are provisions around that. Councillor Wegener: So later on down the track, when we do have the local laws in, those will apply to the other 4,500 STAs.
00:57:00 Speaker 5: That's right. That's right. Councillor Wegener: Is there a buildup of... It just looks to me as though this is sort of an adventure that council's going on, a new area we're moving into, which is enforcement of conditions for STAs, because we don't do that now, and it looks like we're going to be doing that in the future. Is there a question there too? Yeah. Are we going to be doing that in the future? Well, absolutely. Speaker 5: Previously, until the Noosa Plan 2020 came in, we had no provisions around short-term accommodation, so there was nothing really to enforce. Now that they've come in, there's an application process, there's conditions, we have the ability to have that conversation with the landowner who has an approval and shall comply it. So that's really the change. We've gone from having nothing to enforce to now we have provisions that we... and tools we can use to... So, Kerry... Councillor Wegener: So, last question. Are we basically becoming the on-site managers for all the STSs?
00:58:00 Speaker 5: That's not my intention. That's not your intention. Councillor Wegener: But if the money's right. No, it's not. Speaker 5: So, the conditions are asking for a contact person and a code of conduct to be put in place. So, one, we're actually asking the owner and the manager of that development to take charge or responsibility to ensure that it is managed in a way that it's safe for the residents, that will not impact on residents' amenity. Now, if they fall down and don't live up to those conditions, yes, we will need to step in. But the first instance, we're asking the manager of that short-term, the contact person, to manage it appropriately. Okay. Councillor Wegener: Just a comment. It just seems to me that's a very big job. Okay, coming up. Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: Just, Kerry, just to add to what Tom's just said, we actually have specific provisions in the Planning Act that deal with party houses, Section 276. So, it states that the use of residences as party houses in a party house restriction area, a residential area.
00:59:00 This is something that I've discussed with Brett for some time. Why can't we enforce that provision? I understand that this is a police matter and that we can only regulate the land use. So, we can stop people from advertising that this is a party house. That's where we can step in. But if it's a noise issue and it happens at two o'clock at night, that's a matter of police and police, as we all know, are under-resourced. My question is, why can't we give our local law officers further powers? I know that we've done this in regards to sort of, or we're looking at doing this in regards to giving some of our local law officers extra powers to manage beaches. Why can't we do the same thing in this instance? We know that police, every time someone rings for a complaint, police are going to be dealing with the domestic violence issue in Kin Kin, and understandably.
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01:00:00 So, there's got to be a point where we stop giving that explanation and step up. And, you know, I think it's important. I guess we're getting into a policy and discussion. Speaker 8: I can probably answer this as well. I don't want my council staff being out there at two o'clock on a Saturday morning knocking on the door of a whole lot of drunk people telling them to shut up. That's a really dangerous workplace health and safety environment, and they're not trained for it to be one. The people who are trained to deal with that sort of quite difficult issue are the police. So, there's a policy question as well, but there's also a practical question about what staff we have to be able to do that job, and I'm not too sure that I want my staff out there doing that type of thing. Councillor Wilkie: And just to be clear to the people who may be listening, there's no suggestion this is a party house? Oh, no. Absolutely not. This is a general conversation. That explains. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'd like to move the motion. Seconded. Councillor Wilkie: I'll second it. Councillor Stewart. Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: As I said, we did have a wide-ranging conversation at the Planning Environment Committee. This is a material change of use, so I thought it might be helpful to put this application
01:01:00 in the context of the whole plan, because while in the Medium-Density Residential Code, there is a statement that says medium-density residential neighbourhoods are predominantly home to permanent residents. We cannot take that in isolation. So if you go up to the whole intent of the scheme in Section 3.26, it's a diverse and resilient economy. It says tourism is a key sector of the Noosa economy and will continue to be so into the future. Key visitor areas include Hating Street, the last application, Gympie Terrace, you can spit from this place to Gympie Terrace, and the Noosa River. So the strategic intent is that proximity to Gympie Terrace and Noosa River, it suggests this is the right spot. So the other thing we have to realise is that this medium-density residential is a residential code, but under the Planning Act, so is the tourist accommodation zone. The tourist accommodation is for the residents. So yes, our scheme does say that it's predominantly home to permanent residents in Part A.
01:02:00 But when you look at the purpose and overall outcomes of the medium-density residential, there's a whole lot of other outcomes which this application complies with. So B, for example, says the character of medium-density residential neighbourhoods varies due to factors such as proximity to the beaches, the Noosa River, recreation spaces, centres, availability of views, the presence of visitor accommodation, and the age of development. So just the presence of other visitor accommodation means that there's going to be a variance within the zone. In G, it says short-term visitor accommodation is presumably provided through well-established resorts and all day units. This is not one of them. And I, it says home hosted guest accommodation of a scale and tends to be compatible with the residential character. So it gives you that context that it should be compatible with the residential character. When we look at visitor accommodation, there's a whole list of things that were meant to mean to be compatible with character use of the area so as not to cause unreasonable loss of amenity, residential amenity to have regard to, and I won't read A through to I, but what
01:03:00 we've seen in the report from staff is that it does meet those criteria. So if you go to the Noosaville Local Plan Code, the purpose and overall outcome for Noosaville IOMF says the Noosaville Local Plan Area maintains its role for both provision of much of the commercial, retail, administrative, industrial, and social needs of the coastal urban portion of Noosa Shire as a major focus area for visitor accommodation and services. And in the criteria of the service 24 assessment in that locality, a range of visitor accommodation including low cost and family vendery, short term accommodation, and tourist park accommodation is envisaged. So when you look at the scheme as a whole, you look at the consistent use of the zone, there is no argument to say this isn't an appropriate use of this site. I do want to make a correction from Planning Environment where I suggested that we'd made statements in the new scheme about what parts of the medium density and high density residential
01:04:00 zones weren't envisaged for short stay accommodation. When I went and looked at the scheme, my intent when I raised that suggestion in the forum was only put onto high density. That's about those areas not located on a site adjoining or over the road from landings in a major centre zone. And I think what the staff member Kerry said is right. We need to do a little bit of refinement to just massage the words in the scheme to make it clear where in the medium density residential we think short stay is and where maybe not. The last thing I'd like to do, Kylie, if you can bring up that picture. Now, we had a map which showed all the submitters in the report, and that's the red dots below the colours you can see there, but Kerry Coyle also provided us some other maps or images which show, A, the zoning, and B, how many of the developments around this site actually already have short stay accommodation.
01:05:00 So you can see here that around the site, which is the yellow star, that the vast majority of development is for visitor accommodation. You can also see that the vast majority of submitters are people living in the low density residential zone, not the medium density residential zone. And one of the submitters, I believe, that has the lowest density residential zone is actually in support, not in raising concerns. Now, that doesn't make any difference to the validity of their submissions. It just says that you're more likely to want to retain that low density residential environment when you're living in it. Okay? So to me, when you look at the proximity of the tourist accommodation, you know, on a southerly bluster, you could fly your paper plane from this place down into the river. You've got a historic tourist accommodation area, and this is totally in keeping with that. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Brian. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? I'll speak to it, yeah. Councillor Stewart. Mayor Stewart: Yeah, I too support the staff recommendation. A couple of us, I'm not sure how many, actually received a phone call from the owner of this
01:06:00 property, Narelle. Narelle was very concerned after viewing the Planning and Environment Court meeting saying, and she rang me and she said, Claire, this isn't a commercial enterprise. This is our home. And it's a very precious asset. This is a home that's not owned by a company. It's a family trust. And she said that we are renting it out in the short term until we can afford to retire and move into the house ourselves. She said, I'm absolutely willing and wanting to comply with host conditions. She said, this is my home. I don't want it to be a party house. I will abide by everything I've been asked to do and will continue to do so. This house is in medium density, and thus the proposed use is identified as consistent with the zone. It's able to be short term led according to our town plan. The application is consistent with the strategic framework as located within a high density area, as Councillor Stockwell said, in close proximity to tourist and recreational activities on Gympie Terrace. So I too support this staff recommendation.
01:07:00 Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Okay, I'd just like to say that in front of us we've got an application for a material change of use for short-term accommodation. It's code compliant. That is the Noosa Plan 2020 approves this application for short-term accommodation as being consistent use in median residential zoning. To not approve this application means that we're not supporting the Noosa Plan and it will open us to legal challenge. We cannot erode process and we cannot punish an applicant who has simply followed the rules set down by our planning scheme. If we want a different outcome, we need to amend the Noosa Plan and my recommendation is let's just do this by amending the Noosa Plan, not by eroding it. I support the staff recommendation.
01:08:00 Thank you, Councillor Wilkie: Councilor Harrison. Tom. Councillor Wegener: I have a different reading of the Noosa Plan because I just when you just the plain language says the overall outcomes sought by the medium density residential zone are as follows. Medium density residential neighborhoods predominantly home to permanent residents. And you look at the the the map there and the the medium density is not predominantly home to permanent residents. And I think most of that or a huge percentage of it at least 50% is holiday rentals and so forth and in short stay accommodation. So I just read the plan and I I can't help myself. If I'm standing there with 10 other people we may all have different interpretations but it kind of it's a pub test situation. Medium density residential neighborhoods are predominantly home to permanent residents and that's the goal of the planning scheme. I think that this is a subset.
01:09:00 When you can have a short-term accommodation in a medium density when it's not predominantly when it's not you know trying to say when it's not not predominantly residential and so that's the situation I mean I don't I think that you have the beginning of the town plan here which says um permanent residents and then you have sort of an exception or a corollary to the rule that says well you can have short-term accommodation providing it does not constitute a party house and doesn't impact on the residential amenity enjoyed by the adjoining surrounding properties. So I I you're what the way that that that staff has read it is that it's or is this or that where in my opinion it is this and that. It can't if it's this then it can't. If it's this then it can't. It it this is a a condition and then um speaking with some elders uh in Noosa when you ask them about
01:10:00 you know how come this hasn't already become you know all tourist uh zone through there is because we want to maintain the residents living in really really nice places and Kylie could you put up the map again please. Your map or uh yeah that's good enough yeah you know we want to maintain um the residents being able to live in the really nice places now when you when you when you zoom back actually could you bring the other map up you know we have our our low density there which is a very small subset of all the areas around there and when you say I want to keep predominantly residents living in the good places in Noosa because like myself when I moved to Noosa I had kids and a family in what is now a medium density and which is now will probably mostly be
01:11:00 short-term accommodation on hill street and I had kids my neighbor had kids across the street had kids that's where the fabric of of our community started there and I still am friends with these people and I grew up with their kids grew up you know knowing each other and I think we're shrinking the community down and I think that I I read the plain readings of the Noosa plan um rejects the plan. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Tom. Okay um Councillor Finzel. I'm sorry Finch Tom. Councillor Wegener: Uh one of the things as I mentioned is in in the future also when looking at all these um STSs and with uh once we have the the new local rules coming in the amount of effort it's going to take to be what I consider a giant on-site manager of all these different places we are opening up a can of worms that we're going to be able to use and we're going to be able to use that we can't put the lid back on we're we're opening it up and we cannot go back and I am very
01:12:00 very very cautious of accepting a permanent change to a residential place from a from a home to a business it takes a lot of thought planning thinking about it do you really want to do that to give it away forever okay thanks thank you thank you councillor Karen thank you Councillor Finzel: um thank you I do support the recommendation from the staff I would just like to say in closing that the change of use for approval today here is over the land and this has raised a lot of issues and debate this is not the environment to do it today but I appreciate the opportunity to hear what everyone had to say and I'm confident that we have opportunity and mechanisms in place to revisit this and put some finer points into the planning scheme so thank you for your work today and the questions that the staff answered following our
01:13:00 rigorous debate last week and we're going on case by case and today with what's before us I will Speaker 8: recommend that we move forward on this case thank you thank you councillor just before anyone speaks I'll just flag that I've been listening to the debate about what I call the broader policy question so to enable that to occur we'll bring a report up to the march round of meetings it's looking at where we're up to with our planning scheme and ministerial conditions and if you want to trigger any timing or review of what we look at first that'll probably be the best place to do it so we'll have that in the march round meeting for you thank you for pre-empting what I was going to Councillor Jurisevic: say yeah I'll look I'll concur with everything that council Stockwell said the only the only element that he missed out with proximity of these two destinations is that hopefully it means that when people do come to stay in these areas they don't take their cars out they actually can walk to and and ease the congestion on their roads when when the proximity
01:14:00 of these to the destinations that they want to want to go to is is within walking you know easy walking distance including the town centre just down the road so I acknowledge all the comments that councillors have made through through this debate and and in the other forum I just plenty of not caught I'm just uh correct um what I heard earlier wouldn't be the court too like I always wanted to be uh but uh yeah I support the uh the recommendation of staff I think uh um the other elements that we've discussed uh uh comments for another day and uh discussions for another day Deputy Mayor Stockwell: thank you Councillor Stockwell oh yeah I will um obviously the role of a councillor is a varied one in the debate we've heard Councillor Wegener talk about this being a pub test and then he said the plain English reading of the planning scheme that infers to me that he hasn't considered his role as
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01:15:00 the council in development trial because in our training and in the legislation it's very clear we've only got one task to do when it comes to assessing development applications and that's following the law and the law is set out in the planning scheme and professional staff have made an assessment and recommended approval in my mind there is absolutely no grounds for rejection unless you seek to use this as an opportunity to state your policy now Councillor Wegener had the very valid points in terms of arguing for a change in policy now is not the right time to express those in the way you vote now is the right time to undertake a statutory approval process in accordance with the criteria within the planning scheme and the staff have clearly said they've done that assessment and recommended approval I've provided some more information that says in my mind there's absolutely no case
01:16:00 to warrant anything else for the approval thank you put the motion those in favour Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Jurisevic, Councillor Lorentson and Councillor Stewart, Councillor Stockwell, Councillor Finzel, Councillor Wilkie against Councillor Wegener good thank you okay um the next item is item three change to development approval material change abuse multiple housing type 3 retirement special needs at 186 Koroa Noosa Road and 4 Carramar Street Tewantin again this was um canvassed quite extensively last week lots of questions for those that weren't part of that committee do you have any questions for staff uh page 52 of the planning and run Councillor Jurisevic: committee meeting agenda only the one given that the um the site the subject site for this car park was a uh uh previously a residential site um is there an issue with a car park uh being
01:17:00 placed on there as opposed to a uh and the loss of a residential uh residential provision within the planning scheme the site's actually now been uh Speaker 1: rezoned uh it's no longer a residential zone property it's now a community services zone Councillor Jurisevic: property is it the oh it's not not indicated in the land oh that's on 2006 sorry so okay so the figure in figure figure six now indicates not only that block but the several adjoining blocks to uh that block are also in that community zone now that's correct okay thank you Councillor Wilkie: any other questions we have a mover please move councillor Finzel seconded councillor Lorentson
01:18:00 Councillor Finzel: um i'm just happy to accept the recommendation i did follow up on um some complaints that may have been made around the site which that was cleared up um i also checked in with the customer service people to see if there was anything relevant like last week and they said there has been nothing that satisfies um the call i got from the ceo because they want to look after their residents and make sure everyone in the neighborhood is happy so um yeah those questions were answered and adequately followed up so i'm happy with the recommendation thank you thank you now the council will speak Councillor Jurisevic: for motion i think it's a logical um logical location for uh on what is becoming quite a constrained site with regard to uh further development on there to uh alleviate the uh the challenges of car parking on the site Councillor Wilkie: okay mr close okay put the motion those in favor uh that's unanimous
01:19:00 thank you the next item is a planning and environment court appeal uh number b the 897 2020 refusal of an application for service and utility type 3 tower at 244 table lands road Cooran with a few declarations here this is page 67 of the planning environment committee meeting again Councillor Wegener: hi councillor wegener informed the meeting that i have a prescribed conflict of interest in this matter is i have an nbn tower located on my property and receive income from nba nbn via a lease arrangement as a result of my conflict of interest i will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on thank you tom Councillor Jurisevic: so item four in this agenda not item four in that Councillor Wilkie: i councillor finzel informed the meeting that i have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter Councillor Finzel: as prior to my election to council i signed a petition relating to this application
01:20:00 as a result of my conflict of interest i will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted on Councillor Wilkie: thank you councillor finzel Deputy Mayor Stockwell: any others oh as i say good things come in threes um yeah i wish to inform the meeting that i'm a clearable conflict of interest in this matter as bill and christine tanch who are correspondents to this appeal supported my 2020 election campaign by undertaking letterbox drops as a result of my conflict of interest i will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered then voted on Councillor Wilkie: and councillor sogwell Do we have any questions for carers, councillors? Okay, move, Councillor Stewart.
01:21:00 We have a seconder, Councillor Jurisevic. Councillor Stewart. Mayor Stewart: Look, the applicant's new proposal, which involved reducing the height of the tower, will ensure that the scenic values and significant views of the local area will be generally maintained and not materially impacted because the proposal would not obstruct views to important landscape features, will not protrude above prominent tree lines or the skyline, and will present as a small object in wide views of the landscape that is taken from the report. The co-respondents, I note, have withdrawn from the appeal from the second joint expert report upon reception of that, and I support staff's recommendation to settle the appeal in accordance with conditions stated. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Stewart. Councillor Wilkie: Now, the councillors, respect to the motion. I'll take care of the mayor's problem. Put the motion in favour. It's carried unanimously. The councillors can come back. Thanks, Kerry. Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Kerry. Speaker 12: Back in. Mayor Stewart: Nice work, Frank, planning through.
01:22:00 That's good. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Welcome back. We're up to the next item is the draft Bushland Reserve Strategic Management Plans, and that's from page 76 of the Planning Environment Committee agenda. And it's about putting these documents out for public consultation. And, Councillor Jurisevic, you asked to have this referred due to the significance of the matter. Councillor Jurisevic: This involves so many, so many reserves across the tribe. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Joe, you weren't at this meeting. Do you have any questions of staff? Councillor Jurisevic: I did have a question that I posed of Michael, and I've just, bear with me, I just find it on email so I get the wording of it. Thank you for the response, Michael. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So you don't need to ask it if it's a response. Councillor Jurisevic: No, I just thought it might be beneficial for everybody here. The question I asked, on page 28 of the plan, second paragraph, talks about small, highly
01:23:00 degraded reserves that may never be able to be restored without significant resourcing. I asked, can you advise the most significant of the reserves under council's care that wouldn't fit into that category, please? And how many of those reserves are likely to fit into that category? Speaker 10: How many? Have you got my answer there? Councillor Jurisevic: Shall I give you the answer? Yes, please. Shall I give you the answer? No, no. I thought I'd give you the answer. So Michael's response, Michael's response on behalf of Michael was, given the potential for recovery and ongoing management resourcing is weighted by 50%, on page 29, it's likely reserves in tiers four and five would fit into that category. This equates to approximately 70 reserves. With regards to significant or significant reserves, some examples are as follows. David Street, Bushland Reserve, Orient Bushland Reserve, Reed Park Bushland, Shorehaven Bushland, Sundial Bushland Reserve, and Topaz Street Bushland.
01:24:00 So just for the benefit of the other councillors that don't hear the question, because I didn't actually share that question amongst you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Well asked and answered. Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Next time I'll draw my own response. Councillor Wilkie: Joe, is this a matter close to your heart? Would you wish to move? Councillor Jurisevic: Yes, I'll move this one. Can we have a seconder, please? Second. Seconder, Councillor Wegener. Joe? Look, it's good to see that we're finally getting some clarity to the strategic plan around the many, many 178, off the top of my head, bushland reserves around here. Some individual bushland reserve plans are undertaken, but this gives clarity to the remainder. And also a scope for ongoing management resourcing and prioritising of areas that will gain the most benefit over time from not only council, but also the contract resources that we can
01:25:00 place on these. As well as an opportunity for opportunity for other council members. And things along those lines that come from external sourcing, so I commend staff for the time and effort they've put into this. The amount of effort to manage our 178 reserves is extensive, given the small number of staff that we have to undertake the process, and I look forward to seeing some progress on those reserves in the Category 1, 2 and 3 classes in particular in the near future, as well as some ongoing flyer management strategies being implemented in reserves that probably have been in need of some attention for some time. Councillor Wilkie: The other councillors wish to speak to motion? Tom. Councillor Wegener: Well, can I still ask questions? Yes, of course. With, you know, there's only six staff for this, is that what it says here in the report? Correct.
01:26:00 Can you describe how much you depend on the community groups and the volunteers? Because there's so much work to be done, and how much do you depend on them, and what can we do to keep that engine running in the future? Speaker 10: It's possibly more of a question for a bushland care officer, but to answer on his behalf. Obviously, sometimes they do work on some of their high priority sites, and sometimes they're less priority sites. So what we could do, I guess we try to take into account their works and their activities on our sites too. We do have contractors that we use, and we try to work alongside them. I guess to answer your question, I guess marketing or something like that onto that program would definitely help.
01:27:00 And it has been something that we have been talking about. So, yep. Thank you, Tom. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Brian. Yes. As council representative on the Mary Catchment Committee, it probably behoves me to point out that on page 14, the plan identifies that Noosa River Catchment comprises approximately 60% of the Shire, while approximately 36% is in the Mary River Catchment. And you look at the table below, and 84% of our reserves. Our reserves are in that 63%, and only 14% in that 36%. So while it's got completely no relevance to the matter at hand, I'd just like to say that perhaps we should be starting to look at those high conservation value areas along the Six Mile Creek, where we have the endangered Mary of Kite and the endangered Jawa Bard and Cascade Treebogs, and actually try and enhance the level of investment in those areas. End of sermon. Councillor Wilkie: Question. I guess, is that any sort of feedback you'd be seeking as part of the consultation process?
01:28:00 Speaker 10: Yes. Yeah. I guess what I'm after is some more of the public's input into the methodology used, I guess, for this plan. Councillor Wilkie: Do you have a councillor which would speak for the motion? Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I'll ask a question following on from Brian's statement there. Yeah. Where would the greater percentage of state forests and national parks be in relation to those two catchments? In the Noosa Shire, or in the Noosa River catchment, or in the Mary River catchment? Speaker 10: I do not have the data on that. Speaker 13: Sorry. We'll have to run some numbers. We'll have to run some numbers on that, Joe. We don't really know. Councillor Jurisevic: I'd be interested to know the difference, and actually what percentage is already covered by covenants and elements of projects like the Eural Retail Forest Project, as compared to that. If that's something we can acquire some information on, that'd be an interesting follow up to Brian's question, and see if there is a scope there for some greater concentrations in those areas.
01:29:00 Speaker 13: Mostly it'll be in the Noosa River catchment, because you've got the extent of Cooroola National Park, which is quite big. Oh, of course. But then, you know, Eural's quite large. Councillor Jurisevic: I guess, I mean, land track-wise, there's a number of smaller passes, but there are some large passes in both areas. Can you actually do a comparison? Councillor Wilkie: Do you wish to close, Joe? No, I think all's been said. All in favour? Unanimous? Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Peter. This is an organisation committee meeting agenda. Again, this was quite a wide range of question and answer session on this last week. It's a very significant issue. There's services dear to the hearts of many in Hinterland and Peregian.
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01:30:00 Councillors, do you have any, you're Peregian, I might add. Do you have any questions? And possibly other coastal areas as well. Those that weren't there last week. Councillor Jurisevic: Just for the sake of, with regard, I mean, obviously this has had a significant element of community input and consultation before heading down this path. But also, I'll go that way first. So the amount of engagement with the community, particularly library users, with regard to a new model of delivery of this type. of service, has been widely accepted? Speaker 9: Absolutely. So consultation with the community informally and formally has been undertaken really over the last two years. And the formal consultation that we went out with the proposed model in November last year was received well.
01:31:00 Very positive with the community. There were a number of elements that they were very happy to see continue with this. Part of it was that weekly service. The other part would be the alternative delivery methods with the kiosk. And they love our staff. So they're very excited to continue to see a library outreach service delivered with our friendly staff. Councillor Jurisevic: But they're not going to be seeing our staff. They're going to be seeing a machine. Speaker 9: It's part of the weekly visit that will continue. They will definitely be seeing the library staff. Councillor Jurisevic: So the other question is, are there any other questions that you would like to ask? There was a question that I asked in the other meeting. But I'll ask it in a different manner this time. The proposed library kiosks and a smaller vehicle of this size are obviously utilized elsewhere.
01:32:00 We're not the first to take on this. But is there anywhere in Queensland or in Australia at this point in time that you know of that uses these library kiosks? And or this method of smaller type van delivery as opposed to the large articulated vehicle type mobile library service? Speaker 9: So in regards to the vehicle, there is a definite trend for downsizing. We went down and saw Redlands' new smaller vehicle as part of the research behind the proposed model. So that's one example. In regards to the kiosk, my understanding is Rockhampton Council uses the kiosk. And they have it at their airport with great success. It's also being used in the Northern Territory. But I couldn't tell you the exact location. What a great location, Jane. Councillor Lorentson: At the airport. Speaker 8: Yeah. What happened to all the fly in, fly out? Speaker 4: So the Rockhampton kiosk has been in for at least two years.
01:33:00 And so it was actually one of the earlier adopters and has been very successful there. So we're confident that the technology is robust. Overseas. They are widely used, particularly in the Asian countries. When they started to move to more self-service, brought in kiosks. They've been very successful. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. My only concern is that we, the libraries, as Tracy alludes to, the library staff are well respected and admired. And that interaction is, has been there over time. The change to a, I don't know how to describe it. I don't know how to describe it. I don't know how to describe it. The dispensing model doesn't challenge the, that relationship over time. And that we're very different to an Asian market with regard to the type of interaction that we have. And maybe automation may be something that we'll have to monitor over time.
01:34:00 Speaker 9: Absolutely. I think you're right, Joe, which is why there's value in it being a second element of the library service and continuing the weekly visit with the outreach. Councillor Wilkie: Just to clarify, it's not instead of, it's in addition to. Speaker 9: Sorry. In addition to. In addition to. Yes. Thanks, Frank. We're well aware that there'll be a target market that may have issues with using the technology and we'll develop our user education program as part of our rollout. And write a book about it. I think it may also have the potential to pick up a different target market. So, you know, people that aren't wanting to come into a library service, particularly what we've experienced in the last year. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: And to add to that too, Jane, there's the potential, like I think we're. Tracey. Tracey. Tracey, sorry. That's okay. That in Pomona, we have to house this kiosk. There's the potential that it's going to be a gathering place and there'll be social connections
01:35:00 and community values and benefits from that. So, I think you're right. It'll expand our outreach, but also potentially provide good connections for the community. Speaker 9: So, we have been discussing the potential model with the Pomona Community Health for some time and we have their strong support to, you know, activate this, look after this. There's the potential to do some programming in that area as well. So, a lot of library, you know, outreach services that will continue that, you know, connecting with community and encouraging situations for them to get together as well. Speaker 4: Tracey. So, I guess some of the feedback that we've got is that the restriction of the timetable, even though it's weekly, is such that in very, very busy lives, they might have the intention of going, but oops, suddenly the two hours has gone, they've forgotten all about it. So, the kiosk provides an opportunity for those people to then go, I can still access
01:36:00 a service. And this, by putting them in two locations, some people have asked why not, why doesn't, why not spread them further? We want to trial it. You know, this is new technology. Well, it might be proven elsewhere. It's new technology for us. So, this enables us to trial it, to see how it works, what does work, what doesn't work, before we then consider whether we expanded it further. Councillor Jurisevic: And I guess that's along the lines of the questioning that I was saying there. We're only doing this in two locations. And the point made there was quite pertinent, that this will add, this will actually value add instead of the service only being available once a week, they'll actually be able to 24, seven, seven days a week to be able to withdraw and return books. Yes, that's right. So, if you don't, if you miss the bus. That's right. You miss the bus, you don't have to worry that you've missed the bus. You can actually still return your book or go and borrow another book. Absolutely. That's correct. And request certain books to be.
01:37:00 Speaker 9: So, the kiosk won't have the reserved capability, but the weekly visit will. Yeah. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Brian, you had a question? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. Since we started this and looking at downsizing, the world's changed. And it's like that social distancing is going to be a part of our lives for probably years in the future. In terms of the smaller vehicle, have we made allowance in terms of, you know, if we are back to one person per four square meters within a small vehicle, the external areas, have we got it so there's a whiz bang canopy and all weather so you can queue outside or sit? Is it going to have that sort of ability to handle the conditions as they come? Speaker 9: Well, that's our intention. So, we've spent a lot of time, you know, looking at how we could make our outside quite welcoming. So, we're looking at an awning that can be put up and a rollout mat and it's a nice comfortable pop-up furniture. The proposed concept, you know, vehicle that we're looking at would have like an exterior
01:38:00 roll-up shelving so that we could, you know, display books that are relevant to wherever we're going, if that's a daycare center, an aged retirement center. So, yes, it is absolutely our intention to make it a welcoming vehicle. I guess what we've seen with COVID is, you know, we actually can't take our semi-trailer out on the road. Whereas a small, we've been operating with a smaller vehicle where people can just come to the outside at the moment. But with the size of this proposed model, we could actually, it has two doors on it. So, you could have that potential of, you know, ferrying customers in and out so that they still could browse a collection as well as just be outside. Whereas the current vehicle is so complex and challenging and expensive to run, you know, you do have to question whether that's the right use of ratepayers' money to only allow one or two people in at a time.
01:39:00 Speaker 4: So, am I right, Tracey, that as the, on the external wall of the truck of the new proposed vehicle, actually a roller goes up and it's shelving facing out to you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, using a smaller vehicle like this actually gives us a bit more flexibility than what we could have in a truck. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, actually, Brian alludes to an interesting point as well. With the, these library kiosks, if there is another outbreak of COVID and things shut down, we've got another element here with regard to cleaning and those sorts of things. Has any of that been factored into the future needs of another outbreak? It has. Speaker 9: Yes. Yes. So, absolutely. In the draft 21-22 operational budget, we've ensured there is funding there to allow for a daily wipe down and clean of the kiosks. I'm hoping that we may also get some community support moving forward on that as well, but
01:40:00 we have definitely considered that. Councillor Jurisevic: And I'd imagine it's scoped to actually close it off if need be, if it's, you know, books being returned, you know, you know, they're being. Speaker 9: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Being attended to as they were in the library, that they had to be cleaned before returning to the shelves and vice versa. Speaker 9: Yes. So, we've rehearsed now shutting down complete library branches. Okay. So, that would be taken into account as part of that. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Good to see it's been considered. Motion before us. Anyone care to move that? Councillor Finzel: Oh, can I make a comment? I have to make a comment on this. Councillor Wilkie: Comment away. Councillor Finzel: Comment away. Yes, I do have to comment. I have heavily campaigned with regards to the mobile library service moving or diminishing. And it was well supported through my campaign, but I'm happy to say a resounding yes today
01:41:00 to the recommendation, because I think that the elements that you have recommended are the very elements that people were concerned that would be lost. So, I'm happy to say a resounding yes today to the recommendation, because I think that Thank you for the work you've done. It's very detailed and the recommendations of the report has been excellent and I do hope that as we go through the procurement process we could access the electric vehicle would be the cream on the cake, but let's see how that goes. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. And the councillors wish to speak to the motion? Yes. Rob? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, it's been quite an extensive lead into this for those councillors in last term, but
01:42:00 as with the Croy Library, I think we've got to an outcome where everyone is quite satisfied that we are taking the mobile service in a new direction, which is a better direction than an improved direction. My only regret is we don't have the drone delivery of books, but obviously we are moving with the technology and that's just a mere step down the road. So yes, I thank the staff because there has been, at times, some rather vitriolic conversations in the community about the loss of the mobile license. But yes, I think when we do roll this out, I think the community is going to be very happy. Councillor Lorentson: I am super excited to support this recommendation. Libraries are a highly valued core service
01:43:00 to the community and to be able to deliver it through library kiosks and vehicles with renewable energy powered options will help re-establish their relevance and place in the 21st century. In a world full of uncertainties, libraries are one of the few trusted institutions remaining. Councils are front line and sometimes a lifeline for the most vulnerable, the homeless and those alone and the elderly. I look forward to the data that's going to be supporting an increase in library usage including visitations and items loaned 12 months after the implementation of this. And well done ladies. I know this has been a work in progress and your passion shines through this report. Thank you. Thank you. Kassar Joe then, Tom. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes, whilst the loss of the articulated vehicle may be an alarm for the community, I think
01:44:00 I may be mourned by some and I'm sure those that are living associated over the years. Since the opening of the Cooroy Library, it's clear from the figures here that the Cooroy Library has served its function well and provided a service to many in the hinterland over those years and taken the burden, I guess, off that workhorse that's been trudging up and down that range for many, many years. And it's served its service very, very well. So that's now facilitated the opportunity to look at how we can better facilitate this service to the community and actually reach more of our community with a more niche and more carefully designed concept with regard to 21st century library services. And I commend staff on the time and effort they've put into this. The effort in communicating
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01:45:00 with the community. You know, they're well-known library users and ensuring that they're not going to lose any facilitation or any social wellbeing that comes from that mobile library service being delivered, but enhance that service for the future and actually try and deliver more to more members of our community and get a greater rate around what the current vehicle has and Speaker 12: the limitations of the current articulated vehicle has. Councillor Jurisevic: So I commend this recommendation to our community. I look forward to seeing the new vehicle. Like Karen, I am hopeful that we can be starting to look at leading with electric vehicles and solar powered vehicles if the opportunity arises. I know the batteries and the weight of the batteries may be a challenge, but the lithium batteries have come a long, long way. And by the time this comes to having to go out to tender, that maybe some of those manufacturers are there with a lot of SUV type vehicles and a number of delivery vehicles now looking at, you know,
01:46:00 some form of electric delivery vehicle and solar systems to help provide those provisions. Well done. Congratulations. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you, Joe. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Tom. Councillor Wegener: Yeah, I'd just like to reiterate what Joe said and just say it's been really a pleasure to watch this unfold. The reports have been phenomenal. The presentations have been phenomenal. And it just seems like a great program. You've taken a good program and made it better going forward with the services to the community. So thank you. Councillor Stewart. Mayor Stewart: I just wanted to add my voice to the litany of thanks and, you know, and excitement. This is a great model. Congratulations. There's been a lot of consultation on this with the wider community. We've done numerous workshops. So thank you for your time and all your hard work. Tracey, I know, and Kerry, thank you. This is more functional, will provide increased ability to reach wider community through a smaller vehicle and will be more economical up to the amount of about 70,000 per annum, which is no small feat. The kiosks will feature in what we know are our two most popular areas for library usage,
01:47:00 Pomona and Peregian. It's easier to comply with legislative requirements of the smaller vehicle regarding staff and their training and will provide more flexibility. So I'm not just happy to support this, I'm excited to support it. So thank you very much. Councillor Wilkie: I won't comment because I don't think I can improve on an endorsement from a former critic. Councillor Finzel, would you like to close? Councillor Finzel: It's a bright future. Oh, that's nice. Councillor Wilkie: Well said. All in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Tracey. Thank you. Next one is the commercial high use permits, the tender process. It's on page 16 on the Services and Organisation Committee agenda. And not all councillors were there when that was discussed. So we've got Dennis and Michael here for questions. Welcome. Any questions of staff councillors?
01:48:00 We have a motion before us. Does someone care to move the motion? Councillor Finzel? Seconded by Councillor Stewart? Councillor Finzel, would you like to speak to the motion? Councillor Finzel: I just say that the motion before us has been well thought through. Recommended. And I think you've done your homework. I'm satisfied that what you put before us covers all the necessary work. So I support that. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Just a question for the benefit of those listening. This is ratified on Thursday night. What is the timing for this process? Speaker 6: I'm hoping to go out for tenders through March. So most of March would be open for tender. Assess through April and report in May. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. And any potential tenders who seek to lobby councillors through this process potentially risk exclusion from the process? Speaker 6: They do. And we talked about it at the committee meeting that we'll circulate some material to councillors about the sort of probity process around that.
01:49:00 So it's something to be acutely aware of. And they're all familiar. You get the regular updates from procurement. Speaker 12: So you're well aware of your responsibilities around tenders. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Any other? Ed Bryan? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. I do want to just highlight. I thank the SAR for considering the proposed annual fees to include the cost of car parking. I think these are five-year permits that we're advertising. There's no doubt in my mind that appropriate management of the Hastings Street area and that main beach area in the next five years will include consideration of some form of disincentive for people to drive their cars there. I think there is a real cost to the community of just handing over car parks to commercial users. They provide a useful service to the visitors and to locals who go to the beach. But I think that has to be factored in. And when you look at what we're offering, these on the set rate and compare it to the
01:50:00 square metres that shops would be paying in Hastings Street, it's still a very competitive price. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Councillor Stockwell. Councillor Jurisevic: Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion? Just a question. Joe? Within the process, one of the questions come up as regard to data, is there scope within the tender process to request a means of data clarification of the success or otherwise of these operations over the time of their tender? Speaker 6: I think at the committee meeting we talked about the use and uptake of the kayak to the tours specifically. Specifically. There is a mechanism for us to include in the permit a feedback loop. But I think, you know, it's fairly clear that most of the permits are highly utilised. But in regard to the kayak permit, I spoke to the operator after the committee meeting
01:51:00 last week and he said through COVID last year they ran five tours and that was impacted by COVID. And then in normal periods they'd expect a tour every couple of weeks. Councillor Jurisevic: But again, from an opportunity to understand the benefit of these to our tourism offering, for want of a better term, the capacity to understand their effectiveness and the level of delivery is something that I think is very important. We benefit from when these things come for renewal time and time again. Speaker 6: Yes, yeah. I'm happy to consider that if the permits go out. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. That's all I've got to add. Okay. Apart from losing sleep again? No.
01:52:00 You wish to close, Councillor Finzel? No. No. All in favour? That's unanimous. Councillor Wilkie: Thanks, Dennis. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is the Chamber of Commerce industry request for the provision of alcohol for temporary events during COVID-19 pandemic. There has been a change in the request here. Speaker 8: Yes. So the Chamber indicated they're not seeking to have alcohol and not seeking to have 700 people. So they don't need to actually deal with it. Okay. There's a recommendation there. There's a recommendation there. We just proposed this normally in accordance with the delegation by staff. Yes. So the recommendation is all in. Councillor Wilkie: So I'm happy to move that. I'll move. I'll move Councillor Stewart. Seconded by Councillor Lorentson. No. Please speak forward. No. Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: I'll speak forward. The Noosa Chamber of Commerce, all their members and the industry, the business industry,
01:53:00 these are the people that work on the front line of this pandemic. And I think they understand the issue of mental health and economic and social ramifications of the pandemic more than anyone else. So I'm looking forward to supporting this event, which supports the wellbeing of people in this industry. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: John. Yeah. Look, I acknowledge the event has been downsized and I had a bit of a hard time with it. I was going to express a different view to the staff recommendation with regard to where we are at with our events policy at this stage. We did say when that was placed that there'd be a review around this time, and I'm going to be requesting after this as CEO that we get to that review period and process as soon as is applicable. But in the instance that the Chamber has changed their policy, I'm going to be requesting
01:54:00 I hope with regard to the nature of the event and the numbers, I'm quite happy to support the recommendation, as expected. Councillor Wilkie: Anybody else wish to speak to the motion? You wish to close, Councillor? No, I think it's all been said. I think we're all looking forward to it. All in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you, Michael. The next item is the community support for the cleaning tender. Ash Saylor. We're now in the General Committee. Report's Director, General Committee. Good morning, still. Hello, Ash. Just made it. This is Report Director-General, so any questions for Ash? Mayor Stewart: Who had the previous tender, Ash, or was it a different company? Speaker 11: It wasn't actually a tender previously, so there were a variety of companies that provided smaller groups of services.
01:55:00 So the decision was made to bundle this up into one larger contract and go to market. Mayor Stewart: So it's the first one of this kind, so to speak? Speaker 11: Of this scale, yes. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Speaker 11: Joe? I'm assuming the prices list are an hourly rate? Per hour, yes. That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: So why is it that the tender with the highest hourly rate is the one that has been chosen? Speaker 11: Yes, so obviously price was one component of the assessment, but not the dominant component. I guess with this service particularly. Because it involves people going into elderly, frail, vulnerable people's homes. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll re-iterate my question. Only for portion one, that's the highest rate. Yes, sorry. I think there was another one. My apologies. Speaker 11: That's a bit more expensive. My apologies. So whilst price is a consideration, it wasn't our main consideration. The quality of the response in the other areas, which we deem to be overall, collectively, more important than price. The response from Ekovia was very strong. It gave us a high level of comfort that sending them and their team into people's homes was
01:56:00 going to go well. And I guess if you put yourself in, if you think about one of your parents or grandparents perhaps, having somebody go into their house and clean for an hour, you want to be very sure that it's a quality contractor with the right level of experience and quals and systems and processes, et cetera, and plus. So I guess it's towards the upper end of the price range, but we felt in the other areas they're much stronger than many of the other responses that we saw, and still sits within the budget that we have in terms of our funding. So yeah. Amelia? Councillor Wilkie: Sorry, I've got one more question. If I can finish up. Amelia, then Brian. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Mine was just a quip to say that, yeah, if Councillor Druze has got any residual concerns that being the only over 60 here, I'm happy for him to have a test on my house. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Brian. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We'll take that as a comment. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I've seen a number of these scoring matrixes over the time on council here, Ash, but I don't recall ever seeing one with a score of zero in a column for a number of the contracts.
01:57:00 Is that because information relating to that wasn't supplied anywhere? There were so many respondents that just didn't provide any response at all. I was wondering why in that regard as to why a zero would appear there as opposed to actual knowledge. So no information in that regard was required. Thank you. Amelia? Councillor Lorentson: Hi, Ash. Just my question is, I've looked at the weighting criteria, and I just wanted an explanation. Health and safety only weighted 5%. Given that these contractors are going to be working across the care facilities and individual homes, and we're actually working with the elderly, in a COVID environment, why was health and safety not rated higher? Speaker 11: I guess health and safety as a specific category is reasonably low, but other areas in terms of methodology, how they would go about it, how is it resourcing, what are their systems,
01:58:00 et cetera, play into the quality of service that's going to be delivered. The risk management side of that for our contractors, health and safety, I guess workplace health and safety relates mainly to their own systems for their own staff. And you're looking at things like job safety analysis, safe work method statements, do they have health and safety ISO certifications, et cetera. So some of that, I guess, is almost pass and fail. Whereas in some of the other criteria, there's more opportunity to show how they will deliver a quality service. So we're looking at things like, how do we deliver service in a safe way to a high standard for our clients in their homes. Councillor Lorentson: So do they demonstrate that they could have access to personal protective equipment? And did they demonstrate that they had appropriate COVID protocols in place or management plans
01:59:00 and protocols? Speaker 11: Yes. So that was covered in it. I guess it's also, whilst COVID is a big factor now, the contract has been fixed. So that potentially extends into a period where COVID isn't the main health and safety consideration. And there may be things that come up like COVID where we then work with a contractor on specifics in terms of how we want them to deliver a service at a particular point in time to handle that. And then you've got the underlying manner in which they operate as well. So. Councillor Lorentson: And my last question here. It's probably a little bit controversial, but I'm going to ask it. Can council require clean and stung to be vaccinated? Speaker 8: I can answer that. We've thought about this already. Councillor Lorentson: That's a fair question. Speaker 8: That's a fair question. It's not a controversial question. It's very, very good given that we're in our age here.
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02:00:00 As an employer, what we'll do with our staff. And who's liable. Yeah. That's a fair question. The answer is that the state and Commonwealth will end up mandating if there is going to be requirements for mandated vaccinations. And if that's the case, we'll enforce those conditions. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 8: So we've thought about whether we would make it mandatory for any of our staff. The answer is no, unless the state or Commonwealth mandate it for individual professions. And if we have staff in those professions, we'll look at following the state and Commonwealth rules. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: And in regards to duty of care, are we vicariously liable for the actions of people that we offer tender arrangements with? Speaker 11: As a subcontractor to live in this service, yes, ultimately responsibility lies with us as the holder of the contract with the funding bodies and obviously also council's own responsibilities. So that's why it's critical to select a contractor that we've got a high level of confidence in, in terms of having their own systems and processes in place. But there are also things that sit on top of this in terms of subcontractor agreement
02:01:00 between Noosa Community Support and the contractor. At the moment, there are some specific COVID agreements in place as well, which I guess is why it perhaps wasn't a main focus of the tender response, because there's a requirement that they operate in line with directions from us at any point in time that come from the funding body. And there's a whole raft of those at the moment about how services should be delivered in a safe manner. Speaker 8: And Amelia, probably to reply to your question, it wouldn't surprise me if the State or Commonwealth do mandate people working in aged care facilities to have mandatory... Councillor Lorentson: Following on what happened in Victoria. Speaker 8: That would be not just a Noosa issue, it's a State-wide issue or Commonwealth, national issue. Councillor Jurisevic: So from a quality assurance perspective, following on from Amelia's questions, how do we ensure that those methods are being employed when they're in not only NCS, but also the people's homes, when part of the liability falls to us? It's wonderful to have it on paper, but how do we know and guarantee that those methodologies
02:02:00 are being undertaken? You can see from the Victorian example that you can have a piece of paper saying, this is what we do, but to see the people are actually undertaking those processes, and we're not undertaking them properly when we're in people's homes, how do we ensure that occurs? Speaker 11: Yeah, so I guess it's all part of a role as a contract manager, making sure that you're clear on what the requirements are, that you get a commitment back from the contractors in place. It may be that we decide that we go and visit occasionally whilst the staff are out there to verify that what they're saying is happening is actually happening. Councillor Jurisevic: The individual's carer or someone like that in position? Speaker 11: Possibly. Councillor Jurisevic: And with regard to contract experience? Capacity, I'm assuming this contractor has, given the scores, worked in aged care and
02:03:00 around individual aged care. And in the past? Not aged care. It's also the per se, because . Speaker 11: Community Supply's homes, they're not actually caring for . Councillor Jurisevic: Well, but the NCS established . So they're not cleaning. building as well, is it not? Yeah, sorry. That's what I was going to say. Two separate proportions. Speaker 11: But again, they're not cleaning whilst we're running programs at the centre. But one of the things that we thought was very appealing about their response was that a number of their staff actually do have aged care certifications, including one of the directors who's going through it at the moment, so that they have a real understanding of what's important. And again, it is more than just cleaning, because they will connect with a client at their home. There's an element of that social connection and support, picking up on things that they think might be a little bit strange, reporting that back to us. So the fact that they went out of their way to demonstrate that in their response, that
02:04:00 they had a number of staff that had those qualifications, we felt was actually very complimentary. Councillor Lorentson: So Ash, did you consult with the Noosa Community Support Centre and involve them in the selection process, given that they are probably quite experienced and know exactly who they would be looking for? Did that get consulted in this process? Speaker 11: Yes. Noosa Community Support is one of my teams, so in the evaluation panel, we had the coordinator and one of our other staff members in the evaluation process, yes. Excellent. Speaker 4: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I get that level of experience and expectation, because I've got a mother-in-law that gets services delivered to her and a sister-in-law that both have that service delivered, so yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Well, we have a mover for the motion, please. Yeah, I'll move it. Moved, Joe. Seconded, Amelia. Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: Look, yeah, the delivery of very specific and important cleaning services here, obviously being well thought out by the staff and well investigated, and I trust that the contractor
02:05:00 selected will do a fine job for the term of the tender. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Mayor Clare. Yeah, I'm happy to support the staff recommendations. This is a locally owned and operated cleaning company. It's focused on environmentally sustainable cleaning services. Most importantly, as we've heard, many staff hold aged care certification, which is a good thing, and they've had the necessary training or has been put in place in regard to COVID safe practices. So I'm happy that they tick every box. Thanks, Ash. Councillor Wilkie: Great. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Joe, do you wish to close? I'll just reiterate that. That means comments that all the boxes are ticked, and unless we go forward. All in favour? Councillor Wilkie: That's unanimous. Thank you, Ash. Thanks, Ash. Thank you, Ash. The next item is item 11, the Go Noosa Peak Period Traffic Management Barista Recommendation. Welcome, Joe, and welcome, Adam.
02:06:00 Hi. Hi. This is page 10 of the General Committee Meeting Agenda Report, Director-General. Any questions for staff, please, Councillors? Clare. Mayor Stewart: Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just an observation. The increase in numbers using Lion's Park from 150 to 212 during the Christmas period, that was a very positive thing. Generated $93,000 in revenue. Did that go better than we expected, or what were the hopes on that? Speaker 3: We were able to increase the capacity so that we were predicting that we would get that. We opened up a certain section that we haven't opened up previously. Was there any damage done to Lion's Park after the park ceased? I'd have to check with Parks on that, sorry. I know we closed on a couple of days due to wet weather, so that helps alleviate any damage to the park. Mayor Stewart: The drop-and-go wasn't as big a take-up as we'd hoped.
02:07:00 How do we go forward and improve that? Speaker 3: Yes. So we're looking at – we did actually have some on-ground markers which came off pretty much in the first day. So we're going to actually look at our different material to put on the car park bay itself to make that more visual, stand out, and then just probably a bit stronger on the enforcement side. We were a little bit lighter because obviously it's a new change and we wanted people to get accustomed to it. So those are the two methods that we'll be trying. We're also having a meeting after this just to review potentially those sites may not be as effective as we thought, the actual positions. So just having a broader look at the precinct to see where the best spots might be. Mayor Stewart: And the free buses seemed – what I thought was of interest is that the majority of people using them were Noosa residents. Yes. So based on the survey – people who responded to the survey, yes. And the big incentive was that they caught the bus because it was free and they wouldn't have otherwise. So that's a clear indication that they're still very popular.
02:08:00 You'd never find a car park. Yeah. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: I've got a couple of questions in regards to traffic control. You know that I was going to ask you that. That's okay. That's fine. How do we assess the effectiveness of traffic controllers? Speaker 7: So we obviously use a traffic engineer to assess that. We look at the volumes of pedestrians, the volume of cars. We understand the road network and we know that if you leave those two to mix together it's just not going to work. I think we have 13,000 pedestrian crossings. I think on average that's about one every two seconds. Councillor Wilkie: Is that per day? Speaker 7: Per day. Yeah. So if you had someone crossing the road every two seconds, the cars have to stop and then eventually end up at a point where they don't go anywhere. And so that's the traffic engineer perspective and we've got great eyes on the ground with
02:09:00 Hastings Street Association and they tell us, like they've written to me and said, we 100% support traffic control in this area. So there's eyes on the ground that see how it works. The traffic engineers understand the volume of cars, the volume of pedestrians. The only way to make these two fit is someone's got to basically hold them with traffic control, stop the car, stop the pedestrians as it's needed to feather it to make it work. Councillor Lorentson: So eyes on the ground, you said, in the news, Hastings Street Association. Speaker 7: And our eyes, yeah. Councillor Lorentson: What evidence have they provided, CCTV footage? I'm still going back to eyes on the ground. Who are the eyes on the ground? Speaker 7: So on the 3rd of January, so we do a traffic count on the 3rd of January. So we use special counters that come in and that same engineer who developed the traffic control plan will review that data and assess to say, okay, this is still an appropriate measure to manage those volumes of cars and pedestrians. Councillor Lorentson: Can I throw at you, Adam, that-
02:10:00 It's a question or- Oh, yeah, that is a question. Would you consider getting your feedback from people that live in Little Coat, people that live in Little Coat, surfers who use the points, and residents who go in and out of Hastings Street, some up to four times a day, only in Little Coat. My family, our friends, our neighbours, we could give you information. We can be your eyes on the road, and we can give you on the spot feedback. And it's our experience, and again, I feel like a broken record, that the traffic control rules are ineffective in directing traffic and pedestrian flow, and they- Point of order. Oh, sorry. Okay. So would you consider- Deputy Mayor Stockwell: A different point of order, sorry. Okay. It's to the CEO. Under current rules with conflict of interest, Councillor Lorentson has just identified that
02:11:00 she has a more significant stake in this issue than 50% of the Shire population. What are the implications of that? Speaker 8: I don't think- We all drive around the Shire. Depending on where we live, I don't see that any councillor would be going through a particular area or have a conflict of interest. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Living there and having a significant problem is not triggered? No, I wouldn't have thought it would be an issue. Okay. Councillor Lorentson: So my question is, would you consider getting feedback on- Most definitely. From community and residents of Little Coat? Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yes. I wasn't trying to cut it down to question. I think it's a- It's a valid point. Valid point. I was going to raise it too. The question is that the current objective as stated in the report is to prioritise pedestrians and buses. And the impact is, for people who live in Little Coat, is they're not prioritised, therefore they take a long time to get through those intersections. And so that is a policy decision that we have to make.
02:12:00 Is there another policy mechanism, if we're going to review this for Christmas, that we do have to consider residents in Little Coat as one of the priorities of what we do for them? Councillor Jurisevic: The scope for alternative, perhaps. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Give them a chance to have free parking in the Lions Park for the peak period so that they walk to the cars and they have a parking go over it. Councillor Jurisevic: Or opening up the back door. Councillor Wilkie: Can I just ask a question about how the traffic management is meant to walk? It's rather than allowing pedestrians to just continually walk every two seconds across the road. Speaker 7: That's exactly right. Councillor Wilkie: They're asked to wait. And then, as the lollipop ladies do near the schools, they let them go across en masse, then they open the road up to traffic again. Speaker 7: Exactly. Councillor Wilkie: So there's meant to be more efficient flow of traffic as well? Speaker 7: It is meant to be. And obviously taking point of the councillor, Lawrence, that that may not be the observation of all, but that is the intent, that it does work in that way. Speaker 3: And also to assist the buses to get back out through the roundabout, so prioritise pedestrians
02:13:00 and buses as well. Speaker 7: So if a bus is coming down the hill, they will hold the cars and sometimes the pedestrians to allow the bus to get down quicker. Because we don't want the complaint of 200,000 people on a bus to say, I should have just caught my car because I got stuck in traffic. So that is our priority. And obviously pedestrian safety. So there will be cars who are impacted in this process. And that lines up with our transport strategy. We prioritise pedestrians and cyclists and others over the motorists. Councillor Wilkie: And what is the feedback from the engineers as to how that system is working? Speaker 7: Well, it works well, other than if you have nothing, it won't work. Councillor Wilkie: And is the travel time for buses from Noosa Junction over to Hastings Street been a measure? I think if we did measure it in the past, it's been dropped by 50%. Prior to traffic control or after traffic control? Speaker 3: So 14 minutes when we didn't have traffic control from the junction over the hill and when we had traffic control, nine minutes. So that's based on that 3rd of January data. So we haven't got this 3rd of January to evaluate, but that's previous.
02:14:00 Councillor Wilkie: That's for the buses? That's for the buses. And is there an impact on traffic as well? Is there reduced travel time for cars as a result of traffic control? Are you able to prescribe that? Speaker 7: We measure the buses, but obviously if you're a car within the proximity of the bus, you would probably have a reduced. But we don't specifically set out to measure the car. Speaker 8: So it's no priority lane for buses, so it'll be the same time? Speaker 7: Exactly. OK. Councillor Jurisevic: Joe. Reading the report, we did have a Go Noosa app at one stage. I haven't read anything in here mentioning the app or its success or otherwise. Speaker 7: Yeah, we did have a local operator who was working on that. They had some challenges, I guess, with some resources, so we basically downplayed the app while they did an update to the app. Councillor Jurisevic: But the app still exists and is still functioning? It does still exist, yes. Speaker 7: So we're meeting actually with them tomorrow. We've got a three-hour run through with the app update. So hopefully by Easter, that's something that we can promote again. Councillor Jurisevic: OK. So we didn't promote the app during the Christmas period, but we're hoping to in Easter?
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02:15:00 Exactly. Speaker 7: We're hoping to bring in schools elements to it and other walking and cycling. So in doing that, it was obviously under renovation. Councillor Jurisevic: I see the app being used all year round as we go out to school. You can do that. And all the rest of it, rather than just being a holiday time app. Exactly. Do you use it at this point in time? Speaker 7: I use it myself for that exact reason, yes. Councillor Jurisevic: OK. The other question relates to the VMS boards. Yeah. At what stage, and I noticed the feedback from within here is that people are getting the benefit of the VMS boards and that. But wayfinding signage in Noosa is atrocious, for want of a better description, in my own personal opinion. It leaves a lot to be desired from a visitor perspective. VMS boards obviously are a temporary structure. At what point do we start to look at whether the VMS boards can be replaced with more permanent
02:16:00 signage, ongoing directional signage and wayfinding to permanent parking areas that we're utilising anyway? And look at a more permanent solution as opposed to these temporary things that are costing $15,000 for a holiday period. Speaker 7: That is definitely on our radar to do that. Speaker 3: And that ties into the app. Yes. Once we have a sort of saturation of people using the app, then we can relay that information through the app. Speaker 7: Ideally, our directional signs tell you what the capacity is, where you should be parking and right. And there's some real time elements to that. So with our current static- Councillor Jurisevic: Do we have a frame in mind to look at that for? Speaker 7: Probably because it involves other sections within the department, so I have to sort of liaise with the other guys who are running the signs projects to see where I can get you. But that's an ambition of ours under GoNoosa, is to have some ability to have some real time awareness as you come in. Councillor Jurisevic: So something has been facilitated and added into the wayfinding signage that we've already ...
02:17:00 Speaker 7: The current green signs that you drive past. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, but we've got a review of wayfinding signages. Signs come to the end of their life at the moment. We're leaving it until signs come to the end of their life and getting rid of all other destinations, for example. The feedback into those signs actually incorporates the permanent wayfinding stuff to parking areas and things like that. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Councillor Stockwell and then Councillor Finzel. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, there was a question at the end. I know that we've already noticed 58% of those completing the survey were locals. We don't need to market too much to them. But the next biggest group was interstate visitors, and we had the conversation with Tourism Noosa this morning about their marketing and the fact that the end of the biosphere was their most successful campaign ever. Have we ever thought about actually ... And they talked about their collaborative or cooperative marketing where they value add. It would appear to me that some wise investment in collaborating with Tourism Noosa's interstate
02:18:00 campaigns and with their for mills to the tourism agents. Yeah. And the travel agency and the wholesalers would actually be a big jump in terms of how we approach it. So it becomes part of the Noosa experience is that you get here and you don't hire a car, but to have that throughout by working more closely. Is that something that we've done? Speaker 7: We have met and discussed this, and we did have a spot on their webpage in the past. I know there's been an update to that, so I haven't seen how prominent we are within Deputy Mayor Stockwell: that process. But the value I would have thought investment in being an advertiser with them may pay off. That's right. Councillor Finzel: Good point. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Finzel. Councillor Finzel: Thank you for the report, Joe. Just one question. You noted from the meeting minutes in September 2020 under D that you were to write to the Department of Natural Resources and seek the ministerial approval for the inconsistent secondary use of the Noosa Heads Lines Park.
02:19:00 Basically, over the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Have you written the correspondence, and have we heard a reply? Speaker 3: Yes. So Clint Irwin, the manager for property, he's the main contact with DNRME. So he wrote to them and subsequently received correspondence 20th of November 2020, and that was to continue as per those agreed minutes. So no change. No change. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We sent out on the 20th of November, and it covered, I don't know, I don't know, the Lions Park during peak holiday periods and long weekends up until including Easter 2021. So we've still got the discussion to have for Christmas this year. Councillor Lorentson: Right. The Noosa ferry promotion. Yep. I noticed that there was a low uptake, and I'm happy that we're still pushing this through in the April. What explanation? Yeah.
02:20:00 Speaker 7: So we've only got the verbal conversation with the ferry operator at the moment. So he's comfortable with that. It was sustained, whereas in previous years, I think he said he would get big spikes and then it might go down to nothing, whereas under this year, it might be low compared to last year, you know, which under COVID, maybe that's obviously the situation we should have expected, but it was sustained across the whole holiday. So he felt confident that he did quite well, even though the overall numbers were down. So and I think it's, you know, we should keep promoting this as well, I think. Sure. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. The COVID challenge with buses and the like, we know the public transport usage is down in other areas. And it seems to be well received by the locals, compared to other years, how far down were we in numbers on the buses that we've got? I know you haven't included this report, but have you got any of that information?
02:21:00 Have you got any evidence as, since this report was written? Speaker 3: Yep. So the total patronage last Christmas was 245,000 on the bus and this Christmas, 203,837. How many? 203. 203,837. So nearly 204,000. So still over 200,000. Councillor Jurisevic: And the loop bus was- Speaker 3: That's included in- Councillor Jurisevic: The loop bus was still well received? Yes. Speaker 3: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Excellent. Excellent. I think that's an amazing outcome considering. Still a- 20% now. Yep. 20%. 10%, 20. Councillor Lorentson: 20%. Amelia. Sorry. Amelia's got a question. One more question. Have you guys considered, so back to Hastings Street- Yeah. There's two roundabouts. One outside Golden Bridge, one outside the surf club. Yeah. Has any consideration been given to, and I wish I can claim this as my idea, but it was given by a prominent local, V. Brady, where you shut pedestrian crossings on both roundabouts and in between there's a pedestrian crossing. Has any consideration been given to that idea?
02:22:00 Speaker 7: Oh, I think there's a lot. I mean, I'd have to talk to our traffic engineers about that, but when you just, from my lay perspective, when I see the numbers of volumes of pedestrians crossing on all legs, to consider the fact that you can't concentrate them at a couple of points, I'm not sure how effective that would be. And then there's the time of how do you control that. Now, people will walk wherever they like, unless you're actually controlling them. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, there was a whole design concept that the CALS team had brought about the idea of actually taking fencing and trying to draw to one- Speaker 7: Yeah, but I think there's been a ... There's another perspective on as soon as you try to fence pedestrians and show that they're down the order compared to cars, it's contrary to where you're trying to get to with in terms of pedestrians are your priority. Councillor Wilkie: And would aesthetics be a consideration there? Take it, sorry? Would aesthetics be a consideration? Speaker 7: I've completed that. I imagine it would have to be. But it's something I can take to the engineers if you like. Yeah, we can. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Something on the agenda.
02:23:00 Yeah. Second, Joe? Tom, would you wish to speak to it? Councillor Wegener: This is ... Congratulations, you guys. You guys are doing a good job. I think this is probably the most challenging thing in Noosa right now to get your head around. You're working into the destination management area, where will people come here? The where parking is probably the number one thing that weighs on people's mind when they come to Noosa, and you're tackling this, but it's a hard one. I would like to see this, to really keep running with this, because some of the councillors are in favor of paid parking, and I would want, hope that this is really nailed, and it's going to take us years to truly nail this. As we say, the take up with the GO Noosa, we have the big signs there that work, but they're ugly. They don't really fit the Noosa appeal, but crude but effective.
02:24:00 Yeah. With paying for it all, we just ... Golden brief, we just gave them one parking spot and two little bikes, meaning that a new business is coming in, expanding, and there's even going to be more pressure on tourists parking there, and I really love that you're working on the locals. I'm actually more happy that the locals are taking it, because we work there, and of course I work on Hastings Street. Yeah. It would be something that I would definitely ... If I was still there, I would do, would be parking offsite and taking the bus in. It's just such a great thing. To keep moving with this is enormously important, though it may, as Amelia says, appear clumsy at times. Stick with it, you guys, because it's hard. It's hard. It's expensive. You got to deal with it with a compromised transport levy.
02:25:00 Yes. I'm hoping that the money from the Golden Breed offset, if we get 98 ... Was it 98,000? Councillor Lorentson: I'm not sure. I think 25,000. That's 119,000. 93. What? How much? 1,200. I just found the 200,000 infrastructure charges. Yeah. Councillor Wegener: I'm hoping that that goes to some of this stuff that you're working on, because it is, it's front and lock. It's front and so important to Noosa right now. Yeah. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: I'd just like to move an amendment, if I may. Yes. I'd like to add to H. Kiley. So, approve the use of traffic control in the Hastings Street precinct and surrounding areas to manage vehicle and pedestrian movements from the 2nd to 18th of April, 2021, as required. And request that staff consult with community and residents. To provide feedback for future, for future reference.
02:26:00 Yep. Speaker 3: Sorry, can I just clarify, is that just like a general, everyone or specific to the whole of Noosa community? Councillor Wilkie: I'm a legislator. Speaker 8: You're just talking about that package of residents in the little place? No, we are. Can I specify? I suggest that would be better. What's up there at the moment would be better. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. That's actually specifying. Yeah. Because I'm thinking the surfing community. Okay. People that just access. I think you just keep it general. Keep it general. And to be part of the consultation process. Speaker 7: Yeah. So, I'm going to ask the chair, do we continue with the program as we've got it for traffic control with the amendment? Yes. We'll seek the feedback through that for the future. For the future. Thank you. For Christmas. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Yeah. A couple of groups here. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Yeah, sure. Fantastic. I think that, I don't. I'll second that. Excuse me. Yeah. I'm not going to go over the reasons. I think that everyone knows my reasons. And I just think that we'll get more accurate.
02:27:00 Yeah. More accurate on the spot feedback that will properly inform future decisions. Okay. And I'm very much for evidence based decision making. Yeah. Okay. Councillor Wegener: Cool. And everybody knows that. I suggest we go upstairs to the restaurant above Jack's there and have one of the Wagyu burgers. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. Councillor Wegener: Because that's where you see. Nice. You just really can look down and it's right there. You're just looking at the roundabout. And on a busy day, that's where you really can inform a really good decision. I'll support that amendment if you're willing to pay for the beer or don't. Well, that's an expense, isn't it? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, I'm at two minds with this for tonight. And that's because we're taking out an issue out of a part of a broader strategy and may seek to respond to sectionalised input.
02:28:00 The issue of pedestrians, cars, buses, bikes around Hastings Street to be truly addressed is probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of infrastructure. So we have a transit centre that needs to be built on both sides of the road. We have opportunities to look at both Noosa Parade, Noosa Drive and crossing Hastings Street. Separating the pedestrians from the cars. So we know there was one option considered previously about an underpass across Noosa Parade. My personal favourite is a treetop walk from an elevated bus station across to the beach car park so you don't have to cross anything. We have to work out whether we can do things piecemeal and get to the right outcome or whether we need to keep the vision in mind and realise that there are implications
02:29:00 and there definitely are implications for residents of Little Cove, no doubt. And there may be alternatives to come out. So I suppose I've convinced myself in that regard, we can consult, but make sure when we consider it, we consider the package as a whole and what we're trying to achieve. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, look, I'm happy to support the amendment, although the concept of factual data would be more likely to be anecdotal data, for example. Having said that, I'm wondering whether the traffic count gives an accurate understanding of the brakes in between pedestrian movement and vehicle movement as opposed to vehicle counts or whether that's being supported by video evidence as well and other ways and means to show the levels of flow across the road.
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02:30:00 In my experience down there, with the traffic controllers in place, the movement is quite fluid and definitely a lot better than it has been in the past. The only real evidence as to whether the traffic controllers are effective or not is to, dare I say it, remove them for a week and see if the carnage returns. But I would be reluctant to do that because, as I said, it might be a little bit more effective. In my experience, they have been far more effective and traffic has moved far more readily down. You're not seeing traffic banked up beyond the Reef Hotel or down Noosa Parade to anywhere near the extent that we have in the past.
02:31:00 So, like I said, I'm happy to get some anecdotal evidence from the community of residents in that regard. I think it's a good concept. And I think if little co-readers are being that impacted, we need to look at that. And at the other alternatives in that area and maybe look at that back gate being available for residents during those peak periods. I don't know, something along those lines. Councillor Wilkie: Right, please. Any other councillors want to speak to the... I'm supportive of the amendment. Engaging the community is also an opportunity for education. And it's an opportunity for any interested residents to get an idea of what's going on. And an understanding of how it's meant to work, the reasons why it is there. And perhaps that will colour the way they look at what they're experiencing in that precinct. I'm in favour of the amendment. Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: Thanks, Greg. I just want to close.
02:32:00 The amendment wasn't raised on behalf of the residents of Liverpool Cove. The amendment was raised to get feedback from the community. People that use Haston Street, that run through the park, that surf the roads. When you look at the purpose of the traffic control in the report on page 13, the purpose of traffic control is to give priority to buses and pedestrians, keep traffic moving so buses are not sitting in queue, improve accessibility to the Noosa Heads area, and minimise traffic disruptions in the Noosa Heads area. So, by inviting the community, not Little Cove residents, I raise that because they're the ones that are going to have to deal with it. They're the ones that are going in and out. The amendment is inviting community to give us their experience and their feedback. Does it, in fact, improve accessibility? Does it, in fact, minimise traffic disruptions?
02:33:00 Contrary to what we've heard here in Council, I'd be to differ. I think I've never experienced so many traffic delays as I have over the Christmas period. I've had people parked. I've had people parked. Down at the National Park who had to wait till 7, 7.30 at night to leave Noosa Heads. So, these are experiences that, you know, I hear from not Little Cove residents, from surfers, from people that frequent the National Park and Haston Streets a lot. So, please, this is not directed at the Little Cove residents. It's directed to get proper community engagement on whether or not we are actually achieving the objectives that we set out in the report. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Put the amendment of those in favour. Councillor Jurisevic, Wegener. Oh, that's unanimous. Speaker 10: Good. The amendment becomes the motion. Councillor Wilkie: And so far, only Councillor Wegener has spoken to the motion. Any other councillors wish to speak to the motion?
02:34:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Only to clarify comments made in those closing arguments previously when not only residents, but users of the Little Cove area that should have properly been moved in. I think that's probably more clearly articulated in my previous statement. Not only residents, but anybody that's in that area. So, I appreciate that the ones greatest and most likely impacted are the residents down there. But anybody that uses that area. Anybody trying to get down to the National Park. Obviously that, you know, that Little Cove road down there, that National Park road down there is a pinch point for traffic going in and out of that area. And of course, everybody loves the surf down at First Point. Don't they, Tom? Yeah. And, you know, the opportunities to get down there are challenging. The one thing I have heard that may impact to some degree on the opportunities down there
02:35:00 is that the Department of DDS are looking at whether or not car park closures in that area overnight may be something beneficial to enable less of... overnight stays and overnight campers in there, which are congesting... suggested are congesting car parks and taking up car parks that would otherwise be available in those early hours for people going down there may be a benefit. But that's outside the scope of what we're talking about here. And that... But an issue within that precinct. So, I'm happy to support the staff recommendations. Get all of that operating again for Easter. It's clearly been successful. I would ask that staff... When they do bring the report with regard to bus patronage, look at a comparison of bus patronage in other areas, i.e. the Brisbane CBD, Gold Coast areas where buses do frequent and other public transport to see what the comparison of our...
02:36:00 something like a 20% drop in our numbers, how that compares to bus and public transport patronage in other areas to see if we're having a more positive effect by providing the free public buses than in other areas perhaps. My argument is continuously that the State Government should look at providing free public transport and stop putting so much money into continually having to upgrade every road system in their traffic system. So, I applaud the staff on their work and continue to deliver good outcome. Well, that's right. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So, in general, I think keep on keeping on keeping on keeping on keeping on keeping on But have we become complacent? Have we stopped pushing hard enough to get to the objectives of the transport strategy? So I really like the clause on the amendment because what it highlighted was
02:37:00 there's a range of different user groups and outcomes from this area. It's not just about getting the maximum number of tourists into Hastings Street. I believe by next Christmas we should be taking more courageous steps to address it. We need to consider the Noosan National Park the same way as Lane Park on State of Origin 9. We need to say, do we actually say you don't get your car past the Hastings Street roundabout unless you're a resident and there's a Shire local surfer or someone with a disability and the others can either walk or we might have a commuter bus if we're allowed to do it by TransLink. We need to say that we realise demand exceeds the capacity of the road network and unless we take meaningful change to get people out of their cars, onto their feet or on their bikes that it's going to be a continual problem and we have to work out whether that problem
02:38:00 has an economic impact in terms of the brand of Noosa and obviously at peak times it may do. It may taint the whole experience. Whereas getting people out of the cars and enjoying what is a magnificent boardwalk is probably add to it. So to me, yes, Easter, let's keep on doing what we want to do. By Christmas, let's do things differently and do more. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Can I ask another question? No. Just within the statistics, coming back with regard to timing of transport around that area. It may be beneficial to get some feedback on the timing of the bus loop or buses in that area, how capable they are or how able they are to maintain to timetable. And whether or not there's any, the levels of delays that they're experiencing, that may be, because that's what the traffic controllers are there to facilitate and looking at the
02:39:00 buses coming down. So have we got any feedback or can we obtain feedback on how, what period of time they're going to use, times of the day that there may be additional delays for the buses or are they meeting their timetables on a consistent basis? Councillor Wilkie: I'll ask a question rather than wait for the report that Joe's asked for. Are the buses significantly delayed at any time? We don't get reports of... Are they running the schedule? Speaker 7: Generally. I mean, the loop is a loop. It generally meets that time. The bus company does tell us, again, going back to traffic control, that it does help them. They are thankful for that. But exactly where they sit within their schedule, we wait on that data and that's what they'll give us. And we'll put that to the report when you do the evaluation. Councillor Wilkie: Will they be able to give you numbers as well? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Have the councillors wished to speak to the question? Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Thank you, staff.
02:40:00 I do agree with Councillor Stockwell, though. This is an opportunity after Easter to really, between Easter and Christmas, to sit down and revisit and to look at this transport strategy as a whole and to look at alternatives. Look, I was really heartened. I think the biggest thing I was most heartened about in reading this was the fact that our locals, with $170,000 of council money going to this, that our locals were the ones who used the buses the most over Christmas. I thought that was fantastic. I was really heartened to hear that. I hope that continues over Easter. I was really heartened to read that the Lions Park was well patronised and that of the $93,000 we received from that, that half of that will go to the Lions Club, which is a wonderful charity in our community. So again, a benefit to our community. Thank you for providing information on how to approve the drop and go. That was a concern of how we mobilised that. And also about the ferry, I'm with Councillor Lorentson on that, that I'm really happy that that's continuing on over Easter because I think that is a fantastic alternative means
02:41:00 of transport and I think we should really encourage people to take the ferry. I mean, the CityCat in Brisbane is a good example of how popular ferries can be. So thank you very much for your hard work and I look forward to, after Easter, revisiting this with a number of workshops, no doubt. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you. Can the Councillor speak to the motion? Would you like to close? Tommy, you're close? Yeah. Councillor Wegener: I look forward to the further reports because this is such a massive issue that you can't improve something unless you can measure it. And so I'd like the detailed reports, the cost of measuring, and to keep coming back. Actually I would like to see this happening every weekend as we get busier. I think it will ingrain it more. Not just at the holidays, but a consistent run at it so that the locals, again, kind
02:42:00 of get used to it. Maybe not through the quietest times, but definitely through just as a movement going forward. As Brian says, this should be a big part of our strategy going forward as destination management. And that you don't work in a silo because, you know, you want to be talking to tourists at least. You want to be talking to the Hastings Community Association. You know, probably with the Surfery Reserve and everybody, you know, getting the word out there because it is a monumental task. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Tom. Thank you. All in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. Item 12 is the Debt Policy Review. Page 22 of the General Committee Agenda. Welcome, Trent. This involves a change of policy. An addition to the policy. Speaker 8: Trent, you might just outline why we're doing this in terms of the restructure of it.
02:43:00 Sure. Speaker 14: So annually, Councillors, we adopt a range of policies with our budget. One of those policies is our debt policy, but obviously in light of the work we've been doing over the last few months to review the opportunity to refinance our debt, in order to progress that process any further. So what we've been doing to ensure that our policies and our procedures reflect our ability to undertake that process. So simple change as proposed here with the report to just make some minor modifications to the debt policy to allow us to progress that refinancing and to recognise the amount of debt that we're proposing to be refinanced. Councillor Wilkie: So that's an additional clause 11 on, which is in page, on page 26. Correct. Yeah. Mayor Stewart: Trent. How much are we going to save? Is it correct in saving about $2 million per year by refinancing our debt? Is that correct? If thereabouts, two to two and a half million? Speaker 14: There'll be some savings both in terms of interest, because the interest rate will drop
02:44:00 significantly given the current, the market for debt, as well as obviously our repayments in the short term. Now, obviously over the next 20 years, we'll still obviously be able to repay that debt in full. It's purely a case of bi-refinancing. We gain some immediate short term in the next three to five years, cash flow benefits that will free up up to $2 million in the first few years to fund operating the capital. Speaker 8: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I just have a process question. Trent, when we come to do the budget, these policies are all ratified again, aren't they? Correct. Yeah. Okay. So there's an opportunity to amend this further? Correct. Further discussions as part of the budget process? Speaker 14: We will adopt this policy every year, so as we go through the 21-22 budget process, we'll revise these again and bring them back onto the table again at the end of June for application. Councillor Jurisevic: So as a result of that, the need to actually bring this forward at this point in time is
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02:45:00 so that you can undertake the review of the debt and- Correct. Speaker 14: So it's to ensure that our actions are in line with our policies and also it's part of the submission process for the Queensland Treasury that they will also review our policies to make sure that if approved, when they action the debt refinance, that everything we have done is in line with the policy. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Okay. Someone care to move the policy? I'll move it. Move Mayor Stewart, seconded Councillor Jurisevic. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Look, Trent, thank you. This is, you know, across the board, we've never seen lower interest rates and the interest rates that we've been working with with QIC are really at record full-time lows and it's an opportunity for us to take advantage of it. Thank you for your hard work on this. The savings per year in the short term are significant coming into budget review too. We'll certainly be able to use that money wisely for the community benefits, so thank
02:46:00 you. Okay. Jo? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, sorry, Brian. Can I suggest, since 1988, when I first interacted into local government, I've never had six lines in a policy create the opportunity for $2 million return. And so I congratulate you on the highest return of investment of any policy I've ever been involved with since 1988. So in lines per return, the million. Councillor Lorentson: I just want to just note that I think that this debt refinance, I think it's going to provide a really great opportunity for council to start looking at pushing forward more capital projects. I think we'll be encouraged to borrow more, sensibly. So $2 million is good. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Jo? Yeah, I'd like to thank the staff for looking at opportunities like this.
02:47:00 Always on the uptake to try and find the best way. I think it's a great opportunity to try and find ways and means of saving our rate payers the impost of increased rates. And a refinancing opportunity like this doesn't come up that often. And one of the benefits of COVID, I guess, is the opportunity presented in this instance. And as Brian alluded to, it's yes, not often we get that many millions of dollars of savings in a small report like this. But I see the benefit going forward. Mayor Stewart: Thank you very much for all the hard work on this and as I said we will well and truly make use of that two million dollars very wisely. There might be some debate around the table as to how best we use it but it will be all for the community.
02:48:00 Councillor Jurisevic: The community grants are looking good. A few more fan tales. All in favour? Councillor Wilkie: That's unanimous. Thank you and the final report for today is the financial performance report. For January, on page 30. Speaker 8: So far so good. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, certainly ahead of where we thought we would be. I don't think I've had a single question out of that. Councillor Wilkie: We were predicting a budget deficit, operational deficit this financial year. Is it possible that we may have a... I don't know if it was surplus, or has that been too hopeful? At this stage... Look, for conservative budgeting, the way we're tracking, revenue is ahead of what's budgeted and expenditure is below what's budgeted.
02:49:00 Speaker 14: Short of any assumption... Councillor Wilkie: Without getting expectations too high. And without taking... Without taking anything away from the services that we're committed to delivering. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And the 1500 Queenslanders who went to the Melbourne airport. Speaker 14: That's right, so the key variable will be COVID obviously because that's what the key assumption is behind. Why we are budgeting a deficit this year. And the other big one is there's obviously a lot of grant funded programs in our operating position. Particularly around some of the Queensland reconstruction, law authority, fire recovery expenditure. Depending on whether we get that funding spent this year or next year, those two factors could drive whether we end up with a marginal surplus this year. Because as you would have seen when we bought through budget reviews last year, we had a deficit in December. It did increase our deficit slightly. And that was purely around us recognising that we've got quite a significant spend of some of those Queensland reconstruction authority grants.
02:50:00 Councillor Wilkie: Okay, if grant funding was... Grant funding aside, what about the operational... Speaker 14: Operational. Councillor Wilkie: Some of the grant funding is operational. What about just... Yeah. If you can take grant funding out of the equation, how are we looking on the bottom line there? Speaker 14: Based on January figures, we're looking quite healthy. We're seeing a lot of upside, as you would see on page 31 of the report with the revenue. A lot of that additional revenue here has a cost associated with it. So the more fees we get through entry at the facilities or bookings at the community... Holiday parks. Holiday parks. Obviously, it has an offsetting cost. Obviously, it has an offsetting cost. And expenses associated with that. Expenses to associate it. But even with that aside, we are still looking quite healthy. So fingers crossed. Hopefully, we have a relatively strong position coming in the area and it could be closed.
02:51:00 That's all we can say. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Joe, then Brian. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Looking through the figures, there was something that struck out on the final page attachment for your summary of key materials and services expenses. Audit expenditure. We haven't spent anything on audits this year? Not yet. But we will. But we will. Speaker 14: I've got to say, we just haven't paid for it yet because the audits have been ongoing. It's purely timing, Councillor. So we have both internal and external audits scheduled for later in the year. Externally with Queensland Audit Office who come in each year to validate and confirm that our numbers are true and correct. Yeah, right. Councillor Jurisevic: Usually. Usually. That's why I was surprised that we haven't seen any expenditure in that till afterwards. And the reciprocal of that is the commission's pay. The overall budget, $605,000, where actually the actual year-to-date is actually over the current budget for the whole year. The current budget year-to-date is only half that. Why are we so far out in our commission's pay? Well, they'd ask.
02:52:00 So obviously, our... That is the return to... That's the commission's return to the holiday pay. Speaker 14: Correct. As I've just mentioned, the more bookings we get above budget, more revenue, more costs to our new commission's pay. Councillor Jurisevic: And the more commission that the operators get as a result. Speaker 8: Yeah. We took a considerate approach on both the... Yeah. ...on the revenue and by therefore definition. We took a considerate approach on the expansion. We were tired of that. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So from a budgeting perspective non-rate income is highly useful and what we've seen in your report here and what we've heard across Australia is a significant if not game-changing uptake in camping, caravanning since COVID. So in terms of how we take our experience this year and put it into items for next year, surely investment into increasing our capacity to earn income
02:53:00 from holiday parks would be a strategy worth considering, i.e. John's Landing. Is that a question? Is there a question? Speaker 8: Sorry, that same question came up last week. The Service and Organisation Committee and Michael expressed that at the moment his group's full capacity. Couldn't take that on in the short term. We also have invested in our caravan parks to get more revenue. The North Shore is a good example of that where we invested a lot of money and you can see the returns in that report that was on the agenda last week showed the revenue coming through from that area. So certainly John's Landing is out there. A question of priorities. Do you want to do that first or something else first? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, I just think in terms of that extra income, that appears. It would be one with a reasonable degree of certainty to start the process and whether it's his or a consultant or a contractor to do the original, the early. Speaker 8: It would be a couple of years lead anyway to do that. Councillor Jurisevic: That's right. Is that likely to be a short term proposition or a long term proposition
02:54:00 to get the sort of returns that we're getting? Will it peter out after as COVID peters out and people return back to the more normal or is camping and caravanning going to be the norm as well supported as it is into the future? Councillor Wilkie: As part of that discussion, it was brought up that apart from the Noosa River campsite, Boring Point and North Shore have less than 50% occupancy. So there's still spare capacity Speaker 8: in those two locations. The interesting part about the business case with John's Landing, if that was developed or when it is developed, whether it cannibalises some of Boring Point's market. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Or whether it's a super inclined settlement. Well, if you keep Boring Point for that low cost basic and have John's Landing and trailing to the glamping and the. Councillor Jurisevic: The other element. The different offering. The other elements. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And the artistic. Councillor Jurisevic: The other elements I've considered in our calculations is how the commercial operators are doing in those years too. Because we do have a number of commercial caravan parks
02:55:00 and one specifically in Atlanta Point, for example, that is doing tremendous business at the moment. I mean, what are the impacts of another camping ground on those as well? And all those on the potential for another camping ground. Coming back to the report. Mayor Stewart: We've just talked about how low our borrowing rates are, but the reverse to that is that we have $65 million cash on hand and our investment policy with that money, obviously, low interest rates. We need to look at, and you've talked about alternate revenue strategies. We need to look at, and you've talked about alternate revenue strategies. What is the exact, on page 35, it says, all funds have been invested in accordance with the investment policy. So who, A, determines the investment policy, and B, is that across bonds, shares, cash? How is that made up? Speaker 14: So each year, we talked, actually, the previous agenda item, we talked about the debt policy.
02:56:00 So the investment policy is the same. So each year, as part of our budget processes, we adopt a range of policies, and one of those is the investment of surplus funds policy. And that outlines the types of instruments and mechanisms that is appropriate for council to invest in. The focus is on, obviously, the risk versus return, particularly, of the council's funds. Obviously, the higher risk is a marginally higher return, but we've been putting community funds at risk. So we put that policy out. We put that policy up each year, and it provides a bit of a matrix as to where we can invest those funds. So that will be, obviously, under review, again, in the coming months, as part of the 2021 budget. Mayor Stewart: And is that investment policy developed by your team? Is there a separate board? I mean, do we have a board to look at, a separate group of investment advisors to look at that? Or how is that? Is that developed by you and Michael and the team?
02:57:00 Speaker 14: Correct. Yes. And under the guidance of, obviously, the foundations of the Local Government Act, and the constraints of what we should be investing in. So that will come to council. Mayor Stewart: Okay. So you're limited in certain capacities. Yeah. Speaker 8: The policy setting is set by council. And a lot of it's about your risk appetite. And I always go back to the 2000 Clare Lloyd Council. Some out in Western New South Wales, particularly, had a higher risk appetite in terms of their cash investments. They went to rivers just before 2008, which wasn't the greatest position ever made. No. They lost tens of millions of dollars of rate payers' money on that sort of stuff. So I guess our current policy is a fairly conservative setting. Yeah. Mayor Stewart: Which it has to be, I guess. Yeah. Speaker 8: And in a nutshell, it's, you know, 75% or more needs to... I'm doing this from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong. 75% or more needs to be with, you know, the AAA sort of stuff. Correct. That's right. Yeah. The smaller... Up to 25% on smaller BBB plus type investments.
02:58:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Which is where Bendigo Bank and the like come into it. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So we're... So you're telling me we didn't get into GameStop through the red... Sorry. Mayor Stewart: So the target is 0.25 above current Bloomberg Commonwealth 10-year bond rate yield. Correct. And we're currently at 0.46. Correct. So we're almost double what our target is. Speaker 14: Correct. Yeah. So what we're finding is... And I think coming back a few pages earlier to the pie charts on page... Speaker 10: 35. Speaker 14: 35? Yeah. You'll find that most of our cash... And you can see it with the timeline below it as well. Most of our cash currently is invested with Queensland Treasury with their short-term cash fund rate... Cash fund investments. And we're finding that with each review we do on where those... Where the rates are and what the market rates are sitting at, we're still achieving better return, far outweighing what we can out of the private sector within the bounds of our investment policy with QTC at the moment.
02:59:00 Correct. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: So I'm going to move the motion. Yeah, I'll move it. Moved by Councillor Joe, seconded by Councillor Clare. Councillor Jurisevic: No, as I said, through a trying financial year with COVID implications and all the rest of it, we seem to be managing the challenges well, except where the conservative budgeting is true and was prudent, and the recovery seems to be ahead of schedule, which is great to see. Interesting to see how our capital works program ends up by the end of the financial year with such a large financial commitment this year and the challenges that it's presented. But congratulations to you and the staff on the outcomes that we've got at this point in time. Councillor Wilkie: Put the motion those in favour. It's carried unanimously.
180 minutes in ¶
03:00:00 There's no competition. Confidential sessions today. The meeting is closed. Thank you, everybody. And before you do close, we have to note that it is Councillor Joe's birthday today, so please join me in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Councillor Wegener: Happy Birthday, dear Joe. Happy Birthday.