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00:00:00 Mayor Stewart: Good afternoon. I declare the meeting open. I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting in the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi people and I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging. I note that everyone is in attendance. Today's special meeting is to consider 2022-23 Noosa Council Budget Commencement Scene Setting Report. We have Acting Director of Corporate Services Trent Brough attending via Microsoft Teams for this report and I will hand over to Trent to present his report. Thanks Trent. Speaker 1: Thank you councillors. As the Mayor has mentioned, this is the scene setting live stream budget process. This is the second year that we've run this session as an information process to commence the budget process for Noosa Council officially. So where it differs probably from most meeting agendas is I will be talking for the most part to run through some presentations.
00:01:00 We'll be discussing some of the economic industry and financial backdrop that informs our budget process over the next three months. So what I'll be doing is stopping at little hold points every second or third slide for any questions or general queries that you all may have about the budget process. So let's kick off the discussion. And for the benefit of the viewers who obviously cannot see the PowerPoint presentation that is on screen to councillors, Speaker 1: we'll be putting this on council's website for review and viewing and transparency by the end of the meeting. Councillor Jurisevic: We've lost him. No. Mayor Stewart: Trent, you're on mute. Speaker 1: Sorry councillors.
00:02:00 Mayor Stewart: You might want to start again. We've missed all of that. In terms of introduction, councillors? No. Just I think the overview. Councillor Jurisevic: First slide. From the first slide. Yeah, first slide. Okay. First slide. So we're starting off with some state, national and international context. Just in terms of factors that will have some significance. Significant impacts on the budget this coming financial year. Speaker 1: So I suppose some of the key trends, and I'm sure some of you, if you've seen the news over the last few days again, some of these are quite prevalent. Let's start with first and foremost, obviously the COVID-19 pandemic is now in its third year. Indicative by the fact that I'm now live streaming with you this morning, this afternoon, whilst I'm in isolation. One of the key impacts for us obviously as a region is the impact to international travel and tourism, which we'll talk a bit more about later on.
00:03:00 What we're also seeing coming through the budget this year is some significant impacts in terms of commodity prices, supply chain and labour market shortages. We're seeing that obviously in time delays in getting goods and materials imported and delivered. And obviously the cost of some of those materials. And we can't see that abating in the short term. Particularly, we're looking at steel prices, price of fuel and diesel, and even things like getting vehicles delivered for our fleet is taking up to six months in terms of delays. Looking back over the last two years since the pandemic commenced, and using some economic activity trackers, which is a bit like consumer confidence, you can see obviously through the first 12 months of the pandemic, Speaker 1: we had quite an impact in terms of the impact to consumer confidence and GDP,
00:04:00 not just in Australia but globally as a result of the pandemic. What we're not seeing is whilst we've returned back up, and if anything above our existing Speaker 1: pre-COVID GDP levels, we're still seeing quite significant spikes as we get both major international impacts from trade, the Ukraine crisis that's currently on the way, as well as further strains of the pandemics come through. So whilst we are sitting as a nation quite healthily, there's obviously flow on impacts from those imports in international trade. More locally, nationally, we're obviously very blessed with federal and local members who support our council, and state members who support our council very strongly. We are about to walk into another federal election,
00:05:00 which may change obviously some of our funding arrangements, Speaker 1: as well as the state election that is two years away. So as we get towards the end of the next year's budget, we'll obviously see some of the changes and some of the impacts from that start to flow through in terms of policy decision and grant funding. As our former CEO, Mr Brett de Chastel, used to refer to, the rivers of gold in terms of our grant funding. So it's still continuing at present. In previous years, we've talked about the pessimism and doom and gloom that at some point the rivers of gold will dry up. Speaker 1: But we're not quite seeing that at this point in time. That's probably evidenced by the SEQ City deal, which was announced over the last week. We've got disaster recovery funding, which will continue to flow over the next 12 months. And beyond that longer term, there's obviously the Olympics, which could feature quite heavily in terms of infrastructure funding longer term.
00:06:00 One of the challenges we'll face, as a local government in terms of reliance on that funding, is that the federal government is still running in budget deficit. We've gone through, obviously, a few cycles over the last decade, 20 years in deficit. Obviously, in most cases, aligning to when we've had a recession. And whilst we're looking at climbing out of that, over the next two to three years, over the budget forecast cycle for the federal budget, that may well change, Speaker 1: depending on COVID and disaster impacts, et cetera. So in terms of any international, national and state context, councillors, do you have any questions about some of that information? Or how do you feel that might be concerning for the budget process?
00:07:00 OK, let's move on. Here's the Shire local economic context. So this is a bit of a graph of what our GRP, our budget, our economy tracks over time with Noosa Shire. You can see that in 2019, we obviously were in our peak economic health. We still haven't quite recovered back off that as a result of COVID. So there's obviously a lot of businesses that are still recovering in a lot of sectors that are still not quite at the same level of profitability and business turnover they were three years ago. So this obviously has an impact on them for affordability and the levels of service and what they can afford to pay for our levels of service. A couple of quick snapshots on some more localised industries. Speaker 1: This is our building activity over the last seven years.
00:08:00 You can see obviously there's some cycles there, but we're still experiencing, even this year, year to date, what's come through the last seven months is nearly higher or higher in some cases than what entire financial years have been previously. So we're still seeing a very high amount of activity in building applications and approvals coming through the Shire. Some of the lovely information that Juris and Noosa provide in terms of visitor numbers, if we look at our domestic market, we're obviously still seeing a decline in the number of visitors coming to the Shire for tourism purposes as at the end of 2021. But the other way of also looking at it is their average spend is actually increasing. So whilst the number of visitors is down,
00:09:00 Speaker 1: the total spend is only marginally down on pre-COVID levels, which is a good indicator that their investment and their day spend or their accommodation is still getting reinvested into the local economy. In terms of budget impacts, obviously some of the key considerations we need to take into account as we start to put together our rating strategies and our pricing strategies is how that will impact affordability and the market if there are significant increases in our pricing for fees and charges. Inflation and other pricing mechanisms. For those of you who are unaware, our CPI for all sectors... Councillor Wilkie: Sorry, Trent, I've got a question. Could we go back one slide, please? Councillor Jurisevic: Two slides. Two slides?
00:10:00 Councillor Wilkie: Two slides. Yes. Just looking at visitor spend in Noosa, I'm just trying to understand. Interstate... Interstate is down. Interstate was down, yes. Interstate was up. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. Domestic overnight was up. Councillor Wilkie: Domestic overnight. Speaker 1: Okay. Daytrippers remaining relatively stable. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: So we can see where the investment priority opportunities are Speaker 1: for tourism in Noosa and both that domestic overnight and the interstate market. Councillor Wilkie: So even though daytrip numbers were way down on 2019, their spend was equivalent to 2019. So we had fewer daytrippers last year compared to 2019, but they're spending a lot more. Speaker 1: Yes. So across the board, spend has increased.
00:11:00 Councillor Wilkie: So that's the value over volume argument right there in action. Exactly right. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. That's very interesting. Speaker 1: And I think I was getting, in six months' time, I'll obviously have... Yeah. The next financial year's worth of data. Speaker 1: So it'll be very interesting to see how that pans out over the coming year as we've settled down in the third year of the pandemic. Councillor Jurisevic: One would suggest that's an element of those who would normally go overseas and are spending at home because they've got nowhere else to spend it. Yes. Thanks, Trent. Speaker 1: Not a problem. So inflation and pricing. So before we even hit this point, as you water with the impact of inflation and pricing, and potentially in the next... Thank you. Potential impacts from insurance increases,
00:12:00 our CPI is at a record high. Hasn't been this high since the mid-late 2000s. We've been over 4% in two quarters. Speaker 1: And likely to continue, if the forecasts are correct, continue, if not slightly increase, over the next few quarters. Councillor Wilkie: Mm-hmm. Speaker 1: So... Mm-hmm. So that's putting significant pricing pressure on average across all commodities. Obviously not just fuel, but everyday products, Speaker 1: fruit and vegetables, education, utilities, et cetera, are all increasing at a higher rate as a result of that pricing pressure. So the challenge for us as an organisation is twofold. It's one about what's the impact on... Mm-hmm. ...the cost of our services, and procuring goods and materials and consultants... Mm-hmm. ...to deliver the same level of service, but also affordability to the community, given they're experiencing the same pricing pressures
00:13:00 on their bills and their weekly wages every week. Compacting that a bit more, when we start looking at construction inputs, so construction pricing indexes. So for... Particularly for councils, in fact, in terms of infrastructure services department, both in terms of maintenance of infrastructure and also construction, seeing some significant price increases over the last 12 months. Speaker 1: Driving that is metal and steel. Sitting at last index 13% over 12 months, and also timber materials of 18%. So you will see, as we start to pull the budget together, the challenges of how we work within the realms of those price increases is quite challenging,
00:14:00 particularly where we receive grants and external funding for major infrastructure projects, where we may have costed the work 12 months, two months, two years, three years ago. And once we've gone out to tender, we've now got our... We've now got our... We've now got our construction companies facing those pricing pressures and passing those through to us on their tenders. Speaker 1: For those of you who do not have an EV and are filling up the local bowels, this is the average Noosaville fuel price for standard diesel over the last period of time, since June 2021. And we're seeing that spike, Speaker 1: obviously, push up past $1.80. Councillor Jurisevic: In some instances, Speaker 1: to a daily rate, well beyond that. Councillor Jurisevic: Try $2.20 and beyond that, Trent. $2.20, $2.30. Yeah. Speaker 1: I know, unfortunately, I haven't had the data until February,
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00:15:00 so I know March is sitting well over that of the $2.20s. Now, obviously, in the budget announcement yesterday with the federal government, they talked about slashing the fuel exercise. We've got a $2.20, and if we're sitting at $2.20 a litre, it still only brings it back to $2 a litre. So, we're still sitting significantly higher cost input for both Council as well as the local community and the economy in terms of the cost of their services. And we're seeing that pricing pressure come through with businesses starting to look at putting excises or surcharges on their services to recover that additional fuel cost. While it's at its current peak. For the broader community, in terms of our rental community, when we start comparing and benchmarking the rental price where they are available, aside from the scarcity and availability of rentals
00:16:00 in the Shire, we are still among the highest weekly rents Speaker 1: in the region. So, we're still at about $2.20 a litre. And across benchmark areas. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We are the highest. It looks like. Yeah. Yeah. Here we are. By a considerable degree. Speaker 1: And this data is nine months old. It's at the end of the financial year, councillors. So, I can only assume that if we were to get the updated data at the end of June this year, it will be significantly higher again, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is the median house price for the Shire since 2018. You've got the darker line, which are attached dwellings, units and townhouses,
00:17:00 as well as the lighter green lines, which are your detached, sorry, your detached dwellings. They're your houses. And slightly below that, two units. So, you can see, as we've come through the pandemic, through 2020, and that consistent, on average, $5,000 to $6,000 per week, price increase. Speaker 1: That's consistently moved up. The prices are, we're now in a position where the median price for a house is well over a million dollars. The median price for a unit or townhouse is well over $800,000. Reflected in that, and it's one of the major pieces of work, which we'll be working through, through the budget this year, is the land valuation impacts. Now, obviously, land valuation is about the unimproved land value. There's no consideration for the rate payers, in terms of the improvement, or the structure that's on those unimproved land parcels.
00:18:00 But, this is where we're seeing the pressure on, on the valuation. It's not just in the improved value of a land parcel, but it's in the, it's in the land itself. So, on average, across the Shire, we, Speaker 1: we are facing an average land valuation increase, since last valuation, for natural resources, of around 37%. The challenge is, as you'll see on the screen in front of you, we've got a snapshot, by suburb, of what the median price has moved. Speaker 1: And it is, it's across the board. It's not in selected areas, and there's some areas that are significantly higher than others. So, lots of inputs there, to take, take into consideration, as we start building the budget. Challenges both, on both sides, in terms of affordability, for our rates, but also, Speaker 1: in keeping our cost base,
00:19:00 manageable, for us to deliver our services. Is there any questions, councillors, about some of the information, we've just presented there? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So, Trent, looking at, the ones on the right hand side there, where you've got, you know, 15 to, 35, say, roughly percent, higher, levels, in the, in, in the Croyver, Corrie Mountain, Timbewer Lake, Donald Doonan. That, the, the mechanisms, to, affect change, in that, or to reflect that, is, that, you know, is there, we don't generally rate on an area, so, if it, they go up, say, to the next bracket, in terms of land value, because of those rises, is that something, that we're going to have to, address in this budget? Speaker 1: Uh, councillors, we won't be, we won't be making, or not proposing, to make any changes, to the rating structure, based on location. Um,
00:20:00 but what we will do, um, as we do with each rating review, is we look at, what the minimums, rate is, so we, Speaker 1: so for those that, in the audience, that aren't aware, we have a minimum rate, which regardless of land value, is a, a fixed, single charge, and then, once we, trigger over that, the threshold value, for that, we have a rating dollar in charge, that applies to them as well. It's the standard approach, for, all councils, in Queensland. The piece of work, we will need to do, is to assess, what, the, threshold is, and review that threshold, that we charge is, is affordable, and manageable, as well as, managing the impacts, from those valuation increases. Now, it's also worth bearing in mind, that for a lot of properties, they may well have experienced, a, um, 30 or 40% increase, in their unimproved land value. That doesn't necessarily,
00:21:00 mean it's triggered, a value that's gone over the threshold, Speaker 1: and, they may well still be paying, the minimum rate value, and that's probably the case, for a lot of the, non, high value, eastern beaches properties, um, because the 20, 30% for, a property in, uh, Cooroy, or Cooran, or Pomona, may not have been sufficiently, high, that it would have triggered, Speaker 1: to go over that threshold. So that's the big piece of work, we'll be doing, through the rating reviewers, is, Speaker 1: making some strategic decisions, about the mix of that, so that we keep that affordable. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Trent, can I ask a question? Um, in regards to, capping rate increases, um, what is that cap, with local councils? Um, my understanding, it's always been, according to CPI, and given that, CPI is now, you know, over 4%, um, does that, have any influence, or impact,
00:22:00 or implications, for the capping, um, amount? Speaker 1: Councillor, we don't actually apply, um, there's no, formal or official, um, regulatory cap, in place, in terms of, what our rating increase is, um, that does apply, in other states, so, um, New South Wales, for example, has a rates cap, and that's set, that's set, by state government, each year, but in terms of local government, Speaker 1: it's, it's the decision deferred, to the, each individual council, in terms of, what their annual rate increase, or what their rating mix, looks like, year to year. So, it does mean, that some councils, um, may look at, going above the minimum, or above, above CPI, or below CPI, Speaker 1: um, as you, as you're aware, um, Moosa Council, following the amalgamation, chose no, no rate rises, for the first few years, and we, and kept all rate rises, beyond that, for the minimum,
00:23:00 um, in line with, with CPI, or what we call, the local government cost index, so, whereas other councils, whether they be neighbouring councils, or other councils, in the, in the region, may have gone well above that, um, so it's, it is, it is an individual council decision, about what that percentage is, but, CPI, and the local government cost index, when it gets released next month, um, are the, are the industry benchmarks, or is the, the, Speaker 1: the comparative baseline, for us to assess against. Councillor Jurisevic: Trent, the other thing, that, that graph, currently there, doesn't show, is the historical, uh, historical movement, some of those areas, may not have had rate rise, or, may not have had, valuation rises, or significant valuation rises, over the, uh, the past, and, or may not have had, uh, uh, the, the difference between, um, rural and, um, and, and urban blocks, uh, as to when, uh, revaluations are undertaken, may, uh, may mean there's been some time period, since, uh, since they were, uh,
00:24:00 they were reviewed. Speaker 1: Correct councillor. Um, and the other, the other thing worth noting, um, for the councillors in the audience, is that, normally, land valuation will be undertaken, every two years. Um, resources, the State Government Department of Resources, has indicated that, given the, uh, unprecedented way that, the land valuations have moved, uh, not just to Noosa Shire, but across a lot of councils in Queensland, over the last two years, they may well do a follow up valuation, in 12 months time. Um, particularly, if there's been a correction in the market, so that they can get the valuation up to date, and inform both for us, and State Government purposes. Councillor Jurisevic: That happened somewhere, that, that happened not long ago. We had a, uh, uh, an interim valuation, uh, is that not the case? Uh, Councillor Jurisevic: I, I had to take it on notice. Yeah. A few, a few, a few years back, if I recall, We had a fill-in dilution on one section of the Shire.
00:25:00 Councillor Finzel: Trent, I just have a question with regards to the review of the threshold. At what point in the process and the timeline can you give us an indication when we might have that information? Speaker 1: Sure. Actually, one of the crosses to a slide I'll put up later, which is about our timeline. The budget process after this will be we start workshops internally with the councillors to start working through the manager's submission. And one of the first things that we'll need to do as a councillor is look at our principles-based strategic decisions about those high-level directions with the rating structure. Speaker 1: We'll then get the independent consultant in to do the work behind the scenes and then present that back to you at our... ...third budget workshop three weeks later. And once we finalise that, that will be in a position where when we draft the budget in early May, we'll put that out for consultation.
00:26:00 Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thanks Trent. Speaker 1: Okay. Moving down through now to the economy and some local pricing pressures, we'll just have a quick snapshot discussion about an individual or person who has a low unemployment rate. So, what we're seeing coming out of the peak in unemployment, at the peak of the pandemic, we're actually seeing unemployment both in Noosa Shire and regionally has declined back to pre-COVID levels, Speaker 1: which is a good indicator, a good sign. One of the interesting statistics though is that whilst unemployment is lower in Noosa Shire,
00:27:00 so are the number of jobs. So, there's probably a range of factors to consider in here and it's something that we could unpack and evaluate more, but there's a number of changes in the way our community is activated, I suppose, employment-wise. There's a trend to work from home. There's been a sea change, which we're all obviously aware. Part of it could be... Speaker 1: Immigration, migration to Noosa Shire for people that aren't actively looking for work and they're retired or taking a sea change break. Councillor Jurisevic: There's a lack of overseas students and backpackers. Speaker 1: Correct. And there's also potentially they've gone broader outside the region for employment. So, they're commuting to Sunshine Coast or Brisbane or Gympie for employment. Councillor Wilkie: Mm-hmm.
00:28:00 Speaker 1: Just a quick snapshot of that by sector. And this is a key industries across the Shire and whether jobs have increased or decreased since the pandemic began two years ago. Speaker 1: Now, you can see obviously that the areas that are hit the most are tourism related in terms of accommodation and food services, retail trade, interest in the construction. So, I haven't unpacked that too much. Mm-hmm. And you are seeing an increase in, for example, technical services. Speaker 1: And that could relate to the trend for work from home where you've got professional workers that can open their laptop and work from anywhere in this current environment. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Mm-hmm. Good to see our mining sectors up. Speaker 1: No comment whether that's local or regional, councillor. Councillor Wilkie: Mm-hmm. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I would say if you fly in, fly out workers.
00:29:00 Councillor Wilkie: And Trent, the common wisdom seemed to be during COVID that arts and recreation really suffered, but yet on here it's indicating that the jobs in that sector were stable or increasing. Do you have any ideas about what's going on there? Speaker 1: No, but I can take your notice and we can have a follow-up workshop and I can talk to Economic Development. They might have some interesting insights in terms of what the impact has been on the ground of business. It's really interesting to see the impact that it's had on the community. Councillor Jurisevic: I'd say it's people being innovative and the opportunities to work from home. If they can't do something else, they're actually being creative at home and selling online and the like with opportunities. Councillor Wilkie: Does street creation services include gyms and personal fitness trainers? Speaker 1: I'm not sure, councillor. Okay. I'll take your notice for you and let you know. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, online, yeah. Online instructions, though. Mayor Stewart: Interesting.
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00:30:00 Speaker 1: And the only factor I can consider is whether, and we did have a slide before about building approvals being up significantly, is whether the work is coming in over the border. Councillor Jurisevic: But also the other element, the supply chains, where they might be taking on the work but they're not able to complete the work, so the construction industry's taken a bit of a hit because they can't actually deliver. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: The other one that I've heard from builders when I've been getting quotes is- Builders going to work. One of the big price rises in labour as a result that there is so much demand in Brisbane, et cetera, that they're offering really silly rates. So it could be people- The community. The jobs lost here because they're being attracted out of the Shire by better rates. Councillor Jurisevic: Which is fairly consistent. We have a transient construction population that go wherever the work is, so. Okay. I'll keep reading. Average wage growth. Speaker 1: So this is not for Noosa Shire, this is for the state.
00:31:00 And we can see we're now getting some recovery from COVID in terms of wage levels. When you unpack this, it's a mix of individual agreements, certified agreements, negotiation, individuals negotiating. There's a range of factors that are underpinning this. I think the key takeaway here is that wage levels are going up. Wages are increasing. The challenge is that with CPI above 4%, we start talking about a decline in real wages Speaker 1: because the commodities they're buying are increasing at a faster rate than what their wages are. And that could continue for another 12 months if we have a year of very high CPI. Okay. So, when you unpack that out to the average family income in the Shire, this is a similar
00:32:00 Speaker 1: slide to last year, for those that saw it, is that the average household income in Noosa is lower than Sunshine Coast, and it's also well below the Queensland median. Which obviously dispels the myth. Outside looking in, Ganesha Shire is a high earning region. Obviously, land valuation is high and asset rich, but in terms of household incomes, we are below the median. Councillor Jurisevic: We're a high investment location, not necessarily a high earning location. Great joke. Councillor Lorentson: And some of our high earners live outside the Shire, so that's probably not factored into those averages. Councillor Jurisevic: That's it. They've invested here, but they don't live here. Speaker 1: Some of the benchmarks we do when we do our annual budgeting, we look at the similar category
00:33:00 councils in the state. Speaker 1: So, whilst these obviously don't include neighbouring Shires, we look at what the QAO and State Government have considered comparable size, scale and activity. And we are on the median for household income. But interestingly, when we compare that to our minimum rate in terms of affordability, we're still on the median. So what we're saying there is that our minimum rate for the households and everyday households that are on the minimum, which are two thirds of our households, our minimum rate for the I'm a weekly income now when we compare that the other councils there are some
00:34:00 that are much lower bearing in mind they are Shires that have a very high level of commercial or industry or extractive industry activity so their rating mix is very different and then you've got other similar councils that are actually quite high compared to ours. Any other questions about affordability councils? Before we move on to a different topic. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I suppose a quick calculation that on the median income and renting a two-bedroom unit you're paying 40% if you're renting of your income which is very high we know from previous reports that in fact that the most common wage in Noosa is well below the median. That doesn't affect that because they're not paying
00:35:00 rates directly but the mortgage repayments and anyone who's bought during the last couple of years that will be a significant impact in terms of the overall ability to pay for council services and to me that's going to be the stress point is it's not comparing to other areas just on income it's about also that cost of living. We can make you know previously probably parts of our community that were previously affected by small rate rises may be more Councillor Wegener: effective this time around. Brian you're saying that because interest rates are going to go up, you bought a house, your repayments are going to go up and therefore this is a bit... Mortgage stress. Yeah but also the people in board in the current market Deputy Mayor Stockwell: and the last statistics we came out like it was a million dollars is a medium price across the whole Shire but the last time we had statistics four out of the six statistical areas in the Shire the median price was 1.3 billion. If you have any
00:36:00 level of debt coverage there your gain could make you know any any increase in the interest rate will make your housing stress much more likely. But it does get Councillor Jurisevic: it does get inflated when you have eleven and twelve million dollar properties selling along one street in one area. Mayor Stewart: Council let us remind you we are in a special meeting so if there are any questions can you please stand up. Thank you. Good point. It is hard with Trent online I know but we'll just follow the formal process. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll move that we uh we broach uh we uh receive the standing orders so that we can we can have an informal discussion around this. I'll second that. Mayor Stewart: All in favour? Yep. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Can I discuss it first? Yep. We we I think the motion needs a bit of order. Um we're not rescinding the standing orders. Councillor Jurisevic: No not rescinding I mean with the two. Suspended. Suspended. Suspended. Suspended. Thank you. Suspended for the purpose of the debate. Thank you. Thank you Councillor.
00:37:00 Mayor Stewart: All in favour? Thank you. Alinda that's unanimous. Councillor Jurisevic: Was off the cuff. I'm prepared to be corrected. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Sorry Trent. Any questions? Trent. They're not debating, they're asking questions so um. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Sorry the motion, the motion that Joe moved was to suspend standing orders for the purposes of the debate. Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. Discussion. Councillor Wilkie: To allow informal discussion. To allow informal discussion. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: That would be wise discussion. Speaker 1: Discussion. Yep. Um moved by Councillor Jefferson. Has the um second. Screen back up again? Yeah. Thanks sorry Trent I'll fix this up in a minute. Councillor Wegener: No you're right yeah. No click yeah. Mayor Stewart: I will fix that up in a minute. Yes sure. Afterwards though. Thanks Trent we're back on. Speaker 1: Okay before I move on to financial forecast that were there any other questions about
00:38:00 affordability councillors? Councillor Wilkie: No. No. Speaker 1: Okay. Moving right along. Mr Shire Council financial sustainability. So we'll just talk through some backdrop about is the council's financial condition. I know we obviously have a couple of questions. I'll just quickly present each month the general committee on our financial position. Um it's sort of a scene setter that will help inform where we are financially coming into the budget process. Um across local government generally financial sustainability is becoming a larger and larger concern. Speaker 1: Um for those that aren't aware Queensland Audit Office did their 2020 review they found that one third of Queensland's councils, 25 councils were not financially sustainable, are now at high risk of being not financially sustainable. Uh thankfully for us we we are in a sound financial position which we'll talk through
00:39:00 shortly. An independent review even from QTC Queensland Treasury has identified that we are still Speaker 1: considered our financial rating is sound with a neutral outlook. Councillor Jurisevic: Good to see all these years on that amalgamation has been effective for those 25 councils. Councillor Wilkie: We'll take that as a comment Tony. Speaker 1: Um we have a financial sustainability policy here at Noosa Council. It underpins all our budget and financial decision making. Um this will obviously come to the forefront again as we review our budget and prepare our budget for the 2022-23 financial year. I suppose some of the key concepts highlighted in both the budget and financial decision
00:40:00 are the rate payers. Speaker 1: Uh making sure that we maintain a consistent level of operating surplus so that equity of the community isn't downgraded. Ensuring our assets are renewed in accordance with their life cycles so that their condition doesn't degrade. Um and that future financial obligations for capital works planning can be met in our long-term financial plan. We're making informed decisions on those capital works. We maintain our levels of service in doing so. Inwising debt. Speaker 1: And ultimately achieving the financial sustainability benchmarks that are set on us from state government. Councillor Lorentson: When was the last time we reviewed our financial sustainability policy Trent? Speaker 1: Uh it's one of the policies we review each financial year with the budget adoption councillor. So we'll be reviewing it again this year through the budget workshops. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you.
00:41:00 Speaker 1: Uh in terms of our year-to-date financial performance. Um based on last month's presentation at general committee agenda, we are tracking quite well. Speaker 1: Um we're looking at positive areas in terms of our operating revenues and underspend in our operating costs. And we are still tracking well. I'll be slightly under budget with our capital works program this financial year. And obviously recent disaster events will have impact on our financial performance. So we'll be looking at that. But any unspent capital works will carry over to next financial year. Looking forward longer term, which is the priority as part of the budget process when we do our 10-year planning. And I'll just put some of the key metrics on the screen in front of you, which is in relation to our operating surplus, our capital work spend, our cash, debt, and assets.
00:42:00 Speaker 1: And you can see that we target our operating costs. We target a stable and minimal operating surplus where we can. We don't need, we don't target high levels operating surplus where we can invest back into levels of service and amenity and quality of service and infrastructure for the community we can. Um our capital works is still escalating and peaking over the next two years as we get through significant capital works program. I think next year, of the over 40 million capital works, we're going to be able to do about $10 million worth of works that we've got identified. Speaker 1: Nearly $15 million of that is, is grant funded. Uh and our cash balances remain stable so that we're not degrading our cash. And we've still got capacity to absorb any unforeseen or emergent matters like what we're currently working through in terms of the cost of infrastructure and mediation for the recent disaster. Councillor Wilkie: Excuse me, Trent. You've got debt declining over 23, 24, 25.
00:43:00 26. But you're predicting debt to increase slightly in 27, 28. What's happening there that you've factored into that, those projecting, projections? Speaker 1: The current capital works program has some expansion and upgrade works at the Monday Road Landfill at this point in time. Um, which we've identified given the business activity that we borrow for those at this point in time. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Howdy. And I'll be. Sorry. Speaker 1: No. Sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: Keep going. Speaker 1: I was only going to just caveat that that obviously we're, we're working through a waste management, um, master plan for the site, which may change those works around in terms of timing, size and scale in future years. Speaker 1: And potentially our investment strategies that, how we fund those works may change. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. The only critique I've got of that slide there, um, Trent is the fact that, um, whilst those ratios are there and they all look favorable, that we don't actually show what the targets
00:44:00 Speaker 1: Thanks, Councillor, that's a very good point. I can amend those when I publish those on the website. Councillor Jurisevic: I'd suggest that would be a good amendment. Speaker 1: OK, not a problem. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So Trent, the asset sustainability ratio is nearly 200% predicted for next year. Is that directly related to the anticipated capital works with grants? Speaker 1: Yes, that's correct. So we've got some larger bridges particularly in there and then the, as well as the remainder of the work on Beckmans Road. I do believe will be the primary drivers behind that. Councillor Jurisevic: And again, you haven't factored in the damage from the recent floods that will go in there that will possibly be grant funded as well, Trent, I imagine? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Correct, Councillor. So just on your answer there, Trent. Is it accounting accuracy to include?
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00:45:00 Sustainability ratio, since it's not our asset. I'd have to check whether it's in the assets, the sustainability ratio. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: No, come back to you, Councillor. It's a Queensland Government asset that we're doing contract works for. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, but Beckmans Road is our asset. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Oh, OK, but the work being done on it. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, but Beckmans Road is our asset. They're doing it to fulfil an obligation of the past. Interesting question, though. Good question. Councillor Wilkie: Is the high ratio also, Trent, because you're expecting a lot of capital works to be carried on? Speaker 1: Oh, that will actually add on top of that, Councillor. Councillor Wilkie: OK. So it could be 200%, 200 plus. Speaker 1: It's asset sustainability ratio and our use of it. We need to consider the long term over the 10 year cycle, more importantly than one year, because all things considered, with $20 million worth of depreciation, which is our 100% if we spend $20 million on renewables,
00:46:00 the average life of our assets is 50 to 60 years. Speaker 1: So even if we were to spend 200% in one year, which would be an extra $20 million on renewables, that's only improving the average life of the assets by one year across the board. So it's a long term process. And that's why it's important that we have asset management plans in place and do 10 year financial planning to ensure that our long term investment remains stable. And if we've got gaps in our quality and our assets in condition, that we factor intervention works in to catch up on that level of quality issue. OK. Any other questions about our long term financial plan before I look at some benchmarks to have a pause? OK. Moving along.
00:47:00 Using the same category three councils, just got a handful of slides here, councillors, on some key metrics on our monetary performance. First, we should look at assets, cash and debt. Noosa's assets per capita, lower than the benchmark councils, which is not surprising given our geographic situation. It's not surprising given the market density Speaker 1: and the amount of roads that we have serving our smaller Shire compared to some of the larger comparable councils here like Central Highlands and Isaac. And as you'd expect, our debt obviously as well is lower than theirs. A relatively low debt per capita. Councillor Jurisevic: Christian Downs has no debt. Speaker 1: Correct. Wow.
00:48:00 Similar to the work we've embarked on over the last five years, Speaker 1: they've been on a process as well where they've engaged with Queensland Treasury to look at their debt levels. A lot of the regional councils also have funding arrangements in place with mining and extractive industry companies. So they're all operating in terms of remediation of major infrastructure. Councillor Wilkie: Just by the way, Trent, do you happen to know what the debt per capita is of Sunshine Coast Council? Speaker 1: I bet I can take that on note as councillor. I can let you know. It's always good to discuss. Councillor Jurisevic: We've already gone up a bit lately. Now, cash per capita. We're actually, we've been doing this for a while now.
00:49:00 Speaker 1: We are not significantly different than some of the other councils, but then bearing in mind they have a significantly higher asset base than what we do. Councillor Wilkie: When you say higher asset base, doesn't that also mean a higher, they've got more liabilities too, don't they? Correct. As a result. That's right. So you're talking about free cash, what do you mean by cash per capita? Speaker 1: So the $60 million that we have in the bank for our 60,000 non-residents, it's just over $1,000 per person as a comparison. The other way which I know you will obviously see as part of our monthly performance reporting is our cash cover ratio. We talk about how much cash cover we have in terms of the amount of cash that, should we have a disaster or a major event, and how long.
00:50:00 And to not rate our rates or charge fees and charges for a period of time, how long do we operate for without running into financial difficulty. Speaker 1: And the minimum for the benchmark sustainability ratio is three months, a maximum of six months. We comfortably sit over 10 months, nine to 10 months most years. Compared against the benchmark councils, we're actually in the middle. Which is good for those councils. It means that, and if anything, if we come back to QTC's credit rating, which they gave us, they talk about us having a sound financial position with a neutral outlook. It's pretty much spot on, Mark. We are in a sound position. We have low debt. We have stable cash and sufficient cash from an industry perspective to continue to operate and absorb any risks. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Speaker 1: In terms of our operating ratio, which is about our, if you like, from a commercial perspective,
00:51:00 it's our profit margin. That's about how much operating surplus we have. Last year, we were above many of the councils in terms of return. In most cases, that comes down to the timing of our capital works, operating and maintenance programs. Speaker 1: As well as whether we've got commercial business activities that are operating or not operating. We've got all of our partners, we've got jobs that are performing well, for example occupancy rates on all of our parks or steel prices or recovery of steel through the landfill. Councillor Wilkie: So that's particularly pleasing because we were predicting a deficit last year, weren't we? Speaker 1: We were. Used to look. We did achieve an operating deficit, but it was as a result of a one off adjustment, which they don't consider. To feed into the operating surplus ratio. Yep. Thank you.
00:52:00 And in terms of our assets sustainability, what our investment and our assets are compared to the degradation or our depreciation, we're actually under the threshold last year of Speaker 1: 90% and that's purely down to timing. It wasn't through lack of investment in our assets. We've got a lot of capital works underway. It was purely down to timing on some of those major tenders, particularly the bridges and Beckman's Road, some of those major capital works projects. So where does that leave us? It means that when we walk into the budget for this financial year, we'll be ensuring that those sustainability ratios are all met for the budget, not just for next year, but through for the 10 year cycle. And we aim to ensure that those cash and debt levels remain at the very least as stable as they are now for the long term benefit of the community in terms of intergenerational equity.
00:53:00 Okay, moving right along, in terms of our corporate framework and the strategies that council use to decide and inform the budget process, first and foremost is the corporate plan for the benefit of the community. This is one of our priorities for the next financial year, for the next coming year to update our corporate plan. The corporate plan follows under... Currently falls under the... Five key themes or pillars of the Noosa environment, community, economy, long term planning and excellence. Speaker 1: So our key strategies, initiatives, budget priorities for the next year and the years beyond that should fall out of the corporate plan and there should be strong alignment between those initiatives and additional investment in projects and the corporate plan. Underpinning that is a wide array of strategies, policies, and initiatives. And plans that have a range of actions that indicate priority, whether that's through
00:54:00 a social or an environment strategy, waste management. We won't be going through those in detail, but it's more for the benefit of the audience to understand that any priorities or initiatives have been developed and formalized appropriately Speaker 1: through a clear strategy or plan and they're prioritized through the budget process. And there are... I'll lock it in once you get onto the second page. And there are... Okay, in terms of timeline for the budget adoption, and last but not least, our consultation and engagement process. Speaker 1: Where we are in the timeline now is we're nearly halfway through the process. For the last few months, we've been unpacking outcomes from the prior year consultation. We've been looking at some of the background surveys, strategies, and plans. In particular, this year, we're looking at some of the outcomes from the prior year consultation. We're looking at ensuring that any initiatives or projects, priorities, are aligned Speaker 1: to outcomes from our recent mobility survey and community satisfaction survey.
00:55:00 We've got clear alignment to those strategies. We had significant community input on those, and we need to make sure that that is reflected in our budget priorities. The business areas, each department has compiled their budget submissions. Speaker 1: And their initiatives. They have been compiled and reviewed by finance. We're starting some of the rate and levy modelling work, which we'll talk through over the coming weeks. And kicking off with councillor workshops next week. And at this point, we're still in line for a budget adoption at 30 June. Any questions about the timeline, councillors? Councillor Wilkie: No. Okay. Speaker 1: Thank you. So, last year, as the report identifies, that you've been provided with the agenda,
00:56:00 was our inaugural year of budget consultation. We commenced the process preemptively, knowing that there will be formal requirement at some point in the future for councils to do so. And also to improve transparency, and year on year, to fine-tune and improve that process. So, we're looking at some of the outcomes from the prior year consultation. In terms of review and feedback for this financial year, for this next round of budget, the three key feedback items bundled together, or three themes, were around the level of engagement. Making sure that any significant change to structure on rates, levies, and charges was clear and transparent. Speaker 1: And also in the nature of the information provided. So, to the first point, it was clear and transparent. To the second point about level of engagement, it's very clear that budget is quite a dry topic.
00:57:00 But that said, we've had some very successful community engagement in a range of other initiatives, particularly the livability survey, where we achieved over 2,000 responses. So, where we need to focus our efforts, in terms of informing engagement for the budget process this year, are those strategies. The community has spoken quite loudly in those strategies. And we need to make sure that the budget reflects that. I was suggesting that we continue and refine the Have Your Say online tool and face-to-face sessions this year. And we evaluate how effective they are this year. And we can recap next financial year, whether we continue with that format or change that. Councillor Jurisevic: So, will that be reflected in those budget issues as they're put up? What element of... Yeah. ...priority, or where those elements of priority sit within the structure, Trent? Speaker 1: Yes, Councillor.
00:58:00 Councillor Finzel: It is a challenging piece of work, because obviously, depending on the nature of the Speaker 1: initiative or the project, while some are very clear alignment to a livability priority, other initiatives may have a linkage to the community satisfaction survey and other initiatives may not have a linkage to the community satisfaction survey outcomes, or the staff satisfaction survey, or may well in turn be a workplace health and safety issue. So, what we've done is we've tried to make sure that we can join the dots for every single initiative, whether that be to a policy, or corporate plan, or the surveys. Councillor Jurisevic: Good. Good. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: So, just to reiterate, Trent, in regards to the transitory accommodation new category in our rates. And the tourism, abolition of the tourism and the economic levy changes, there was some criticism,
00:59:00 and feedback in regards to our consultation process. Can you, at this stage, is it too early to identify how we're going to undertake community consultation processes to not... To ensure that not only the... Yeah. The most impacted rate pays, where the people that actually pay the levy are directly consulted. Are we doing round tables, or have we sort of... Speaker 1: We haven't finalised that yet, Councillor, but the key will be once we've made the decision early, through the budget workshops over the coming weeks, is to then package out an information package, whether that be directed at business groups, or precinct business groups, business areas, or if the impact is the individual rate payers, is making sure we package that out clearly. Speaker 1: And that's that last theme, or issue, is about the information providers, is actually making
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01:00:00 sure the information is clear and understandable. Whilst it is helpful to present a range of financial statements, the key is about information packs that clearly articulate the outcome and the impact to the individuals, individual businesses, or the rate payers. So we'll be working through how we present that, and it will ultimately be dependent on what decisions or what recommendations come out of the workshops in terms of those changes to the rating structure. Speaker 1: The largest challenge this year for us will be the valuations, though, and that will be... It's about how we inform the impacts of that. Councillor Lorentson: As part of the information that's provided to our residents, have we, over the last 12 months, undertaken or conducted any surveys or studies or research that looks at the effect of these new rating categories on our economy and tourist operators?
01:01:00 Have we looked at the unintended consequences? Is there any information that just can tell us whether or not it's worked, what the purpose was, and whether we've achieved that purpose? Has there been any... Yeah, so we haven't undertaken any economic assessment on the impact or change management Speaker 1: assessment on the impact of those rating structure changes. As we go through the budget process and through the first workshop where we talk about budget priorities for the coming financial year, if there's any further investigation or evaluation or priorities needed, that's what we'll... We'll address those for you. We'll address those for each of the individual councils and put those to the table collectively. Councillor Jurisevic: But there has been a level of feedback received by council and elements of that could be reviewed, could it not, Trent? Speaker 1: Correct. So we have that information.
01:02:00 And we've identified... And we have... As part of this review process for rates and charges, we've engaged an independent financial modelling consultant who specialises in rates and charges to, again, review our rates and charges so that we can understand the impact. One of the challenges will be is understanding as we make changes and unwind or change the structure, it always has flow impacts to other areas or other classes of consumer and rate payer as well. So that's the key challenge in the discussion as we go through the rating process is a change for one class of rate payer, one type of rate payer, will in turn impact another Speaker 1: or mean a change in level of support. And that's the piece of work we need to work through with the workshops. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of level of services, I think there was, again, during the feedback process that residents just questioned or asked the question, what in fact was the demand on council infrastructure
01:03:00 and services that led to transitory rate rating increases? Again, have we got any information on that, whether in fact tourists do increase demand on services? It'd be just great to have that information fed as part of this consultation process given how contentious and, you know, the consultation process was undertaken last time. Speaker 1: Thanks, Gaz. I can take that on notice. And we can make changes. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Thanks, Greg. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So, Trent, just back up to the level of engagement, one of the bits of feedback on the balance
01:04:00 budget tool was the frustration of balancing to zero. Is that tool flexible enough that we can say let the communities say, well, if we're going to increase it up to CPI rather than say it had to be a net zero when they're playing around with what they were, because they, you know, the frustrations were that, you know, Speaker 1: Thanks, Councillor. Yes, it's definitely one of the tweets or the reviews we're working on currently with the online system is instead of balancing it back to zero, which creates a clear robbing Peter to pay Paul exercise in terms of where you have to decrease a level of service somewhere to increase something else, looking at more of an accelerator.
01:05:00 How much do you want to increase these key services? Is it going up or is it going down? And how much is that increased by? So we will change that around and we can present that on screen as part of the workshops to confirm how happy with the structure and line around that before we go out to community consultation. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, to coincide with that, what that would mean to the bottom line as a rate payer, what that would mean to your rate, to the rate increase. Mayor Stewart: Andrew. Trent, a lot of this relies on the self-community engagement. And how are we working closely with our comms department just to get this information out? Obviously, last year was a pilot year, but just to really, we'll need a lot of lead time on the budget, balance the budget to all the one-on-one sessions. Do we have a comms strategy around all of this to ensure that we can get as much community engagement as possible?
01:06:00 Speaker 1: We've been working with our community team, engagement team, on this and we'll continue to do so. And a lot of the feedback not only came from the community, but we ran this past our communications and community engagement team as well, so that feedback's come through them as well. So we'll continue to work with them over the next few months as we get this prepared for distribution in May and June. Mayor Stewart: Thanks. Thanks, Trent. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And then just on the one-on-one sessions, which were always highly debatable about their worth, are we looking at changing the time? I think we've got a lot of people right at the end where we did last year, it was really too late. And I prefer to do something, not do something that was tokenistic this year, just we seem to be having the opportunity to talk with council.
01:07:00 Speaker 1: One of the challenges we have with budget engagement is too early means that they can provide input upfront to their priorities, but there's no known outcomes or tangible outcomes for them to assess and form that discussion. Whereas at the end of the process, maybe we at least have a draft budget together and we can talk about how those proposed changes or proposed initiatives or rate rises will actually impact them and their concerns over that. Where we probably went wrong, more importantly, during the budget last year is that we did it partway through, so we should have either done it at the very start before we started or at the draft budget. This year, we all proposed we could do it with the draft as the draft was out. So we can talk through those key issues or changes. So if someone had a concern over a rating structure change or an investment, additional investment in a certain activity or lack of investment in a particular activity, whether that's community engagement or environment or transport, they've got those tangible outcomes to talk about.
01:08:00 And we can still come back and make those changes. We've got a month to make the changes for budget adoption. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: If I can read that, then I suggest we don't do it. Because responding to one person of an entire budget is a fallacy. Telling a person how to get involved throughout the process is maybe of use to people, but to suggest that one person comes in and talks to a council and that gives reason for a view is actually anti-democratic. We'd really have to think about that concept. Basing it on a representative sample and a survey, as we're doing, is good quality engagement. Tokenism, we've got that. Because one-on-one engagement is not, in my opinion. Councillor Wilkie: It also raises the question of how do people who are not engaged online have their say?
01:09:00 And meeting with councillors one-on-one is a very powerful way of a resident being heard and also an opportunity to raise other issues. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Upfront, I think, is a place to do that. Mayor Stewart: And also, the fact that we're doing it online. The fact that they've taken so much time and effort to come shows they're actually very invested in the process and might feel very strongly about it if you can't do that, which is good for them. Yeah, great. Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was the primary reason we had the face-to-face sessions originally proposed last year was to supplement the online surveys for those that are unable or unwilling to use online tools and to cover a broader community subset. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Okay, I've had my say. It's okay. Speaker 1: Thanks, Trent. Okay, so to recap how that looks with a few nice, with a nice little presentation on screen, we've got our priorities set coming out of our corporate plans and strategies, out of our community satisfaction survey, out of the livability survey, and previous budget consultation.
01:10:00 We're up to step two, which is applying those priorities and compiling a draft budget over the next month or two with yourselves, which we'll then put out through engagement, both through online tools and face-to-face sessions, to hopefully have our budget adopted for 1 July, ready to roll. Councillor Lorentson: I'm sort of stemming from what Brian said before, the face-to-face sessions. Can we also just include targeted sessions? Yeah. Anything that's, you know, anything that's contentious or like the transitory rate accommodation rating, tourism and economic levy, heritage levy, anything that's targeted or potentially may raise some conflict in community, it'd be great for us to flag it and then target people that may possibly be impacted.
01:11:00 Speaker 1: Certainly. I can add that, Councillor. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Okay. Are we really, are we going to finish the corporate plan by then? No. No. Okay. Yeah. Panicking. Yeah. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Existing corporate plan. Existing, right. Okay. It was done by very good people. Mayor Stewart: Thank you, Trent. Speaker 1: That ends my presentation, Councillor, so thank you for your time and your patience listening to my croaky online voice. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you, Trent. Thank you. We appreciate it. There's a lot of work in that. I will move that we resume standing orders. I'll take that. Thank you. All in favour? Thank you. I will move the staff recommendation on page three of the agenda. I'll second it. Thank you. It's got two minutes. Elizabeth, did you get that? Yeah. Councillor Finzel: I think so. Sorry. Mayor Stewart: In January 2022, general committee meeting forecasts were made of a marginal deficit
01:12:00 budget for the 21-22 budget of $600,000 and an ambitious capital works program of $48.1 million. To date, our position at the end of February 2022 and presented at our last general committee meeting showed that Council's year-to-date financial performance is well ahead of the budget. However, we must note that this does not incorporate or include any operating or capital financial impact from our recent major work. This is a major weather event. What will inform the 2022-23 budget is imperative and includes steady marginal operating surpluses. Each year, nearly all revenue is being invested back into the community to maintain service levels, support growth, as well as deliver project initiatives. Continued high investment in capital works in the short term for community grant funded works. Strong liquidity management achieved through stable cash and diminishing debt balances, which provide fiscal capacity to accommodate any emergent financial problems. Growth in the value of assets provided to service the community. Key financial sustainability indicators have been met and exceeded in nearly all years.
01:13:00 It is heartening to see that of the 76 key operational initiatives committed for the 21-22 financial year, 62 are on track. Five were completed and only six are behind schedule and three not started. This is a small amount of initiatives which will carry through to the 2022-23 budget, which puts us in a strong position in regard to making sure that we have a sustainable economy. Council's financial sustainability policy, which is fundamental to any budget deliberations, outlines the key principles followed by the Council in ensuring responsible ongoing financial management. This is the foundation for all budget decision making and includes such factors as operating in an efficient and effective manner, minimising general rate increases, full-cost pricing, compliance for Council business activities, ongoing operational surpluses, appropriate cash funds for ongoing infrastructure and financial services.
01:14:00 We will go on with the current corporate plan. The development of an updated corporate plan is a key priority of this council and the new CEO over the coming 12 months. Our budget considerations have to be outward thinking. We can't silo our decisions and not take into account what is going on around us on a bigger scale. We must think about and take into account factors mentioned that are in our agendas, including affordability and local household incomes, the employment market, rent prices, housing stock. As Trent just said, COVID-19, we're in its third year. Uncertainty around travel and tourism, increases in commodity prices, the trade war with China, the war in Ukraine, cost of petrol, economic conditions such as those, state and federal grants available, ongoing impacts of the disaster recovery costs.
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01:15:00 But there is opportunity. The SEQ city deal sees an initial cash investment of $3.58 million plus all the other initiatives that we will be involved in going down the track. The disaster recovery funding through grants. The federal and state and, of course, the 2032 Olympics, all that that entails and all the possibilities surrounding additional funding for infrastructure in regard to that. Last year's budget, the 2021 budget, was the first year council engaged in public consultation for its budget and became only one of a small number of local government authorities in Queensland taking proactive steps to increase the level of community engagement through its budget process. Following engagement tools we heard include balance the budget tool. The place. That's to face with councillors and the full draft budget released on Your Say Noosa for feedback.
01:16:00 Although this is a progressive and aggressive step to engage the public, we can always do better and strive to do better. A review of the public consultation process was undertaken and identified three priority improvement areas to address the budget going forward. These include budget consultation to be supplemented by the community satisfaction survey. The draft budget consultation through Have Your Say Noosa and the balance your budget. Tool as the one online councillors chats will continue and where the budget processes proposes any significant changes or increase to general rating structures, leverage or separate charges we all learned from last year, it is proposed that a separate and distinct consultation step occurs so the proposed changes are clear to the community and impacted rate payers are well informed. This is significant as the updated UCB land valuations by the state government are expected to impact rates and charges and have an overall impact on the general rate. The budget documents can be complex documents in regard to policies, revenue statements, financial statements and so on.
01:17:00 So to ensure clarity for our residents, a user friendly budget pack will be developed to assist readers on all key issues. This is again very important when it comes to our transitory rate rating accommodation and our tourism and economic levy and other issues. The budget is a very important part of the budget and the changes made to that. These improvements will go a long way to help improve our communication, transparency and ensure we receive all the necessary and value feedback derived from our community to help us in our budget deliberations. I would like to thank Trent, Pauline and all the team, CEO, Director, infrastructure. Thank you very much for all your hard work in regards to this. We've got a lot of work coming up, but we're in a good position to have some really good discussions and obviously engage with the community and get their feedback. So thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Madam Mayor. Look, you've summarised the report extremely well, all the factors that we have to take into consideration.
01:18:00 I'd just like to take this opportunity to encourage our community. To engage with the budget consultation process in whatever form that takes. Because even though last year was a new process, we did take on board the feedback and it did change the way we presented the budget in terms of the emphasis we put on various levies, for example. The livability survey, thank you to the people who went to the trouble of filling that out. You'll see that reflected in the outcomes eventually too. We heard you. You value your environment very highly, your open spaces, connectivity and pathways between the open spaces and popular areas like our beaches, our rivers and our business centres. So I won't be the only one around this table working to ensure that those, your values are reflected in the upcoming budget as well.
01:19:00 And we will be ever mindful of the cost of living pressures. And the inflationary pressures that everyone in Noosa Shire is contending with at the moment. And hopefully keep our budget rate rises to within CPI. But I hope I'm not too premature in saying that. But please engage in the process. Thank you. Thank you Councillor. Mayor Stewart: Councillor Stockwell. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So councillors, this budget is probably the budget that will define this term of council. We've had two years where we've really been responding to a pandemic. And we've really had to be guided. Next year we'll be in the lead up to an election and we'll be judged differently. We'll be wanting to give out $420 to every rate pager so we get re-elected. No. But, this year is where this council has the opportunity to make a difference.
01:20:00 There'll be huge institutional inertia from the organisation saying roads, rates and revenue are not going to change. Road rates and rubbish. Whereas what the livelihood survey said, landscapes, lifestyles and livelihoods. And then if we're going to be an innovative council, we're going to see that have significant change about where revenue is allocated, what projects we do. It's going to mean that we have to re-evaluate priorities in capital works. It is about what Council Wilkie mentioned. People want more pathways. They want better open spaces, streetscapes, parks. They want us to manage it. We're going to make the decision about how much we invest to manage the most important assets to our community and to our economy. Our beaches, our rivers, the North Shore. How much are we prepared to invest in those so that in 25 years' time people looking back
01:21:00 and saying, this council made the right decision back then. To start managing this destination, this place. So the experience of people living here and visiting here is maintain the quality that we've built. And this budget is where we have to do it. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll follow up from that. There's a significant impact that's just been had by our community and that's flooding. And a number of residents have been severely impacted by that. How we manage that in this next year's budget as well and facilitate flood mitigation measures and look at the elements of flood mitigation for this community that we've got to do going forward to ensure that their livability is maintained. They don't get impacted by this every time we have a significant weather event and all the rest of it. And of course, the impacts of climate change coming forward. There's been some significant articles in the paper with regard to the impacts going forward for not only this community, this country, this state, with the impacts of climate change on coastal communities.
01:22:00 And those are the things that we've got to take in. They're all an element of that livability area of concern that both councillors have referred to. So I look forward to seeing the process go through and the feedback from our community. Mayor Stewart: Thank you, Councillor Grissom. Councillor Lorentson: I'll make it just short. As part of our council budget deliberations, we're making a commitment here to deliver on genuine and meaningful consultation. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to delivering community consultation a little bit differently. So we engage with impacted residents, with the tourist and industry, and make good some mistakes that we made last time in regards to abolition of the tourism and economic levy. Maybe have an opportunity to revisit that. And also in regards to transitory, our new transitory accommodation rating and rethink how we rate those in holiday resorts.
01:23:00 So looking forward to this process and understand the enormity of task that our financial staff are going to be enduring over the next few weeks. We're in good hands. And I sit on the Audit and Risk Committee. Also now two years down the track with our financial staff. They're great at what they do. So let's do it. Mayor Stewart: Thanks, Bill. Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Just kind of a funny note in that with Brian saying that we want to really look at our livability survey with our patents and our open spaces and so forth, but also you have the roads, rates, and rubbish contingency, which is actually a huge part of our budget coming up. Because we really need to be looking at our rubbish and how we're going to collect trash and whether we're going to go down the different green waste path passages. And of course, our TIP is going to be an enormous part of that. We have a budget coming up with no ceiling on how much we can spend on that in order to
01:24:00 spend now to save later. And of course, we have our roads that really need a lot, like Middle Creek Road and so forth, that are desperately needing for an upgrade out there in the federal community, which is growing right now, probably a really growing area, which is exciting. So we've got our roads, rates, and rubbish people, and we've got our kind of greens like Brian here. Councillor Finzel: I think this is an opportunity for us to get excited about our future and where are we heading. And yes, we have been defined by disasters that preceded us, but I'm always interested in opportunity and where we're heading. So I understand budgets and financial... But I also like to bring to the table our social capital.
01:25:00 What is the worth in our community? What do we look at when we're looking at community resilience? And how do we empower our community to look forward to a better future, a stronger future? And how do we bring them along the journey? Everyone's voice matters, and I think it's a time that we are fundamentally changing. We need to come to the table collectively with our feet under the table in one voice, move forward for a fabulous vision of a future that is sustainable for our generations. And that will, of course, cover rates, roads, and rubbish, and it will also cover the vision and a future where we'll leave a great story and legacy for future generations. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. I think it's all being said. I would just reiterate what Councillor Wilkie and everyone else around the table has. Please get involved. Have your voices heard. This is your budget. And our deliberations are very much determined by what our community think and feel. We've got the livability study. That will be highly used. But I would really encourage everyone to please get involved in the budget.
01:26:00 As I said, this is your budget. This is your community. And we want to hear from you about what matters. Thank you. I'll put the recommendation to go to vote. All in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you. I declare the meeting closed at 3.26. Thank you. 1