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00:00:00 Councillor Wilkie: Thank you very much. Speaker 1: So we have an existing commercial lease at 222 Kinkin Terrace where there's an existing pontoon and jetty arrangement. That's detailed on page 11 of the report. Page 10 of the report shows the proposed arrangement. Councillor Jurisevic: Is this document, that element of that document,
00:01:00 or that part of that proposal from the applicant? Because as far as I'm aware, council don't run a ferry or own a ferry. Speaker 1: That is from the applicant. Councillor Jurisevic: So it's just in their referral with regard to the current ferry service and shouldn't actually say council ferry. That's all right. I just need to clarify that. I was wondering where that came from. I thought it was an odd thing. The only other question I've got is with regards to, I know this is only on the pontoon, but I notice a lot of the... the things for hire are situated on the public foreshore. Is that all within the current lease area? They have a... Speaker 1: The lease area actually, there's part of it that is on the foreshore as well. Councillor Jurisevic: This... I'm just wondering whether this proposal will help facilitate the relocation of any of that off the grass area. If it's not in the lease area, or if it's in the lease area, I'm not worried about it. Speaker 1: Yeah. So the pontoons will certainly enable the boats
00:02:00 to be contained within the lease area. Historically, through the aerial photographs, you can see that there has been a portion of the site where the boats have gone outside the lease area. This will certainly enable that activity to occur within the land. There is a... also a part of the lease that is on the foreshore, so they would be able to use that as well. Councillor Jurisevic: That's right, because I wasn't getting that from the page 11, the existing structures plan. It really only talks about the buildings. It doesn't talk about the lease area there. So I wasn't sure and just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Brian. Question. The Condition 18 talks about certification of an engineer that the piles are constructed in accordance with requirements. That wouldn't also require them to say they're in the right spot, would it? Speaker 1: That's a great point. There would need to be another condition requiring certification by a surveyor
00:03:00 to determine that the piles have been established in the right spot and that could be done prior to any further works commencing after the piles have been installed. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I think you gave us a potential condition. I did. I did. Councillor Jurisevic: One would suggest a survey would be required to facilitate that. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm going to move an amendment to add the bottom suggestion there, which is that... entitled certification of piles, that the installation of the piles must be supervised by a licensed cadastral surveyor. Certification of location installed piles prepared by a licensed cadastral surveyor must be provided to Council. The certification must, A, state the location of the piles in accordance with the approved plans, and, B, be submitted to Council prior to the installation, construction and any other elements of the approved works. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll second that. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I do so. We've been caught out once before. I think it's in the community's interest just to be completely sure that the construction occurs as is in the plan,
00:04:00 not as in a slip of the builder's metering tape, as has occurred before. Mayor Stewart: Can I ask what it was? Cadastral. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Cadastral? That's the surveyor. Just that. Okay. Speaker 7: It's cadastral surveyors are essentially boundary redefining surveyors. That's their skill set. Councillor Wilkie: Right. Okay. Any other debate or questions on the amendment? If not, we'll just close. If the amendment does in favour, that's unanimous. The amendment is carried and becomes part of the original motion, to which only Mayor Stewart has spoken. Anyone else wish to speak for the motion? Or against the motion? Councillor Wegener: I'm going to have to speak against the motion. There are very many positive aspects to this application, I admit. The lower, the pontoons, all sorts of things.
00:05:00 But I can't get past the fact that the overall outcomes sought for the waterways works are development ensures there is no increase in the scale and intensity of commercial operations on the Noosa River. And then that's on page 16. And then back on page 15. Then in the assessment, staff recognise that the additional area covered by the pontoon can be regarded as an increase in site cover and therefore contrary to P02D of the code. And then they go through the reasons and they say, yeah, but it has all these positives. But I still can't get past that there is more coverage on there. They're taking more of the river. Even though it's in the leased area, they're still taking more of the river for their use, for private use, and increasing the scale of intensity on the river there. And we're saying, well, there are only 31 boats.
00:06:00 But it's hard to imagine us actually enforcing that regulation, in my opinion. I think this sets a precedent for every lease will be filled to its borders on the river with this as a precedent, saying that, well, actually, we're not actually going to follow through with no increased intensity of use on the river. So every, every one of the leases that are out there will be from border to border. Coming up here, we're going to be talking about the Eastern Beaches workforce management plan. And we're going to be hammering the table saying, well, you know, we've got a zero, zero tolerance policy. You know, nobody goes outside what they've already been allotted to, their lease agreement or their property. And I think this counters this. And I think if this actually came after this on the agenda today, that we would take a much more high scrutiny level look at what's happening here.
00:07:00 And yeah, so for those reasons, I just, just the plain language of the town plan says, no increase in site cover. And that's it. To me, that's the end of the story. Thank you, Councillor Wegener. Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll ask a question based on what Councillor Wegener has just said. Is there nothing within a lease requirement or in planning approvals that requires the number of vessels moored to be limited? Mayor Stewart: No. Councillor Jurisevic: In this one, it does. I'm talking prior to this. It's outside of this. In the normal course of action with a lease or a planning approval, do we not limit the number of vessels to be moored at a facility being constructed? Speaker 1: We haven't historically. In this instance, because they are developing the site really to its maximum, when you look at the proposed plan and how the boats are to be moored in there, we can see that it's reflective of what they're currently using.
00:08:00 And it's showing the full potential of the site. So we think it's suitable to limit the numbers to ensure that there's no further... Councillor Jurisevic: So going forward, noting the fact that we state that the intensity of uses on the riddle is not intended to expand, is there an opportunity there to look at putting limitations on the number of vessels on either through leases or planning applications as we're doing in this case? Speaker 1: I think going forward, it's something that we could look at, yes. Councillor Jurisevic: If we could look at that. On that basis, given that this, and I'll speak to it. Thank you, Frank. Yes. Given that this now provides a defined number of vessels that can be moored at the facility and does not expand beyond what has been operated previously, I'm happy to support the application in the fact that it now gives us an opportunity to start to clarify what the level of use has been historically and does not exceed beyond that level. Thank you.
00:09:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I hear what Councillor Whitten has been saying, and it was my first feeling as well when I read the report. It is complicated by the fact that the argument is that the change in infrastructure is an increasing intensity of the use. But the intensity of the use has never been conditioned before. So we can't say that there's an awful use right of 31 hectares. The decision is based on will this increase or improve the current situation. It's a weighing and balancing act. On the one hand, Oboe is one of the original higher facilities, been around a long time, has always had this use.
00:10:00 And like everyone else on there, has now looked at maximising that potential lease area. I think based on planning grounds, while I'm probably personally of the same view as Councillor Whitten, I think on planning grounds there isn't enough for me to vote against. Councillor Wilkie: We're probably supporting the motion as it is. I too have concerns about an increase in site cover but the change will enable the existing commercial activity to remain constant and occur entirely within the lease area as it should. Currently, because of the insufficient pontoon space, boats are encroaching on public land and public area outside the lease area.
00:11:00 This restructure of the pontoon alignment will allow all boats to be contained within the commercial lease area and I think that's a good outcome. But it is a balance. So for that reason I'll be supporting the amended motion. Councillor Wegener: Can I ask you a question? This might be inappropriate but I'm always wondering about how the boathouse was made. Sorry, point of order. Point of order. Stick to the motion. Yeah, stick to it. Thank you. That's a whole different story. Councillor Jurisevic: I think you're going off on a tangent there. Councillor Wilkie: Anyone else want to speak before Mayor Stewart closes? Mayor Stewart? Mayor Stewart: Yeah, I'll close. If these guys have a lease, it's lawful. I mean bottom line. It's lawful. What they are doing is all within their rights, within their legal rights and it will contain boats more succinctly within the lease.
00:12:00 It's better for accessibility and inclusion. And guys, if we're going to get serious about accessibility and inclusion then go down and have a look and see how hard it is to get on and off a boat in the current situation. So this is far better for anyone with a disability and it will be aesthetically more pleasing because you won't see it. It won't protrude as much when it's equal to the river height rather than the current structure is now. Yes, it will be longer and it will be 1.5 metres wider but it certainly won't be as, in my opinion, as obtrusive as the large wooden structure is now. And it helps more people and it enables boat use for more people and that's a powerful thing. And again, I'll come back to one very fundamental thing. They have a lease. They have a lawful right to do this. So I'll be supporting this. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Would the motion be in favour?
00:13:00 Councillor Stockwell, Finzel, Stewart, Jurisevic, Lorentson and Wilkie. Against? Councillor Wegener. Next item, Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Program. Thank you Patrick. Thank you. Thank you Mark. Water Monitoring Program from the Planning and Environment Committee Agenda which was page... Yes. 75 referred you to the significance of the issue. Welcome back Sophie and Bec. Thank you. Thank you. And we have... Sorry, sorry. Sorry so much. Alexis. Alexis. Alexis, welcome. Thank you. So perhaps for those who may be listening for the first time, Sophie can tell us what this Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Program report is all about. Speaker 9: Sure. So the report is about the Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Program which is a framework
00:14:00 to encourage a collaborative approach between Council, NRM groups and other agencies to better manage data and water quality monitoring in the future. As many of you would know, mostly NRM groups have conducted water quality monitoring historically and therefore we have a large amount of data that we can use to monitor water quality in the future. So we're looking at collating all that data, historical data, into one database and then using that to generate sub-catchment report cards so that both Council and NRM groups and the public can see what the water quality is like in each area of our catchment. Other aspects of the program will be deploying three trial remote sensing water quality stations. So that will mean that we can find out what the water quality is like in each area of our catchment and pick up flood events and see what's happening with sediment movement across the catchment. We're also looking at a public dashboard with the data so that anyone will be able to access
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00:15:00 all our monitoring data, which I think is a great thing because as most of you would know, lots of people in the community are very interested in what's going on with water quality in the catchment. We've also got these guys here to address the actions from the last meeting about the environmental health monitoring program. Councillor Wilkie: Any questions for Sophie? Joe? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, Sophie. I looked at the minutes in the integrated workshop and I noticed that Unity Water were not there. Were they invited to be a part of the workshop? And if not, why not? Speaker 9: They were not invited to that specific workshop. We do engage with Unity Water as part of their Water Matters program. So it's a separate program. I suppose that workshop was set up by the Water Matters program. It's specifically about engaging Noosa Landcare, NIKAR, the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee, given that they have been out monitoring for many years.
00:16:00 We wanted to bring them in and find a direction going forward. Unity Water is important to liaise with, but I think it was sort of separate to that meeting. So, for example, as far as Burgess Creek goes. Councillor Jurisevic: Given that they discharged into two of our waterways, wouldn't it be appropriate for them to be a pertinent thing to perhaps consider having them as a valued member of any water monitoring going forward? Speaker 9: It's something we could consider. I just didn't feel like the purpose of that specific workshop was to engage Unity Water. It was for the NRM groups. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So, from memory, Unity Water does its downstream testing for its outfalls. Yeah. Yeah. Are they also work for us in terms of recreational beaches? In terms of environmental health monitoring? Are they linked with this in that regard?
00:17:00 I have a feeling there was a third party involved in some of our environmental monitoring as well. Councillor Wilkie: Do we use... We do the... Currently, we're doing the beach testing. Okay. But I don't think we use the third party in the... Okay. ...part of the results. Part of the results. Okay. Speaker 9: I think previously Unity Water were doing it on behalf of Council. Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah. I believe we took over recreational water monitoring from Unity Water. Speaker 7: Okay. Yeah. And to the Chair, Councillor Stockwell, we have had approaches from students or different faculties with the UniSC. What we've done, and they've been direct approaches, we've referred them back to the MOU process that we have with UniSC to make sure that that's captured as well. So that's the only third party at this point in time that I'm aware of that we're having discussions with. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I was just thinking previously when I talked to Unity Water, they told me that they were
00:18:00 doing that a couple of years ago. Councillor Jurisevic: So going forward, given that this is called an integrated water quality monitoring program, and Unity Water undertake some water quality monitoring as far as I'm aware from their discharge there to sewage treatment plants, wouldn't it be a good idea to ensure that Unity Water are part of any integrated water quality monitoring program? Speaker 9: If they're happy to be involved, then sure. We can definitely have them along. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: A question. Something that I requested at the planning and environment meeting. I just requested some data. On page 79 of the planning and environment report, it stated that monitoring is conducted regularly throughout the year at a number of recreational water facilities. And I was hoping to have some data or at least an update. Thank you. Speaker 9: Sure. I'll hand over to the environmental health officer. Hi.
00:19:00 Speaker 6: How are you going? Yeah. I can give you an update. So we've taken over the sampling from Unity Water. And we've devised a program that closely aligns with recreational usage. And we've done a lot of work on that. And so we've done a couple of rounds of testing. And we're in the process of collating that data. And as, you know, a player, we would like to align it with the environmental theme to be very transparent within the community. And have those, that data available. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll move the staff recommendation. Speaker 1: Mayor can move it with her. Councillor Jurisevic: She can move it with her. She can move it with her. Councillor Wilkie: She can move it with motion with the additions.
00:20:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So you can just add the recommendation with those additions. Councillor Wilkie: Additional. Okay. Okay? Can we have a seconder, please? I'll second it. Councillor Jurisevic: Can we have them read out for the benefit of the public that may not have seen it? Please, Mr. Councillor Lorentson: I'd like to add to the original motion. Council note the report by the Environment Officer, Readers and Host of the Planning Environment Committee dated 8 November 2022 on the Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Program and one, investigate the feasibility of developing a citizen science water quality monitoring program designed to measure and manage the environmental health, of the Burgess Creek catchment, as well as the impact of unity water, waste water, discharge and outflow, and two, explore funding opportunities for the monitoring program,
00:21:00 such as through the Unity Water Community Partnerships Program. And I'll speak to that. So I'll make it brief. My reasons. Simply, we've got communities. We've got communities and residents that are distrustful of companies and governments doing their own monitoring of water and soil pollution. My motion seeks to address or restore this trust by training and empowering community volunteers, such as Surf Islands Foundation and the Burgess Creek Bush Care Group and other coastal community groups and residents to collect water and soil quality samples following the correct protocols, monthly, during holiday periods, after heavy rainfalls, and when the quality is poor. Again, the purpose, as the motion indicates, is to measure and manage the environmental health of the Burgess Creek catchment,
00:22:00 as well as the impact of unity water, waste water, discharge and outflow. I think this is an opportunity for us to give communities the tools they need to measure and monitor water and soil quality, and I think this is an opportunity for us to give communities the tools they need to measure and monitor water and soil quality, that is accepted into a database and used to guide management. This will, in my opinion, provide another layer of information on contaminants that threaten public health that could be overlooked by regulators. It will also send a message to companies and regulators that if you don't operate in a way that respects this community and environment, then the community, we're going to find out about it and hold you accountable. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I have a question. When we first kicked off the concept of an environmental monitoring network a few years ago,
00:23:00 we were looking at before and after type monitoring situations and trying to get representative little creeks. So was Burgess Creek one that we have or haven't previously identified in that process? Speaker 9: There has been some citizenisation of the Burgess Creek. There has been some citizenisation of the Burgess Creek. There have been some scientists that have done some monitoring there, I think back in 2016. But since then, there hasn't been a broad scale monitoring program. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: What I'm thinking of, this would be good, but if we're doing integrated water monitoring, we should also be looking at sort of the back end of it before . Yes, it is. But I have to explain the question. Before and after control, have we got any other of those coastal streams within the continent that we're looking at? Yes. So we can have an impacted stream versus a less impacted stream. Speaker 9: There's also some data that's being collected at Marcus Creek and Sunrise Creek as well, by
00:24:00 the same volunteer. But yes, that's all we have. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yes. I'll talk to the motion. As I said, this has been a few years coming, and the opportunity is to get a richer vein of data. Yes. So we've got a lot of data that is useful to inform decision making. So if you look at, say, the 20-plus years of water watch monitoring in the Mary River catchment, they do produce some kind of reports. They do have a report rating. They do identify where it's above the guidelines, et cetera. And that can inform, then, what the management response is, what future projects are going to be. Sitting within council, it should also help us build a body of knowledge about what might be impacting our water quality. Is it development footprint? Is it industrial outcrops?
00:25:00 Is it effluent treatment? Is it cows in the catchment? And all those things should come together to give people a really good understanding of how to manage the catchment. It's, I think, really important, too, that all the public revival data is coalesced with your framework, as you've proposed. And we should also... Yeah. One of the good things about trying to do immunity water and DES is also to make sure that they understand that it's our desire to make as much information available as possible. When we first started the Leyton fellow catchment care group, for example, council used to put out monthly statements to the local RAG, which we use, about water quality in the lake, where there was bug limits, where there was horrible levels. Each month, that was part of what the catchment group did. And, you know, it had fallen gears, as well as cancelled laundry. So you get that sort of feeling of what's happening. You know, if it's Sunshine Creek, for example, it comes out of the national park, it sets
00:26:00 up there. It goes through past... And it comes out near the toilets. You can see the effect of this normal urban development if you set the parks up and below. That's what you're trying to get to be. You get a feeling of what is impacting on the water quality in the lake. It should be the start of big things to come. Thank you, Brian. Councillor Jurisevic: I'd like to have an amendment. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: I'd like to add the words, after Burgess Creek and Cooroy slash Six Mile Creek catchments, and not only Unity Water discharge and outflow, but also Sec Water from the water treatment plant. Because it was brought up the other day. Councillor Lorentson: It was. Can you say them again? Sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: So, Investigate Feasibility of Developing Citizens' Own Water Quality Monitoring Program designed to measure and manage the environmental health of the Burgess Creek and Cooroy slash
00:27:00 Six Mile Creek catchments, as well as the impact of Unity Water discharge and outflow. And Sec Water water treatment plant outflows. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: In fact, is Unity Water wastewater and Sec Water... Councillor Jurisevic: Wastewater discharge and outflow. And Sec Water water treatment plant outflow. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I... Or discharge. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm not sure which. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I do have to... You'd have to declare. I'm worried you might have to declare. Yes. Because I... I have been a consultant to SEQ Water, and specifically on that site. I believe that then raises my prescribed conflict of interest, because it exceeds the amount of $2,000. And therefore, I'll leave the room. Okay. Thank you, Councillor Stockwell. Can I just...
00:28:00 Councillor Lorentson: Is that prescribed? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: It's prescribed. Yeah. So, I'm an active consultant for SEQ Water. Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: I know the one that I just mentioned. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah. And I use... I usually give you the dollars. It'd be nothing more. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Councillor Stockwell. Okay. Joe, would you like to speak to your amendment? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Sorry. Councillor Wilkie: We'll get a seconder for that. I can't see. Seconder to... I can't see. Councillor Allen. I can't see. Myself. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. You sit in the middle. Speaker 5: Yeah. Can you see? Councillor Jurisevic: Look, I do so on the grounds that if we're going to be looking at Burgess Creek and we're talking about outfalls from Unity Water Wastewater Discharge, I think we should be looking at what happens at Cooroy. I think we all too often focus on the beach and we're not really aware of what goes on at Cooroy. The Cooroy sewage treatment plant sits adjoining an area that floods quite frequently.
00:29:00 I don't know whether the floods impact on the water treatment works. We have in past storm events been concerned about outfall and discharge from pumping stations and the like. I think the sewage treatment plants, we're going to look at one, we should look at both. And if we're going to look at the potential discharge, the element of discharge from water treatment plants was brought up the other day. And I think that if we're going to look at upstream and downstream, we should look at more of the water treatment facilities in the region if we're going to introduce a program like this. I think it's only pertinent that we don't just look at Burgess Creek because it's a beach, but that we actually look at what we're aiming to do, and that is to monitor the discharge from water treatment operations in the region. Councillor Wilkie: What else would you speak to the amendment? As a whole. I'll ask a question. Tom? Councillor Wegener: Tom has got a question.
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00:30:00 Are we already doing this? Are we micromanaging here? Speaker 9: So we have a Burgess Creek working group that was recently established in council, and that's the environment, several members of the environment team and infrastructure and design as well. So I am in the process of designing a water quality program for Burgess Creek to see how that can compare against Unity Water's results. I do think the idea of a citizen science water quality monitoring program is fantastic. And I recognise the importance of citizen science monitoring across both catchments, it's amazing what they've achieved. But at this stage, I think it is best for us to have our own robust monitoring program established first, before we then hand over to citizen science, train them up, just want to make sure that there's something really... Councillor Wilkie: So I'll ask a question there, so the motion as it stands is investigate the feasibility of developing, it doesn't say implement it now, so I'd imagine the wording of that, will that allow you to take into account the considerations you've just mentioned, about the formation of your own monitoring group?
00:31:00 Speaker 9: Yes, I just wanted to make you aware of what's currently happening. No, thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, and I'll ask a similar question. The element of citizen science, we've got a number of volunteer community organisations involved, and I would classify that as citizen science, you know, citizens being involved in the scientific study, so would that preclude what we're doing with volunteer organisations from this, or include them in it as part of citizen science going forward, in water quality monitoring as a whole? Speaker 9: Long term, I would expect that they would be involved. It's just in the initial stages. In the initial stages of getting the program up and running, just to ensure that everything's clear, like I said, robust, that we're definitely going to get some accurate, clear results, and then bring the citizen scientists into it.
00:32:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So we're looking at developing a citizen science water quality monitoring program in those areas, we'd be looking at, we would look at what we're currently doing, identify any shortfalls, and see what the opportunities are for better and further quality monitoring, whether it be citizen science or increased council water monitoring programs. Speaker 9: Well, currently, there's very minimal water quality monitoring being done in those areas. In fact, there's no citizen science monitoring being done in Burgess Creek, so we, that's why we're establishing the council program initially, and then we can reach out to citizen scientists and have them involved. Councillor Wilkie: So apart from the uniting water monitoring, there's, you're going to be doing council monitoring, and possibly you can have citizen science monitoring as part of that as well, in addition to? Yes. Does DES do any monitoring in Burgess Creek?
00:33:00 No. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Is there any significant, I'll ask another question, is there any significant level of water monitoring in our, in the catchments of the Mary River that sit within our Shire? Councillor Wilkie: No. Speaker 9: Yes, the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee, they currently have a large amount of citizen science scientists doing monitoring in many different areas. They also do a biannual catchment crawl as well, where they expand the parameters out to lab analysis, say, for E. coli, nutrients, et cetera. Councillor Jurisevic: I know that, but within our Shire, do we have, do we know the extent of monitoring by MRCC of the Mary River catchments that are within the Noosa Shire? Yes. I know they do a lot outside of it, in the Yippie Shire, and in the upper catchments in the Sunshine Coast Council area, but I wasn't sure what? Speaker 9: There are several site, or a couple of sites in their biannual catchment crawl that are included in the Noosa River.
00:34:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So this may be an opportunity to expand on that, and actually taking some areas that may not be monitored at this point in time? Speaker 9: Yes, definitely. As part of the program, we would like to extend the program. Councillor Jurisevic: So I'm happy with what I've put forward, thank you. And 90 of their work has gone up? Speaker 9: Yes, they have 30 sites that they monitor monthly. In the Noosa Shire? That's right, yes. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. May I ask you to speak to these? I think Amelia was first on that. Councillor Lorentson: Just basically, I'm happy with the amendment, and it's consistent with my notified motion that actually took a more integrated approach to all the catchments. So thank you, Joe, for that pick up. I do want to correct you on one thing. We don't focus on our beaches. We spend no money on our beaches. Are you speaking to her, or are you asking questions? I'm speaking to her. So I really want to make that clear. And this is not just about the beaches. It's also about, sorry, this is also about our Gillerene sports area.
00:35:00 It's also about Burgess Creek. We've got bush care groups that, in my opinion, may be futile and wasting their time trying to restore creek when the soil quality is not suitable for native plants. There might be too much nitrate, too much phosphorus in it, in the soil. And it may be due to the discharge and outflow from the community water waste water. So this empowers and allows local residents to have ownership, have ownership of their resource. So it's not about just the beaches. It's about our sports fields. It's about restoring Burgess Creek to what it's supposed to be, an ephemeral creek. And we need, as a council, to do more with our beaches.
00:36:00 And I think this is a really good start. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Any others? Councillor Finzel: Or Karen, do you have a question? Yeah, I just had some questions there. So just to clarify around the citizen science, I'm just wondering what's being done up in Kin Kin Creek? Is there, like, is there already citizen science going up there around that? I know I've got people in the Kin Kin program. But what is happening up in that area? And I guess do we have to, like, specify today what areas we might look at for the citizen science? Councillor Wilkie: Well, we'll get an answer to your question. Speaker 9: As part of the Keep It in Kin Kin project, 10 sites are monitored monthly by Noosa Lincoln. They have been doing that for a while. But I think there is benefit in expanding the amount of sites that they're doing there as well. Councillor Finzel: So then just a question through the Chair. Does that need to be put in this today as an amendment to come and get that specific to areas?
00:37:00 Councillor Wilkie: So to answer Karen's question, it would be the Cooroy, Six Mile Creek, Kin Kin Creek catchment. Is that doable? Councillor Jurisevic: Can I suggest? Councillor Wilkie: Is there such a thing as the Kin Kin Creek catchment so we can add that too? Councillor Jurisevic: Can I answer that based on what the amendment is about? The amendment is about the discharge from water treatment. Yes. And on Cooroy, Six Mile Creek specifically. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: So I can raise an amendment. Councillor Jurisevic: I don't think there's anything in the way of man-made discharge from water treatment plants that occur in any other creek, I believe. They're the only three facilitations. And that's what the amendment and, I believe, the original elements of the motion that were added by Councillor Lorentson were intended to address. Councillor Finzel: So then I'm just clarifying. We'll deal with this. And I can raise an amendment then. Kin Citizen signs around the settlement. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Speaker 7: So would you like to speak to the amendment?
00:38:00 Through you, Chair. Point of clarification for Councillor. This work has already been undertaken. So the Acting Environment Manager is just advising at the table. But this work has already been undertaken. Without entering the debate, if the Council could provide clarification. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Speaker 2: Thank you, Chair. Speaker 9: Yeah, so it has already been done in Kin Kin at this stage, but only ten at the moment. Councillor Wilkie: So, we've got an amendment before us. Joe and Mary have spoken to the amendment. Anybody else want to speak to the amendment, Tom? Councillor Wegener: When I hear some of you going into depth here on this amendment, I just suggest, councillors, we're all pretty much interested in this. Let's put on our gumboots, get down there, and support them. It always irks me a bit when we say, oh, let's force, you know, let's get a community group involved.
00:39:00 I think I would like to see us councillors taking more of a leadership approach and putting on the gumboots, getting down there. If this is important to us, well, let's get down there, lead the way. It's their charge for the community group. Thank you, Tom. Councillor Wilkie: Anyone else wish to speak to the amendment? Jody, we're just closed. Councillor Jurisevic: Councillor Wegener, I'd love to tell you that this councillor has put on the work boots and done water monitoring in the past. Is that right? Out of sight? Yes. And to address the point that Councillor Lorentson raised, I wasn't suggesting that the beaches were getting all the focus. I was suggesting that in the element of what was being addressed here, it was only focused on what was the discharge that was going towards the beach. And not focused on the discharge going in towards another creek. Not specifically that the beaches get the only focus. It's that there was no focus here on the other discharges that go into other creek areas that weren't on the beach. That was... Councillor Wilkie: Put the motion, those in favour? The amendment, those in favour? That's unanimous. The motion becomes part of the original motion for which Amelia and Brian are the only two speakers.
00:40:00 Anyone else wish to speak? I just have a question. Councillor Finzel: Given that we want to look at a budget for implementing things, I'm just interested in is there enough staffing, I guess, or do we need funding available? And how long will it take to put the historical data into the system? From my understanding from the workshop, we've got a lot of data that needs to be input. Have we got the resources available to do that? Speaker 9: I actually don't think it will take that long to collate all the data. We are using a database called Swim Local, which is through the Queensland Water Directorate. And we've actually already had a workshop with the manager of Swim Local and invited some of the NRM groups along to show them how to use the database so that they can also enter their data straight in rather than going through me.
00:41:00 And it should be as simple as each group sending through to Swim Local their Excel spreadsheets and then Swim will upload the data into the site. The only thing that might be a bit difficult is locating some of the historical data which may have been lost. There's been a changeover of systems that have been used for entering data. So hopefully, I really don't think it will take that long. We've already got some of it in there and yeah, definitely working on it. As far as the budget goes, we will need funding. Given that we have a budget for the integrated water quality monitoring program, but we'll be using a lot of that to purchase the telemetry water logging stations, which are fairly expensive. So if we're going to use those and possibly purchase more in the future if the trial deployment is successful, and also expand our monitoring sites and parameters,
00:42:00 it will definitely need more funding given that more lab analysis will be involved and also the time involved as well. Councillor Lorentson: Sophie, is that something that can be captured under our environmental levy rather than rate payer generated funds? I might ask Rebecca about that one. Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd have to look at the specific wording of the environment levy policy. We already have budget for our water quality monitoring program. We've brought on staff specifically to do the work we're doing that's funded under general rates. I think what Sophie's talking about is to make sure that those resources continue into the future so we can do that work. If we need any further budget, we'll bring that to the budget process. But how it's funded, we'd need to explore that. Councillor Wilkie: Just to clarify, the environment levy is rate payer funded too, isn't it? Yeah. Absolutely.
00:43:00 Sorry, can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Look, I'm going to support the motion, the amended motion as it stands. The more information we can get about the quality of water flowing into these catchments, the better. The better the comparative data, the more involvement we have with our community groups, the more empowered they feel, and the better understanding we collectively have on the issues we are collectively facing. Perhaps the greater the likelihood that there will be improvements in the appropriate areas. So I'm all for it, and I support the motion as it stands. Tom? Councillor Wegener: I'll speak to it. This is terrific. Absolutely. I love that we're looking at citizen science, and I think that we should always increase grant funding for this, for our community groups, because they have volunteers. And volunteers are the real engine room of our council, of our Shire Council.
00:44:00 And if we can, whatever we can do to support the volunteers, they bring enormous value. Another point that's come out, you know, we're looking at the various other creeks, of course. Enid Creek is also a subject that we could bring out, you know, a motion or an amendment to say, well, can you look at Enid Creek as well? Because that's probably our most polluted little creek here. And it goes to the Lake Weyba. But I will leave it to the staff to march through that as a part of our overall catchment. Also, I'd like to point out that the dashboard is super important, and it's linked in with the Digital Hub and the Loran. Is that the right? Loran? And that's all something that has come through the Digital Hub, is giving us information. And my gosh, what an ultimate opportunity to help our community groups, help citizen science, but also bring up new, young scientists, people in this field, environment field, looking at all this new technology, new ways of monitoring and making, because the water,
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00:45:00 testing of water is really a blood test for the new Shire. We need, that's how we know if we're healthy or not. And we've got to be. So, you know, we're all, we're all a bit worried about, oh, wait a minute. Was that? Yeah. Yeah. So that, that's really, that's important that we support this. We take our blood test. We monitor it. We support it. And we're very lucky that the spin-off from the Digital Hub and the dashboard is a part of this entire program. Councillor Wilkie: Just a clarifying question. Could it be considered that the water monitoring done by groups like NYCA, Missouri Integrated Water Caching Association, the Mary Lou Caching Group, and Landcare, throughout, it extends the Shire throughout, sites throughout the Shire. Could that be considered citizen science? Councillor Finzel: Oh, absolutely. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. There's a lot of citizen science already going on. Exactly. Councillor Jurisevic: I think I'll sit there. Councillor Wilkie: Joe? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I'll speak to it. And I think the first three paragraphs say it all. Over the past 20 years, water quality monitoring in the Noosa and Mary Lou Caching Group has
00:46:00 been undertaken through water watch programs managed by various organisations, such as Nurse Logistic Landcare, NYCA, and the Mary Lou Caching Coordinating Committee. A significant body of monitoring data has been collected through these programs provided to Council. However, that data has not previously been collated into a single database or used in a clearly defined way to inform management actions. It's well overdue that we have an integrated water quality monitoring program so that it does exactly what it says in the next two paragraphs. The purpose of the water quality monitoring program is to develop a framework for Council, NRM groups, and other agencies to better coordinate and manage water quality data. And if that data then provides the opportunity through ongoing collection, management, use of water quality data to determine priority actions for the integrated water quality monitoring program to support the environment strategy's target of achieving an A rating and all the rest of it. How in the heck can we collect data and not actually know what it is or know that we need
00:47:00 to use it and where to use it and where to apply it? It's well overdue. As someone that did water quality monitoring, Tom, I was bitterly disappointed and disheartened to find out that that data didn't go into something like this and didn't facilitate anything. It was collected for the sake of collection and didn't actually then lead to good outcomes. This will facilitate that. 20 years, well overdue. My congratulations on the staff for finally bringing this to Council and initiating and bringing it forward. And let's fund it and let's do it because this is how we improve the quality and health of our waterways, not by just collecting data and not doing anything with it. Councillor Wilkie: All right. Anyone else wish to speak to the motion before the meeting closes? I'll speak. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Look, I'm fully supportive. I think citizen science, we have so much knowledge, knowledgeable and expertise, so much knowledge and expertise in our Shire and with our residents and our ratepayers and our community.
00:48:00 So I think this is really good. The water quality in our community is of our highest importance when we value, when we look at the value of what we put on things, protection of natural assets. This information will also feed into the next item on our agenda, which is the Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan. So not only Burgess Creek, but I think that's a really powerful resource. It's a really good place to start, but as Joe said, Cooroy and Six Mile Creek catchment is important as well. So very happy to support this. This is something that's tangible and we can achieve really solid outcomes in the best interest of our community. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Minister. Okay. Anyone else wish to speak before the meeting closes? Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. I've got some notes here. We can't manage what we can't measure. It's that simple. To achieve maximum environmental and public health benefits, we need data and real life
00:49:00 data. And it's our residents. They're the first ones to pick up the phone and tell us when things aren't right. So I'm encouraged and happy that everyone's supportive of my amendment and I think it's a really good point. I think it's a really good first step in addressing, you know, in addressing what we pride ourselves in, our environment. We need to be making a song and dance about this. We can't put a financial value to our natural assets, but we can put a social and cultural value to our assets. It's... I think it's a really good point. It's our children's playground. It's our church.
00:50:00 It's what makes us different by nature. So, again, thank you for supporting the amendment and I look forward to allowing our residents, who love our environment as much as we do, to be involved in the management of our creeks and beaches. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: A motion over favour? That's unanimous. Motion agreed to. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: You've just got Melissa up to the table. Councillor Wilkie: All right.
00:51:00 Hello. Hello. Also, draft Eastern Beaches Forest Corp Management Plan for public consultation. Melissa, could you give us a bit of an overview for this? Excuse me. Councillor Finzel: We've got conflicts. Councillor Wilkie: Oh, conflicts of interest. Councillor Finzel: Right. Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Finzel. Councillor Finzel: Yes. I will just change the wording of this a little bit due to information I've just received. So, I, Councillor Finzel, inform the meeting that I have a declarable conflict of interest in this matter, as on 5th of March, 2020, in the sense that this is a public consultation. Mr Peter Bach, who is an executive member of the Eastern Beaches Protection Association, donated $1666.66 to my 2020 election campaign, where I was one of three candidates that ran as a group known as Future Noosa, which is no longer an entity. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room, while the matter is considered and voted on. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. And? Councillor Larisyn. I, I've just got to be honest. Councillor Lorentson informed the meeting that I have a prescribed conflict of interest in this matter as my brother Gabriel Cherizani owns a property at Beaches Estates, Sunrise Beach, and is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Eastern Beaches Protection Association.
00:52:00 During my election campaign, my brother helped me with my campaign, handed out voting cards, and two of my election signs were outside his property on David Lowe Way. As a result of my conflict of interest, I will now leave the meeting room while the matter is considered and voted upon. Thank you. Speaker 6: Noosa. Speaker 3: Hi. We're here today to talk about our Eastern Beaches foreshore management plan, and basically this is implementing a significant component of the CHAP, which is managing our foreshores as natural systems. To help manage our climate change risk. So the Eastern Beaches, it's risen out of community concern, but also there's lots of drivers.
00:53:00 We've got so many drivers for this one, it's amazing. But some of the areas we're addressing is climate change and coastal hazards risk, ecological values and threats, social, cultural, and scenic amenity, community partnerships with bush care, total care, and researchers, community education, foreshore reserve encroachments, bushfire risk and arson. And other emergency risks, and beach access, maintaining that community access through the foreshore reserve, and to our beautiful beaches and waterways. So this is basically, it's a very practical document. It's meant to inform implementation. So all of our stakeholders who are working in and near these foreshore reserves, this is the document for them. So it should be informing our bush care volunteers, our community, our contractors, and our on-ground natural areas teams. So it's very step-wise, it takes us through those processes, and gives us those firm implementation actions.
00:54:00 And the other thing that I've also looked at is, we've been looking at the costing side of things as well. So we can get a really good idea of the financial implications of approving this foreshore management plan. So we've done a lot of consultation with the development of it. We've spoken to a lot of our community members in very informal, chatty processes, that basically just got a really broad idea of some of the issues that they're interested in and involved in. Then I've gone away and I've spoken to a lot of internal officers and people from everywhere. I've spoken to so many people to get an idea of the information that we had, all of the activities that we're doing in and near our foreshore reserves, and then I've gone and written this document, and then I've put it out to internal consultation again, with a lot of our community, with a lot of our council officers.
00:55:00 Now we're at the point now where we've got a nice big document to take to our community. So our active bush care volunteers, our active community, you know, there's so much community activity going on in and near these foreshores, and we're really expecting a lot of input, and getting their input. So, as I said, we're expecting a lot of input from different community groups. We've got 11 bush care groups, we've got several community clean-up groups, we've got two life-saving organisations, you know, there's so much going on. That, yeah, that's where we are at the moment. We've got this document, we would need to put it out to get that community input into the management plan. Councillor Wilkie: Could you talk about the timing of the consultation and also the budget? Speaker 3: Yes, so the timing of the consultation, we're looking at running in February, because we're coming up against the back of the end of the year, and everybody's so busy over this time, and we don't want,
00:56:00 we want people to have the ability to really put what they want to into this process. So we're looking at running it for four weeks during February. Councillor Wilkie: And you've asked for additional staff members to help implement the plan? Speaker 3: Yes. So our natural areas team, they don't have capacity to manage extra contracts, and we're wanting to really do this well. So we've asked for a half equivalent sort of technical officer to actually develop and manage those contracts. And the other half of that person would be actually informing any encroachment recovery processes that we're looking at. So they would have a full-time job, half of it would be doing contracts across the whole of the area. The other one would be helping us manage those encroachment recovery actions. Mayor Stewart: Questions? Yes, I have a question. Yeah, obviously we had the deputation from the PDCA the other week
00:57:00 and the bushland care groups, and we really appreciate, you know, coming along and really bringing it to our attention. And obviously there's been a lot in the media about it. Just in regard to those encroachments, I've just got a couple of questions, because they are of a concern to all of us. Yes. The $415,000 that has been put aside on page 28, and you talked about having a staff member manage those encroachments. I'm just wondering what data have we got in how many properties are affected, how long will it take? Yeah. And the legal implications around that, and cleaning up that, and how long, you know, how many properties are we looking at? Do you have any idea? Speaker 3: Well, the mapping that I've done to date along the foreshore reserve is that about 90% of direct neighbours have a level of yard extension into the reserve. Some of those are quite small. Others extend, you know, 40 or 50 metres into the foreshore.
00:58:00 Now, any encroachment policy that we're doing wouldn't just be rolled out in the foreshore reserve area. We'd also be rolling it out in our tiers. It goes across the Shire. And I've done quite a bit of condition mapping in those in a previous consultancy role, and I found that it's probably well over 60% with some of those. And again, it goes from everything from having a few plants out the back to extending their horse pay quite significantly. So what we've done is we've developed an annual ongoing encroachment remediation budget based on labour days. And that's basically just looking at what we think we have the capacity to manage. Mayor Stewart: And that comes up to $415,000? Yes. Okay. And just on that, when I look to – you know, we've just talked about working with Unity Water and we've just talked about stormwater and improving water quality at Burgess Creek.
00:59:00 $25,000 per annum has been allocated for that on per page 41. Speaker 3: That's really more in response to providing our bush care groups and our contractors and things like that. We had that fire at Peregian Springs – at Peregian Beach recently. And we actually had quite significant sort of canopy damage and things like that. And a community group was wanting $10,000 to go in and quickly address the grass weeds before they got back away. So what we're looking at is actually having that fund that is rapidly – can be rapidly rolled out to take advantage of things like that. So it's not – we're not actually really addressing stormwater issues in that budget. It would be part of the whole implementation budget but it would also be tying in with other projects
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01:00:00 like the Burgess Creek catchment project and other water quality projects. Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry, Min, what page were you referring to there? 41. 41. Councillor Wilkie: The catchment plan itself. Mayor Stewart: I guess my point is the stormwater as we've just been speaking about is a huge cause of the potential erosion – of the erosion and the problems that are going on at Aston Beaches and that's such an important piece of work to focus on. It might be a lot more than the $25,000 per annum. Yeah. And so I'm just wondering that because this is going out and coming up with the $415,000, if we don't have the specifics on exactly, you know, what we're dealing with, how many, I'm just wondering about the justification for such a discrepancy in funds. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, so we already have those allocations for different aspects of the foreshore management –
01:01:00 of reserve management. And the weather and emergency events, that wouldn't – that $25,000 isn't meant to deal with the stormwater issue. The stormwater issue probably sits largely outside the scope of this plan. While we receive the stormwater, the issues are upstream. Yeah. I've got a question that will follow on in a little bit. Yeah, so it's something that we're a stakeholder in improving that stormwater, but it's not something that we can actually functionally do. Where there is end-point treatments and things like that, we'd be working with other parts of Council and probably on a project basis or being funded by another project to get those end-of-pipe treatment elements in. Mayor Stewart: Because that is a concern for many residents. Yeah. It's a big part of the erosion, the concerns of the dunes and the erosion. Speaker 2: Council's commenced a project of doing a catchment management plan
01:02:00 for the whole of the Burgess Creek catchment that looks at stormwater flows as well as the influence of the unity water operations. There's a lot more information and modelling that we need to do to be able to understand the impacts of infrastructure and stormwater flows and outflows on the creek itself. So when we can gather that information as part of the catchment management plan, we would bring that information before Council and it would inform deliberations on future budgets. So this is really specific around the Eastern Beaches beachfront reserves rather than coastal creeks itself. We'd like to manage that in a different way, in quite a targeted way. Mayor Stewart: Bec, with Burgess Creek going directly into the Eastern Beaches, wouldn't that be an all-encompassing document and form part of the Eastern Beaches Portial Management Plan? I mean, it's coming directly into the Eastern Beaches. Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess information comes to us at different times.
01:03:00 With the information we have available, we've prepared this document which spreads across all of our reserves and we're looking at what gaps there are in resourcing to be able to manage the areas better. We also need the input of this catchment management plan to inform the specific approaches for Burgess Creek. So definitely identify already a range of management issues that need to be addressed, but we need to delve a little bit deeper. So at the moment, yes, it is all-encompassing, but there's many beach reserves that make up this plan that need to be considered as well. Councillor Jurisevic: So, hence my question. You've partly answered it. What I see missing out of this is that element, is that for Burgess Creek... Which is a question, Joe. The question's coming, Frank. For Burgess Creek, that integrated catchment plan that you mentioned there is a separate body of work.
01:04:00 Is that something that should be mentioned here, that that's an element of the body of work, that that's a component of a body of work that has to come into this? Is the question, Frank. Speaker 3: We do mention it in 14.1, is working with community... with Unity Water Infrastructure Services and community members... Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry, where's 14.1? Page 40. Page? Speaker 3: Of the plan. Of the plan. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I'm looking at the plan. The problem is I haven't got it all annotated in .4. Page... Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry. So it's the first management action... Councillor Jurisevic: Oh, sorry. You've got different page numbers in the plan. I've got it here. It's just that it's annotated differently in the PDF... You don't need to yell, Joe. ...as opposed to the other. Sorry. I'm not hearing aids. Speaker 3: So it's the first management action in the coastal creeks and stormwater section. Work with Unity Water Infrastructure Services and community members to prioritise and develop catchment management plans for coastal creeks. Consider all sources of water and influences on hydrology.
01:05:00 Councillor Jurisevic: So it's mentioned there, but in the actions that come out of that, there isn't... Is there a specific... The specific action is where? Speaker 3: Well, the foreshore management... The scope of the catchment management plan will be a range of land tenures and a range of land managers and things like that. This is specifically dealing with the foreshore reserves, natural... The foreshore reserves that Council manage itself. So while we'd be a stakeholder, a significant stakeholder in that catchment management process for Burgess Creek and other coastal creeks, we wouldn't necessarily be the driver. We'd help implement it and we'd help develop it, but we wouldn't necessarily be the main driver. Councillor Jurisevic: But as an action to come out of this, shouldn't that be an identified action to work with other entities to formulate a catchment management plan? Yeah, it is.
01:06:00 Councillor Wilkie: It's in here. Speaker 3: It says action. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, as a management action. Sorry, I'm still trying to... I must have overlooked it. I still can't find when you're referring to it. It's identified as an action. Which point was it? 14.1? Councillor Wilkie: 14.1. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, sorry. I've got the wrong page. Sorry, that's what I meant. Mayor Stewart: But this is somewhat of a... I mean, it's not going into consultation until February. We've got four months. Somewhat of a moving document. And with information, as you said, is continually coming to light. And this was produced on the information you had at hand at the time. That if you're coming into the next, say, three, four months, there is... You know, this is only a draft that things can be raised and added. Speaker 7: It sounds like a procedural question. I'll hand over to the CEO. Thank you, Chair and Mayor. You're exactly right. It's a draft document for consultation. What's being raised by council is around this particular document. I believe that will be fleshed out during the consultation period when it comes back to the council table for adoption. Council then has the ability to be able to accept or amend or make those changes. So, Mayor, you're exactly right.
01:07:00 A draft document. A document that is dealing with a very broad and complex issue. There is... So, as the team have been saying, there are land tenure issues. There's different government agencies that are involved. There's many community groups involved. And, of course, we can't forget those residents that actually own property in these particular areas. We need to be able to work with all of the groups through the consultation process in February so that, you know, we aren't consulting on a critical issue at a difficult time of year. And we go through the process. And we bring all of these through that process. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Friar? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, I'd like to move the motion, please. Move it. It's the staff recommendation with some minor changes or an additional item. Mayor Stewart: Getting seasick, you guys. Councillor Lorentson: Larry just joined, so I was just adding in. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Okay. So... Yes. So, the... I'll read the whole motion out. That council noted the requirements of the proposal.
01:08:00 This is a report by the Environment Office of Coastal Management to the General Committee meeting dated the 14th of November 2022. And, A, approves the release of the draft Eastern Beaches Corshaw Management Plan, provided at attachment one, for public consultation in February 2023 with the following amendments. One, modify action 11.1 to redevelop and resource an encroachment policy for council-managed natural areas. That includes, first off point, educated compliance as the first measure to address and remove historic accounts. And, second dot point, a zero-tolerance and timely enforcement approach for any new encroachments. Take out the words there now. Very interesting words. See in the parentheses there. Two, add an action 11.2 to read, commence a natural area, foreshore and waterway ranger program with staff that have roles as natural resource managers, education and compliance officers. And, three...
01:09:00 Okay. Two, add an action 11.3 to read, institute a broader awareness campaign to encourage good custodianship of bushland reserves and beaches, including information and signage. And, then, B, that the resourcing of the ranger program be referred to Budget Review 2 for commencement of an additional officer at the earliest possible opportunity. And, C, note the community consultation engagement plan. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm happy to second that. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Seconded by Councillor Jurisevic. I do so. I'm going to start with the big picture first. And then, I'm going to go and answer some of the more contemporary and some of the commentary that we've just heard in the question. So, for me, my kid's grandmother, 92, has a saying, good things come to all who wait. So, it's been an eight-year wait.
01:10:00 In October, it's been an eight-year wait. In October 2014, the final activity I did as the Chair of the Environment Sector Board under the old Noosaville Field Limited was bring together a forum of all the community-based natural resource management groups, all the environment groups, all the community associations related. And, their number one priority when they looked at what they wanted to recommend to Council was dune management along the eastern beaches by, and that was put to Council as their highest priority going forward. That's really important. This has been something that these groups, some of whom were here last month, have been advocating as a high priority long before the concept of doing a CHAT. They knew that climate change was going to highlight this as one of the key plans that we needed to do. So, when I got into Council in October 2016, so only six years ago, one of the first things I did was identify in our policy hierarchy that there was a need for a change in the
01:11:00 coastal management plan. It was a key gap. So, it was six years ago. Then, January 2018 was the first of a series of complaints in regard to non-compliance in the coastal foreshore. It was the first time I sent an email to the CEO saying, I think we need an audit of all infrastructure in coastal and riverside reserves. So, four years ago. So, as a councillor, it was really disappointing to have that deputation of the decision last week. Because they were right. As a councillor, we haven't done enough to address a really significant problem. This plan charts the way forward, but the reason we were waiting to take action is we wanted to do the audit, which we just mentioned. The audit of encroachments is separate to the coastal management plan, hence the reason why I do want to adopt it for consultation today.
01:12:00 So, this is the first time we've done an audit of encroachments. In June 2019, the coastal management plan is identified as non-compliance, a key component of our environmental planning. So, it was in December 2019 that we brought together, after another range of community complaints about an encroachment at a site being built, where a whole lot of things were identified by SCITAR. One of them was they didn't think that there was any clear policy direction. They were a bit worried about whether they had the imprimatur to do that. So, they decided to actually enforce local laws. And councils at that stage got agreement from all staff that any new encroachments from December 2019 would be dealt with as the local law requires them to be. So, we have had an understanding. It was a briefing note. I've still got it. And it identified a range of things. As I said, one of the things was that the staff didn't feel like they had a clear policy direction. And we've identified that in part of this plan there is an encroachment policy being proposed.
01:13:00 And that's something I think we need to work out the urgency of that and whether there's something on Thursday night we need to do to actually to bring that forward. So, in terms of the plan itself, it is a key plan in achieving environmental integrity of our coastline. The major threat that it addresses, and I think it's a very important one, is the coastal erosion caused by cyclonic activity or storm activity. It dwarfs any other potential source of erosion. In fact, the concept that stormwater from Burgess Creek is a major or a huge, as was said, source of erosion, in my experience, would be incredibly unlikely. The amount of additional water that the Surrey treatment plant is not to the extent that
01:14:00 would have any significant geomorphic effect. What might have effect is increased speed of runoff into the creek from all the paved areas in the suburbs. That might make it a bit pickier. Therefore, the power of the stream during the events will be increased because it comes up quicker and goes down quicker to the result of urbanisation. So, they're things that can be addressed. They can be addressed in a catchment management. That is separate to a coastal management issue. Coastal management is what it is about, managing those threats to the coast. And the other big one, obviously, is us, humans. How we use it. How we abuse it. We know from the CHAT process that it is one of the most valuable assets we have. We know that when we look at the cost-benefit analysis, when we account for how many people take value out of it, travelling from all around the region to experience it, that if it was a building, we would be investing millions each year in terms of depreciation.
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01:15:00 So, the small amount of additional resource being proposed in this coastal management plan is probably a significant undervaluation of the asset we're protecting. To go to some of the changes. Firstly, I thought what was in the plan was not as specific as it need to be to give a clear direction of what this council is proposing in regards to enforcement and compliance. So, the first change doesn't say it starts with education, it starts with educator compliance. It's very different. Education just tries to build on education. Educator compliance says, hey, you know, like we know, that your property stands here. Did you realise that it's putting your house at greater risk from erosion, et cetera, et cetera, and you negotiate for the landowner to do the right thing.
01:16:00 If they don't do the right thing, you say, sorry, it's our land. Its purpose is to provide for a beach foreshore. That's what it's going to be. The second bit is to give staff a really clear direction that we do have a zero-zero tolerance for encroachments. So, if any new ones come in, that we take all means necessary to take the appropriate legal action. So, that's the first change. Being more specific about what this council thinks is the priority and putting that through the community to see if it's going to be a good thing. Because, while adjoining landholders are a stakeholder, this is an asset of regional significance. Thousands upon thousands of people are invested in this particular asset, meaning the beaches from Sunshine Beach down through to Preachie. The next one's a slight change in what's proposed in terms of the way we address these issues
01:17:00 in the future. I'm suggesting at the moment as I'm suggesting, we have an environmental technical officer working part-time, and a pilot. I believe these issues are significantly tied together and that a ranger program which straddles not just the Coastal Manager Plan but also the Noosa River Manager Plan and also our bushfire so that we start bringing in physicians that are multi-skilled, that people who can actually, just like the Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger, they can be there, they can be helping clear tracks and rehabilitating one day and the next day they might be going and being in compliance around camping. So having these multi-skilled officers that are very visible to everyone. So if they're there and people understand that's ranger Sue or ranger Sam, they understand that that's a council present there looking after their natural assets, looking after
01:18:00 their coastline, looking after their beach. It's a different thing than just having someone working with bush care groups and then another person coming to be the court policeman. It's about saying this is an asset that we've got. We're managing together and it's a program whereby environmental compliance is built in to our staff's role as environmental managers. Not everyone's going to be suited to that role, hence why it is I think a different program. It can be part of how we promote and educate as well. If you think of the ads that are on TV about the SEQ water ranger program, they have these sort of responsibilities as well. So that's the second change though. I'm suggesting that it's clear this resource is needed, whether we have the, regardless of how the plan is fine tuned, it should go to the budget review too because I think sooner rather than later because obviously we're now aware of the extent of encroachments which is one of the reasons why councils hadn't approved more compliance action years ago
01:19:00 in the previous administration. We now know that 90% of properties are encroaching. So we aren't acting as the trustee of that land as is given to us under the Land Act if we don't take meaningful measures. So I think we need to bring forward the additional staff required to start addressing those encroachment issues. Councillor Stockwell. Mayor Stewart: I've got a question. Yeah I do. Thank you Councillor Stockwell. I have a question for staff. Encroachment policy. Can you talk to me about the legal implications or ramifications? Do we need to put the word in illegal up there? Or is that a question for the CEO? Speaker 3: I don't know. An encroachment is something that is an extension into an unauthorised extension into council managed land. So that's the encroachment that we're specifically talking about here.
01:20:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I need to state that. It's public land. It's public land encroachment perhaps. I wonder if that doesn't need to be formalised. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm happy if the second is happy to include resource a public land encroachment policy up in number one. Yeah right at the top. First line in red. Councillor Jurisevic: Number one point one. Yeah. I'm happy for that to read public land encroachment policy. Yeah I think it's the prudence issue. Speaker 3: Yeah we're not covering the national council. Councillor Jurisevic: No council managed. Lane. Lane.
01:21:00 Councillor Wegener: We've really let you slide. You've got to be cool. Mayor Stewart: Yeah I would keep. Yeah. Speaker 6: We're pretty relaxed. Councillor Wegener: We should be relaxed. Well the ranger, how do you feel about that? Is this consistent with what you're already doing or already planning or does this send you off on a tangent or a different direction? Speaker 3: It's a new idea. It's something, not something that I've considered before but it's something that I've considered before but it's definitely something that we can throw into the mix. It's got its values. I'm not 100% sure how we'd do it. I'd probably speak to our natural areas and other land managers and see what they think. So I'm not 100% sure how we'd go forward but it's definitely something that we can throw into the mix. Speaker 7: Through the chair. Yes. Councillor Wegener. Absolutely. A new idea but not uncommon in either government or local government circles. It really comes down to the terminology. Local laws, offices, ranges but it's a new idea.
01:22:00 It gives a specific role, a specific purpose, title. It gives them a remit and first and foremost as always, building relationships. Manage the encroachments that have been occurring. Educative compliance. I think that's a really important notion to be able to put forward. We do need to educate for compliance and that your parcel of land that you have is your parcel of land and Council is not stepping into that. For where you've stepped out into Council managed areas, we need to work with you to be compliant and we need to educate. Timeframes. We do have funds that have been allotted which is part of the consultation process that we're undertaking. But for those that haven't encroached, we do have funds that have been allotted. I would like to see as part of that policy and for the consideration of the Council,
01:23:00 if we do have a head of power and ability for those that have stepped out to remediate at that cost as opposed to hold a break at that cost. So there's work to be done. But look, I think these are great ideas that we can take away. We can provide further reports to Council, funding but remembering that we are here to be able to put this plan to consultation. Thank you. BR2 will be coming in around about that February period. So we'll be starting that work shortly. We may not be able to meet that particular timeframe with consultation. But we'll do our best. If we can run concurrently with that. But that would be my only concern for us is that February consultation, BR2 consideration. But we can get all the information for the Council. Okay. Councillor Wegener: But to a more pointed question. Is the concept of arranger inconsistent with what's in the plan here?
01:24:00 Speaker 3: At first glance, like as I said, I don't think it's inconsistent but I think it's something that we need to flesh out and develop and see how it works in with everything else. Because any encroachment policy would also be sitting on the top of increased community education. So general community education. About the values of our foreshore reserves and the values of bushland reserves more generally and how they're contributing to our climate change resilience. So it's going to be part of a package deal. And, you know, I have had experience where just communication and education has been enough to change a reserve from over 90% extension of all sorts of things, chook houses, all sorts of things, down to less than 15%. So while I don't want to hold off on our encroachment policy, because I do think that there are some things that we need to look at, education is going to be a massive part of it as well.
01:25:00 Councillor Wegener: Oh yeah. So this is just completely, because restating what's already stated, you feel? Speaker 3: I feel, yeah, but that being said, I feel that we do need to be quite explicit about our encroachment policy and how we're going to, I mean, we know that our community isn't happy with what we've been doing. So I think making it clearer is no bad thing. Councillor Wegener: Then my next question, or my question, goes into February is a long ways away, and the encroachments there now are getting worse. And we already have the state saying it's our duty to enforce compliance, even with our own rules to enforce compliance. And you go down there, and there's clearly paths going to the beach that shouldn't be there. And shouldn't we be doing more before February to act? The petition is to say act. Now we need to act. We have all the tools, our toolbox to act. Councillor Wilkie: Is that right? The question is around what actions may be taken in the short term, perhaps, around
01:26:00 the encroachments that were brought to our attention. Yes. And in response to the petition. Mr? Chair. Speaker 7: Chair, Councillor Wegener. Absolutely. A long standing issue. Extremely complex. Different land tenures, different reasons why there have been encroachments into areas that should be conserved. What we need to do, and the great work that the environment team has undertaken, is look at, on a lot by lot basis, those encroachments that are causing the greatest environmental damage, or the greatest issue for the community. Work with that property owner post-haste to be able to advise them of what's occurred. Work through a plan with them to be able to rectify and remedy what is currently occurring. That will take time and resources. What this amendment does, it gives officers the ability to start to be able to dedicate resources. And we can work through that. I think a reason why this has been a longer standing issue is due to resourcing, as opposed
01:27:00 to officers, you know, not having the power to be able to act on these issues. So this now gives us the ability to really focus and hone in on where there are issues, to be able to look at from the satellite work that's been done. Overlay the boundary. If it's outside, there's a discussion to be had. But we need to understand the reasons why some of these have occurred over time. Some are purely for individual amenity. Others can be put forward to fire safety risk. But we have to work through what is a fair and reasonable way of managing fire resistance. But look, if it's there for an individual's amenity that's gone on to council managed or public land, we need to have a discussion with them and they need to fall back within that property boundary line. It's only fair not just for the council, the entire community and even that property owner. Yeah. There's more work to be done would be the very short answer to the question, but
01:28:00 we are working on that. And the recent advice coming from our community, the council, and the business community, we've had discussions happening with councillors around this. There is action that's occurring. But even the first piece of work that we've undertaken, we see that it's a complex issue and there are some legalities that sit around that. So we're working through that process as well. Councillor Wilkie: You're referring to the market speech issue? Speaker 7: I am. I wouldn't have referred to an individual lot as such. I'd prefer to keep that individual's privacy at the highest level. But yes, there are some issues and we're working through a number of avenues. Sorry, I can't be more clear. Councillor Wilkie: Explore what the council witness is saying a bit further. It appears to be on the new encroachments next week. Does council have the power and the will of the local board to take action? Or would we need all this work done before we could take action? Speaker 7: We have head of power, absolutely. But we do need to understand what's exactly at stake. So there will be an investigation, correct? We will investigate.
01:29:00 Yes, that's right. We actually have a complaint. We received that complaint. We need to be able to work through the process. Allocation of resources has been an issue over a long period of time. However, this has become a major community issue of which we'll allocate appropriate resources to deal with as quickly as we can. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Any more questions? I'll just... Councillor Wilkie: No more questions. Councillor Wegener: Joe? Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, I've got a few. I apologize. I did miss something in 14.1 before. No, you're all right. So when I went through it... And I apologize if I appeared to raise my voice. I haven't got my hearing aids today. That's all right. So my regulation's a bit out. No, I understand. A bit out today. So sorry. Page 38. With regard to the flooded pontoons and the mention there, we talked about the polystyrene round table that we had. Was there any discussion about advocacy for different construction standards that did not include polystyrene that could break up, that came out of that and put forward?
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01:30:00 Because that was certainly something we talked to the Major General about when he saw that and we saw that as an opportunity. Did that come out of...? Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a strong recommendation. That was a strong point in the discussion points that came out of the polystyrene round table. Councillor Jurisevic: So that's an advocacy position the Council could strongly advocate for? Speaker 3: Yeah. And there is already some processes going on that's not so much our processes, but with Marine Safety Queensland, they're looking at pontoon standards and that's definitely something that we... Councillor Jurisevic: So it does seem that they've made of a material that can... Speaker 3: Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Break up, so really. Mm-hmm. You mentioned in the report, Tameka mentioned here, 90%, I'm trying to find the references, I'll highlight them, I'm struggling to find them again, the 90% encroachments. Mm-hmm. I found the number staggering and quite high. Does the level of encroachment there include the fact that neighbours may be mowing a bit
01:31:00 of a fire break behind their property or have specifically a gate that accesses, or what's the level of encroachment there? What sort of encroachment are we talking about to have as high a level as 90%? Speaker 3: If somebody's just got a narrow buffer at the back of their place, I wouldn't map it as bad. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. Speaker 3: And when I say a narrow buffer, I'm meaning a couple of metres. Once it starts getting beyond there, then I start mapping it as part of our bushland condition mapping. So that's where I'm getting that figure from. Right. Okay. And it's astonishingly rare that it's only just a narrow little strip out the back of their place. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm trying to find my next question. Councillor Wilkie: Can you just make it clear about what amount of leverage is allowed in terms of property for our fire access? Speaker 3: Yeah. And part of any recovery process is working with our reserve fire strategy and our fire
01:32:00 management officers to make sure that the fire recovery process is in place. So we're not looking at going right up to the back of people's properties. We will actually maintain that fire access as appropriate under the fire strategy. Mayor Stewart: So under the fire strategy, will that be taken in consultation with QFES about that fire strategy and fire management? Because that seems to be incredibly important that they have one of their hands on this. Speaker 3: Thank you. So the fire strategy, our reserve fire strategy was developed in consultation with a range of people including QFES and against all of the relevant standards, both national and planning policy standards. And that's what we'd be implementing under our fire, under our any recovery processes.
01:33:00 The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. The QFES has been identified as a consultation invitee. So we'll be looking at, we'll be speaking to the office at Caloundra and perhaps the Dunham brigade as well because they're the ones that cover our Eastern Beaches. To, to see if they have any input. I do also have a strong background in natural area management. I feel that we've had a lot of consideration about fire risk in in this area. That being said, we are in a place where our fire risk is increasing. If you had said that we would have a fire like we had in Peregian Beach a few years ago, I would have been very surprised. But yeah, that's where we are at the moment. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I have the same question. Essentially, as I said, I noticed that we talk about the QPIS as being a stakeholder and in this consultation. And I thank you for your response with regard to Calandra, QPIS and the Doona Brigade.
01:34:00 But I don't see anyone in your report that specifically mentioned that this Eastern Beaches Management Plan has been specifically engaging them in a consultation period. So that will happen? Speaker 3: Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we've got a really nice... Councillor Jurisevic: I know we've had a lot of discussion since the bushfires and all the rest of it. Yeah. But this specific plan... Yep. ...going forward, that's... Yeah. ...thank you. That was the... And the other question I had was in relation to something that's come up over time with regard to sand... What is it when it all goes away? Erosion. Okay, sand erosion. And the sands aren't available, but also when the sands aren't available to rebuild the beaches and the opportunities for... ...positive or proactive sand accretion on the beaches. I noticed that the Sunshine Coast Council have been looking at something along those lines.
01:35:00 Is there anything within our plan here that enables investigation or looking at the opportunity for sand replenishment of the beaches as a measure to make the beaches more resilient? Actually making the beaches bigger, longer, stronger? Speaker 2: The foreshore management plan refers to the coastal hazards adaptation process and the recommendations that are included in that. And it seeks to complete a feasibility study around sand nourishment. There's two programs that are being run at the moment. One is a partnership with Sunshine Coast Council to develop a sand transport model. That will help us to understand how sand moves along the beaches and how it deposits on the beach. The second one is a LGAQ funded project that will develop up a feasibility investigation and look at options for sand nourishment.
01:36:00 So be looking at potential sand supply sources and whether it's feasible to deposit sand on beaches into the future. As the erosion risks increase. So two important projects coming out of the CHAT that will give us that information. Councillor Jurisevic: Alright, so they're not specifically in the, are they specifically mentioned in the foreshore management draft plan? Speaker 3: No, they're not. They really do fit more under the CHAT and implementation plan. It's something that we can talk to you about. Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the two documents are intended to talk to each other. Councillor Jurisevic: I see the two as synergy. One would think that if one mentions it as an element of it, the other should at least put it forward as within its plan that this is something that is a possible solution that's being investigated.
01:37:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. Yeah. We also have a broader coastal monitoring program as well that's referred to within the document about us building knowledge around sort of the topography and changing nature of our dune system and also the environmental impact. So there's sort of lots of connecting projects that relate back to this and we can set those out more clearly within the document to complete this. Councillor Jurisevic: I guess that's along the lines of what Brian mentioned earlier that again some of the specifics may not be there and these are the sort of specifics that I would have thought may be mentioned within the document. Is that a missed opportunity or is it, you don't feel that the, at this point in time it's not necessary to go into that level of detail? Speaker 2: I think as part of the consultation process it would be important for us to direct people to Council's website that has all the information around the coastal hazards adaptation program
01:38:00 and there is detail on there at the moment around the work that's happening in that coastal monitoring space. So we'll continue to update that. So rather than piling further detail into this report, I would prefer to direct people to where they can find more information. So that they can find that information as part of the other program. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: Alright. Speaker 2: And that's a moving, that's a moving process. So it allows us to keep people updated more readily with the website. Councillor Jurisevic: I just thought it was a, if it was something that specifically is applied as a management plan in dealing with erosion or a proactive means, that it could be an action mentioned specifically in the foreshore management plan because it's a management action. Okay. Speaker 2: Yeah. And we'd prefer not to double up on actions across our strategic documents. Fair enough. But they, they do talk to each other and there is reference to the monitoring program in the document as well. Councillor Jurisevic: If you think that's clear enough then I'm happy with that. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Just to clarify, this document talks about the design of better reach accesses and perhaps
01:39:00 viewing platforms to offer people viewing opportunities so they're not using the dune, they're not trying to use the dune. Is that correct? Speaker 2: Yeah. That's right. We have a second funding project, a grant project with LGAQ that looks at our beach accesses and we're looking to develop up some standard drawings for our different types of beach accesses to, to make sure we've got some clear criteria that our designers can use for future upgrades. And so ongoing public access is key but also amenity aspects are key as well. It's making sure we're managing foot traffic and controlling that. Looking at different materials and fencing. It's a range of criteria that will feed into future design processes. Councillor Wilkie: And so the, the roll out of those improved accesses, viewing platforms and fencing, will that be coming under operational budgets?
01:40:00 Speaker 3: I believe so. Councillor Wilkie: In terms of making some existing assets? Speaker 3: Yeah. That's, that's the kind of thing that we're looking at is that we could be incorporating into existing projects and, and budgets and things like that. Speaker 2: So we've done some initial audits of what beach accesses need to be improved and coming up with recommendations for future upgrades. But as we continue to roll out that program and have a clear idea of actions, we'll be presenting those to the infrastructure team for their future budgets and, and our asset management programs. Councillor Wilkie: Is it likely some of those will come before the count of this budget? The, the 2020, 2020 budget? Speaker 3: Potentially. I'm not sure at this stage. The, the design standards process is actually well advanced. It's something that might, could very well be included in infrastructure budget bids for the next year.
01:41:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry. Two more questions if I might. As far as stormwater flowing into, over the beaches, do all of our stormwater outlets flow into creeks before they reach the beach? Or do we have direct stormwater outlets going into, onto the beaches? Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, not so much onto the beaches, but into the foreshore reserves. We do have one, probably the, the big one at Sunshine Beach, discharged straight onto the back of the beach. And basically the whole creek net, network there has been stormwater drained, basically. So we do have a few that discharge straight onto the back of the beach. We do also have overland flow and stormwater drain. Discharging into the back of the foreshore reserves as well. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. So as far as coastal creeks and or discharge points, do we know how many, have we identified how many specifically there are? Speaker 3: Coastal creeks? We have nine coastal creeks that flow through. And that's the ones that are mapped at level one or level two by the state government,
01:42:00 that flow through the foreshore reserve. Councillor Jurisevic: Versus stormwater? Speaker 3: We are. Apparently infrastructure services, and this is something that I've been involved as a stakeholder in, but not driving. They are actually improving their asset information about their stormwater, including condition, which has been a massive gap. Councillor Jurisevic: All right. So by doing that, we'll more clearly identify the stormwater facilitation and then identify better ways of managing it going forward. Speaker 3: Yeah. And there's also been quite a bit of work around auditing our end of pipe treatment areas, like bio basins and gross pollutant traps. So we're getting more information around that as well. Again, that's something that sort of sits to the side of the Sporeshore Management Plan, but definitely has interaction. Councillor Jurisevic: GPT is the one I flagged a lot of that we haven't done a lot of management of. Councillor Wilkie: All right. Anyone else wish to speak to the motion before Brian will close it to Tom? Councillor Wegener: I'd like to thank you very much for this plan. When it comes to being able to check the surf, as I get older, I do that more and more,
01:43:00 actually surf less and less. So I'm very happy to the fact that it's going to the community to talk about that. And the plan is to help us enjoy the foreshore. We spent a lot of time talking about compliance issues with private people moving into the foreshore. And I encourage to, that we, that's the council resources, compliance officers, to think about that. Because we've been in this space quite a long time with the whole climate change response plan, and see how the use of the foreshore by private people can influence our ability to adapt to climate change problems coming up. So I encourage us to look at those today and throw resources at that. But also, I'd like to thank the Bush Care Group. And on page 22, the list is, is extensive, and it shows how we're up-to-date with climate change, and how important this is to us, and the amount of volunteers and people.
01:44:00 We have the Burgess Creek Bushland Care, Castaway Beach Bushland Care, Marcus Creek Bushland Care, Noosa Bush Beach and Creek Care, South Parisian Beach Bushland Care, North Parisian Bushland Care, and Sunrise Beach Bushland Care. So that's just an example. And then there's a signpost saying how many volunteers, how many people really take the beaches very seriously and are involved in actively, the volunteers actually, again, putting their boots on, getting out there, digging up weeds and so forth, and looking up weeds and so forth. Like all of us, thanks for the hard work all the time, bringing this to our attention. Thank you, Tom. Councillor Lorentson: Speak to it. Go ahead. Mayor Stewart: Yeah, I too want to reiterate all the hard work that all our bushland care groups have done. Tom, you talked about putting on the boots in the previous one, but these people do,
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01:45:00 and they do a lot for our community. So I want to acknowledge all the work they do in protecting our very important general environment and our coastal foreshore. Protection management and restoration, we all want it. I'm looking forward to this plan that will give us the data and the information, and be data-driven, and that's what we can make real, tangible outcomes for the betterment of our community on. There are a number of things that it will look at, climate change, coastal hazards, ecological values and threats, social, cultural and scenic amenity, community partnerships with bush care, community education, foreshore reserve encroachments, bushfire risk, which I think is a really big one. It's an important one. We've heard it a lot during the fires, and we've done so much in the space of fire management since that time. So we're really looking forward to that being a big focus of this. Marine incidences, coastal creeks and stormwater management, and I think bringing that, when we talk about the stormwater or Burgess Creek, I do think it all forms part very much of
01:46:00 our eastern beaches, foreshore management. We all want the protection. We want the restoration. We want the best. So I think we need to look at all aspects and cover all aspects. And the beach access needs, as you've alluded to in this. So again, thank you. I think the community has been waiting for this for many, many years, and it's a good step forward. Thanks. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I agree. Long overdue. Long overdue. And thank you for the enormous body of work that it is to bring it forward and to identify the issues and the elements that need to be addressed within. Well, again, the Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan that facilitates this and the challenges going forward with the concerns of the future that are being brought to our attention and the needs to try and address those. And be proactive and be on the front foot and manage these. So the elements of what we've got here in managing the foreshore is to ensure that the foreshore is there for the protection, for not only the beauty and the environment, but for the
01:47:00 protection of what sits behind it, and to ensure that it stays there and facilitates not only a barrier, but a natural area for flora and fauna to enjoy, but also for humans to enjoy all the elements of. And this is finding a better way of managing that, ensuring that there are viewing platforms so that people don't just trample the dunes, understanding the value and the worth of the dunes. And that's a resource for so many different reasons. The concept of a ranger program, a local laws officer by any other name, I think is good. Giving it the title of a ranger, I think, has merit. I think it's respected in a different way when it comes to natural areas, particularly with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service having a similar name for their staff. So I think that's got merit. From here on in, we've got quite a lengthy period between here and when the public consultation actually occurs. So the community groups that have got concerns, or have raised any elements, or are aware
01:48:00 and are part of the elements that go on here, have got a lot of time to review what's going forward before that public consultation period, and a great opportunity to absorb all the elements that are presented to us today. Again, I commend the staff on the work here, and I look forward to the public consultation period, and the feedback from the public on this going forward, so that we can continue to implement the plan. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, staff. It's an enormous body of work. It's a great starting point for a conversation with the community that will take place in February. It's a good opportunity to address a whole range of issues concerning the eastern beaches, land tenure. I understand there's a variety of land tenures there between recreational reserves and environmental reserves, and we need to sort that out. In terms of coastal creeks, there's a variety of land tenures there. In terms of stormwater, disaster response.
01:49:00 How do we put into practice what we learned from the public styrofoam that was washing up on our beaches last year? Public access. Anyone who's been using the eastern beaches since COVID will notice the huge amount of visitation to our beaches, and the locals just see the amount of, huge amount of erosion occurring on our dunes. It's because people love our beaches. They're going to love our beaches. They're coming from across the region to enjoy it as they can, and as they should. So I'm particularly interested in seeing the works to improve the public access and the viewing platforms and the fence and all of this. I think that would be, if we can bring that work forward, that would be a very visible and tangible sign that we are very invested in protecting our beaches. It's a very tangible sign that we value them highly. As everyone else believes, it is perhaps one of the most important things that we need to do, and it's one of our greatest assets.
01:50:00 And also, as I mentioned, looking out for the flora and fauna, the flora and fauna reserves, also making it more resilient by the time it comes. A huge body of work. It's a great starting point. And I thank you for the work. And also, I'm also encouraged to say we do have measures under our current suite of local rules to take action on new encroachments should they occur. And I do fully support an educated and kind approach where we talk with the landowners who may be new to the area and may want to do the right thing. I think they are, but not. We can help them ensure they have a proper fire break, a fire access trail at the back, and perhaps help them improve the resilience of the dunes that protect their property from the ocean by claiming more appropriate speeds to drive them into the waters, for example. So I think a lot of people do want to do the right thing, and I think an educated, compliant approach is the right way to go. Brian, would you like to say something? Yeah, I will.
01:51:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'll start with the ranger one, which is cancelling that pertinent question. If we look in the report under shorewater encroachment, it split the role between an environment ticket officer and a local water officer. And I thought it was a little bit of a suboptimal approach. I thought a ranger that had both the knowledge and the compliance accountability is a good one. But also, my mind went to the first recommendation out of the Noosa River Advisory Group, which is that a whole lot of encroachments are prior to that. And where a lot of the encroachments occur are all adjacent to natural areas. And so that concept of a ranger, to me, has greater power going forward. It tells the community, you know, we're here to help you. We want to manage it. Our job is to achieve the values out of this natural area that you really enjoy. And that's where I want to finish is, we've talked a lot about the drivers, the pressures, the state, and the impacts. And we've talked about what we're going to do to it in response. But what's most important is, the eastern beaches are a source of joy and wonderment
01:52:00 for hundreds of thousands of people each year. Whether they're the old surfers who want to look at the waves rather than ride in these waves. No. Whether it's the expert fisherman wanting to catch his family at sea. Whether it's the family going down to just play in the surf. Or bike riders who want to ride through the coast of the foreshore and listen to all the different birds. It is an amazingly diverse area. And it's one that I suppose the area, if we were looking at the overall area, it's going to have a direct link to a Kabi Kabi land and sea ranger program. It may be that we mesh those two concepts so that we have our staff and the Kabi Kabi rangers working side by side in their natural areas and border areas.
01:53:00 And it is that custodianship that we need to focus on. Because we're only here for a short time. But the need for that buffer towards the seas is going to be there forever. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Brian. We're going to call on Bailiff. If that's unanimous. Ms Carragh, thank you. Melissa. Thank you ladies. Mayor Stewart: Could we take a break? Certainly, ma'am. Councillor Wilkie: Take another break. Thank you.
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02:08:00 Speaker 4: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I own a property at 2-17 Noosa Head since November 2020. This property has been used for short-term accommodation rental as a result of my conflict with a leave in the in-rent while the matter is considered and voted upon.
02:09:00 Speaker 5: The purpose of this report is to submit for endorsement the short-term accommodation monitoring report, which is attachment 1 to the report, as required by the Minister's conditions of approval of Noosa Plan 2020. It also makes recommendations as part of the findings of that report to Noosa Plan 2020. Because the report is so big, I'll just touch on some of the key elements. During the background of the report, I'll just say a few things. During the preparation of Noosa Plan 2020, the biggest issue for consideration was the increased use of dwellings, particularly dwelling houses for short-term accommodation in residential zones,
02:10:00 and also the introduction of the new tourist accommodation zone and its spatial allocation and its relationship to the medium and high density zones. Following two draft versions of the Noosa Plan, Council landed on an approach to dealing with short-term accommodation. Short-term accommodation of an entire dwelling was identified and deemed to be an inconsistent use in the low density residential zone, and short-term accommodation of an entire dwelling in the medium and high density zones was and is a consistent use in that zone, as well as the rural and rural residential zones. Short-term accommodation is also a consistent use. There's an allowance for short-term accommodation in these zones for the permanent resident, where it's their principal place of residence,
02:11:00 to short-term let that dwelling for no more than four times and a maximum of 60 days per year, provided it is their principal place of residence and they are the resident. Noosa Plan also introduced the tourist accommodation zone, allowing for short-term accommodation in that zone, in fact that was the specific purpose of the zone, but it also allows for multiple dwellings in that zone, which is for permanent residents. So in taking that approach, the Minister approved Noosa Plan 2020, but there was a condition on the approval that we monitor these provisions, specifically the provisions relating to short-term accommodation, tourism and housing supply for a two-year period following its commencement. So Council adopted Noosa Plan on the 31st of July 2020. And the monitoring period is from July 31st, 2020 to July 31st, 2022.
02:12:00 So in response to the Minister's conditions, this report has now been prepared. And some of the key findings that it found was that basically the legacy provisions from past planning schemes, including Noosa Plan 2006, resulted in a mix of permanent residents and visitors. And visitor accommodation being mixed and short-term accommodation and visitor accommodation being permitted within residential zones and throughout most of our zones. The approvals given during that time period allowed particularly for multiple dwellings in the now medium and high density zones and the tourist accommodation zones to move interchangeably between permanency and visitor short-term without further planning approval. I guess what this has resulted in, in no understanding of the long-term housing security and how much dwelling supply we actually have for residents, as at any point in time they could move in and out into short-term accommodation.
02:13:00 And that was principally the key issue to be grappled with with Noosa Plan 2020. Whilst this historically wasn't a major issue, with the emergence of online booking platforms, more and more property owners moved their properties into short-term accommodation because of the higher return. And a range of issues emerged during that time, not just for residential amenity, but more recently housing supply and housing affordability. And the competition between a limited dwelling stock between visitors and residents. Since the commencement of Noosa Plan 2020, there's been a number of major situations. We've been in a global pandemic for the whole time, leading up to its commencement and during its first two years. And we've also had a national housing crisis, which has been heightened in Noosa,
02:14:00 with record low vacancy rates and significant pricing increases in the rental and purchase markets. And there's a particularly unmet demand for small dwellings, particularly for our key workers, and those specifically supporting tourism and hospitality industry, but also the older population and families. But also, I guess we've been down here at council in meeting all types of workers' needs. Whilst COVID-19 created some unique circumstances for the housing market, and there is a national housing crisis, the legacy planning issues and the current provisions in Noosa Plan 2020 contribute to the situation in Noosa. The community have been very clear in consultation on various other plans and strategies that short-term accommodation is having a significant impact on the sense of community, housing supply and affordability,
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02:15:00 as well as residential amenity. And the long-term security of housing supply and housing affordability has become the biggest issue facing us. Since we originally undertook our benchmark analysis of tourist accommodation in Noosa in April 2020, there has been an increase in the number of dwellings being used for short-term accommodation. So this is despite the impacts of COVID and border closures and the like, and despite there being high demand for permanent rental properties, despite the introduction of the short-stay letting and home-hosted accommodation local law, and despite the changes we made to Noosa Plan 2020, making short-term accommodation an inconsistent use in the low-density housing zone. So we now have 5,265 dwellings currently identified as being used for short-term accommodation across Noosa Shire, with the highest concentration in the coastal urban area between Noosaville and down to Corrigean.
02:16:00 There is 31.6% of all that dwelling stock which is used for short-term accommodation. And significantly, 52.7% of the dwellings in Noosa Heads are used for short-term accommodation, 33% in Sunshine Beach and 26.4% in Noosaville. Overall, the use of dwellings for short-term accommodation grew by 307 dwellings, or 5.7% over the two-year monitoring period. However, the true number of dwellings with use rights for short-term accommodation is much higher, with the majority of all of our multiple dwelling stock having existing use rights. Having development rights to move into short-term accommodation without further planning approval. So the actual quantum is potentially much greater. At the time of writing this report, we had a number of proposals on the table for hotel accommodation and luxury villa and eco cab cabins,
02:17:00 which are supporting a need and a demand for that form of traditional tourist accommodation and it moves the product away from dwelling use and short-term accommodation. And whilst we see tourism peaks being high in some high tourist periods, and most recently in September we were up around an occupancy of 84%, on average throughout the year there is latent supply with only 57.5% of the stock being occupied. These stats come from properties being on platforms, through Airbnb and State, but they're a good representation across all. And those figures came from AirDNA who have been employed to provide that data. So notwithstanding this, it's still important that we have the provision of visitor accommodation and support the tourism industry in the designated tourist accommodation zones. We have large expansive areas that have been zoned specifically for this purpose under NUSA plan.
02:18:00 And it's actually in our most desirable location, so all along the rivers and the foreshores. We've also got a number of key sites which are undeveloped but subject to current proposals. So it's considered that together with that future provision, as well as other undeveloped sites over at Beach Road, and the potential redevelopment of existing land within the tourist accommodation, together with the current supply of 5,265 dwellings, that we've got enough tourist accommodation to support current and future needs going forward. However, any continued growth of short-term accommodation in residential zones is not supported, or in the business zones, because both these zones support future development for permanent residents at the exclusion of visitors. Sorry, should be. Currently, short-term accommodation being a consistent goal,
02:19:00 consistent use in the medium and high density zones, as well as the rural and rural residential zones, compromise their main purpose, which is to provide for housing for permanent residents. Likewise, short-term accommodation in the business zones compromises future development in those zones for small affordable dwellings for key workers near transport and employment services, which is a key part of the housing strategies action. Maintaining short-term accommodation in these zones creates continued competition for Noosa's limited dwelling supply and land supply, between the provision and competition for accommodation between visitors and housing, reducing available supply for permanent housing, and driving up prices for both the rental and purchase housing markets. Conversely, the take-up of traditional visitor accommodation within the visitor accommodation zone, like traditional resorts by residents seeking accommodation because of the sheer lack of accommodation,
02:20:00 and allowing for continued development in those zones for multiple housing for permanent residents, compromises that main purpose of that zone, which is for visitors and tourist activities. Ultimately, the mix of permanent and short-term dwellings currently enabled by Noosa Plan 2020 creates land use conflict between the visitors and residents, impacts residential amenity, sense of community, social cohesion, and residential lifestyle, as well as visitor experience and enjoyment, having conflict potentially with residents. Overall, the extensive and growing use of dwellings for short-term accommodation has an impact on the community, housing supply, and the level of affordability, as well as the tourism economy and labour supply for that economy. Without a long-term known and secure supply of housing for residents, including for workers who support that tourism and visitor accommodation industries, as well as hospitality and the tourism economy and the community are at risk.
02:21:00 AEC assisted by providing an overview socio-economic impact assessment of the report, and it was determined that their conclusions were that increases in short-term accommodation between April 2020 and October 2022 suggests that Noosa Plan has not detrimentally impacted on market supply to meet tourist demand. So us by making short-term accommodation and inconsistent use in that zone had no negative impacts on supply. In fact, it grew. There has been no noticeable negative impact of Noosa Plan 2020 on the demand or values with people wanting to buy more dwellings in Noosa at considerably higher prices. So there's been no negative impact on housing prices as a result of that. Combined with the sales, dwelling market data, rental market data, Noosa has experienced considerable issues of undersupply of affordable dwellings for residential or worker use
02:22:00 with considerable higher dwelling prices and rents than SEQ, exacerbating issues associated with rising costs of living. Their final conclusion was that with the existing supply of short-term accommodation, the additional take-up of latent supply within these premises to achieve increased occupancy, in addition to anticipated new supply from commercial accommodation providers, has been a significant improvement. Visitors' demands within Noosa's carrying capacity should be appropriately met into the future without the need for additional residential housing stock to be diverted to short-term. In making those conclusions and findings, the report makes recommendations to amend Noosa Plan 2020, some of which have been picked up by the housing strategy. So the report recommends that we reinforce the purpose and outcomes of the Noosa Plan 2020 for permanent residents by making short-term accommodation an inconsistent use in the zone
02:23:00 that's an entire dwelling, but to continue to make that allowance of four times a year and no more than 60 days if they're a permanent resident and that's their principal place of residence, and to allow home-hosted, likewise in the rural residential zone, that we reinforce its purpose as a zone for permanent residents and make short-term accommodation of an entire dwelling an inconsistent use. So they can still continue to have yurts and cabins and the like associated with their permanent use. And home-host. And home-host, yeah. And the rural zone, again, reinforce its primary purpose, which is for rural production and agricultural pursuits, and then add up, value add up to that. So they can continue to make short-term accommodation of an entire dwelling inconsistent.
02:24:00 However, allow other forms similar to the rural res of where the resident remains on site, cabins and yurts and the like, if they wish to not stay on the property, that it be an impact-assessable application, and we take a full assessment of that. Whilst it wasn't required as part of the Minister's conditions, also made recommendations about the centre zones, which is to make short-term accommodation an inconsistent use in our centre zones, because that is the key place that we'll get future small dwelling stock, with some exclusions being the village mixed use at the Shire Business Centre and the local centre, oh, sorry, yeah, at the local centre at Cooroy, where, you know, the local centre is located. It was identified as appropriate that there might be some form of motel or service departments. And with regard to the tourist accommodation zone, as an amendment to NUSA plan or investigation
02:25:00 next year, that we revisit the tourist accommodation zone and look at its spatial allocation to make sure that the correct land is included in that zone or not, against the medium and high density. In terms of the long-term provision of tourist accommodation, and as our primary locations for tourist activities and tourist accommodation, and also look at making multiple dwellings in that zone an inconsistent use, which is a use for permanent residents to avoid that conflict. And that's the main thing. Sorry, was that a lot? Two years' worth of work. Was that more than five minutes? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'll wait and see. We'll wait and see. Councillor Wilkie: Questions, councillors? Mayor Stewart: I've got a few. I'm going to come back to the numbers. But I just want to specifically focus on the amendments you're referring to, Anita, in regard to the tourist zone.
02:26:00 Can you just talk me through exactly what they mean? Not the medium and high density potential changes, but the tourist zone. Yep. Speaker 5: So currently in the tourist accommodation zone, you can have short-term accommodation and a range of other visitor accommodation types, as well as a range of tourist activities, which is where we want those activities to locate. But also multiple dwellings are a consistent use, and multiple dwellings are for permanent residents. So it continues to compromise the purpose of that zone by allowing permanent people to... Sorry, permanent style of dwellings to be developed, and creates that competition and conflict within that zone. So it's kind of the reverse to what's happening in the medium and high. So if we're saying in the medium and high, no, this is for permanent residents, then at the same time, the tourist accommodation zone is for visitors. Okay. And we not... We... We clean up that space. We clean up the mess. Mayor Stewart: Yeah. So it's putting more tourists where they should be.
02:27:00 Yeah. And the more permanents where they should be. That's right. Speaker 5: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: It's quite a defined way. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 5: And the other part of that was to look at the actual spatial allocation of the zone. Yeah. I didn't understand that. To make sure that that's correct. So previously under the old Noosa Plan 2006, the equivalent tourist accommodation zone was quite limited. Under the new plan, it was expanded quite extensively, and there was some question over some particular sites, whether they were visitor or permanent. And we need to revisit those spatial allocations. Mayor Stewart: Okay. So thank you. I'm going to go to some numbers here in the short-term accommodation monitoring report. Okay. Specifically, Anita, I'll draw your attention to page 106. Yep. You got it? Yep. So when it talks about in April 2020, we had 4,753 short-term accommodation dwellings,
02:28:00 and 5,205 as of October this year, or thereabouts. Councillor Lorentson: Yep. Mayor Stewart: So the number of additional dwellings, and the line here is the number of additional dwellings, and the line here says, therefore, the real number of additional dwellings being used for short-term accommodation has increased over the last two years, or two and a bit years, by 307 dwellings. That's correct. And if we go to page 85, 214 of those 307 were superseded approvals, so people actually under the 2020 plan had a legislative right to make an application. They did. For existing use rights. Yep. Yep. Yep. And then similarly under existing use rights confirmation, another 108 also had existing use rights in low density.
02:29:00 Yep. So where we made it inconsistent, 214 and 108, so what's that, 322, were basically according to the plan, that enabled them to have those existing use rights and make an application for short-term accommodation. Speaker 5: Yeah. So I guess you can't read those numbers necessarily. They may well have been doing it the previous two years. Yep. So they don't necessarily form part of the additional numbers, which is the 307. But you're correct in that those dwellings that we've got, that we've got, that we've got a superseded planning approval, 214, confirmed their status by doing that. And the same with the 108, getting written advice. They may well, and it's probably likely that a lot of them were already doing it and they wanted confirmation. Sure. Mayor Stewart: I guess what I'm getting at is, and this is the number, a number of MCU applications
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02:30:00 were made for short-term accommodation with 18 approvals issued, MCU. So this council has approved that. 18. Dwellings. STAs. So I just want that clear, that we haven't actually approved thousands of thousands. We have approved 18. Correct. That's correct. And every other application already had, under the plan, existing use rights. Or superseded rights. Effectively, yes. Or they were already doing it. That's right. And they just put their name down and said, hey, I'm doing it, guys. Speaker 5: Correct. So we, additional was 18. Mayor Stewart: 18. So I just want that absolutely on record, that that is the number that this council, with our legislative authority, has approved. Great. 18. One eight. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: Sorry, can I clarify, as of when? As of the implementation of the Noosa Plan 2020?
02:31:00 Speaker 5: Yes. Under Noosa Plan 2020, up until, I think it was the end of August was my cut off. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. I just wanted to clarify that point. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Do you have a question? No. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Brian. Just, the amount of increase is based on market research, not based on approvals or planning. It's about what the use is as gave by doing, looking at all the advertised homes, et cetera. And I think it's a good point. Speaker 5: That's correct. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: There's no nexus between that. Yeah. Speaker 5: It doesn't necessarily mean that those 5,265 are lawful, but they were the number that were identified at that point in time through a number of sources, and that we could verify they were using it. That number may be quite different today because of that interchangeable movement of
02:32:00 dwellings. So it is at a point in time. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: So by that, are you suggesting that during peak periods, more properties may be on the short-term market than outside of the peak periods? Speaker 5: Well, the AirDNA data certainly shows that there's an increase. So AirDNA data scrapes data from Airbnb platforms and Stays platforms. No other platforms. But it's a good cross-segment to look at. It demonstrates that during peak times, there's more nights available, which means there's more accommodation available. Councillor Jurisevic: But given that what we're talking about and what's allowable under the plan is you can rent out your, provided you're the permanent owner of the property, you can rent out your property up to four times a year, up to a maximum of 60 nights per year. And that's been an ongoing exercise in certain areas within the Shire for as long as I can
02:33:00 recall. So that's going to be what's occurring. Speaker 5: It could occur during those peak periods. It's quite possible, yes. Councillor Jurisevic: That's the most likely time for it to occur. Yes. Yes. And the numbers show that. When people are either at an event coming to town, they get out of town, or Christmas is there and they're going off on Christmas holiday. Yes. And utilising that as an opportunity to not only fill their house, but also to get some income to pay for that holiday or whatever. Speaker 5: Yes. So I guess. Do we have any. In saying that, that tells us there's a much bigger supply, because every property has the potential to do that. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, that's right. So do we have any concept of how many people may be doing that and renting out in that? And is there any way going forward of monitoring whether they're only doing that as opposed to a full year's or a greater period of time? From our. Do they get classified differently? Speaker 5: Oh, they do under the local law, provided they've come in for a local law approval.
02:34:00 Okay. So they. So they do come in and we have a principal place of residence, permanent application they make, and it's limited to the six, by their approval, six times and no more than 40 days per year. However, in terms of monitoring whether, which properties and how long they're on the market for, or how long they're advertised for, it's quite difficult to actually measure that, because a property may have their books open for the entire 12 months. Councillor Jurisevic: But only get four periods a year. Speaker 5: Yeah. And the average occupancy we know anyway is 57%, but a lot of these properties are laid dormant for the 43% of the year as well. So. So. It's a difficult thing to measure. Councillor Jurisevic: So the next element of this will be implementation. Okay. The implementation of the local law and the regulation. I'll restate that, because we've already implemented the local law. Yeah. The regulation of the local law.
02:35:00 Speaker 5: That's right. Councillor Jurisevic: To actually get the, a truer perspective of the data. Speaker 5: Yeah. And it'll be probably those six times 40 days that we need to investigate further. I think that's the challenge. To ensure they're complying with the provisions and that they are the principal. Councillor Jurisevic: And how you verify that information? Speaker 5: So we can under the local law request that they produce their booking records, and that we investigate that. And also I guess just through other, it's difficult to do it from an online checking perspective, but I guess we check their booking references and verify whether they were actually registered. Councillor Jurisevic: And how you clarify that they are stipulated within those and they're not utilising that as a means of. Yeah. As a means of facilitating the fact that they're actually available a lot longer than that. Speaker 5: That's right. Difficult.
02:36:00 Councillor Wilkie: I'll second it. I'll move it. Moved by Brian. I'll second it just to prove I was here. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And we've had a very comprehensive outline of what's in this report. And it is, it brings to mind, as we were being briefed, the management bureau of Peter Drucker's famous words of, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And we now have a very good baseline and gross data on short term accommodation in the Shire. It's the first time we've had anything near this detail to base our planning decisions on. And we've already seen that the knowledge we've gained through this process has influenced and informed the housing strategy. And in particular, with respect to the risk plan 2020 move in terms of having medium and high density residential as an impact assessment consistent use being changed to be an inconsistent Councillor Wegener: use.
02:37:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I think that the housing strategy, I admitted that I was perhaps in error when I advocated for that approach in the plan at the moment. And as the Mayor has pointed out, it's an impact assessment. We've had very limited impact. So over the last two years, we've only approved 15. 18. No, 15 in the medium density and high density areas and three in the rural areas. So compared to the nearly 6% growth, more generally, of the vacant supply, that's where the, it's those interchangeable rights that are the legacy of the previous plan that is causing the community to react. And it's clear to see why. You know, with over half the residences in Noosaville, currently short term accommodation, there's over nearly a third or more in Sunshine Beach. That is hollowing out communities. And you hear people. We used to have street parties, and now I put up with parties, but they're a different
02:38:00 person every weekend. You know? So it is a significant issue for our community. It is a significant issue for our community. And I think that this data does justify the good thing that I advocated and supported in this plan, which is that we made an inconsistent use in the low density residential zone. That really has turned up to that. And that is the biggest thing we did in this plan. We were the first to take that sort of action to say, no, enough's enough. And that has worked, as is evident in this. And I think that's the biggest thing we've done. But I suppose the other aspect of this is we have economic analysis which says regulating the use in our residential zones further is not going to impact the tourism industry. It says that what we've done hasn't impacted the tourism industry.
02:39:00 It's clear that there is ample accommodation. The fact that we've probably, if you're only getting 57 per cent of the population, that the economic incentives for short-term accommodation versus long-term rental are still probably weighing in the favour close to beaches and tourist areas in favour of the short-term. But, as I said, the main thing is we now have really good data. We have satisfied the Minister's conditions, which were put in, no doubt, as a result of logging during the final stages of the Noosa plan. And, you know, I think that's the biggest thing we've done. Not even the most right-wing Minister from any government could argue against our position.
02:40:00 Councillor Wilkie: A clarifying question. The 5,265 dwellings currently identified as being for short-term accommodation, does that include hotels and motels? Speaker 5: No. Short-term accommodation. So that's... Councillor Wilkie: Whole dwellings and units? Speaker 5: Yep. Any form of a dwelling. So a dwelling is a self-contained apartment, townhouse, house, unit. And... Councillor Wilkie: Any units in Visitor Accommodation Zone? Speaker 5: No. It includes all dwellings across all zones. Okay. Yeah. So inclusive of the Tourist Accommodation Zone. But about 50% of them are still located in a residential zone. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Speaker 5: Yeah. So there's about a 50-50 split of where they're located. Councillor Wilkie: So the Visitor Accommodation is contained in motels and hotels. That's on top of these? Speaker 5: That's on top of. Yeah. That's separately defined. Very limited. We have very limited numbers of real hotel rooms. Yeah. That's important. It's a... It's a... Speaker 7: And backpacking.
02:41:00 Speaker 5: We've got a lot of backpacking beds now, actually. That's on top of that. Yeah. On top of that. Like there's 560 beds. In terms of capacity. Yeah. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Speaker 5: Yeah. So the main provision is in dwellings, and that's a legacy issue. But with these new proposals coming on board that are filling that gap, which is a need for traditional hotels, that should be the direction of where any future tourist accommodation heads. Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. And how many sites are available for new hotels? Speaker 5: Five star hotels? Well, we've got vacant sites at Serenity Close and at Noosa Springs. I guess potentially at... Yeah. ...North Shore. Mm-hmm. But then there's redevelopment opportunities in... You know, along people... Terrace of Connor... Mm-hmm. ...Thomas Street. Yeah. So it's about, well, what do we... So any redevelopment opportunities that the focus is, if we've zoned it tourism, it is for tourism. Councillor Wilkie: Mm-hmm.
02:42:00 Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. And following on from that, we don't specifically have a lot of hotel motel type accommodation, do we? Speaker 5: No. Very little. And... Councillor Jurisevic: Do we know how many defined motel rooms that we have? I mean, I know we've got backpackers and we view them separately, although they're a form of motel type accommodation. Speaker 5: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. And caravan parks are a separate issue again. Speaker 5: So we've got 506 hotel and motel and cabins rooms, which only comprise 7.7% of the offer. So... And 12% of the offer is caravan sites, RV sites, camp sites. So basically... Yeah. 79, 80% of our accommodation offer is a dwelling. Okay. Councillor Wilkie: The paragraph... The paragraph there, how do you describe it? The tree number of dwellings with use rights for short-term accommodation is much higher, with the majority of all multiple dwellings having use rights for short-term accommodation.
02:43:00 Therefore, continued growth in dwellings converting to or being developed for short-term accommodation is of higher concern for current and future housing supply, particularly within residential zones and tenants preferring housing supply. By that, you mean medium to high density. Rural to rural areas. Okay. Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you. That particular reference was to dwellings in the medium and high density zone, because the majority of what we have here already was developed prior to NUSA Plan 2006, and they have enshrined rights to keep... To move in between without any further planning approval. So that conversion has an impact on housing stock. Councillor Wilkie: So amendment was moved that they have rights under a superseded planning approval? Yes. Speaker 5: Under development approvals. Yeah. So they're enshrined in their approvals. So previously, when they had approval for a multiple dwelling, that did not specify
02:44:00 one or the other. Councillor Wilkie: So this would mean that new development would... Speaker 5: Yeah. New development would only be for... Yeah. Residential. Councillor Jurisevic: So just to follow on from that question about the 506 hotel, motel, and cabins, does that include the seven only tourism sites that we have, which would be... Yeah. Which are really residential in nature, not hotel, motel in nature, i.e. Ivory Park? Speaker 5: No, they're not hotels. Councillor Jurisevic: So they're all calculated as dwellings because they're self-contained. Just wanted to differentiate between the two, that the hotel, motels are specifically hotel, motel, not dwelling type, but motel style accommodation, i.e. not full kitchens and . Speaker 5: So Sofitel, I think is one of our only real big proper hotel. Sorry? The Sofitel. Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Seabook? Would be the most... No, they're units. Councillor Wilkie: So they're in their 5,000. Yeah. Okay. Mayor Stewart: I'll speak to it. You want to speak to it? Yeah, I'll speak to it. Sure. Thank you, firstly, Anita and Kim.
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02:45:00 It's a huge body of work and a really important body of work because as Brian said, you know, we can't make decisions if we don't have the data and now we have the data. So I appreciate this is two years of blood, sweat and tears, no doubt, especially probably after some council meetings for you guys. So thank you very much for this hard work. I like Brian's words, the legacy of the previous plan is causing grief because so much of what is now currently going around. In the media is that this council has just opened the floodgates unless STAs go through, which clearly isn't the case because on the data and the evidence that you have provided, we have approved 18, 1-8 and the rest were very much lawful use rights under the plan or the superseded plan. So I think that's really important information. I think it's information that hasn't been communicated because we haven't had the data and now we can. We are in a housing crisis.
02:46:00 We know that. We've had COVID. We've had displacement. We have a worker shortage and we have hear from all of our businesses all the time. They can't find worker accommodation. They can't find anywhere for their workers to live. We have our residents crying out that they're losing amenity in their streets and their suburbs. So I think that the ministerial conditions and the changes that you have suggested are positive for the community and I support them. Thank you. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll speak. I'll reiterate something I raised at the meeting previously. With regard to something I support wholeheartedly, and to take the amendments relating to the medium and high density residential zones, rural zones, rural residential zones, but particularly the medium and high density residential zones. When they were presented to us to be consistent or inconsistent, I argued that all residential zones should be inconsistent, particularly the medium and high density residential zones. Because they were the most affordable accommodation.
02:47:00 They were the ones that our workers would most likely be in. So if they weren't available, it's going to impact on affordability and availability. If they were taken into the short stay arena, which has clearly happened, they weren't going to be available for our workers. Hence that situation has been exacerbated. Brian's right. Legacy of the past. Where tourism and residential uses were not clearly defined land uses. And these mixed arrangements have occurred, been exacerbated by disruptive technology, and further disrupted by COVID. And that historical use of days gone by, where Lisa wasn't a town that was full to the brim, was easy. And it was tough to try and facilitate that sort of thing. But here we are, years later, knowing if only we had the wisdom. Seven only sites. Tourism only. And only 506 motel and hotel type accommodations.
02:48:00 So where are the rest going to go? They're all going to go into those other uses. Some of which are resorts. And really, most people think a resort was defined as a tourism facility. But clearly, because the planning schemes of the past didn't clearly define them in that way, they may have been called resorts, but they weren't used specifically for tourist accommodation, which most people would assume. And it's an assumption. So whilst a fair bit of it probably is there, the lack of definition there creates challenges. Going forward, defining the tourism zones and the residential zones and future development being contained within the land use rights specifically identified will help with redevelopments going forward. The challenge for me still sits with that maximum four uses up to 60 nights. I think that's going to be a very difficult one.
02:49:00 And the level of monitoring required to monitor that will be a challenge. But I, like everybody else, I thank the staff for their time. I think the information and the data that we now have available gives us a far greater explanation of what's going to happen in the future. And I think that's going to be a challenge for us to understand and an understanding of the situation as it exists. We continue to monitor the proposed amendments going forward on short-term accommodation for another two years and see what impacts we have had and actually see if we're making a difference and see how that goes going forward. And the future development of further tourism-specific accommodation in the tourist zones that have been allocated that are potentially on the books may help to exacerbate the situation going forward. But again, thank you. Thank you for your time. I'd appreciate it. Councillor Wegener: Good question. Were there other councils that were asked to use the short-term accommodation monitoring for the plan?
02:50:00 No. Speaker 5: That was specific to, yeah, the medicines conditions for the approval for the plan. Speaker 4: Yeah. Just further to that. Since just last week, the Deputy Premier has now announced that the State are doing a monitoring program on short-term accommodation and its impact on housing affordability and availability. Mayor Stewart: I think it will. We handed it to him. Yeah. We provided it to him. We provided it to him. Clare did last week. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. There is one other question that comes out of that. Does anybody have data on the percentage of tourist accommodation that they have, that may not have had our legacy situation, on the percentage of tourism accommodation that they've provided versus residential accommodation within their plans? Yeah. I mean, I think there's been a lot of planning schemes that have clearly defined and have allowed development to occur only in that fashion. Has anybody ever, to date, done that or been able to alter their planning schemes to try
02:51:00 and do what we're doing now, to find tourism accommodation versus residential accommodation? Speaker 5: Probably locations that aren't key tourist destinations could have their finger on the pulse a little bit more because there probably isn't the widespread use of dwellings for it but- They haven't got the pressure? I'm not aware of other councils undertaking the exercise per se. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, we can't be the only tourist town that's been going through that. Do other tourist towns have a finger on the pulse that they know that 30% of their development is tourist? You know, clearly understand and know how much of their development to date has been, or has been used to facilitate tourism accommodation? I'm trying to get to- Councillor Wilkie: Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm trying to understand whether there's- Yeah. An example where we know what is a manageable or sustainable percentage. Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, like Anita said, we're not aware of any other councils that have got specific
02:52:00 data. We are aware that many other councils are now doing much closer monitoring of the situation. Councillor Jurisevic: So the data may become available or get a better idea of the data as we go forward? Speaker 4: It may become available. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Tom. I've got a few questions. It's nice to be at the end of the game. We tend to be in MISA. I have a friend that got a great job in New Zealand in . And he could not get an accommodation. He said, oh my gosh, the affordability and availability of accommodation over there is worse than it is here. So he came back to MISA to get a job. So we're, again, we're ahead. I'd like to see that investment will be on commercial things like the, if we have around people, that's what we're going to see in the digital economy. We've got a fantastic job. So the investment will go there instead of buying houses, turning into the SBA. It's a disaster. It's a much better use of investment money in doing something that benefits.
02:53:00 It's needed, for example, in the hinterland, with the not being short term accommodation out there. So you have the ability for the population to get behind, hopefully, farming and agriculture and things like that in the hinterland, versus all of a sudden going down the monster to the track where you just take it all to the beach and dump it into the hinterland. So I think that MISA will be a much stronger place in the future, because we're taking these steps now. These are fantastically forward looking. And I think we should be very, very proud of yourselves for sticking to it and for all the people out there. Thank you, Tom. Sure. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Thank you to the staff. It's been a robust and arduous two years of data collection. I think it's really a promotion of this council to show our commitment to excellence and driving forward. I'm particularly interested in the data now giving us the opportunity to focus on
02:54:00 strategic intent and outcomes. And part of that, like you mentioned, is getting that data to address the land use conflicts between visitors and residents impacting residential amenities, sense of community, social cohesion and resident lifestyle, as well as visitor experience and enjoyment. I think, you know, housing is a fundamental human right. And I think this is a great step forward in showing that we have a commitment to excellence and making sure that everyone has an opportunity through the provision of equity in housing provision to all across the Shire. So I think this is really a good step forward. And I'm excited to see this go out to the community to get their feedback and be able to move forward with confidence that we're all working in unison to get the balance right in our community. So thank you to everyone who's participated.
02:55:00 Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Karen. Some of the key points. One of the key points for me, Anita, is that the Noosa Plan 2020 did limit the unrestricted proliferation of SDAs, but at the same time did not destroy the visitor economy as some headlines predicted. There has been a net increase of about 300 properties in SDAs since the plan came in, but as has already been said, they were mostly non-existent. There have been applications made on the superseded planning scheme of people making applications through their existing use rights. There were about 18 applications for short-term accommodation under the new planning scheme, as I said, in the medium or high-density zone and the rural areas, which were approved. But they were highly contested because there was the issue of the balance of the need for
02:56:00 available and affordable housing. So I think this is a great step forward. The report sort of shows the visitor levels in short-term accommodations are at record high, record levels. And in terms of the impact, paradoxically, while short-term accommodation returns to the economy are three times that of permanent residence in, to the local economy, they also have a negative impact on business, businesses, because they detract from the available supply of affordable and available housing. So this is a really good example of the impact of short-term accommodation on the economy, which repels the workers, to service the visitors who are taking up that short-term accommodation. But paradoxically it has had a negative impact on business as well. I'm really glad that the report, the Minister, also required a look at the social impact as well. And in a sense they are a lot harder to measure because you cannot monetise social capital
02:57:00 and it's not a good way of doing that. It's clear from the report that this community had lost some social capital. But I think we moved as quickly as we could to the provisions in the Noosa plan scheme. There were legacy issues from the 2006 plan scheme, the interchangeable use rights to all of the properties. We shut the gate as quickly as we could. There were only 300 or so more properties that were approved under existing use rights and superseded claim rights. And I'm fully supportive of that. And I think it's important for us to look at the changes to these amendments. If we restrict the medium, high, rural, rural residential and centre zones to residential accommodation only, we may go some way towards ensuring that as we move towards 2032 Olympics, we get the balance right and that we'll at least be able to contain permanent residents who will be able to, if they wish to, have work in that field, service our existing level
02:58:00 of visitors and perhaps those who are wanting to come back into the community. I think it puts to bed some of the arguments we heard in the headlines that we're out to destroy the digital economy. In fact, it's still stronger than ever. But this gives us a real opportunity to right the balance and help win the balance. And I think it's important to reinforce that the message from Noosa is first and foremost to the community. And I think it is as well. Thank you. Go on. Councillor Finzel: Can I just ask a question? Mayor Stewart: Sorry, could you just? Thanks. Thank you. Just on the existing use rights, medium and high density, can you talk me through that, that if someone is watching here, and just these implications for people who apparently do have properties in those areas? Speaker 5: So, generally speaking, where a property was approved for multiple dwellings prior to 2006,
02:59:00 they were approved for multiple dwellings which allowed for the use either being permanent or short term. Now, some properties, historically, going back even further, back in the 70s, may or may not have those rights under that old provisions of that plan because no approval was issued. So, I think it's important to be aware of that. But that gets a bit complex. But generally speaking, before 2006, most approvals allowed for the interchangeable use rights. There were some approvals issued for visitor only, at the exclusion of residents. And that's the likes of Ivory Palms, RACV. Peppers? Pardon? Peppers? Peppers. But that, yeah, that was also approved prior to 2006. Yeah. So, there were some that had specifically conditioned that it be visited prior to 2006. Yeah. And we've got those ones in those visitor only zones.
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03:00:00 Mayor Stewart: Yeah. So, I guess my question was sort of looking at these potential implications for, you know, we know that the low density is now, is inconsistent. But the potential implications of the medium and high being inconsistent, what does that mean for people who have property currently in that area? Speaker 5: Yeah. So, where they've got a valid lawful planning approval? Yeah. So, we've got a law that allows for those interchangeable use rights, that continues. Okay. Regardless of any future changes to planning plans. Okay. Anything new is... Okay. Anything new, under those, the proposed provisions, would have to be for permanent residents only. So, short term accommodation is an inconsistent... Sure. ...would be an inconsistent use. So, we're talking largely about new development, redevelopment. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So, I guess my question is, what is the community concern is? Just like the community in the housing market is like taxi drivers in the...
03:01:00 We're the impactors, like, of this disruption. And how disruption makes people money is because it gets in early before there's a regulatory framework around it to control its excesses. And the planning regulatory framework is one that's the most important thing. And it has looked into a whole range of provisions which limit the ability of councils to undo previous rights without compensation. Now it's reassuring to hear that the state is taking up the challenge and it's probably good to finish off on where UK has gone. So we think we've got a problem with 5,000 minimum or so. In Cornwall they've got 13,255 and nearly 9,000 of those are getting business rates relief.
03:02:00 The Department of Leveling Up Housing Communities Spokesman, that's in the UK, suggests we're taking action to combat the adverse impact that pecking homes can have on local communities, particularly in tourist areas such as Cornwall. By closing TAP's loopholes, introducing higher rates of dance duty, and empowering councils to apply an tax premium of up to 100% on second homes. They even have this novel thing where they can vote. And residents in a Yorkshire coast town turned out in their droves last week, this was a June article, and won a landslide 93% vote to stop new bills being sold to rich Londoners amid mounting fears that families are being forced out of the housing market. So what measures the local council can have in the UK, we certainly don't have. But that shows you some of the policy instruments being used around the world to try and combat this.
03:03:00 When you look on social media, everyone's saying, why doesn't the Minister of Council do this, why doesn't the Minister of Council do that? We've done everything we can to turn off the TAP. Everything else is a right that is bestowed by legislation from a high level of government. But what this does do is give the evidence, as Councillor Wilkie said, that shows that our, in the drafting of this plan 2020, we did take the correct action in making short-term accommodation the ecosystem in which the residents are staying. Thank you. For the motion to open the file, that's unanimous. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Ken. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thanks Louina. Speaker 5: Thank you Kim. Thanks. Councillor Wilkie: We have Councillor Robertson back and the next item is the Mr Shire Council 21-22 Annual Report.
03:04:00 And we have Diana Stewart from Governance and Frank. Hello Diana. Hello. Thank you. Speaker 4: So as you know each year we need to prepare, adopt and publish Council's annual report which showcases our achievements for the financial year and discloses our statutory reporting obligations including obviously our financial statements which are in the back of the report. You'll notice this year I'm just going to highlight a few things that are new. We've added some new content primarily at the front end of the report and it's really to do with strengthening and aligning the content to our industry standards as well as the Australasian reporting award so we're just trying to align a bit more in that space and really to strengthen our Council's story.
03:05:00 And our Council profile which is what you'll see. So in particular just to highlight a few things we have a new section on history and heritage which is a brief overview of our Shire's history from early settlement to present and you'll see some historical imagery as well included so that adds another level of interest for our community. We've included our liveability index which is a massive piece of work we did this year. It's really important for our community to see and that's now included in the annual report. And we did some basic things that were missing or weren't as prominent in previous reports which is simple things like highlighting our Council services, everything we do from the top down which you'll see in there as well as our organisational structure so including reference training CEO who started this year as well as our people.
03:06:00 So one key deficiency we had that was picked up is our workforce, our organisational profile. You know how many FTEs we have and what kind of spend do we have on education and training for our workforce too so you'll see some statistics in there now that I think our community will be able to see and will be of interest. The other things too that are really important that has impacted our Council that needed prominence and highlighting was the impacts of COVID-19 which is ongoing as well as natural disasters. So we shone a light on the research and development of natural disasters. We also did a lot of research on the recent 2022 floods and you know put some emphasis on that section. And then finally customer service and media and community engagement. We capture lots of statistics in this space especially the customer service bit.
03:07:00 You'll see that we've got thousands of records of interactions with Council and you'll see there's some top topics as well that the community keep asking us for. So it's all about I guess that increase of transparency. And so we're going to aim to continue basically in this manner in the new year with the next version of the annual report next year where we'll continue to strengthen that story including highlighting our new council corporate values and our corporate plan and any other improvements we do. So I expect this will be strengthened again in the new year too. Mayor Stewart: I'm happy to move it. Councillor Wilkie: Move Councillor Stewart, seconder Councillor Finzel, Councillor Stewart. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Di, thank you for your hard work on this. This is a huge body of work.
03:08:00 And not just putting it together but when you look back and you see what's been achieved in 12 months, it's quite unbelievable. So just to quickly, and I'll be very brief, go through because I know we did this, Mr CEO, in your year in review, we talked a lot about this. But I'll be quick. We've had a huge capital works program, 35 million largest ever delivery, which is a testament to our infrastructure team. The opening of the new Peregian Beach Digital Hub and the Hinterland Playground, well that was a focus of the completion of those, the Tewantin Bypass, the Noosa Parade, the draft housing strategy was ratified, we had pre-weekend buses trial, adoption of the walking and cycling strategy, the joining of the SEQ Council of Mayors, which in so many ways has been a huge success. It's leading the way in waste. Our flood response and how well that was handled, testament again to our great staff and all our wonderful emergency workers. Support of our community through the Kin Kin Quarry case, the CHAP Roundtable, the Kin Kin Quarry Roundtable, I think the Poly Star Roundtable may have just been out of that but was close.
03:09:00 Noosa Project 2.0, first focus on customer centric agile organisation, focus on our social services through housing and homeless roadshow, social services hub partnership with U-Turn and Aussie Tiny Homes. We adopted our housing needs assessment in 2021, which as I said, form part of that draft housing strategy, which was endorsed in June. Our short term local law commenced and was established, and MOU was signed in May 2022 in partnership with HQ Plantations, Greenfleet, Kabi Kabi, Queensland Government, resulting in permanent protection of an important corridor between Kooloola and Tewantin National Park. Council has continued to secure conservation land at 40.8% of land in Shire, secured for conservation versus 34.75% in 2018. All of the plans that were adopted, the Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic Management Plan and Fire Management Plan, the Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan, the Climate Change Response Plan was completed, the Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan has been prepared, the Biosphere Trails, the Waste Strategy is commenced, so there is so much, the Ageing Well, support of our community organisations through COVID,
03:10:00 relocation of the community garden, feasibility process for Noosa Regional Gallery, Sunshine Beach Skate Park sale, Kin Kin Recreational Hall, road resells and upgrades, disaster management response, Smart Biosphere, DMP has started the process, Fire Tech Connect Program, the Venture Down Under Capital Event at the Peregian Digital Hub, our Digital Cadet Program, our Textile Recovery Program, our Future Skills Learning Hub feasibility study, support of food and agribusiness, our Industry and Employment Strategy where we matched $50,000, our Noosa Business Round Tables continued, Economic Development Funding Awards, Business Support Panel and communications with businesses through newsletters, a business page on Council website, and our Disaster Recovery and Resilience continues with increased fire mitigation, mitigation and management, Fire Tech, as I said, in collaboration with QFES, that is just a snapshot, and when I got up on Tuesday night and spoke to the Noosaville Business Association of what we've done in the last two weeks,
03:11:00 I think they nearly fell over and that was only two weeks, so this is 52 weeks and there is a huge amount and that is a snapshot. So I just want to thank staff, Scott, CEO, you came in at probably the flood response, one of our most challenging times of the year, so thank you for all your support and your contribution to all of this, and to the organisation, we're very lucky to have you, and to the executive team, Kim, and all the staff, thank you for your ongoing support of Scott and also us. We are a very interactive council, we interact a lot with our staff and we appreciate your ongoing support and commitment. Trent, thank you too. Diana, thank you to all the governance team and to all the councillors because this is all decisions, this has been determined by decisions made around this table, so I think it's a collaborative approach from everyone, so thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you Ms Shire. Anyone else wish to speak? Can anyone find an angle with the man in the cover? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: There you go. Can I put the actual report up on page 14, please?
03:12:00 And I just like while you're doing that, I've just been very busy this weekend, Oh. and moving, but looking through this report, the quality of the graphics, and even if you just did what I just did, of looking through and looking at the imagery, Councillor Wegener: The attachment or the report? Deputy Mayor Stockwell: The attachment, yes, the actual annual report, page 14. If you look at the diversity and quality of the graphics, it gives you a really good feel about the many different aspects of what this council gets up to. Why I chose page 14 is because it's the heritage photography stage, and it's a very pertinent picture for some of our deliberations today. And if you zoom that out, yeah. So if you look there, that's Seaview Terrace, and I think I own a valiant like that, and I think it might be a Zeph up behind it, and who knows what the thing on the right hand side is.
03:13:00 Councillor Jurisevic: It's an FB holder. You think it's FB? At a glance. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, that you have to, but you look at, we were just talking about the Eastern Beaches Coastal Lantern Plant, and we've had a couple of houses applications recently. If you look at that, what it looked like in the 70s, you know, it's where we've come from. If you look at the beach, I think that's the old surf club, so that's probably early 90s, but it's not much different now. It's a bit of a claim about how busy it gets. Hmm. All that's really changed is we've gone from beach umbrellas to the cabanas, and I thought it was really important that the one on the left, the record load of timber, with the building prices and the cost of timber these days, that's probably a retirement fund. That's all I've got to say. Mayor Stewart: I'd write, what's different with that photo you said, less, wouldn't you say less light? More cabanas. And I'd say less revealing swimsuits. More revealing swimsuits now, too, than up there.
03:14:00 Councillor Jurisevic: I'm staying correct, there's definitely not enough light at home. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Yeah, yeah, I'm talking about the hoops. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Okay, I'll speak. Amelia. Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to start by just quoting something in the report, and it starts by saying that the annual report forms part of Council's commitment to deliver transparency to the community and legislative compliance. To me, the annual report is also our report card on how we're doing, from delivering core Council services to managing our budget and protecting our environment. I'm going to give it an A, and I encourage everyone in the community, especially the sceptics, to take the time to read the report and see what, in fact, is happening in the community, what our Council has been doing on behalf of our community. It's impressive, and it clearly demonstrates our commitment to serving the community and
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03:15:00 delivering significant Council core services and projects for the community in a year unlike any other. I'm very proud of all that we have achieved, in particular our infrastructure achievements, delivering over $35 million in capital works. I'm proud of how we stand by the community and for the community. Kin Kin Quarry and are committing over $1.53 million spent in community organisation grants. I'm also proud of how this community stands by us and each other. During major floods, COVID, landslips, polystyrene spillages, a housing crisis, our state and our staff, like our community, are the first to give a helping hand when things get turned upside down.
03:16:00 Also, as a community that prides itself on its green credentials, I'm proud to say, as the Premier has just mentioned, that we have more land under conservation than we did in 2018. On a personal level, I'm proud of the all-access beach mat on Lissamane Beach. In the report, it states that it's the most engaged post of the year. I'm proud that I persisted and do not take no for an answer when I first came to Council with the idea, which I found that was not an old idea, and I'm hoping that this time next year, at our next annual report, we will be celebrating more achievements in the space of access and inclusion. A wheelchair. A shared storage shed. More changing place rooms. More disability car parks. And more all-access beach mats. And an access and inclusion council officer.
03:17:00 As councillors, this year has forced us to reflect on our community, our vision and priorities. And I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say that for our community, we're here to help and we are here for you. And we're passionately committed to making Lissam the best place to live, work and play. It's our challenge and it's also our promise. And finally, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the CEO, staff and fellow councillors and to our wonderful men. This is more than just a job for all of us, it's our passion and for some of us, our purpose. Great job, everyone. Councillor Finzel: Thanks, Amelia. Thanks, Amelia. Councillor Jurisevic: Not only all the things Mayor covered, but all the things Mayor didn't cover in the report. I'm exhausted. I'm surprised not any of you made it to look good. And I look forward to, and I'm sure you all do, to the Christmas break and having some
03:18:00 time off with your families and things, to give yourselves a time to recharge backers and all the rest. It's phenomenal what this organisation and the variety of work that this organisation and the variety of things that come across our desks that we have to deal with in the period of a year. It's a report to be proud of. It's incredible what gets achieved around here and it's incredible the continued level of challenges that we have, COVID, SDAs, you name it, that come across our desks that we have to deal with and try to deal with. So, to the CEO, to you and your staff, the incredible people that work for this organisation, I thank you all for your time, your patience, your effort, your dealing with councillors. Speaker 3: Sorry. Councillor Jurisevic: Speak for yourself, Joe. I didn't mention anybody. Speak for yourself. Specifically. But thank you for all the work you do and all the performance you do for this community
03:19:00 and I'm sure the community thinks the same. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Chuck. When it comes to mediating, where do the councillors, for the show's sake, would you like to go? It's a great achievement. Every year, the annual report is fantastic reading. This council's always been a very ambitious, high-achieving council and every year we seem to have to take on more and more challenges and this year is no exception. It's just the highest bar yet. COVID, fires, floods, what's next? Thank you. I certainly would encourage everyone, if they want to understand how their raised dollars have been spent. To read the annual report. Of course, it is a, we are putting ourselves in a very good light here because we really believe we've got a lot to show for today's talk and we and the staff more than have to take any questions about any aspect of this. So, thank you, Scott. You started off with a very fine start.
03:20:00 He doesn't get good results, does he? No, no, no. Speaker 7: I'll be on the call. Councillor Wilkie: I'll be here. Councillor Jurisevic: He just went over soon. Councillor Wilkie: Tom, do you wish to speak to the motion? Councillor Wegener: Thank you very much. Congratulations, Scott. It's just phenomenal. You get awestruck when I see everything that comes with it. Thank you. Karen, do you wish to speak to the motion? Councillor Finzel: Look, I think it's all been said. I'd like to just reiterate what's been said around the table. Thank you to Scott, all the executive staff, all the staff. And thank you to my fellow councillors and the Mayor. Like Amelia said, yeah, it is a passion and we all work tirelessly and in collaboration to, you know, put our community first and try and respond to their needs and desires. And I think everyone's done a great job throughout the year. Sometimes under very trying and adverse conditions.
03:21:00 And we still keep working hard with optimism that we can deliver. So, thank you, everyone. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you. I think, Amelia, you said it really well. It's about pride and being proud. And I think this isn't just a document. It's, as we talk about in the budget, it's a culmination of our values and our beliefs and our hope for our community. So, I would also encourage all our residents to pick up this and have a look and see what we have done in 12 months. And any feedback, love to hear it. But also, I believe Scott will be sending this out to a number of our potential community groups for their information as well because it's a great document and it's informative and it's transparent and open, which is what we're all about. So, thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Thank you, Di. Thank you, Di. Speaker 1: Thank you, Di. Thank you, Di. Thank you, Di. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you, Di. Thank you, Di. Thank you, Di.
03:22:00 Speaker 8: We are now one third of the way through the financial year, time is slipping along, and overall council still remains in a very sound financial position, even given the uncertain economic conditions that we are facing, which are impacting our finances. So as I worked through in summary into the statements, expenditure is generally in line with budget, however noting that we have $400,000 overspend or above budget with materials and services spent, which is being absorbed or masked, if you like, by underspend in the year to date, and employee costs due to numerous staff vacancies year to date, as noted, first
03:23:00 overspend in materials and services year to date for a number of years. This is primarily driven by the impacts of wet weather and unplanned maintenance through our several operations area, in terms of sealed roads, gravel road works, and other costs associated with long term wet weather cycles. Obviously, there is a risk to council financials if this trend continues throughout the financial year, where that half a million dollars underspend would continue to escalate through into the millions by the end of financial year. The other key risk as we enter the second and third part of the financial year is the impacts of inflation starting to flow through as well, close to our costs. So, for those that are aware, CPI is the highest rate of inflation in the world. CPI is nationally at 7.3%, RBA forecasting up as high as 8% by the end of financial year.
03:24:00 The challenge for a local government is it isn't an average of consumer spend, we have some quite bespoken niche expenditure types, including gravel, construction materials, concrete, etc., which in the current construction market is much higher. So, we'll continue to monitor the impacts of inflation, but if it does exceed our initial benchmarks of around 5%, we could be up for a few million dollars more in inflation for the second half of the financial year. But, that said, we're looking at our revenue. We're tracking very well in our revenue year-to-date, particularly in relation to interest earned, with our cash at bank earning with the upside of high interest rates is high investment rates for cash. We're now earning just on 4% on average for our cash invested, which is more than covering any emerging costs and keeping us in an operating surplus year-to-date. So, hopefully that trend continues through to the end of financial year.
03:25:00 Last but not least, we're moving forward is quarterly. The quarterly basis is providing you with a snapshot of what that cash balance is made up of, so you can have some comfort and certainty, and the community can have comfort and certainty as to what we're holding aside in restricted cash, whether that's for waste, as Councillor mentioned, or whether it's in relation to disaster reserves, et cetera. So, we'll put that through for the January round of reports for the December half year. Councillor Jurisevic: I think it's important for the Council, but also people that are watching our financial situation online, to understand where the high-tax reserves are and why they're being held. So, thank you. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of legal strength, repetitive question. I think I've been asking this for two years, but I do believe there's been some progress, and if you could provide an update, or maybe the CEO, in terms of investigating whether we can get more value for our buck if we look at, perhaps, in-house council.
03:26:00 Speaker 7: Through our Chair in response, thank you for your question, Councillor Lorentson. Yeah, it's been a discussion, and I don't understand if you're not going to answer We have access to various panels, etc. But still, it would be great for us to be able to have a centralised approach. That's currently what we're doing. We've spoken to the market. We have a top-tier law firm that said they would like to work with us on the trial, where on each specific day of the week, we have a partner from that law firm engaged to be able to provide us the highest level of advice.
03:27:00 Centralising that through my office, so that I can understand where we're going with our legal spend, what we're doing, where there's opportunities for savings, etc. But getting to the partner for the review of clear advice quite quickly, and then we have the ability that should it be a matter that we need further work or an actual written brief, we can then work through and engage on that. So we've got a three-month trial that commenced a couple of weeks ago now, and it's great. Between ourselves and the law firm, where we're trashing out something that's completely new for the government, that will wrap up in February. We'll provide a report to the council. Awesome. Awesome. And then we'll have the recommendations. One of the recommendations may be in-house. The view may be around that, though, is that if we do have in-house legal, what that actually does is provide somebody that still needs to go to get the different types of legal advice for you, because we're such a broad business. But what we're turning, what we're doing at the moment is we're trialling and insourcing legal model.
03:28:00 But insourcing legal, as opposed to bringing in-house. But having a single firm that has a number of partners and specialties at a high level that gives us the ability to get the advice that we need, quick turnaround on a daily basis. And, yeah, it's pretty successful. We're working on it. Mayor Stewart: We'll bring that back to council. What about retainer, Scott? Speaker 7: Similar. Similar to retainer. And we could utilise that model. This is one, though, where, yeah, look, a retainer is an easy way to describe it, but there are a couple of layers in there in that if we need more complex advice, we will need to work through on charges there. But we've been able to negotiate a better rate then as well, too, with any of the legal charges as well. So we have a set weekly fee that accesses the different partners and the different disciplines of law that we need. Yeah. And then if we need further advice, that then comes to us at a cheaper rate.
03:29:00 But centralised through my office. Yeah. We have clear oversight as to what's happening within the business. Gives us the ability to have our hand over what's happening, report to council, and that will then start to close the loop. And if the insourcing model works, which I haven't seen in local government before, again, Noosa doing something different ahead of the tax. Fantastic. We might be able to, yeah, set a bit of a trend with legals. Mayor Stewart: Because retainers are quite common in the corporate world. Speaker 7: Absolutely. Yeah. Pick up the vine and have your triple A legal advice that you need on the other end. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. And so we're working through that for complete openness for the council. We have excluded plan at the moment on the basis that we do have specific matters, specialists engaged there. So this is for more day-to-day council advice. But depending on how this trial goes, we could take that next step to put something in place on a similar basis for planning.
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03:30:00 But planning is remaining separate at this time. Just to clarify. Sorry. Go on. Just to clarify. Sorry about having more. Councillor Wilkie: I think one of the things that we're really looking forward to as I'm starting is about having, do you ever look at certain consultants who have a greater range of expertise within their firm that we can liaise with through your office, depending on the nature of the matter? Speaker 7: That's absolutely right, Deputy Mayor. It really is that ability for us to be able to access a firm that has a number of legal disciplines and that on specific days of the week we can access that. We've got a lot of different ways to do that, but on a more general basis if we need something more quickly we can just go directly to where we need to. A little bit of a different way of doing it, it takes some of this work out of the governance team, allows them to be able to focus. And then we start to make decisions as to whether we start to employ staff with legal qualifications on a hard and fast legal basis. Does insourcing work, a retainer model, what we're doing previously, is that a way to go? But we've got some really good ideas.
03:31:00 Councillor Lorentson: So at the end of the three month trial, the report will be coming to Council and moving ahead, will it go through proper procurement processes and will local law firms be given an opportunity to tender for the work? Speaker 7: Through the Chair, absolutely. A report in March, that's what we'll be looking at. But the trial over the three months will wrap up in February. We have followed the procurement process, so we've undertaken the engagement through the Queensland Procurement Panel process. We've ensured that that did occur. We've also had a specific contract in place, so our procurement team has been able to deliver that for us. Trial, three month basis, review, we've advised that firm as well that we will need to go to the market at the end of the trial, but this is very much that. And yeah, we would welcome anybody who feels that they can provide the diverse amount of legal services that we require, should this be a model we take forward, to improve the process.
03:32:00 Terrific. Thank you. Joe. Councillor Jurisevic: CEO, employee costs, year to date underspend for permanent salaries and wages is nearly a million dollars. It's only October. We've either got a lot of vacancies that we need to fill, we need to work on, or, and we've just had a discussion about that, more permanent positions within the organisation. So, is that a concern, that we've got such a large underspend at this early part of the year? Speaker 7: To the Chair, Councillor Jurisdiction. It is, but we will see in the operational report where we've started to be able to address what was a difficult situation around staff attraction and retention. So we're actually in benchmarking on the FTE turnover in the operational report. We'll see that we've actually delivered one of our best results since the de-amalgamated period that began for this Council.
03:33:00 That's why we're working so hard on our employee culture, our rewarding recognition, putting values in place. That's one part of the really big picture for us. All Councils are facing difficulties. A million underspend, it's substantial, but that is ensuring, though, that we do have the funds available to pay for every role. Our HR team is absolutely flat out with recruitment. And where we also, and with our last round of Council meetings where we had the ability to make the decision for conversion of temps and casuals, really important for us to be able to solidify our workforce. Changing economic circumstances will help us, I believe, as far as the attraction and retention. Once the economy starts to find itself in difficulty, government is very much a safe harbour compared to the private sector.
03:34:00 So we think there will be a number of different factors at play. But look, it's a million underspend. Noting, though, that we do have a certified agreement and we do have the requirement to meet CPI for our certified staff. Believing that by the time we get there in February of next year, it will be sitting at circa 8%. That will need to flow. So there's a number of, again, a number of parts to this that having a million dollars underspend at this point in time, while that puts pressure on our business due to vacancies, it's not about outcome knowing that there are potentially some issues ahead and that we'll need to be able to ensure that we can have funds available and budgeted for. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll be keeping an eye on that one over the year because that's, you know, on a monthly basis, that's a significant underspend. The other one there, training costs. 21% is slightly under it. What are we, July, August, September, October, four months in.
03:35:00 We should be closer to 30, 30 plus. Keeping an eye on that. I know through the annual, through the corporate plan, we've also talked about apprentices, opportunity for apprentices, traineeships and graduates and council to be a training facilitator for the community. I'm working in conjunction maybe with those business partnerships and looking at how we can maybe even cycle apprentices through for a period so they get an element of government employment as well as private industry employment to see the different elements of facilitation. So is that, I know that doesn't specifically come under training costs, but are those sort of training spends and looking at those opportunities something you're focusing on? And will that come out of? Out of training costs? Speaker 7: To the Chair, Councillor Jurisevic, that would be an employee benefit cost, so employee benefit wise. While the traineeships are that, they're training in nature.
03:36:00 What we have there with training spend is specific to, and probably better termed in a more modern way of learning and development. We are though very, very conscious, and this is through the CEO roadshows that we've had face to face with our staff, is that they are yearning to get as much training as they can. Historically, we know there's an under spend there, but we've moved quite a lot. We're now, I think, starting to see that training and the training matrix through learning and development being put in place that delivers what are the tickets, what are the statutory requirements to be able to particularly have our outside workforce confined. Then where do we start to be able to assist in the plethora of training opportunities we have available? I know our manager of people and culture is looking at a, a Sunshine Coast regional registered training organisation, an RTO, to be able to outsource some of this training and be able to provide a very clear pathway to training and our spend.
03:37:00 When we look at our spend, it's a sizeable figure. To have that back in the local community is fantastic. So what's statutory required, what then are the development pieces that we need, and then what are some of the nicer bits to be able to add? We've got to have around training, but money's being spent. It's a focus. The exec is across it, and we're really wanting to be able to have that as the priority. We'll keep reporting those figures for you. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, to double win if we have local providers that we can facilitate with that. Yes, yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Robert, here we go. Another question to you, Trent. In regards to all matters STA, our local laws, our compliance officers, the people that do registration, a lot of questions in community about who pays. My question is for the next financial performance report, would it be possible to have perhaps a breakdown of the short-term accommodation transitory rate revenue?
03:38:00 So how much extra are we collecting since we've introduced the transitory rate? And where is that money being spent? And in terms of our local laws, STA local laws, where is that money coming from? I don't know if that's your job or whether you, just to give a little bit of clarity, is it a user pays type system, or is the general rate payers paying for local laws compliance? Speaker 8: Through the Chair? Sure, we can include that deep dive for next month's financial report. I'll be sorry and thank you. Thanks. Councillor Wilkie: Great. Just a question. How would you, if transitory rate rates, so the rate charge of the transitory accommodation goes to a general rate, are you able to provide the amount rates take and you provide the
03:39:00 amount of rates take from those STA properties? Because once it goes into general, it's general, but if it's, we can understand the cost on the cost of applying the local law as a proportion of the amount of rates taken from all STA properties. Sure. Speaker 8: Through the Chair. So what I can provide is, we have, as you mentioned, we have a higher marginal general rate category for transitory. We also separately have fees and charges under the local law. Two revenue sources. Yeah. Okay. And then in terms of expenditure, we have staff and supporting on costs associated with the operation of local law. What you will find is the higher marginal general rate, as you mentioned Frank, will
03:40:00 get dispersed across the organisation in all its activities in a similar way to the rest of the general rate. So, but what you'll find is obviously there'll be an element of that which would be otherwise funding the revenue shortfall to full cost recovery for the local law. So we have a general rate. There's an element of that that is funding the full cost of the short stay local law, but the rest of it is getting dispersed to fund, like everything else at a general rate, all the activities generally across the organisation, whether that's community services. Councillor Wilkie: Roads. Speaker 8: Roads, internal services, et cetera, et cetera. Sorry. But I'll give a breakdown and I'll present that for you. That would be excellent. Councillor Jurisevic: I don't believe we've reached anything near cost recovery yet. No, we haven't councillor. So there's nothing additional going out. Speaker 8: I'm the SCA. Councillor Wilkie: The SCA local law general. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. Speaker 8: As councillor through the chair, yes, if you recall the budget adoption we did for
03:41:00 the adoption of some of those renewal costs, that would have taken us close to the cost recovery. So that's what you'll see come through. Councillor Jurisevic: So there's nothing surplus coming out of that. I mean, it's all being funded. Speaker 8: That's right. So it's cross-opted. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Happy to move. I'll second it. Thank you, Trent, for another comprehensive report. I just have a question. The excess spend in IT, is that due to any, an increase in cyber attacks or what's the reason for the excess spend? Speaker 8: Yes. So earlier in the financial year, one of the things that was adopted was new contracts for our service providers. So there was a cost increase associated with the tender we went out to market for, for our network providers, so cost increase associated with that. In terms of some of our audit actions, there's some cost increases associated with some of
03:42:00 the cyber security framework, et cetera, that we're putting in place. And then coming with that is that the more staff we have, the more licenses and costs that we have associated with that. So the further we increase our staff costs, it then has a flow-on effect to IT in terms of resourcing for hardware and software and licenses. Councillor Wilkie: Anybody else wish to speak? Financial report. I put the motion to those in favour. Carried unanimously. Thank you, Trent. Thanks, Trish. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Last but not least. Second last. Councillor Jurisevic: Second last. Second last. Second last but not least. Not second last. Speaker 7: Council please schedule 2023. Scott. Chair, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to present the report. Councillors, as part of the requirements of the local government, our Council must adopt a meeting scheduled prior to the end of each calendar year detailing the meetings that
03:43:00 will be had to be able to fulfil our requirements. As a Council, we need to have one ordinary meeting per month as per the Act. We achieved that. As you know, we run our committee system here in Doosa between planning, environment, services and organisation, leading to general committee, of which we're in today, and the final decision made out of all of those committees culminating in the ordinary meeting, knowing that when our decisions are made, it will actually occur at the ON. We are proposing as officers, and thank you very much for the opportunity to present the report and for your input at the last Council discussion forum, to be able to run largely the same schedule that we have had over this term, being the S&O, P&E, general, leading then into the ordinary meeting. Albeit, there will be one change there, and that is for the general committee meeting to commence at 12.30 on a Monday afternoon.
03:44:00 And the reason to have that 12.30 start, as we discussed, it gives Councillors and officers the opportunity to be able to meet and discuss and work through any potential issues that may be coming up in the meeting, or any additional information that may be required. We are finding, and I'm sure Councillors are finding it as well too, that over the weekends, when we get the opportunity to open our papers, we get a flurry of different requests and emails from everybody, and from time to time, we may feel a little bit rushed on a Monday morning. So this just gives us some extra time, so moving from 10am to 12.30pm, we're finding that most meetings last between, at the most, five to six hours. That would still wrap us up around about that five o'clock mark for us with decision making. What we've also, and for transparency, we've put into the report that we will have an internal agenda workshop. We will have this at the beginning of each month. That would be the day before the agenda is released to you Councillors and officers.
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03:45:00 We will have an internal agenda workshop for P&E and S&O. We have about a week in between the agenda release and having P&E and S&O, so give Councillors as much time as possible to digest that information. We will have it. It's not a decision making forum. We must be clear around that. It's that opportunity for Council officers to be able to engage directly with the Council, to be able to advise that at this month's P&E meeting, Councillors, there will be five reports. Here's the reports. Here's the key areas, Council, that we're trying to achieve as Council officers. Do you have any questions about that? It also gives us the opportunity, not just on that engagement basis, that if we as officers have got something completely wrong, we have the ability to pull that out of the agenda before that gets in there. So we can go back, workshop that further with you and we have that ability to be able to bring reports to the table for you that we as officers know what is the direction of
03:46:00 the Council. Not the decision, but we can understand where the Council is wanting to go and what Council is wanting to achieve. It's not within the notified meeting schedule because it's not a meeting of Council. It's not a decision making forum. It follows the same formats as what we have in place with our current workshops, albeit though that this will have a specific theme on the agenda only. Shared either by the Mayor, Deputy Mayor or myself, the different directors and then specialist staff coming in to talk to you about what is there to consider over this month. If we have some reports that are going direct to general, we can talk to you about that and why. And that gives us the ability, the day before our minutes and agenda secretaries get to that final stage of hitting the button and building that agenda for you, that we can make sure that we know that what we put before you for decision making is going to be as best as we can make it, as smooth as possible. It's also, and for the community to understand, this is not about officers asking for a rubber
03:47:00 stamp from Council before the meeting. Slowing down debate or conversation is really helping with those points of clarifications and questions and we can see even from today, lots of questions and clarifications from Council. Some of these we may have been able to deal with. At an agenda workshop. Others though, Council will still want, it's been clarified, an agenda workshop and Council wants to ask the question again to ensure that the community fully understands the decision we're making and that we're fully informed. We're also happy to be able to do that as well. But we really want to be able to ensure that officers are engaging in the very best possible way. So really only two changes for you that we're recommending. General Committee moving from 10am to 12.30. We'll have an internal agenda workshop that we wanted to put forward as part of this report so that people are aware that that was being undertaken. Also noting though, December starts late in 2023.
03:48:00 I think the 1st of December is a Thursday. What that does with our meeting schedules is push us back a little bit where our ordinary meeting for 2023 will be on the 21st of December. What we're requesting is, please let this run through the adoption process. As it stands now, we will bring that back to Council and we might look at how we can adjust that meeting schedule a few days out from Christmas. While we all work 24-7, we do need a break. And I think if we can move that, that would be helpful for us as well. Councillor Jurisevic: That would make sense, Mr CEO, because we've got a three week period between the end of the November round of meetings before we begin committee in December. So I think moving it a week earlier would be a good idea. It's late. Councillor Wilkie: It would be. Councils would have to get their Christmas performances prepared earlier. Yeah. Get your priorities right. Councillor Jurisevic: We could always shove the ordering meeting to Christmas Day, if you like.
03:49:00 Mayor Stewart: You might be hearing your own joke. Councillor Lorentson: Just a question. Yep. A question. In terms of the internal agenda workshop, will it be live streamed? Speaker 7: No. No. And can you explain why? No. Yeah. Through the Chair, Councillor Morrison, it's not a notified meeting with Council following the same workshop formats that we have for numerous matters already. I think it's important that Council has the opportunity to be able to work with officers. But no, we wouldn't. And once again, this is something a bit different that we're trying. It's about ensuring that our officers can fulfil your requirements and the questions that you're asking. And I think that's something that we're trying to do. But it doesn't take away from the committee leading to the ordinary meeting process, where there is a large opportunity for the community to see and work with us on the decisions that
03:50:00 we're making through the ordinary meeting. But no, we wouldn't do that. Councillor Jurisevic: So, Mr. CEO, do you need us to move an amendment here for that December round? I see March and December are the two that seem to have that three-week facilitation to the next round of meetings. It falls through into April, and that becomes Easter. So it means that March, at least with April, and Easter, it means that we come into the first round, the meetings after the Easter period. But in December, it seems that we're pushing it back, and we're actually adding a third week in between November and December unnecessarily. Should we make that recommendation now to move it forward, or what? Speaker 7: Through the Chair, Councillor Jurisevic, two ways forward on this. Allow us to have a look at it, and we can come back to you for the ordinary meeting. Or we could move an amendment now that we bring that forward a week. But I think let's have a look at that. Councillor Jurisevic: I'll let you have a look at it. It seems fairly evident and obvious to me that that makes December different from all
03:51:00 the other months. Councillor Wilkie: Would you like to move it, Joe? Would you move the motion as is? Yes. Councillor Jurisevic: Okay. I'll move the motion now that the December round of meetings be brought to commence on the 5th and finish on the 14th of December, in line with all the other months. Speaker 2: Sorry. Councillor Wilkie: That means there's a set out in the attachment? Councillor Jurisevic: No, it's not the set out. Councillor Wilkie: Is it yours? Councillor Jurisevic: No. The set out says it starts on the 12th and finishes on the 21st, and that, actually, after the November round of meetings is three weeks after the November instead of two weeks, which is the normal cycle. Councillor Wilkie: Yes. I meant something different by the question. That's fine. Councillor Jurisevic: So I'll move the recommendation with that change. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Wilkie: I'm happy to second. Thanks, Karen. Councillor Jurisevic: Can you just cut?
03:52:00 Joe? I think that's it. I wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't in line with that. Okay. I think we're moving on to the next week, which is the meeting cycles. The meeting cycles in all other months. It just seems that with 52 weeks a year, in four weekly cycles, we get two five-week periods as opposed to all four-week periods. So I think it's just logical to bring that forward to be in line. Right. Councillor Wilkie: Any other discussion? No. No. Put the vote at the favour. That's carried unanimously. Speaker 7: Thank you Chair. Council, our first quarter operating reports noting that we are working through a corporate planning process at the moment and this will somewhat change in the new year. So it is following what we have with our current performance indicators and the work that we are undertaking as a council. It is interesting to see that we have had an increase on the previous year in the amount of actions that we are undertaking. We have had over 90 operational and sub-operational initiatives or actions as a council. That is a 16% increase than the previous financial year.
03:53:00 Sixteen or sixty? Sixteen. So we are dealing in difficult circumstances with the traction and retention of staff as a big capital program. As you can see we are a busy council and delivering on what your mandate is for us and the community. For July to September, noting that this is as at 30 September, there are five new initiatives that are yet to be started. There are 15 behind schedule and I want to go through those with you a little bit further. Sixty-seven are on track and should have been completed for this year. I have added some commentary. On each of the individual items in there that are behind it. So hopefully it provides some more information.
03:54:00 Councillor Jurisevic: It is the commentary that concerns me. I want to do them because it just takes the item into a different context. Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah. Some of these and we can go through on a one by one basis. 1.3 is a good example of that. The team are advising that this is on track as at 30 September. However, we do note that we've had a project control group meeting around zero emissions and Council raised some concerns as to how the officers were tracking, being able to have internal meetings and briefings on that. I'm now more satisfied as to the approach that's being undertaken and the work that we need to undertake to get to zero emissions with the targets that are in so many of our plans and policies of 2026. So the team are sort of working towards that. They'll have some more information. That is saying that it's on track at the moment.
03:55:00 I understand Council concerns. But from where we are sitting, further information provisions of Council and clear information will demonstrate where that is truly on track. The waste strategy, that is behind schedule. We had the corporate plan take priority of that. We only have so much time that we can get into your diaries. Without having you here 24-7. So that has stepped back. But as the corporate plan is now getting to its final stages, the waste plan, waste strategy comes straight on and becomes a very clear delivery. Councillor Jurisevic: Please. Speaker 7: It is important. Item 1.5, I added a commentary there that the internal resource will note that that's an issue for us. That's impacted our delivery during the first quarter. SEMP will be delivered in 2023. There have been some issues with permitting. We're monitoring that and we do have, we're ensuring that we're watching as the current weather systems that come through.
03:56:00 Not just with the current Romania, but that will be coming through for us in the summer period as an effect on that particular area. So working very closely with the Director of Infrastructure Services around that. Item 1.7 has not commenced due to resourcing and also implemented as an action of the waste strategy. Councillor Jurisevic: So yeah, can I ask that you separate those a little more? Because it reads as the SEMP is being monitored for delivery in 2022 and it hasn't commenced because the resourcing will be implemented on the waste strategy. That's right. It doesn't read right. Speaker 7: It doesn't. I do take your point. It's how those actions are grouped. Councillor Jurisevic: I had to go back to 1.7 and go, how are those, how will those two come together? Speaker 7: They are separate actions, but within a particular theme of the operational plan. Item 2.3, that's with regards to our library vehicle. We're just awaiting vehicle delivery there.
03:57:00 All vehicles, doesn't matter where you are right now, are held up and that's impacted us. Mayor Stewart: This is damaged in transit. Speaker 7: Yeah, I'll get you some more information. And we've got the wrap that has been put around the vehicle, which has some fantastic Indigenous art there as well. So not specifically Kabi art, but it's great Indigenous art. So we're waiting on that to be delivered. That's behind schedule. Item 2.8, there's two items that are there. They'll be on track for block two. The DMP project is behind schedule, item 3.2. And you are aware that that is behind schedule. I have been able to not only have a discussion with you, Councillor, during the CDF that we had last week, but then also worked with some of our project control group members and then with our director on this. And we have a way forward.
03:58:00 We have the team delivering some work for us at the moment to be able to get that back on track for us. First and foremost, a project plan that is endorsed by the PCG. Item 4.1 is behind schedule. That will return and be back on track for quarter two. Noosa Wood's jetty project will commence in quarter three. Item 4.5... Councillor Jurisevic: Just to clarify, that's only a feasibility project. In reading that, someone would think we're actually building a jetty. So again, language and terminology in the shorthand might... Speaker 7: And I would ask for anybody that is reading the report, ensure, please, that you have the report side by side. This additional information that we're providing, our current reporting doesn't allow us to have a huge amount of commentary and some points of clarification there as well. Councillor Wilkie: So 4.1, there's two items under 4.1. That's correct. So does your comment relate to both items under 4.1? Speaker 7: That's correct. Councillor Wilkie: Both items to be on track at Q2.
03:59:00 Speaker 7: 4.2, Noosa Wood's jetty feasibility project will commence in Q3. 4.5, this project... That will be delivered as part of the corporate plan. 5.1, in quarter two, will be reported to Council in Q3. That's 5.1, rather. 5.2 is to commence in Q3. 5.3, we're working with Council's ICT provider, Tech One. And as Trent just advised you a moment ago, that's... Yeah, we're working very closely there. We're seeing some really great results. That comes with better engagement with Tech One. Some additional staff coming into that area that came through the budget has been very helpful for us. Our employee values program is now in place. We will be delivering our staff survey in quarter three. So we really want it to be able to not only deliver on what the staff survey asked us to do last year,
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04:00:00 but put the values program in place with all the recognition around that and be able to start to put the survey... It will be a pulse survey. We'll report that back through to Council. They'll give us an idea of how our business is tracking and how our employees are feeling. On 5.5, again, it's ongoing work with Council's ICT provider, Tech One. 5.9, Council's community engagement plan will be completed in Q3. COVID review ends at Q3. We'll come ambitious in relation to that. The team have been holding on as to how do we review what's occurred for us in COVID. Just when we think that we're out of the woods, we are back in the thick of dealing with COVID issues. We had an outbreak here only a number of weeks ago. We're able to get back to zero COVID. Started with one case last week. We're now up to four.
04:01:00 So it's a constant battle. And then that destructed the business. Some staff and some people with COVID will recover relatively quickly. Look, it's just a cold and fluke. Others dealing with long COVID symptoms. It's quite debilitating. So we are working through that. And a number of emails just through this morning to be able to check through how to respond to the state government's annual alert. We won't be mandating masks. We support anybody that would like to wear a mask. We'll continue to monitor if we have some outbreaks that are occurring. But at this point in time, it's contained. And we definitely like the no-master policy. If you are unwell, stay at home. Come in online. Don't spread. What we have is definitely the mantra for us. Councillor Lorentson: Sorry, in terms of the COVID injuries, those on leave, are they the psychological injuries that's referred to?
04:02:00 That's different. So those on COVID leave, that's COVID. But under just general workers' comp? Speaker 7: Or leave? Yeah, we have a specific policy in place. So we have COVID leave. That provides up to five days. We've continued that policy. We did as an executive talk about limiting that as around about 30 June of this year. A lot of South East Queensland councils have. We've decided to continue to review in the new year. So we have five days of COVID leave that's available at the moment. Then our expectation is start to exhaust your personal sick leave, annual leave, long service. And then it's a discussion with myself as to, okay, how are you feeling? And what we can do to assist. But we aren't treating COVID as a workplace health and safety injury. Okay. Yeah. On 5.10, again, there's another item that's co-joined. Our internal audit review will complete by Q3.
04:03:00 Our next audit committee meeting is in a couple of weeks. We're going to have a meeting in March. We really want to be able to, and following on from the recent meeting that we had with our external members of the audit committee, really start to get in and review and put in what resources that we need around internal audit. Work with council on what a broader internal audit plan might look like. What are the areas through the audit committee that you want to look at where we can improve and how we can get really a pipeline of audits in place? So we take away the word audit, and we talk about improvement actions or continuous improvement. The second someone hears audit, it's bad. It's a problem. Yeah, that's true. It should just be about improvement. How are we running the business? What's an area? We do our deep dive reports. That's historically something that we've done. How do we get deep dive out of reporting into where are some gaps? How can we actually make it better? So that'll be part of that review. Sorry, is this something that the external committee will consult with the system?
04:04:00 With the system? Or is this a separate one? We keep that separate. Yeah, we keep that separate, and we would look at specific auditors that have skill sets, not dissimilar to the audit that we did recently for development assessment. We had done a number of audits across South East Queensland. They were engaged. They were engaged. But some of the, yeah, specific audit firms would be the ones that we would look at for that. Thanks. Councillor, it takes you through to the report to the key performance indicators. I haven't spent time on the finances, because we've just received that report, and we're aware of what our financial position is as a council. But I've put in place the historical staff turnover as a percentage. And as you can see, look, we've had a high turnover in this before, the FTEs. We're slowing down with that. Definitely our casual and temps combined had a really high turnover, where they've traditionally
04:05:00 been quite stable. We think we have the right positioning and policy settings in place to manage that now. Conversion of temps and casuals that are acting for intents and purposes as FTEs. That process is being worked through. We're very much celebrating our employee base, doing everything that we can to be able to provide the best feedback that we can. We don't always get it right. It's noted at the table and through our emails as well, the amount of thanks and the way that council is ensuring that staff are recognised for the hard work that they do. So we really thank them. It does make a difference. It's important. Yeah, it does make a difference. And we look at some of the pieces of work that we deliver. This is one person's role that they put their heart and soul into day in, day out, for you to make a decision on. So when you say thank you to their great work, that actually means a lot. We're in a different position because we see everything.
04:06:00 We see so much that's going on. But that individual staff member is really just delivering one component for the business. And they've put a lot of work and time and effort in there. Councils, we've just undertaken, through our insurer, LGMS, our workplace health and safety audit, awaiting those results. I have to say that no red flags came across my desk during that audit. I did offer the auditor that any concerns, please, my door's open. Come straight through. We do have some longer term injuries that you'll see. And they're psychological claims. We're working on that. I believe they'll be finalised with a weekend, hopefully by the end of this year. That's what we're looking at there. That's causing our stats to move quite a bit with those long term LCIs. But we've had a strong transition with Dan now, heading up our workplace health and safety area. Really happy with the work that we're undertaking in workplace health and safety.
04:07:00 So that's going well for us. The audit will help us be able to understand exactly where our gaps are and what we can do better there. You'll see also in the report call centre wait times. This is something that I really want to be able to work with the customer service team upon. We're seeing different days of the week where we're peaking. I want to be able to work out what our trends are and then start to be able to resource more appropriately in those different areas and times. But then also our frontline customer service staff doing a great job getting calls literally at the coalface. It's how they manage past there. What happens when it goes into the back of office? How are we managing the customer service metrics around that? Because we need to do more than just how long we're in the queue. How many abandonment calls did we get? How long did the call go for? That's great. But then what happens next? And that's some work we need to do with ICT between two different systems.
04:08:00 May put a report to you in the future and you'll hear it when you ring any of the major companies that your call may be recorded. What we'll start to do on that, if that's something where council wants to go, it's not about recording the conversation as such, whereas that's useful. We're able to pull keywords out of conversations from a sentiment analysis basis. And then we've got the ability to be able to understand what's actually being requested, what are the hot topics. What's coming through council? What can we fix? What can we do better? So that's something that we would bring. There would always be a report to council because that is a very important topic for the council to discuss that can help improve our customer service. Councillor Jurisevic: Well, I think we've discussed it before. The element there with regard to email correspondence in particular and a customer request is that no sign off until the last point is that the customer has been contacted and has a response once going back to them outlining what has occurred. Speaker 7: Yes. Picking up on those between the customer relationship management system and the call system which
04:09:00 is running in two separate ways. Bring it all back together. Be able to triage. Get to an outcome. Customers aware. May not always be what the customer wants with that outcome. No. But they at least know. Councillor Jurisevic: At least they know what and potentially the why behind. That doesn't matter. Speaker 7: Council, we didn't have any confidential items that were considered during the time. However, just noting that we did close when we were discussing in PCG for the DMP. That was a closed discussion but not a closed decision in such only for a particular part of that decision or any period of time. That definitely was not a confidential item. That was put to the council in that respect. Council, thank you. You too. I'm looking forward to it. I am putting the file to the council. I think we're going to have to get some of the staff to say you will be on track for Q2. So I really want that to occur. This is important and we can evolve from what we have now to what our corporate plan and
04:10:00 ultimately then our operational plan on a yearly basis looks like. Getting that into a great position. Having more rich data that we're reporting on what we're doing, how we're doing well, how we can do better. Really want to be able to get that visualised data for you and the community. And yeah, it's great pay as money. We understand. We're held to account. We want to get the best service for the funds that we're providing. Really happy to take any questions. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you Scott. Brian. Yeah, just following on in terms of the customer service type issues. I'm looking at the one on number of requests received per month. Yes. It's fairly flat. Yes. But then if you go down and you see average seconds of wait time and phone queues, there's clear pink. We've got one this year in September, which we had in 2021. There's another one in January, February and the other one, it appears to be school
04:11:00 holiday related. Speaker 7: And race. And race. Race. Race time. Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Stockwell. Yeah. Well, that's generally the big one at that time that we're getting to the final payment requirement for race. And dog renewals. Dog renewals are there as well. Yes. But yeah, race is that one where we're getting to the stage of rates are due, phone calls come in. So we're seeing that the data's there. It's like, okay, well, how do we then manage start leave, holidays, school holidays though Deputy Mayor Stockwell: as opposed to difficult time? Overall, the September isn't remarkable exactly. In fact, we're down. But the phone calls went up. So it's in a particular area. Yes. Yeah. Speaker 7: And visualising this data, it's great, isn't it? We can just pick up the issues. How do we then manipulate and move the workforce in a way that's going to help us deliver better service? Councillor Wilkie: Councillor Lorentson is seconded.
04:12:00 Councillor Jurisic. Amelia. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: You've said it all, Scott. But I'd just like to just note that, like many of the reports that have come to Council, this general meeting, this is yet again another commitment of Council to transparency and also accountability. I go back to what I say quite a bit. You can't manage what you can't measure. And I'm loving the KPI assessments and the support that you've given us. And the statistics that are coming to our reporting each and every month. So, yep. For me, it's important to understand how we're doing and whether we're over-committing. And as Council's about to approach our budget deliberations next year, it may be wise for us to take note of how many items are behind schedule. And maybe we should slow down a little bit, too.
04:13:00 And I think it's important for us to take note of how many items are behind schedule before us. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, we'll go light on you in the first quarter of your first full financial year. So, yeah, well, be prepared for a gilling in the circuit. All right. Speaker 7: I'm ready. I'm ready. Thank you. Thank you, guys. It's Christmas. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Brian. Another question. And you highlighted that in the last financial year, we got the turnover down to 6.2. But when we looked at the next graph down, which shows the first month of September, it's also at 6.2. But that's higher than any of the two previous years. So is that – that is – that's got a carryover of that average, if I'm not mistaken? Speaker 7: It is. Yes, it is. Yeah, it's a real issue for us. Every council's facing. And it goes to Councillor Jurisevic's point before, and it's a real issue for us.
04:14:00 We've got a lot of training ships, graduates. Local government needs to get into a space that we've got to grow our own. Our ageing population and the attractiveness of local government over a long period of time has seen that we do have an older workforce. We – you know, I had in my CEO open door some of our longest-term employees come in and say, we're worried. We're going to – we will retire in five years. And, you know, we don't see not only the skills in the marketplace, but we don't have staff. So these are significant changes that are happening just within our society that local government and my CEO colleagues, we're all looking at this going, okay, graduates, trainings, rebuild the workforce, bring them in. The corporate knowledge that gets lost with the – Councillor Jurisevic: That's – that's – that's the most – that's the most concerning one. Yeah. The corporate knowledge that if there isn't somebody passing – Yeah. Speaker 7: Yeah. And your traineeships, your apprentices, they pick that up because they're side-by-side
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04:15:00 with somebody who's got the experience. So, yeah, look, it's a concern. It's sitting at 6.2 at the moment. It's slightly getting on down on – on the average. But we want to see that trend continue and then how we're able to rebuild the workforce over time. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: In next quarter – Speaker 7: Yes. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We can do nothing in the – they'll go down because we just created a whole lot of casuals in the permanent. So, therefore, we – we have a higher base for – Speaker 7: We'll – we'll – we'll – yeah, we'll see how that goes. Councillor Jurisevic: We'll see how that goes. Smoke and mirrors. We'll see how that goes. Smoke and mirrors. Speaker 7: Look, I'm – I'm not – not with this council. Mayor Stewart: Council of Jurisdiction. Look, I will. I just think – Claire. Yeah, again, it's – it's – it's another great document that we've had before us today of – of the breadth and depth of work we have going on.
04:16:00 And – and when I look through that, I always look at the words behind schedule, and there's a lot more on tracks or completed than behind schedule, certainly on tracks. So, you know, again, there's so much on the plate of a limited number of staff. The staff should be very much congratulated. Look, we've still got work to do. Things aren't finalised. There's a lot of things in progress, but it hasn't been easy for them. So I want to take this opportunity to thank them coming into Christmas too. It's been a tough year. It started off with the floods and on the back of COVID, we're still hearing it's affecting our workforce and we've heard rising costs and supply shortages and worker shortages. So I think all of that on the back of, if you put that to any business, we're all struggling. We're all the same. So I think that amount of work is testament to our staff and how they bat above their average and do so much than what they're required to do. So please pass on our thanks to them. Thank you.
04:17:00 Councillor Wilkie: I particularly like the time you put into outlining where we're lagging behind. I think it's very important to highlight the areas we could do better in. And thank you for that. I have two questions. 2.8 is review of the local disaster management plan. The outcome is, we're doing it because we can deliver an increased local area capability for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery in a disaster. We're coming up to another one in your period. Does this lead us to expose the body of work plans before the season arrives? Speaker 7: Will it be done? You might want to step in there if it doesn't. Q2, the team will be able to have this on track and deliver. It is very much just an update and a refresh on what was already there. As an executive, we sat around the table in Oxford, each other, we'll get each other and have the conversation as are we ready? Will we deal with the issues that have come to us and is there a resounding yes?
04:18:00 There is a lot of anxiety, not only in the community, but also the staff. I know not again. What are we going to get? We don't have that crystal ball, but what we can say and particularly with what Larry, as a director of infrastructure and for me, my 2IC, James and everybody that's dealing with the event and the recovery that's going through community, we run well. I can't say how impressed I was as somebody new coming in and seeing the event this year. It's been a bloody worse night. It's not fair that you don't get a smooth run into the business. CEO wasn't needed. Sharp response, so that hasn't changed. The personnel haven't changed. Our relationships are strong, particularly with QPS. We'll have a new IIC of Noosa station starting that has a fantastic disaster management background in central and north Queensland, so they'll be ready.
04:19:00 Is this a QPS station? QPS. QPS. QPS. We've got the majority of it right. The water went where we thought it would go. So yeah, I'm confident as to where we sit. Thank you, Scott. That was difficult. The other question I have is, Councillor Wilkie: is there any one issue that makes you keep your wife alive? There's a few. Speaker 7: Can you tell us what they are? Seven. There's a few.
04:20:00 Mayor Stewart: Some more than others. I'll speak from an operation. Speaker 7: Thank you. We spoke about it as a highlight there. Our staff base. Getting stability in the staff base. Our cost of living. Those Black Swan events that we just don't know that we can prep as much as we want, but what's going to happen next. We then start to look at our waste facility. I want to spend a lot more time understanding exactly where we've been and where we're going in place. I think we've got a fantastic resource there for the manager. I'm comfortable though where we're looking at making some realignment to the structure. The directors are working on that at the moment to bring to council. I think if you as a council go, great, that makes sense. This will line up some of our functions better. So we'll be able to deal with some of those keeping me awake at night type moments. Workplace settlement and safety is always it.
04:21:00 I have ultimate responsibility for it. We run such a diverse business. I've got people throughout the Shire right now from contractors on the beach doing surf life saving to somebody with an excavator in the hinterland to customer service facing library teams. At any moment that time can go and something's happened. So that's always in the back of the mind. But yeah, really for us it's getting stability within our workforce, understanding our community, changing needs, requirements, delivering to that. Dealing with that. Dealing with some of the political issues that happen out in the community is another big one for us. Again, it goes to that stability of delivery of services. But look, we're a good council a punch above our weight. You know, we have $117 million in operating expenditure. FTE, including caters and temps, it's about $500. We're a decent sized business, not just delivering one product. We are delivering such a diverse amount of services to a community.
04:22:00 And it's a complex business. ICT is going well. The team, we're resourcing up. We want to be able to bring them out of their shell more. The more that we can do with ICT, the more streamlined we make our services, the more that we can start to free up positions and roles and revenue to do other things. So there's work being done there. But yeah, there's a few bits and pieces that keep you awake at night. But overall, we're committed. The team are wanting to get in and deliver. So I think we'll find within the next staff survey that we may have turned that corner a little bit. But if not, we'll put the parameters in place to make it better. But we're investing a lot of time and staff, which we're more than happy to do tomorrow. Thank you, Scott. Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: I'll put the motion to those in favour.
04:23:00 Unanimous. Oh, sorry, Brian. Oh, Brian. Councillor Jurisevic: He does it to him every time.