Services & Organisation Committee Agenda - 6 May 2025 Transcript

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY ¶

▶ 00:00:35

00:01:00 Moved by Councillor Wilkie, seconded by Councillor Phillips. We'll take it to the vote. Is there any comments? All in favour? And that's unanimous. Thank you. We're up to item number four for presentations. There are no presentations. There are no deputations. We're moving into item number seven, reports for consideration of the committee. We're moving into item 7.1, integrated compliance and enforcement policy. There has been a request to move this to the general meeting for significance of the matter. However, I will invite the staff to give us an overview. And welcome to the table. Thank you. Please be seated. Speaker 1: Yes, so Richard and Bronwyn, Business Integration Improvement Officer with me.

4 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES ¶

▶ 00:01:06

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

5 PRESENTATIONS ¶

▶ 00:01:28

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

6 DEPUTATIONS ¶

▶ 00:01:30

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

7 REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMITTEE ¶

▶ 00:01:33

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

7.1 Integrated Compliance & Enforcement Policy ¶

▶ 00:01:37· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:02:00 So we're doing a bit of a duo today. So look, Councillors, I'll just give you a bit of a run-through of the policy now. So the purpose of this report is to give Council the decision to adopt an integrated compliance and enforcement policy. The policy in the aims to enhance governance and provides a clear framework for Council to administer its regulatory responsibilities in accordance with the rules of the Council. In a safe, fair, unbiased, balanced, consistent and transparent manner. Noosa Council is responsible for administering a range of laws and regulations as set out in the Local Government Act 2009, including Council's local law and various other federal and state legislation. The laws are intended to govern community activities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the community and that harm, including environmental harm, is prevented. Working with over 60 pieces of legislation, Council's compliance teams manage a diverse range of compliance activities, including but not limited to building and plumbing, development and land use matters, environmental matters,

00:03:00 animal management, public health and food licensing, parking and a range of local laws. The policy seeks to establish the best practice compliance approaches by applying the following nine principles, which are outlined in the report, to its regulatory activities, decision-making and enforcement actions. It ensures legal compliance, protects public safety and welfare, promotes consistency and fairness, enhances transparency and accountability, and aids in the efficient resource management by prioritising enforcement actions based on risk and impact to our environment and the community. The policy follows a tiered compliance model, with enforcement actions escalating based on the relevant factors to ensure a fair and just process, whilst maintaining discretion, for officers to respond appropriately on each case. Enforcement actions may include voluntary self-compliance, educational and advisory actions, through to formal compliance and remedial actions, penalty infringement notices and prosecutions for the most serious of offences.

00:04:00 When determining the appropriate action, Council considers factors such as risk level, nature and severity of the breach, likelihood of compliance, public interest and community impact, and awareness of the impact of the action. The policy is also considered by the Government. The policy was developed in collaboration with our governance branch, branch managers and staff, and representatives of our internal compliance reference working group. Similar policies are common amongst many local and state government authorities that undertake compliance and regulatory activities. The policy also addresses an existing policy gap that aims to improve governance and community awareness, and address risks related to consistency in decision-making and enforcement actions. Thank you.

00:05:00 Councillor Phillips: I feel that it could potentially create some maybe misunderstanding in community when they see that definition and so do you mind just giving me a little bit more information around why that's included? Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Look it is included and really defines where someone is acting contrary to legislative or approval requirements so it's just a way of defining when action or compliance action is likely to occur. On review of the policy and the drafting of this policy has been a work in progress for several months.

00:06:00 We've identified that the actual unlawful activity term has been removed from the actual within the policy wording so there's the potential where it actually doesn't need to be included in the definition terms because it's not actually referred to in the policy document itself. So it would be my suggestion that given it's not specifically referred to in the policy it could be removed from that definition to avoid any confusion to the policy. So I would ask that the public or councillors if they would request so. Councillor Phillips: Yeah I would like to see that. Could I ask where originally it was referred to so then I can align. Speaker 1: I will probably have to work through that through previous iterations. It's been discussed with their compliance reference group for some time and with governance and we've gone around several times over looking at the structure and flavour and obviously the wording as well.

00:07:00 It might have been referenced in some of the compliance action and referred to where compliance action is likely initiated. Which is where there's an unlawful activity but as you're probably aware the breadth of compliance activities that council undertakes is significant and I just mentioned there's about 60 pieces of legislation that council is responsible for administering. Some from you know parking which is a bit more black and white. Through to other matters of planning and environmental and food and health related as well. So there is a very broad range of compliance activities and unlawful activity is referring to an activity itself where it could be a parking situation or a dog or a leash even which could be also considered unlawful activity as well. Councillor Phillips: Okay. I guess given the nature of just this being highlighted I'd like to request that it goes to the General Assembly for some time.

00:08:00 Yes. But that's no more questions from me. Thank you. Yes. Mayor Wilkie: Yes. We could probably discuss it further there because I'd like to understand the benefit of having the pros and cons of having the term unlawful activity included in the policy. Speaker 1: Yes. Mayor Wilkie: I'm assuming it helps define whether an act needs compliance action or not. Speaker 1: Correct. Correct. And it's taken of that as the threshold of where compliance action would be initiated. Mayor Wilkie: Yes. Speaker 1: In a lot of instances council may receive a complaint or an issue or concern raised or it might identify itself. It's not until an investigation has been undertaken when it determines when there has been an offence. So in some instances in a lot of cases council receives complaints but there might not be a breach of any laws or permit requirements and therefore council doesn't initiate any action because it can't.

00:09:00 It's only once an offence has been identified potentially contrary to law where actions can be undertaken and that can go from education right through to sort of formal prosecution. It's been a whole range. Councillor Wilson: Yes. Yes. So perhaps that could be referred to as a breach rather than a lawful activity. Speaker 1: Yes. Correct. Councillor Wilson: It seems to then. Speaker 1: Yes. And you'll note throughout the report it does refer to breaches. Yes. So it's not specific to one activity. It's referring to a whole range of matters where there might be a breach of legislation, permit conditions or the like. It doesn't require necessarily specific definition. Mayor Wilkie: Yes. From my perspective, whatever's helpful to you. Yeah. Give staff clear direction on when to take action or not. Correct. Whether it's breach of law or an unlawful activity. Yeah. It means the same thing, doesn't it? Speaker 1: Absolutely. And you'd be aware that under various legislative provisions is often the prescribed compliance

00:10:00 processes outlined in the relevant legislation or the regulations. So we have to follow those. This is just giving an overarching approach to how we go about our activities, trying to provide some consistency and transparency to our local community as well as they know what to expect from us about how we go around our duties. And this just helps to guide staff on a consistent way that we follow our key principles around how we go about applying our processes as well. So there will be a range of standard operating procedures that cascade underneath this policy that will be consistent with this framework. And that will be relevant to that. And that will be relevant to the different areas of our businesses and the legislation that we regulate. Yeah. Mayor Wilkie: And you mentioned earlier, it might have been in the agenda review, that this replaces a policy that was inherited from the DMA over motion process.

00:11:00 Could you explain how this is an evolution of that or how different it is to what we inherited? Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:12:00 Councillor Phillips: I think part of this, I fully appreciate, I just want to seek some clarification, maintaining procedural fairness and protect the rights of individuals and the integrity of the process. Councillors must not involve themselves in negotiating and resolving outcomes with agreed parties, nor advocating on behalf of the representing parties.

00:13:00 Councillors can assist constituents in raising concerns. I think it's important to note that this is a process that is related to compliance and enforcement by referring them to the appropriate functional area, which I use a lot. So that process makes sense to me. I guess my question is to assist when people, when community contact us to things that may be going, that they're a bit frustrated with or need questions answered, how does this help the administrative and us to come to a good conclusion? Councillor Finzel: So do you think in terms of advocacy in our role as council representatives, like how does that affect us when we're trying to represent our community, if we do refer for functional and procedural and operational matters?

00:14:00 How does that affect our advocacy role? Councillor Phillips: Is that a fair way to put it? Yes. It does look, it makes me feel like my role might be a bit more challenging with this part in here. Speaker 1: Yeah. No, look, thank you. The reason for being clear about that, and again, council's role, council laws obviously involve the strategic setting direction for the organisation. A lot of the functions regarding compliance matters, particularly where compliance action has been initiated. So there is identified as a breach. There are sort of formal statutory processes and sometimes they can be subject to litigation and challenges as well. So the reason for removing the negotiation and resolving the negotiation is that there's going to be a lot of conflict with the councillors as such, and those two specific terms is so that councillors don't get caught in a situation where matters might end up in court and there might be confusion to the various parties around who's actually making

00:15:00 the decisions or who's initiating the action. Our view is that our community see us as council, so as council, and obviously the councillors have a different role than the operational arm. But it just... It makes it very clear for our community who they'll be dealing with and how they'll respond to that. It certainly doesn't prevent councillors from being informed and updated and briefed on matters as they arise. Certainly community will reach out to councillors for their involvement, but it's really important that once an activity or a compliance activity's been initiated that it should be left with the operational arm to avoid confusion to the parties. Because that can potentially affect and impact on our ability to effectively undertake compliance action. We also acknowledge too that we go through a very robust process to get all the facts and information out there, and that can be challenging when one party approaches a councillor and you might not be hearing from the three or four or five other property owners that

00:16:00 might be upset because of a particular unlawful activity. So we're mindful that councillors don't necessarily have all the time to be across all of those bits of information. Whereas staff who are administering the compliance action have to absorb all of that information and go through a very thorough process to understand the facts and evidentiary elements before they'll determine whether to take action or not. So a lot of this is designed to protect councillors, but also make it clear to our community the process and who will be leading the compliance activity through that process. And councillors are most welcome to seek briefings and updates on any particular matter at any point in time. But just the message to the community is that you're happy to receive and even refer on matters to staff and they'll appropriately action those. But to expect the councillors to be the negotiator and the resolver of all complaints, particularly when there's a legal framework or process involved, is unfair on councillors as well.

00:17:00 And it also, you know, from a good governance perspective, it just keeps the role separate from the strategic councillor role versus the operational arm as well. So the policy's just designed to make it clearer for the community and councillors and operational staff as well. Hopefully that helps clarify. Councillor Phillips: I think so. Thank you. Mayor Wilkie: I think Councillor Phillips has asked a very important question there. And it's really important that it's clarified because if I understand correctly what this is saying is, for example, we often get appeals from, for help from people who are facing enforcement action. Yeah. And a decision has to be made. It's OK for us to direct them towards an appeals process. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Mayor Wilkie: But it's entirely another thing for us to advocate on their behalf as staff and say, I think this ought to be a different decision. Yeah. Because that's actually a perversion of proper process and we'll be accused of corrupting

00:18:00 proper process and looking after our friends. Whereas the process ought to be allowed to run its course without our perceived interference in that process. Speaker 1: Yeah. Mayor Wilkie: For our, a community member. Yeah. It's actually interference in proper process. Right. Is that the intention of it? Helping. Speaker 1: Yeah. Correct. Mayor Wilkie: Keep councillors clear of that. Speaker 1: Correct. Make it very clear of those roles, responsibilities. As you pointed out, you know, happy to support councillors in their role to advise their community members around what are their appeal or options or what's the, are there any processes there. We have to be careful on those spaces so that we don't set up an expectation where if they do appeal, I'll be successful and make sure that I understand the risks and consequences of doing that. But nonetheless, we want to provide that information to the party so that they're aware and informed around what decisions that they can make. Mayor Wilkie: Yes. Was there any antiquated language that we've inherited from the, the inheritance that

00:19:00 the policy which ought to be, has any antiquated language been removed like, for example, unlawful activity? Is that considered antiquated language? Speaker 1: Not necessarily an antiquated language as such. I can't remember off the top of my head if that was, that term was specifically mentioned. Ron, can you remember if it was? Councillor Wilson: I can't remember, but if it was in the definitions, I would suspect it would have been in previous versions of the document. Speaker 1: Well, what we could do for general committee then, given it's been referred, is that we could, yeah, we could pick out some of what the previous language is and what it's changed to as well. Certainly, this has become a lot clearer around the key principles that we applied and investigating and taking action against matters. The tiered compliance model is a lot clearer in this arrangement, and also the factors for consideration of where compliance action is taken is a lot clearer.

00:20:00 And simplified and modernised as well. So, they're the key sort of changes that's been introduced since the previous policy from Sunshine Castle Council does. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Councillor Phillips: Fantastic. Edith, are you happy to counsel? I'm happy for it to go to Joan Orland if I have more questions between now and then. Councillor Finzel: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions from councillors at the table? I'm just calling on the councillors in the gallery. Do you have any further questions before we move it forward? Yes, Councillor Lansdowne. Councillor Lorentson: Just a quick question. I know the report says there's been no external consultation with community. The question is why. But there is, the report also states the policy was developed in collaboration with governance, branch managers and reps of the internal compliance and reference group. Can you explain just a little bit more about that? Yeah. And again, why was this policy not shared with the broader community, even if it was

00:21:00 an exercise in educating them on their obligations, compliance obligations? Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So, the compliance and internal reference group consists of all of the branch managers that undertake compliance activities. So, building and plumbing, development and assessment, lighting and maintenance, construction and maintenance, local laws, environmental health. And then within that group, we've also got representatives from, so staff, so on the ground. So, there's at least two officers from each of those branches also sitting on that group. And this is all designed to get more consistency, operational efficiency in terms of all our compliance staff, so that they can share experiences, also help each other and support each other through the process and work together to get more efficiencies in terms of what they're doing in terms of compliance activities. So, in terms of the consultation process, so because I guess this is a document that

00:22:00 has essentially had a policy gap there, we have designed this policy and built it up based on best practice, I guess, using similar models and good governance practices to ensure that we cover off the key elements of what good policy would look like in a compliance setting. Applying principles of natural justice, procedural fairness. So, key elements that we apply in our day-to-day business and make that really clear to the public. Generally, we wouldn't consult broadly on with this. We essentially would set the expectations of how we administer our functions to the community. And like any policy, if we receive feedback throughout the course of our duties and the community raises questions about particular elements of it. We're able to review and update that over time as well, and I guess that's what we'd be seeking with such a policy of this particular nature.

00:23:00 Thanks, Amelia. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Councillor Wegener. Thank you, Amelia. Councillor Wegener: Are you done, Amelia? Thank you. Yes. When it comes to Jess's second question concerning the roles of councillors, there's one word, not nor advocating on behalf or referencing the role of councillors. I'm a little bit concerned with the word nor advocating on behalf of constituents. And it just seems to be a bit of a contradiction from the first sentence, which is maintain procedural fairness and protect the rights of individuals and the integrity of the process. So maybe for the general meeting, could you kind of outline a bit more about what advocacy means? Because we get called, you know, daily about a tree or this or that. And, you know, that concept of what advocacy is, is really tricky.

00:24:00 Like, one time I had a resident with a tree and the arborist said, you know, you can't cut it down. And then another council staff comes in and says, we'll cut the whole thing down. And they came to me and it was, you know, it was quite a bit. And I felt that, you know, I was put in the middle there. And it was, so I'm just, I'm finding it a little bit, that's a little bit nebulous for me. Speaker 1: Yeah. Councillor Finzel: So, Councillor Wegener, what would be your question to the staff, please? Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Give somebody, put some flesh on the bones with the word advocating. What does that mean? Where does that, what isn't advocating? What is advocating? Yeah. It's something that we're faced with daily. Speaker 1: Yeah. No, great question as well. And, and to Mayor Frank's points earlier. So obviously advocating is, is, is not necessarily seeking a particular outcome for a particular party. Where that would be, you know, because obviously in the role of a, you know, undertaking compliance

00:25:00 action, you're looking at all, all the sides of the equation as well. It's not necessarily between one party. It might be an aggrieved neighbour as another party. So we'll be looking at all of that, but we also appreciate that councillors are often approached by one of the parties at least often. And so they are raising their particular concern with the councillor and then expecting that the councillor can then influence on the decision making, which is not the case. Advocacy can be raising concerns and it might be from multiple customers or a particular person that can come and raise through the council. It might be from the CEO and obviously myself, if there's procedural related matters and we're happy to address those sorts of things. But if there's an advocacy piece about a particular matter that you want to see an outcome, or a party is asking you to seek a particular outcome from a compliance activity, then that would be what we'd say is, is improper because that's seeking to influence over a decision. As opposed to sharing information for myself or the CEO, that's, that's, that's, that's

00:26:00 So there are grounds there. But advocacy is purely about advocating for the application, I guess, of process as opposed to seeking to drive a particular outcome on a particular matter. Councillor Wegener: Processes. Okay. Yeah, driving processes on a particular matter. Yes, correct. That's helpful. Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Thank you, Richard. Councillor Wegener, do you think that would be helpful to answer that question with some reference also to the process of councillors referring on?

00:27:00 Would you like some clarification around that in conjunction with advocacy? Councillor Wegener: Yes. Actually, I have the same question. Councillor Finzel: I'm just stepping back to what Councillor Phillips brought to the table about referring on to the correct areas and things like that. Would you like some clarification around advocacy and referring? Councillor Wegener: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Please. Councillor Wilson: Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. And again, yeah, councillors referring on matters raised from the community is absolutely fine. And a lot of the work that comes through from the compliance team is referred on from councillors when they're alerted to particular issues. So we'd certainly encourage that to continue because, again, you're eyes and ears in contact with a lot of our community members and they often will come to you directly. And then that can come through, be captured formally, and then we can attend to matters accordingly from there.

00:28:00 And keep councillors updated on particular issues if they want to keep abreast of what's happening and various milestones throughout those processes. Councillor Phillips: Thank you, Richard. Yes, Councillor Phillips. Sorry, just two more points, Richard. The compliance model, the tiered compliance model, it speaks about with enforcement actions escalating based on relevant factors. The word relevant factors is in the report twice, and I wonder if perhaps we could have maybe some examples about what a relevant factor may be. Speaker 1: Yeah. So there are factors considered, and so these are referred to as where council may consider the relevant factors. I'll give you a good example of where some of those elements will apply.

00:29:00 So there might be a situation where a new resident's come to the coast and is wanting to exercise their animal. They're unfamiliar with possibly some of the signage. And they stepped over from the off-leash area onto one of our on-leash areas accidentally. Staff were doing patrols and pulled over and had a conversation with the person. And they explained, were very sincere about the situation and misunderstood the signage. Staff potentially could apply a caution, and so capture it as a caution with the details from that person. But might not initiate a formal infringement notice for that person. Whereas there might be a situation where we've had a repeat offender who's been clearing vegetation against the back of a national park. And we've warned this person before. We might proceed straight to taking formal compliance action, whether it be through a formal notice or potentially prosecution.

00:30:00 So there's a whole range of factors. And if you look at the definitions under risk, so risk level refers to severity of harm caused by the breach. So actually, what's the tangible impact from the offence? Nature and severity of the breach. So again, the scale of the impact in terms of the non-compliance. Is this very low-lying or is it very significant? The likelihood of compliance, as I mentioned to you, the compliance history and attitude has a big part to do with. Are they remorseful? Was this an accidental thing as opposed to an intentional thing? Also, how responsive are they? In some situations, they want to make amends and address the breach or offence that's being created. It might be a structure that's being erected against a neighbouring property, for example. And they will remove or alter it very quickly, which might determine how forceful we are with any compliance action. There's obviously then the public interest and community impact element.

00:31:00 So again, what are the broader implications of us taking action or not taking action in relation to an offence? An example could be issuing an infringement for parking. So if we don't, it's probably not a good time at the moment. But if we don't issue a ticket, then people will just park there and won't move. And then business turnover won't occur and businesses will suffer and there'll be a more broader impact to a community. So the reason we do that is so that we're reinforcing the behaviours and help support business and community to have the appropriate turnover as well. And then the last piece is legal consideration. So this is where we have to evaluate the evidence that we have and the likelihood and prospects of success if we were to go through a formal process. So the evidentiary train is really critical in terms of the severity of action you're likely to take and the likelihood of successfully prosecuting a compliance matter.

00:32:00 If you do good, go down that path. I guess at the end. Councillor Phillips: Okay, thank you. Speaker 1: Does that help a bit? It does, yeah. Councillor Phillips: And just interestingly, when you were reading at the factors considered in enforcement, the only other little thing, and it's so small, but the word council may consider the following factors. Could there be consideration to the word council should consider the following factors? Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Look, the inclusion of mays, because there's so many, again, pieces of legislation that the council is responsible for administering, and some of those provisions do put certain constraints around what staff can do in terms of, compliance staff can do in terms of those offences. In some cases, there's no other choice apart from you either do nothing or you take action. So it doesn't give a lot of leeway between what you can or can't do.

00:33:00 So you've either got to apply one or the other. For example, like a parking authority. There's no sort of middle ground saying, I'll give you half a fine or a bit of a fine. Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. It's either one or the other. Yeah. Councillor Phillips: There was just the one with public interest and community impact. I felt when I read it that that should be consideration to every part of the legislation. Yeah. Correct. So then it would be encompassing all of it, and the other ones I'd appreciate would be of. Speaker 1: Yeah. And I can tell you in most of the legislation, the regulations, it already factors in those elements in there as well. And obviously there's reviewable processes for those exact reasons to provide procedural fairness to people and to the various parties as well if they feel unjust about a particular action or activity that's happened. Councillor Phillips: Thank you. I think that was enough. Well, it sounded like I was back at court. I know. Speaker 4: Sorry. Councillor Finzel: It's a bit dry. Thank you.

00:34:00 Yes, a question from the gallery from Councillor Lorentson. Hi, Richard. Councillor Lorentson: I understand enforcement and compliance, it's black and white. It's right and wrong. But you live in a community. Has there been any consideration given to maybe discretionary powers or instance for the CEO to waive out some compliance or infringement? Understanding and recognising that we have a community, that cost of living is a big deal. And I know this firsthand from the many, many emails that I get in terms of unpaid registrations or fines. It's a really big deal. And you could be in, you know, $308 registration or whether it's an infringement. Can we, I don't know, can we give our CEO some discretionary powers that under some

00:35:00 extenuating circumstances he can waive out an infringement and just put his soul back to a black and white enforcement compliance area? Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, thank you, Amelia. So, there is already discretionary powers. So, you know, for infringement. For example, for parking or even animal management related. There is the ability to apply for a review. So, staff deal with those requests on a daily basis. But people might challenge particular evidence or circumstances relating to their situation. So, there are provisions already for staff to review and apply an element of discretion based on the relevant facts and circumstances of particular matters. We understand that not all situations are black and white and there are situations where there might be other relevant factors that need to be considered in terms of decision

00:36:00 making. So, the public have that element there. In terms of staff having discretion. So, a lot of the focus of this document is to actually empower staff to make really good decisions on the ground because they are the one at the coalface understanding what's actually happening, what are the real impacts. This policy is actually designed to support them in their roles. So, it's really clear about how they go about assisting the community, understanding, you know, with real impacts to the community or whether it's a technical breach but not actually one that's got consequence. So, rather than having a very black and white where you must take action even though it's a very minor and consequential issue, is this an opportunity to provide good education to the community. And this document provides them enough flexibility but also a clear set of guard rails and a framework that compliance staff can operate in that gives certainty to them in their role but also to our community who might be at the receiving end of this action and have

00:37:00 a better understanding of what they're likely to expect from those officers when they're conducting their duties. So, hopefully that helps answer your question. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Thank you Richard. Councillor Phillips: I have one more. Thank you. In relation to voluntary self-compliance, since that seems to be the one we want to encourage the most, what sort of comms do we do in relation to education to create that voluntary compliance? Speaker 1: Yeah. So, look, comms is an important part through social media, proactively making aware about particular issues in our community. Doing media releases on stories, whether it be good or bad news. So, sometimes it's, for example, you'd be aware about a sign we installed when there was some illegal clearing that occurred in the eastern beaches. And we use that opportunity to promote that when this situation arises, we'll take firm

00:38:00 action. And so there's some of their duties. Some of the other things are simple as undertaking proactive patrols along our beaches. So, that is an opportunity to educate and then promote to our community that we're out there monitoring. We certainly want to support people doing the right thing. And there's obviously more work to do in that space and we do more proactive education out there on particular issues where we are noticing an increase or a change in behaviours across our community. One of the big things we've started doing is to, and Bronwyn's been instrumental in that, is creating dashboards so we can understand the change in statistics over time of what's actually happening and that we need to put a more concerted focus on particular issues that are being more frequently raised within our community. And then we can have a more targeted campaign on particular issues. Another thing we're looking at doing later this year is another example is around pool fencing safety. And as we lead into the summer months, we'll be doing an active campaign to help promote

00:39:00 that in advance of there being any incidents so that people are aware of their obligations for managing pool fences and pool safety and things like that. So that's just one example. Food safety is another one where there were changes to the Food Act regulations recently. The team was out there in some media coverage and we met with a whole range of different businesses to explain what the new changes meant for those businesses as well. So there's plenty to do in this space and we need to do more as well. Councillor Phillips: That's helpful. Great, thank you. I'm excited about the pool fencing. Thanks. The pool fencing comes. Councillor Wilson: I think that's great. Councillor Phillips: Fantastic. Councillor Wilson: Yeah. Councillor Phillips: Absolutely. Very important. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Thank you. Definitely. Thank you, Bridget. Councillor Lorentson, did I hear you? No, we're good. Did you finish yours? Yes. Councillor Wegener, thank you. Quickly. Councillor Wegener: I know this is the integrated compliance and enforcement policy, but a lot of the issues

00:40:00 that are raised on this come from neighborhood disputes and neighbor disputes. And I think when we talked about this in the meetings, we actually talked about maybe that should be a part of the program as well. Like dealing, trying to cut off the dispute early because it's just a neighborhood dispute that evolves into these complaints and things. And they try to defuse. Is that possible for council to get involved in that space? Or is that outside of the scope of that? Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, it probably sits a little bit outside this policy. But I absolutely agree with you. I think there's an opportunity more, both at a state government, but also local government level, around providing the tools for people to have conversations with their neighbors and what are some of the things that they could approach a neighbor about a difficult issue. Often local governments, and Noosa Council's no different, often gets engaged in an issue when there's often a dispute between parties and often used as the mediator to resolve

00:41:00 their concerns. Whereas really, we want to provide good neighborly interactions. And our preference again is for those to be resolved between the parties. We probably need to look at increasing some of the access to the tools. I know the state government have a range of tools to deal with sort of neighborly dispute-related matters. But there's certainly more work that could be done to help assist in resolving some of those issues. So civil disputes, particularly before staff are involved at rate payer cost to resolve some of these disputes. So there's certainly an opportunity more in that space. Councillor Finzel: Thank you, Richard. Are we finished? Councillor Wegener? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, just before we move on. Thank you, Richard. A question then to the CEO in terms of like firm and fairness and our, you know, to affirm our connection, you know, with our community. And bring them on through this journey of education. In terms of when this is verified and posted up onto, you know, our website.

00:42:00 Is there opportunity to add, you know, some points we've discussed today as access and education when people go and look it up on our website? Is there opportunity that we can put some, clarify some of those issues that you raised today through the website? Speaker 3: Certainly. I think we can always, always improve our website and always improve our communications through that medium. Yeah. So once this is up and providing, as I say, it really is education first thing. Yeah. And then the various steps after that. So if we can do more of that, certainly. I'm happy for us to explore opportunities and ways to do that. Fantastic. Good point. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Fantastic. And also I see opportunity around working maybe closer with our business chambers when we talk about education around certain things. Maybe that's a good opportunity to, you know, look at supporting them through. Correct. Facilitate that education. Takes pressure off some of our staff and maybe, you know, bring the business chambers in too. Yeah.

00:43:00 To work in that space. Speaker 1: All the food licensing regulations and rules. Yeah. There's a good opportunity for us to share information around what they mean and how businesses can just navigate through that process. Absolutely. So there's lots of different opportunities that we could. Yeah. Continue to, you know, to use as an opportunity to build. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Speaker 1: Networks. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Fantastic. It's always better to be on the front foot, isn't it? Especially in these spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Well thank you so much for your report. Thank you councillors. Thank you. So we'll move that to take it to the general meeting. That's unanimous. Thank you. Moving on to reports for consideration of the committee. We've got 7.2. Mayor Wilkie: Ms. Bromance. Councillor Finzel: Noosa Shire Council, sole and specialised list. Thank you staff for your input. Thank you.

00:44:00 Welcome to the table. Good afternoon. Good afternoon councillors. Speaker 4: Good afternoon councillors. As you would be aware, each year we bring a new report to the table. We bring you a list of specialised and sole suppliers. The current list that was approved by you in October last year is still current but we've, the organisations identified some opportunities to amend that list and we've got a range of things for your consideration in this report and I'll hand over to Lee to take us through the detail. Speaker 5: Thank you very much. Just before I get into the detail, can I please just draw your attention to the list on page 2. There is a slight amendment to one of the suppliers. Lucid Ink should actually be Lucid Software Ink to companies. Okay. So it will be Lucid Software Ink that will be being proposed to add. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Thank you for bringing that to attention.

7.2 NOOSA SHIRE COUNCIL SOLE AND SPECIALISED LISTS ¶

▶ 00:44:01· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:45:00 So I think we'll, can we deal with this matter first before we proceed? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So I'll take it to the vote to note this and move the recommendation that we change the wording to read, change to the name in the table in the report in row 2 from Lucid Ink to Lucid Software Ink. Do we have a seconder for that? I'll second. Thank you. That's seconded by Councillor Phillips. We'll take that to the vote. All in favour? Mayor Wilkie: I'll be right. Are we talking about the item first? Councillor Finzel: Oh, I thought we moved just this bit first. This is the whole recommendation. Oh, sorry. Thank you, Mr Mayor. I was just getting excited. I love the enthusiasm. I love the enthusiasm. Let's just deal with this. Fantastic. Speaker 5: Can I move on next? Mayor Wilkie: Don't worry. Speaker 5: Thank you. Councillor Finzel: I'll be efficient. Speaker 3: All right. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Speaker 3: So we want to keep the same movement second or do we want to take that off and just...

00:46:00 Councillor Lorentson: No, it can be moved. Speaker 3: Thank you. We can just talk about it. We can move to that now. If you want. That's all. Councillor Finzel: Are we all in agreeance around the table? Yes. Fantastic. We'll move forward. Thank you. A review from the staff about the report. Speaker 5: Thank you. So the details around the report is that obviously procurement of Council's goods and services must be carried out in compliance with the Local Government Act and the Local Government Regulation. And the Regulation provides for procurement of medium-sized and large-sized contracts and also allows for exceptions to these requirements under certain circumstances such as the approval of a supplier being deemed a specialised provider. So the current specialised supplier list was adopted as was noted by Council on 17 October 2024 and is valid for 12 months and this report actually seeks the mid-term amendment of the

00:47:00 specialised supplier list for the remaining term of the list's validity. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. I do just have a question. If businesses are interested in doing this, you know, for now and into the future, what is... what's the process if someone's interested in wanting to be considered for this supplier list? Speaker 5: From an internal perspective, so obviously we have the option to go to market via either competitive process or via the exception under the legislation. So what we're finding is there's an increase to our procurement activities. So... So staff are the ones who will come to us and nominate which supplier they consider should be put forward for this list and then we within the procurement will actually go through and do a review of that supplier.

00:48:00 That may mean that we check to see that there is no other means by which they can be engaged, so a competitive quote within the marketplace. Or they're not on a current supplier panel. Councillor Finzel: Fantastic. Thank you. Any other questions from the councillors at the table? Mayor Wilkie: No, thank you Madam Chair. Councillor Wilson: No, thank you. No, thank you. There we go. Councillor Finzel: That's all. Thank you for your report. Thank you. Yeah, it was good reading and it's... I'm glad to see we're sticking to our processes and this is the half-yearly, you know, review over that and we've made the necessary changes, so... Absolutely. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Thank you very much. Speaker 3: Put it to the vote. Councillor Finzel: Put it to the vote. All in favour? Thank you. That's unanimous. Thank you, staff. Enjoy your afternoon. Thank you, councillor. Thank you. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Thank you. So we're moving to item number eight, reports for noting by the committee.

00:49:00 We'll move to 8.1, capital program 2024-2025 delivery status and we welcome staff to the table. Thank you, Shaun. Director Walsh: G'day. Shaun Walsh, Director of Infrastructure Services. I'm presenting this on behalf of the authors who are my team aide and Catherine, just they're tied up on other capital works programs at the moment. Councillor Finzel: Okay. Thank you. Can you give us, please, an overview? Thank you, councillor. You're welcome. Director Walsh: This report provides a status update for the capital works program as of the 31st of March, 2024, and excludes disaster recovery projects. The approved capital budget provisions for 24-25 financial year is currently $46 million, inclusive of a carry forwards of $22.4 million. Actual expenditure achieved to date is $20 million, which is 43.5% of the budget, with a further $7.5 million remaining in commitments, providing a total of $27.5 million.

8 REPORTS FOR NOTING BY THE COMMITTEE ¶

▶ 00:49:14

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

8.1 Capital Program 2024/2025 Delivery Status ¶

▶ 00:49:16· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:50:00 There are currently 137 projects on the capital works program in varying stages of delivery, with forecast grant funding revenue in the tune of $11.7 million. Our team in Infrastructure, Planning and Design are currently managing 24 capital projects in delivery and providing planning and design services to over 60 projects this financial year, as well as planning for the future. While budget implications have influenced the pace of project management systems, internal systems are underway, with a focus on making the most of available resources. We consider the 24-25 actual spend as tracking strongly, reflecting solid project delivery, despite challenges including staffing shortages, adverse weather and budget constraints. The long-term average indicates that this amount of money we're spending is consistent with some previous years. Capital works planning for 25-26 financial year is well underway, with 16 meetings held

00:51:00 to score and prioritise new initiatives, with workshops with two executive team meetings and to be presented to Council in the near future. A sizeable capital works program for 25-26 will require innovative delivery models to assist in delivery of the program. Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Thank you, Shaun. That was very concise. Easy to read report. What I did like was the pictures on the attachment, especially around the Pomona Kindergarten and the much-loved and weighted toilet amenities out at the Pomona Stamford Park out there. Yes, yes. I know, the yes, yes. That's been a long time coming. So thank you to all the team and everyone that got involved there to deliver those capital works. I know the community is very excited about that. Thank you. Do we have any questions around the table? Councillor Wilson: Just a quick clarification, which I think is just a typo, but the executive summary, the report, the first point says it's a status update for the capital works program as of

00:52:00 31st of March 2024. Oh, you did right. My apologies, Councillor. 25. And I referenced that as well, so thank you. It's not in the recommendation. That's correct then. Thank you. Councillor Phillips: Thank you, Councillor Wilson. Yes, Councillor Phillips. Sorry to interject. I don't know how I overlooked this, but I probably have just to declare a conflict with, I've just noticed the Croy Sports Complex has come up. Obviously, this is for reporting only, so you haven't spoken about the report at all, but the Croy Sporting, Public Gymnastics upgrade and multi-purpose area. Yes, you have raised that before. I apologise. I have raised it in the past. Yes, yes. Councillor Finzel: For consistency. Are we able to call that out? Councillor Phillips: I know we've voted. I think we've got the same one. Yes. I apologise to everyone for. There's no decision made in the report. No. It's good to note it and then for consistency.

00:53:00 Yes. Councillor Lorentson: That's fine. We'll take it. Councillor Phillips: And the number of questions went after that. Councillor Lorentson: Yes, of course. Can you just give me some basics and then I can find this one. It was just the Croy. Councillor Phillips: It's the Croy Sports Complex Gymnastics upgrade and multi-purpose area. It says its upcoming tenders are planned for Q4 2024-25. Councillor Wilson: Just so that you can. So you have to be voted on staying in here if you're choosing to leave or to stay. I'm choosing to stay. Yes. Councillor Finzel: Yes. I'm happy to leave that. Do we have a seconder? Mayor Wilkie: Just so we get the wording right and it explains adequately the declarable conflict of interest. Councillor Lorentson: I'll see if I can pull up the other one. Mayor Wilkie: You've mentioned the Croy Sports Complex Gymnastics upcoming tender. Gymnastics Club upcoming tender for.

00:54:00 Councillor Phillips: It's the Croy Sports Complex Gymnastics upgrade and multi-purpose area. Okay. That's the Croy. That's the project. That's the project. That's the project. Yeah. That's the project. Yeah. Yeah. I was just. I'm just trying to find it, Cathy, if I had. Mayor Wilkie: So do we need to include something in there? We need to include something in there, Councillor Phillips, about your link to that? Councillor Finzel: Yes. Yeah. I'm just trying to pass the wording. Mayor Wilkie: Okay. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Yeah. Take your time. We can just wait for that to make sure we get it right so that everyone's comfortable. Yeah. We need that. Apologies, everyone. Councillor Wilson: It might be elevated music. Councillor Lorentson: Sorry. I just don't have the link yet. Councillor Finzel: Well, we can't have a bit of a discussion, can we? Yeah. Keep going on. I can engage the CEO for a bit. No, we have to wait. We have to wait for this. Oh. I was just going to have a general conversation about the challenges of the budget and the capital works. But we'll pass that. It's hungry. Councillor Phillips: The elevated music. I must have. Come. It's because I was looking at the other questions, the leading.

00:55:00 Councillor Finzel: That's okay. That's fine. No. These things happen. It's best that we get this right at the administrative level. And we have been very busy. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 3: Yeah. The report is remaining. So it's not a huge deal, Councillor. But it's just a process we have to follow. Yes. Councillor Wilson: Okay. We'll find one complete. Thank you. Councillor Phillips: I am searching, I'm just going through. I didn't realise I emailed Cathy so much.

00:56:00 Councillor Wilson: It doesn't get real quite until I get this stuff in. True. Do we want more balls? Councillor Finzel: Yeah we could have a pause if you like or if you feel confident may I suggest we could have a go at some new wording because really we only want to establish your connection which is in the voluntary role. I mean if you want to have a go at that we could invite feedback from the other councillors to help you work. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 3: So councillor if you want to give a few.

00:57:00 Yeah. Councillor Finzel: Absolutely. Yeah. So you might as well experience it but I'm sure you can help us with getting the wording right so. I can assist but councillor Phillips articulates her link. Councillor Phillips: Senior head coach until, all I'm doing they don't have a senior gymnastic coach title. I'm acting in that role. Yeah. And they're actively recruited and I think we have two weeks till state titles and my role will be finished. Temporary. Temporary capacity. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Please note I've had some medical or. Councillor Wilson: The point is so senior head coach. Oh sorry I'm sorry. Yeah.

00:58:00 Yeah. Councillor Phillips: Thank you. I'm not. Mayor Wilkie: So I'm not tender in for. Councillor Phillips: I'm not tender in for. Mayor Wilkie: Tender in for . Councillor Phillips: And I'm not appointed a natural head coach commencing soon. I will also not be at the tribal in the tender. I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to. Councillor Finzel: I do not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter.

00:59:00 Councillor Phillips: Oh, okay. Yeah, that would be great. Councillor Wilson: I do not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter. Councillor Finzel: Okay. And that's seconded by Councillor Wilson. Would you like to read that out there? And was there another question you wanted to make? No, no. Councillor Phillips: Councillor Phillips informed the meeting that I'm in terrible conflict of interest in this matter

01:00:00 in relation to CROI, Sports Complex, Gymnastics Upgrade and upcoming tenant of IMB, CNAF. You can even put IMB temporary. Okay. Senior head coach. You've got temporary. Yeah. Councillor Wilson: Temporary. Temporary. Councillor Phillips: Senior head coach of the club. Well, I'm not even the senior head coach of the club, just of the senior squad, because I don't have involvement in any of the other gymnasts, so it's two senior gymnasts for 500. I have nothing to do with it. Councillor Wilson: Senior. Councillor Phillips: I'm a senior squad coach, yep, of the club, in a temporary capacity, as per previous declaration. Although I have a declarable conflict of interest, I do not believe a recent person could have a perception of bias, as I do not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter. Therefore, I will choose to remain in the meeting room. However, I will respect the decision of the meeting on whether I can remain and participate in the decision.

01:01:00 Okay. Mayor Wilkie: We need to put this on your report, Mike.

01:02:00 Councillor Finzel: The Council note the declarable conflict of interest by Councillor Phillips and determine that in accordance with the S15OES of the Local Government Act 2009, and having considered the Council's conflict of interest as described, it is decided that Councillor Phillips may participate and vote on this matter, relating to the Capital Works report, which is only a report for noting. In relation to the Cooroy Sports Complex, gymnastics upgrades. As Councillor Phillips does not stand to receive a personal benefit or loss in relation to this matter. Are you happy with that? Yes. We'll take it to the vote. That's all in favour, noting that Councillor Phillips did not participate in the vote. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your patience, everybody. Back to the matter at hand.

01:03:00 Do we have any further questions for the staff? I don't. We do, please. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Phillips: Just in relation to ongoing staffing constraints continue to impact service delivery. Recruitment is underway to fill key positions with new initiatives for additional resourcing requested through the budget approval process. Could you talk me through that a little bit more? Director Walsh: We've got a challenge because the long-term trend of our resourcing model is based around a $30 million capital works program. Whereas the trend seems to be that we're somewhere between now $50 and $70 million a year. In terms of capital works. But our funding staff model is based around $30 million. And you sort of think, was it a short-term blip or is it a long-term forecast? Because we don't want to put on more staff prematurely. But it looks like we've got increasing confidence in the length of our capital works program. And it's apparent that we're sitting in property well under-resourced to actually reasonably achieve the full extent of the capital works program.

01:04:00 So we've done some modelling based on the upcoming capital works program for 25-26. And the staff that are actually required to deliver the program. And that'll be considered by council as part of this 25-26 capital works allocation. Because the issues we've got is, you know, first of all with these projects being delayed, we've got reputation in the community. They're wondering why it's taking so long. And we've also got cost creep issues. Because the longer we push out the works, suddenly our cost estimates are two to three years behind. So we've got enough confidence in the program and also the modelling of the staff required to deliver it to present a much more better considered argument as part of council's 25-26. The restructuring that we have had to have done to date over the last two years is we've created a number of leadership positions at a high level. And that's actually been really successful at retaining a number of key staff who show really good leadership skills. And to actually, you know, basically provide the leadership for the teams as they're populated with more resources.

01:05:00 Councillor Phillips: To follow on from that then, when, where is our, where's the, when it says key, fill key positions then, what would be a position that's currently vacant? Director Walsh: The one position that was vacant was the manager of infrastructure planning, design and delivery, Craig Aldridge, who left the organisation. So we've had an acting person in that role. We've recently, who's Chris Steele, we've recently undertaken an internal development recruitment opportunity. And Chris Steele has been successful at securing that role. Because trying to secure the right technical skill with the right cultural skills when you're competing against such significant infrastructure projects across South East Queensland is incredibly competitive. And the remuneration that we're able to offer, which is reasonable to say, is incredibly valuable for our council. So we're having to think quite naturally about how we develop our internal staff, to actually meet the challenges of the infrastructure project program.

01:06:00 We've also done some other tweaks. For instance, we had a graduate role that we were unable to fill. But by changing the position description to a project officer role, which is more an ongoing, we've actually been able to secure a person, and this is at the lower levels of the project team, because people are much more attracted to that role title. This is rather than a graduate, they're actually project officers living in the Capital Works program. Councillor Phillips: Thank you. The following question I have around the Capital Works planning for 2025-26 is well underway with 16 meetings held and prioritised 18 new initiatives, which have been workshopped with two executive team meetings. I guess I'm trying to get my head around Capital Works that keeps, that we're trying to achieve, and then when I see 80 new initiatives, my head gets a little bit overwhelmed about

01:07:00 that. So could you just talk me through what's the potential risks in having 80 new initiatives? Director Walsh: Yeah. So firstly, when we present the Capital Works program to councillors in workshops and meetings, we're going to be able to do that. We're going to be articulating the timeframes really carefully, because we already have projects which are programmed for delivery, and any new project may not be able to start until the new calendar year. It's not like when you approve a budget, we don't have the resources to be able to switch into delivery, because we've got carryover, so we'll be making that clear to you. And it's also important to note that the scale of projects are from very minor to actually very large. So a smaller project might be, for instance, starting the design process for new pedestrian access at Teowai Village to resolve the conflict associated with pedestrians using the current beach vehicle access, which is fairly unsafe. So that's at the smaller end. Whereas some of the other new initiatives are much more complex and ongoing, and will

01:08:00 be over many years. So, yeah. So there's small, and then there's large. Councillor Phillips: Yeah. I can't help but... Director Walsh: In terms of... And I should say that the initiatives also include things like not relative to just infrastructure planning and design. It could be acquisition of a vehicle. It could be... It's just a capital cost. So it's a fairly broad program, the capital cost program. Councillor Phillips: Yeah. I guess I'm going to try and articulate this question without... I'll give you a phrase. I love the phrase, too many chiefs and not enough Indians, from my previous employment. When you're looking at vacancies, do we have more vacancies in just the duo, or more in our leadership roles? Director Walsh: I'm pleased to advise we've actually only got one vacancy in the actual infrastructure planning and design and delivery team. But if you ask me what our focus should be in ongoing recruitment, it's actually in the duo, not the chiefs. We've got the leadership positions we need. We actually need the feet on the ground to actually do the work, to support those leaders.

01:09:00 Councillor Phillips: Thank you. And just... Councillor Wilson: I'll keep going with my questions till I... Councillor Phillips: Emergent projects. Could you just talk me through an area of my interest with the Cooroy Botanical Gardens CCTV upgrade? Director Walsh: Yeah. So our council has a structure called the Capital Works Executive, which three councillors are on that committee, and assists the CEO in making his delegations for emergency or emergent works, arising within his budget allocations. So, as a result of ongoing thefts, which have been significant at the Noose Botanic Gardens, particularly really valuable and rare plants at the Shade House, and also of council equipment, which was actually only recently acquired, was almost targeted and stolen. So, there was no really effective security system. There was some very amateur sort of security cameras that the thieves just cut and put drapes over. So this is actually about winning the CCTV system and eliminating the security system

01:10:00 at our other council facilities, such as the Leisure Centre and also the GA. And that was approved through, by the CEO, through Council's Capital Works Executive, in accordance with development delegations of that committee. Councillor Phillips: Great. Thank you. How does that align, John, with the... And I might be... It might not be for this. We can take it offline. But with the CCTV strategy for the Shire, does that align when you have this come to CWE? Director Walsh: Yeah. So, finance or corporate services are on the CWE. So, there are big questions to ask, particularly around where there's a public-private interface, such as Haston Street or Croy Maple Street, whereby, you know, who owns the system, who funds it, and the like. It's much clearer when we're the actual owner of the facility, such as the Leisure Centre or the Library, you know, where we're in direct control of the footage, and we can, you know, have the relevant protocols.

01:11:00 So, it's a little bit simpler. But I don't want to take away that there's some much more significant issues that need to be considered. The systems that we've been acquiring, such as recently the Leisure Centre, that we'll put in the Botanic Gardens are contemporary. They're back to base. So, the footage feed actually goes back to monitors and screens held in council facilities. So, they're looking ahead in terms of good quality surveillance. Councillor Phillips: That's fantastic. Thank you. Last question, just in the tenders for the Noosaville Beach Wall detailed design. There was some community wanting to know maybe just a bit more around how we got to seawall design. Can you talk a bit further? Director Walsh: Yeah. So, the current seawall is over 50 years old. When the seawall was originally placed, it was, the first attempts in the early 70s were basically to place a lot of seawalls. So, there's a lot of rock down there.

01:12:00 And then there's been iterations of placing more rock. The investigations to date show that that rock is now, under contemporary standards, is probably undersized for what you would do for a modern seawall. And there's also been slump. The rocks have slumped. So, there are concerns that the seawall would not be resilient to a typical predicted heat. So, it's like a car that's 50 years old. The seawall is over 50 years old. We're very fortunate that we have a beach nourishment program, which covers up the seawall. So, you can't see those rocks and the like. So, this was identified as a key risk of council a number of years ago. And we're very fortunate to be able to attract state government funding to fund the cost of the seawall design. And when we undertake the seawall design, then we'll be in line for funding. So, we don't know when that will happen. To date, we've undertaken some very targeted engagement with civic groups, such as Haitian Street Association, so they're aware of the process. But through the actual design process, there'll need to be a lot more engagement with specific stakeholders, so that they're fully aware of what the implications are.

01:13:00 The goal is to make it look like exactly the same as it is, because, you know, the beautiful main beach, which covers the rock, is a really, really beautiful look. You know, that maximises beach area and a really gentle grade. But we've probably got potential to actually look at how quickly we do beach nourishment after an erosion event, so we can reinstate that beach profile as quickly as possible. At the moment, there's one dredge outlet, which then uses trucks to, you know, cover up the seawall. Is there opportunity for two or three? And these are some of the questions that we need to ask the community. There are also some broader issues, you know, but we're well aware of, you know, the importance of the surf break, you know, our first point, and ensuring that, you know, our coastal design process is tapping to expert coastal engineers to ensure we're not inadvertently creating a problem that we didn't see. Councillor Phillips: So, to clarify then, to this point, it's been funded from, you know, the local government

01:14:00 funding, not from council funding, to... Director Walsh: Can I take that? I think there might be a council contribution. I think it might have been a 50% co-contribution. So, I'll confirm that in the email afterwards, but I'm pretty sure that there's a co-contribution from council. Okay. Councillor Phillips: And then what would be the next trigger? What will I see next for, before it continues down, and is it going to community consultation now, or is it still specific targeted? Director Walsh: So, there'll be some structured conversations with the community, now that we've appointed the consultants. At the moment, they're doing a survey, and there'll be some structured conversations. This project will generate a lot of interest, and we've got, basically, a healthy planned budget that we can use for community engagement. So, we'll be discussing that further with councillors once we have our initial information, and what level of community engagement we'd like to see in the project. Councillor Wilson: Just on that, is that more about the disruption it might cause, or about the design itself? Director Walsh: It will need to be both.

01:15:00 So, because the disruption will be quite significant, and we know that, you know, the construction period will probably be during, you know, nice weather months, you know, between March and October, where we also have the lower seas, so to actually allow construction. But I need to state that there's no confirmation that we'll attract funding to do the work, and we have no certainty about the timeframe of that work. So, I think it's advantageous that probably the cyclone Alfred, because we came very close to the waves topping over the boardwalk, and it really did give a much better understanding of the community of what happens during the cyclone events. And we did see some minor erosion on the southern end of the seawall, and it was really good for the community to see that, that we are at risk. And thankfully, you know, we're not in a position like, you know, Bribie Island, you know, where, you know, there's some natural processes which are now creating significant at risk, you know, communities in Golden Beach and the like. So, we're not at that position, but if we're astute and forward thinking, we can prevent that type of, you know, fear of the process moving forward.

01:16:00 Councillor Phillips: Thank you. Next question is around the Shire-wide bus stop upgrades. I'm really interested to hear how that will play out for, especially so many community making this one. Director Walsh: Yeah. We're actually in the last year of a 10-year program. Okay. So, and you're seeing that funded by transit. And Larry would know more about this program than I do. So, but that saw the provision of bus shelters like you see outside the council chambers here, which under that design were fully DDA compliant in terms of the seating, and also the arrival of the buses in terms of the signing, the tactiles, and the like. So, it's a great success story that when we complete the final shelter, it's been 10 years of work to actually achieve, you know, a much better standard of our shelters for our commonly used bus patrons across the Shire. So, I can get the exact numbers, but it's quite significant, the number of shelters involved. Councillor Phillips: Yeah. And, because I just, to reiterate or to clarify, this is for upgrades, not for any new bus

01:17:00 Director Walsh: shelters? No. It's not for new bus stops. It's actually a replacement of existing bus stops. Okay. And I also note that it's in relation to the transiting services, not the school bus services. Okay. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Do you want me to keep going? Councillor Phillips: I do. It feels like the Jess Show, though, and I really feel bad this afternoon. They're good questions. Thank you. Director Walsh: I'm delighted you've read them before. I do. Councillor Phillips: Yeah. I did miss, I was, there was some that I was focused on from the community, you know. Thank you. So, the Cooroy, Lake MacDonald Drive residential subdivision, I note that that's upcoming tenders planned for 2024, 25. What will we see coming from that? Director Walsh: So, our section's providing the project management sections, assisting our environment strategy area. So, I'm not strategically across the next stages in that project. So, I'd need to defer that to Director Kinwood-Rawlings to help provide that answer.

01:18:00 But she's essentially the project owner, and she's tacking into our staff to actually assist in the, you know, the more complex project management, subdivision design, engineering referrals, and the like. So, I'd prefer to defer to Kinwood-Rawlings to provide that up to her. Councillor Phillips: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I'll leave it for someone else to ask a question. Yeah. Councillor Wilson: Yes. You mentioned the size of the capital works program on a dollar by view, and the level of resources that that needs to support that. This might be more of a 500s question, but have we got any analysis on what's the price variance and what's the volume variance in that kind of growing capital works program? So, is it growing to 30 or 50 million because of the cost of works has increased, or because of the volume of the projects that are being taken? And I think it's a bit of both, but do we actually have any figures behind that? Director Walsh: I can assist and supply on those figures as part of the 25.

01:19:00 So, that's a good heads up. Thank you for that. But you're correct. It's a bit of both. Like, for instance, the Doonella Bridge upgrade was originally forecasted around 5 million, and now it's exceeding 10 million. So, 9.8 million, I think, is the latest estimate. So, there's an example of one project which is double its budget provision. But then, we've also got lots and lots of projects which are smaller. And unfortunately, sometimes the smaller projects require just as much project management as a bigger project, because of the complexities of dealing with the community, and require just the amount of staff and users to deliver something much more complex. So, but I can assist in providing that, because we've got a capital works budget workshop with the Councils next Friday. So, I can have a think about the way that information is presented. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 4: Yes, would you like to make a comment? Through the Chair. Yes, Councillor. I just want to make the answer to this design of the Sea Walk. It is 50% contribution. The others contributed through the disaster relief fund.

01:20:00 Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Good question. Segway into the question I was going to put to the CEO. And it is probably more finance. It does get raised through our monthly reports back there. But just, I guess, from like a perspective of, you know, running the Council organisation, and maybe it's going to be addressed through the workshop. But what do you think is the, what do we need to be focusing on from the perspective of the business in terms to address, you know, these, the overruns, the carryovers, the cost credit coming? We've heard about the staff. We've heard about the retention. And those things. I mean, what's, what do you think is the, is it an overrun of all those things? Or is there something that's just... Speaker 3: Well, look, I think it's, we're not, we're not on IR in this, in this circumstance. Every council, every business is actually running the same, the same issues that are in the construction world.

01:21:00 I think we're still, we're still carrying through the delay from COVID. And the provided prices have increased to nearly a quarter. Everybody off guard. Yeah. So we're still dealing with that. What we've done to try to alleviate some of that issue is that we, our plan is now far more complex and detailed. Whereas before we, we used numbers that were sort of pretty general numbers. And we thought we had enough value in there. Or enough leeway in there. But again, we've caught up with things as close and quickly over that, that sort of four or five year period. So our planning now is far better. We've far more efficient. We're far more descriptive and prescriptive in what these projects as they come forward are. And new initiatives. So we're actually, we're competent. And we, and we, we're far more scrutinising in terms of do we need to do it as opposed to do we want to do it.

01:22:00 And I think that's, that's something we've really challenged ourselves on. So you'll see when we get to the kind of works in the budget process this year. We've done a hell of a lot of just trimming it right back to what we think. But it's just, it's just volume. And it's the expectation of, of, of the community to get things done. But it's also, we've got an obligation too. We've got over a billion dollars worth of assets that need to be either upgraded, maintained, or replaced. And that's all part of, part of the process that we now need to continue to do. And so we've got an obligation every year to spend, you know, certainly our money just on renewals. And that, you know, that's a body of work in itself. And then there's, then there's the other pieces that are either emergent or last to do. Or things that we just think are the right things to be going forward. The seawall, for example, is something that, you know, you say, well, it's getting to a point where the risk is now, or the opportunity is there for some funding, from the, from the disaster management.

01:23:00 And the risk is now to a point where you say, well, we don't want to get cut out, so let's do that piece of work. So just those sorts of things just have to be, have to be done in fact. So it's very difficult. You'll see when we get to the budget on, on Friday that, that, you know, we, we start to go through the, through the list and say, well, you know, not too much on there. Let's say, well, it's not, not riddled. Not, not something we really want to do. So that's the, that's the challenge we've got. And, and everything is costing more. So you, you're at, you're sitting on top of our normal program just because Shire Council are doing business. And so, and all that stuff. So it's a, the answer to your question is that it's a whole myriad of things. But I think in terms of what we're doing, we're trying to be far better planned and prepared to ensure that we don't get around those escalation costs as we're doing the project. It's going to be a bit of a cost on the rise. And we've been very good at that. Yeah. It's really good. Given, given the, the environment that we're in.

01:24:00 Director Walsh: And, and through the chair, as well, the CEO, one of the other key issues we're doing is that we're not seeking grant funding unless the grant funding is something we have to have. Or something we've already programmed. So, because there's a lot of grants that we sought that required co-contributions, which were the nice to have. But then required us to co-contribute. So, so we've done a lot more discipline to ensure that, firstly, we've got the co-contribution already budgeted. So it doesn't require additional budget allocation. And it's consistent with our existing program. Rather than thinking, oh, it's a grant for such and such. Let's go and do that. Which, which is putting us down in budget rabbit holes and the like. Which, so we're being very disciplined in that regard. When we present the capital works program, we're actually presenting slides of the things we have pulled out, as well, before we present it to councillors. So you can see our appetite to try and reduce it to be, to be a, a manageable program. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I know I was making it a budget. I think it's, yeah, we're all very mindful of the challenges.

01:25:00 You know, cost and expenses. Out with leave. It's going to be really challenging. So, yeah, I'm encouraged that the staff is, you know, you've got your eyes over that. And we're looking forward to the workshops. And we know that we're heading into, you know, really challenging times. So, yeah, everything counts. Speaker 3: Good discussions. Absolutely. Councillor Wilson: Looking forward to that. Well, we've committed to some of the different plans and strategies that the community's expecting to see delivered. Yes. Councillor Finzel: I agree. I think that's a really good point. Because the community, you know, is looking to us, you know, to be engaged. To connect with them. To hear them. And then bring that to the table. So I think, you know, even though it's, it's a challenge, I think it's also an opportunity to really work closely with our community. You know, we're the, we're the middle ground. The councillors in between. You know, we're the conduits. So I think, you know, we can all work together for those outcomes to, to show we're all listening

01:26:00 and making the hard decisions. Yeah. So thank you. Speaker 3: Yeah. We'll be able to, we'll be able to, we'll be able to, we'll be able to start it. Yeah. As soon as we buy it. As soon as we buy it. We'll be able to make sure that we're delivering it. Yeah. Yeah. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. Any further questions? Yes. Mayor Wilkie: Yeah. Thanks. It was good to hear the question. Really good questions and comments. It's, in terms of fixing what's broken, this capital works program, the board focuses on the council's traditional focus, which is the diversity that is directly overseeing and also delivering. The council's also delivering, I think it's $130 million worth of repair works from the Queenslander Construction Authority, 30 assets, and the biggest asset in the council's history, the central house history.

01:27:00 The council is not necessarily delivering that, but it has oversight over that. Can you just talk, so essentially we're running two capital works programs in parallel. Can you just talk about the council's role and also, you know, in terms of, in terms of what the oversight rather has to do with this other very expensive program? Director Walsh: Yeah. So there's, originally there was 21 sites that have required significant repair. So we're down to three. Sorry, that $135 million program. So we're ploughing our way through it. The governance arrangements of that program are slightly different to actually expedite the work. So funded by QRA, we have a disaster reconstruction coordinator who reports directly to me. So we have a disaster reconstruction coordinator who reports directly to me. And we have consulting engineers and project managers working with us to deliver that program. So the works are packaged up in terms of design and then put out to tender. So the works are packaged up in terms of design and then put out to tender. I don't want to understate that there's still the impost upon the council, so that whilst the disaster reconstruction coordinator and the external engineers and project managers

01:28:00 are funded, you know, external to council, it still requires oversight. That involves a lot of my time in terms of the governance of the program. It requires a lot of time with our communications people in terms of putting comms out about the different projects. And then also significant efforts by our procurement team because the procurement activities included the largest contract executed in the history of producer council with immense interest across the market. So for 21 sites doing major procurement activity. And also some of the exercises were high risk such as the realignment of the water main supplying Noosaville. So from the Kaigong water intake at Mary River. And then when it comes to the asset finalisation and realisation. So all the assets actually come into our finance team and our assets team and need to be reconciled. And that's quite an arduous process because even one reconstruction site can involve hundreds of different assets that actually need to be chronicled into our system. So that work is still going on, although it doesn't have the same profile as the internal funding program.

01:29:00 Those components aren't funded by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. They are paying the line share of the work without a doubt. So that program has been delivered in parallel to this program. Mayor Wilkie: So just a comment that the team has had to absorb an enormous amount of additional work. And it's a very hard working team. Congratulations on that. And thank you for managing both those work times. Director Walsh: Yeah. Thank you. Mayor Wilkie: I know something in the report. Forgive me if it's been in there before. Director Walsh: Yeah. Mayor Wilkie: It was, you mentioned that there's $1 million worth of master planning work underway. With a potential return on investment of $75 million. Could you just explain what that means and why you included that for what I think is the first time in a report like this? Director Walsh: So we're in the throes of preparing a draft report to Council on the Noosaville Fortune Infrastructure Master Plan. And as part of the notice of motion to that report, it actually asked for more schematics on the value of the investment.

01:30:00 It actually asked for benchmarking of, you know, how much the plan has cost us and then what the overall value is. So that's how we're getting assumed of the data. So the key point is that with the Master Plan, it helps focus what your existing asset renewal program is. For instance, at Noosaville, we have failing revetment walls. So all along the riverfront. We have an asset renewal budget to try to replace those, you know, retaining walls. But the Master Plan gives us focus on how we do it as a student. You know, is it a beach nourishment program versus a constructed wall? Or if it's a constructed wall, you know, what's it made of? We know timber doesn't last the distance. We need to actually be more astute and longer term. And the Noosaville Foreshore Master Plan references living seawalls, which actually provide really good habitat for, you know, sea biota and also resilience to ongoing erosion. So the Master Plan gives us focus on how we astutely spend our own asset renewal costs. And then the thing that we're most interested in, or equally interested in,

01:31:00 is that the Master Plan makes us very attractive to attract grant funding. Because when you put in an application for grant funding, the grant provider's really interested to see what level of endorsed Master Plan you have, which means it has a level of, you know, community endorsement. And as an example, on the Noosaville Foreshore, even though the plan's in its draft stage and is well advanced, it's been successful in having matching funding, you know, for the Changing Places facility, which is the disabled toilet facility. And the stakeholders are comfortable that the amount of work we've done on the Master Plan and the community feedback we've had to date, they're happy to support background funding, so it doesn't come out of the Council climate. So we've recently also submitted, under Disaster Recovery Funding Round 3, for matching funding for the development wall replacement. So we're actually using our existing renewal budget of $758,000, I think it was, to actually attract matching funding of another $758,000. So we can actually double our budget and our effectiveness

01:32:00 without drawing upon the Council asset renewal dollars. So the Master Plan is basically efficient focus of our asset renewal works, to make sure we know we're doing the right thing, and then providing a gateway or an attractor to attract grant funding. Mayor Wilkie: And I know it's one of the consistently highest items in the capital works program is the Shire Road Renovation Program. And I noticed you're close to it. It would be fantastic. If you could talk about the importance of that, and also how we're tracking, are we going to receive that, will you be asking for additional funding, is that enough? Director Walsh: If you ask the road engineers, they say we probably need to spend about $77 million to get our roads up to a reasonable standard, which is a significant amount. And basically that investment level is to get the roads to maximise their life. And a heavy patching or a resealing program, what it does is it protects the top layer of the road from further damage.

01:33:00 Because when the water gets below the road and into the subsurface, you end up with destruction of the subsurface, and then you need to reconstruct the whole road. And that comes at a great expense. So by doing a more assertive, proactive resealing program, which is just the thin coat on the top, we're extending the life of that map asset, and also reducing long-term financial viability of Council. It's just like maintaining a car to maximise its life, to try and prevent that. And we know that when roads get to a certain point, and Hilton Esplanade is an example of that, whereby the whole road has basically failed and needs major reconstruction, it would be much more preferable to catch that road in time and do a heavy patching program, or a resealing program to give a really good seal on the top of that road at an early stage. Mayor Wilkie: Building back better to climate-proof roads and infrastructure is talked about a lot. So how are we preparing to build back better?

01:34:00 There's external funding available for that sort of work, isn't there? Hilton Esplanade would be a good example. Director Walsh: Yeah, Hilton Esplanade would be a good example. So there's various programs that we can tap into, and we try and think pretty astutely. Like Dunford's, for instance, with Hilton Esplanade. That's identified. It's a primary cycle route for the Shire. You know, people riding from Tewantin to Loosa Heads and on to Preaching Beach. So we actually can tap into cycle street funding to actually help us reseal that road. So it's not just one program. There's lots of different programs. There's also a Black Spot program and also, you know, community stimulus improvement works as well, funded by the state and fed. So it's about trying to keep us tuned on every single program out there. I think the point is that most of this program does focus on maintaining our existing assets and trying to extend their life and reduce financial liability. I do note that none of those road programs talk about improvement of existing roads that are unsealed or, you know, perhaps do not meet users' expectations. So it's about keeping what we've got,

01:35:00 but there's very little in that program which improves, you know, areas or roads that aren't sealed. Yeah. Yeah. So I just want to point out that just in your... Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Yeah. Thank you. Any further questions? I do think, though, thank you for your time. You've been very good. I'm very much looking forward to the next report. But I think we do have to note we've got the one lane opening on Friday the 5th of May at Lake Mountain. So, you know, that is really, really a celebration. Do you want to give us a quick... With that, I think there was a... Yeah. Yeah. Director Walsh: So, I'm very pleased to report that the final asphalt sealing on the road surface of the Black Mountain landslide has been completed. Mayor Wilkie: That's right. Director Walsh: Or another term is that it's the largest recorded land depth, deep landslide in modern history in Queensland. In Queensland? Yeah, because of the depth.

01:36:00 Not the geographical area. The depth. So, yeah. So, it's actually quite significant. So, whilst there are some peripheral work still to be completed, such as guardrails and line marking and drains and drainage works and the like, contractors are confident that they can allow single lane access through that site from Friday under traffic control or traffic light management. There still may be some delays for temporary works for up to 20 minutes. So, that's, you know, a conservative estimate. And that is still a lot faster than going the 45 minutes around the other way. I'll just note, Councillor, that we're keen not to promote this to the broader community as of yet. So... Mayor Wilkie: So, don't mention it in a... Director Walsh: Because... No. Sorry. Mayor Wilkie: I wasn't aware of that. Director Walsh: Yeah. But... Councillor Finzel: I was excited because we... Director Walsh: It is good news. It's worth notable. But we're just trying to minimise traffic disruption in that location because... We don't want sightseers. We don't want sightseers. And we're wanting the community to not be disrupted by sightseers. And we also want the construction crew to wrap the project up as soon as possible so the less traffic they're dealing with will make their job a lot easier.

01:37:00 I just note that the residents on the other side of the landslide have been disrupted for over three years. And I just note their patience because the detour track is very long and the time stretch is... Yeah. Mayor Wilkie: Yeah. So we'll ask the community just to respect the residents and allow them unrestricted access until the official opening. Director Walsh: Until the official opening. Until both lanes are open. Until both lanes are open. So just to be clear as well that we can't arrange the waste delivery as of yet because both lanes will need to be open. Those delays are unacceptable to the waste contractor at this moment. But we'll continue to monitor that situation. And we're still seeking clarity about the school bus arrangements of TransLink. That is an agency outside Council. And we're not too sure exactly what they'll do. But we've made them fully aware of the one-way arrangement. And we've also informed all emergency services as well. Yeah. So that will make it much easier for them to access. Councillor Finzel: Good job. Thank you. And my apologies that I didn't want our listeners to please be very respectful.

01:38:00 And just thank you to all the staff and the community that have worked together over a long Councillor Wilson: period of time. Councillor Finzel: Okay. Any other questions? Are we ready to... Would anyone like to move it? All right. I'll have a second. Councillor Wilson: Thank you. Would you mind allowing me to speak? I think we've had plenty of discussion. Thank you, Shaun. It was a great discussion. Councillor Finzel: Thank you, Shaun. Okay. We'll take it to the vote. All in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Shaun. And we're going to move on to item denoting by the committee 8.2, Noosa River Recreational Boating Facilities Update. Director Walsh: Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. So this report provides an update on progress on recreational boating facilities in the Noosa River. In 2022, Maritime Safety Queensland released the Recreational Boating Facilities Demand Forecast in 2022. Council considered a very extensive report in June 2023 about which options it wanted

8.2 NOOSA RIVER RECREATIONAL BOATING FACILITIES - UPDATE ¶

▶ 01:38:47· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

01:39:00 to pursue or not. And in terms of the status report of the proposals that Council wanted to pursue, progress so limited has been made on defining a scope of three facilities, including the Noosa Woods Jetty. At the end of Hastings Street, or the park at the end of Hastings Street, scoping the approach to the municipal boat ramp, and also starting, initiating the design process for the Hilton Esplanade to now leverage boat ramp, which is currently an informal facility. In addition, I'm pleased to advise that Council has been advised that funding to the tune of 2.5 million is likely to be made available for MSQ for recreational boating facilities. We're still trying to determine the exact scope of that funding and exactly what we can use that funding for also. And the CEO has been in regular contact with MSQ to try and define that further. I'm happy to answer any further questions about that report. Councillor Finzel: Yes, thank you, Shaun. I do have a question.

01:40:00 Just so that we can promote, you know, the community is very engaged on the river. We know that whenever that comes up, everyone's, you know, really engaged. So just to affirm our connection to our community and the value of what's going on here and the supporting education, I just have a question asking you for those that, you know, don't know, that may be new to the area or they're not fully aware of it, to define the roles and responsibilities, including funding, infrastructure and regulation for each of the key stakeholders. Now, I know that's really complex and you're going to summarise that, I hope. And thank you. I just think it's a great opportunity to be heading to this for, you know, to get this online and then people can, you know, use this as a resource and get information about, you know, the work and how many stakeholders share in that without delivering any infrastructure. Director Walsh: Yeah. So if I'll just focus on infrastructure provision so that I can reference a lot of the other controls, because it is a very complex world in terms of river management.

01:41:00 Traditionally, in regard to public recreational boating infrastructure, Maritime Safety Queensland look after the overwater components or fund the overwater components. If you think about a jetty over the water or a boat ramp that goes into the water, Maritime Safety Queensland have traditionally funded those facilities. When it comes to the shore, which includes abatement walls, car parking, pathways, protecting those facilities' signs, then Council has traditionally been funded to those facilities. Once the facility is built or maintained, the facility gets handed over to Council to maintain on behalf of all the community. So it's a relationship between Maritime Safety Queensland and Maritime Safety Queensland. And Council and the realisation of those assets. Now I just want to point out that that relates to public facilities such as, you know, the Nusselville boat ramp and the like. Commercial facilities which are privately owned are a totally different kettle of fish and it really depends on the tenure and the relevant approvals they exist under. So that's in relation to infrastructure.

01:42:00 I do note that Maritime Safety Queensland seem to have indicated that this time the $2.5 million might be made available for landslide facilities and that's a very, what's the word, promising information for Maritime Safety Queensland because that's very non-traditional the way they've funded in the past. And if you look at the Maritime Safety Queensland recreational boating facilities website, they're very clear that they expect the landslide facilities to be funded by Council and not funded by the State Government. They expect it to be a partnership. So that's what we're nervous about. We're obviously awaiting the confirmation of the funding from MSQ about what is the scope because a bit like that conversation we had in a previous matter about grant funding and, you know, investment of money and if Council has to co-invest funds to achieve upgraded boating facilities, it's currently not in our capital works program. So it's something that if Council seeks upgrading of our boating facilities a priority and the

01:43:00 State Government requires co-contribution, then that is a funding allocation that Council will need to make. So eagerly waiting to see what that outcome is. Now, I was just dealing with recreational boating facilities there. I just want to note that other issues such as mooring and anchoring, you know, fish habitat management, sustainable fishing management, is managed under a plethora of State Government controls. Our Council has no direct involvement in ongoing management actually on the river, but obviously has a clear advocacy role to ensure the State Government agencies are looking after the river on behalf of Council and the community. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. Just on that, in the report, there's also reference to TMR. Can you just give us your TMR? Director Walsh: Maritime Safety Queensland. Thank you for that, Councillor. Maritime Safety Queensland are an agency of Transport and Main Roads. So effectively when you're talking about Maritime Safety Queensland, you're talking about the Department of Transport and Main Roads and they're responsible to that Directorate and to that Minister and their funding comes from that area.

01:44:00 And if you think about it, boating is a form of transport. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. Well, that would be a good way to fire that foundation. Councillor Phillips: Do we have any questions? I do, please. Fantastic. Thank you, Shaun. Just in relation to the $2.5 million allocation from Queensland, from MSQ, when do you think we will get a definitive? Because there is certainly information in community that they feel they already have that clarity. So I guess I'm wanting to know a timeframe from today when we will have some certainty. Director Walsh: Can I defer to the CEO? The CEO has actually been in more active conversations with the Director of MSQ. Speaker 3: Yeah. So we've had an email that basically confirms that the $2.5 million has been allocated. But in terms of what it's allocated for, we believe it's Landside. He believes it's Landside. But he says it's different to what MSQ would normally fund. He's getting clarification. And then I've got a meeting, we're setting up a meeting for him and I to sit down and

01:45:00 work out what that actually means. The risk is, as Shaun was saying, for us, is that the $2.5 million, what does that include? Even if it is Landside, does that include our project? If you identify a project, do you use that money for projects? Do you use that money for, does that include project management? Or is that expected to come from the Council contribution? Does it include other things? Is there a need to provide any actual physical money to it? Which we don't know yet. So we're just being a little bit cautious, as is MSQ's Director along those lines as well, because it was a commitment to a reduction. So we're just, you know, those sort of things. But here we go. Speaker 2: Now let's work out exactly what it is. This is until we know the finer details. We're being a little bit cautious as well. Speaker 3: But what we do, we have a confirmation of it. The money is allocated.

01:46:00 What for and how we use it. We just want it to work out. So it's really encouraging. We're really looking forward to it. But until we know, I don't want to make any more promises to the community. Councillor Phillips: Okay. In relation to continually speaking about the funding then. It wasn't, in my understanding as the Auckland Council, what actively sought is funds. So my lead up question is, pull up question is, when will community be consulted in the allocation? Because it's my understanding they've already really indicated what they want that funds for. Speaker 3: We've had those conversations with them already to some degree. But again, until we get it finally confirmed, then we can go back to the community and say, okay. We've got this money. How do we best spend this? And how do we get the best bang for the buck? That's what we're proposing to do. We're not saying we've got this project. Because again, it has been a large advocacy from the community to get this funding into

01:47:00 the election commitment. Speaker 2: So we recognise that. We need to be cognisant of that fact. Speaker 3: And we'll continue then to say, oh, we've got this money. We're going to use it for. And I'm also conscious that, again, that it's not just, we're going to have a bucket of money over here for project management. And you can say that community have a 10% of that in project management. To add to the 2.5, we're going to have that just sitting around. Because it wasn't our issue in the first place. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to use that 2.5 million dollars as an overall package to deliver the project. Director Walsh: I'd also like to clarify that as per Council's resolution in June 2023, item C, notes about Council seeking discussions about increasing funding from MSQ, DTMR to fund and ensure components of program facilities. So Council staff have also been very active in that space seeking the funding.

01:48:00 I appreciate the community, thankfully, have also been incredibly active in that space as well. But I can assure you, Council staff have also been very active. Speaker 3: Yeah. Director Walsh: Every time we see the manager, it doesn't matter. Councillor Phillips: Okay, so thank you for that. Just in relation then, when I start seeing other projects included in the report, Noosewoods Jetty, Gimp Terrace Jetty, when did community, what's the consultant, sorry, when did community, when were they consulted about these projects? Because I feel that we already know what they've prioritised, and so when we look back at the Capital Works program and we see the large body of work, I feel that they've already loudly said what they want prioritised and where they want the funds.

01:49:00 And so I guess I'm wanting some clarity around when we just start focusing on one particular project, which is what the funds were intended for, which is... Director Walsh: Yeah, so when MSQ released the report in 2022, it actually did a significant consultation program, so that report was distributed fairly widely in the community, and it was subject to quite significant conversation in the community as well. So when local communities approached council, we made it very clear they needed to put their submissions into MSQ to ensure they could finalise the study, because most of the study is about overwater components, which is Maritime Safety Queensland's responsibility. So this next stage, we have no final answer on what the priorities should be, we will need to engage with council to actually resolve where that money should be spent. So it could be on one project, or it could be scattered across several.

01:50:00 For instance, we know from Noosaville, both from the Maritime Safety Queensland study and also the Noosaville Portioning and Construction Master Plan, changes to pontoon in the Noosaville program to allow more efficient loading and unloading. So that means that if we are looking at vessels, we'd get much higher turnover in the boat ramp. So that might be a smaller value project, which would be really good outcomes, whereas other more comprehensive projects might be, you know, years down the track. So I don't want to pre-empt what Council's decisions will be, I think we need to find out what the $2.5 million focus is on and then we'll need to actually, the same way when we present any project to Council for approval of the capital works budget, we'll need to come to you to actually seek endorsement and then we can have a conversation about community engagement at that point. But again, noting that depending on the terms of funding, you know, do we have budget, you know, to actually do those project processes.

01:51:00 Councillor Wilson: Can I just re-advise, while it might help in your podcast a little bit, is that this report was directed by previous Council motions and that did actually specifically ask for new awards and everyone could be given those. So I went up there and all of these different programs that were in place. So there's the... the resolution from October 24 and the previous one from June 23 that did specify all of the things that were in this report. My question, and I can argue that this is a report primarily, so we will get more information on all of these different individual projects, but just could we have a bit more information on the news awards? What's the scope of the work that the consultants are working on? And then we're just looking at one. Do you want to bring it up, Jesse, there, or are there a number of different locations being considered? Director Walsh: Yeah. So the initiation of the news awards public GED comes from about three years ago. So as a specific Council project.

01:52:00 You know, I've come more recently onto the scene and I needed to say that the scope, even to myself, was unclear. And there are a number of different stakeholders with different expectations about whether it was an improved GED for public voting or whether it was an improved GED for commercial drop-off and pick-up, or whether it was forecast in the future of public transport. So the first stage of the consultants' work is to actually look at all options and the pros and cons and the opportunities and constraints. Like, as an example, to pursue a public transport GED requires significant disabled access. So if you think about the, you know, the ferry terminals in the Brisbane River with all the, you know, variable ramps, there's a very good understanding of what you're in for to actually take a facility of that look. And also discussions with Carbon Transport and Main Roads about the Northern Passages Transport Study indicate that it's going to be a long way off until we get public transport in the Brisbane River. Some of the issues associated with commercial GEDs is that to run a full commercial GED, they require tenure, which means private allocation of land.

01:53:00 Whereas all our public GEDs are on, you know, by grace with the state government and they don't require separate tenure. So, and then, you know, public recreational boating, one of the benefits we've got at Noosa Woods is that one location actually has deep drafts, so boats with a good keel can actually draw alongside the public GED. But ideally, any GEDs will have a floating pontoon that goes up and down with the tide because it's very difficult to tie alongside, you know, the GED at the moment trying to clamp it up. So the first stage of the consultant's work is to actually present all of this information to get a common understanding and then come to councillors to discuss it further about what do we think we should be pursuing and then consider the consultation program. So to date, we've done some one-on-one engagement with the Haitian Street Association, the Noosa Commercial Marine Operators, David Steele of the Noosa River Ferry and also the Noosa Parks Association because they were fundamentally, you know, behind the creation of Noosa Woods with the closure of the caravan park. So key stakeholders have helped inform some of the things and complexes we need to look at.

01:54:00 We're looking forward to giving the councillors a further briefing next week, you know, especially out behind the project. But we're at the beginning of it. So all of the questions you raised about what we should do is actually what we're trying to figure out because there's so many different expectations of how we should approach that GED and what it should be used for. I hope that answers that. So it's just at the beginning of the process. I've got, to the chair, I've got Dean Arland who's the project manager on that. Is there anything else you'd like to add to that, Dean? Speaker 2: No. Yeah. Well, that is where I'm going with that project. We will look at, there's three different sites that we're currently using in that project. So it's the Somatel current arrangement, the Sir Life Saving Club had a, an original GED and a new GED. Yeah. So we've got further work to do and that's going to happen in the next couple of months.

01:55:00 And obviously from that, we'll have some preferred options once we go through a multi-criteria process of assessing those sites and working with those stakeholders. Speaker 3: Yep. Councillor Wilson: That's interesting. Thank you. Can I just have one more question? Sure. Yeah. Councillor Phillips: Just in relation to how projects like this get prioritised. Like when I see certain ones that say no progress as a result. Can you explain to me how that even starts? Like who prioritises when you start advancing and when it's stopped? Director Walsh: So two of the projects are coincidental because the Noosaville foreshore infrastructure master plan was already forecast. So, and preparation work was already underway. So that's why we've managed to advance that. And that's the same with the Noosaville public GED. So that there was already a budget allocation.

01:56:00 So we're actually coincidental again that we're able to advance that. The third one, which is the denial of breach. Noosaville is really opportunistic. That through various discussions with the Noosaville Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which is no longer in operation, in councils at the time, there was perceived to be issues associated with that facility, both the appearance of it, some of the environmental issues associated with the erosion, you know, its appearance when you come into Noosa. But then also the opportunity. Because there's already a lot of people using it. We know, for instance, it's the only site where you can unload or load a large vessel on the Noosa River. So with the crane. And there's very few other sites available. So we forecast that there was an opportunity to do some design work. And we've put that into the forward planning and design project for next financial year. That list of projects is endorsed by CWE, or the Capital Works Executive. To ensure that it's worth to spend a bit of money to design that further, to see whether

01:57:00 it's pursuing as a capital works submission for the future year. Mayor Wilkie: Thank you. Director Walsh: So it's done. But normally it would be through council of prioritisation of, you know, capital works projects as part of the budget financial year process. Okay. Councillor Phillips: So to clarify then, will we re-see these projects in this budget round to say whether there's appetite for us to continue? Yes. Director Walsh: We can do a Noosa River infrastructure master plan. We'll be wrapping up. But you know, you could can, you know, if you wish to, you can or advance, you know, specific proposals. So in that, if you wish to. You could terminate any further expenditure in the Noosa River public jetty if you think that's appropriate. So because this is a significant budget allocation that we haven't spent yet, which is wise, because we wanted to make sure we're heading in the right direction. You could also reject further funding on the original bridge program.

01:58:00 So they're good questions to raise through the budget process. If you either support or don't support particular initiatives. Councillor Phillips: I have one, unless there's more questions for the chair. I'd like to refer this to the general meeting. Is there more questions? Yeah. Councillor Finzel: Sure. Is there any further questions? Okay. I just would like to just ask a quick one around the iron number G with the councillors proposing to initiate the parking study. Will that also be depending on the budget allocation or the wording of the budget there for that? Director Walsh: So as councillors are aware, we've had, you know, had one workshop on the parking study and there's one coming up. And one of those content you'll be seeing is actually the draft parking management plan for the Noosa River. Which focuses on time restrictions. And it considers trailer and boat parking in that location. So for further council consideration.

01:59:00 So we've actually advanced that initiative as part of the June 23 initiative. Okay. Councillor Finzel: Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Shaun. You've done a good job at the day. Thank you for your patience. So we'll take it to the vote. Yes. Councillor Wilson: We're moving there. Yes. We're about to go there. We're moving to deferral instead of deferral. Councillor Finzel: Yes. That's correct. Are you all right? We're moving to deferral. Okay. Council Phillips would like to move that. I'm happy to second. We'll take it to the vote. All in favour? Thank you. That's unanimous. Thank you. We don't have any confidential session. And then I declare the meeting closed at 3.33.

10 MEETING CLOSURE ¶

▶ 02:01:40

Council's recording ends before this item. Where a meeting resolved to close its doors, that is what the end of the recording means — see what council discussed in private.