With the appointment of Campbell Newman as LNP leader in waiting the political landscape has changed once again.  Suddenly a rattled Premier began equivocating about when the State election would be held and seemed to be confidently intimating it might be sooner rather than later.  Then the first Poll comes out showing Campbell Newman leading Anna Bligh as preferred Premier and the LNP with a 16 point lead over Labor so now she’s not too sure.    Most of the pundits however do seem to think an election will be called sometime this year which means we are moving closer to regaining our Council. One of the first policy declarations from ‘Can Do’ Newman was his commitment to facilitate the return of Noosa’s Council through a boundary adjustment. Also the shadow Minister for Local Government Howard Hobbs attended the Noosa Independence Alliance launch and was duly impressed with the work done by the NIA with its community consultations and ongoing Public Forums.  The proposed Council model and the Financial Forecasts were also very favourably received prompting him to suggest to Port Douglas (the other Council the LNP will de-amalgamate) they use our model as a template. I must recognise and thank Glen Elmes for his persuasiveness in convincing Campbell Newman to honour his parties pledge to facilitate the restoration of Noosa’s council.

So the momentum continues to build as it must because we are hearing dreadful things about   rampant low moral throughout our ‘great big council’ and the shock of hearing another 87 staff have been employed to this already bloated organisation.  As is usually the case with large organisations the bureaucrats take over and processes grind to a halt.  Even the SCRC Deputy Mayor was moved to publically slam the inefficiencies of this council. No one wants to take responsibility for decisions in fear of being held accountable should things go pear shape.  We know architects are screaming over inordinate delays in obtaining planning approvals or simply getting an answer to a question.  One of our members recently contacted the SCRC about an issue raised with them last year only to be told by the ‘customer response team’ person “the record of previous contact would not be in the system, because although the councils amalgamated the data records were not amalgamated”.

Then we have the Road at Sunrise beach looking like it was hit by a mini tsunami and nothing seems to be happening in respect to fixing the great hole which has been like this for two months.  Yet time was found to load up the camels on the North Shore and cart them away.   Irrespective of circumstances surrounding the Camel Man’s occupancy of public land surely some compromise could have been reached to retain this unique tourism experience. Then there has been the ongoing saga with the tenders for ‘beach businesses’ particularly the ‘stand up paddleboards’.  It seems all operators are now suffering from this monumental stuff up.

The roll out of Public Forums by the NIA continues through April and the response has been outstanding with the number of attendees exceeding expectation and their enthusiasm for the proposed council model encouraging.  The Free Noosa campaign has generated a great deal of public interest within Noosa and beyond causing some living at the southern end of the coast to express  concern over what the impact might be for the Regional Council when departs. We have emphasised there will be no financial disadvantage to the SCRC as Noosa will take its share of debt with it and will most likely sub-contract a number of services from the SCRC, provided they are competitive.  Further, the development of Caloundra South will ultimately add another 22,000 rate payers to their income base enabling them to retain their status as the 4th largest council in Australia.  In all the de-amalgamation of Noosa is a win, win situation for all concerned.