Irrespective of whether you are a dog owner or not or where you stand on allowing dogs to be on the footpath while enjoying alfresco dining,  all Noosans should be fearful of new Council laws to fine dog owners for having their animal along-side them in outdoor cafes. Why, because it illustrates our long running fear of Noosa’s future being in the hands of others.

In this instance one councillor from the  southern end of the Coast obsessed about allowing dogs near alfresco dining patrons, set about filibustering colleagues until they supported his motion for the introduction of new laws enabling council officers to issue ‘on the spot fines’ to recalcitrant dog owners.  Because of our un-representation on this council--with only two of the 12 councillors—Noosa’s voice was not heard or considered.     
During this same sitting of council other laws were also changed to support the bureaucracy’s obsession with ‘harmonising’ the Coast.  The ‘one size fits all’ objective has taken a further leap forward and offers a snap shot overview of what our future has in store for us.  Effectively, we are in the hands of the philistines.  For example should they decide to increase building heights in Maroochydore then presumably with common laws throughout the Coast it would mean increased building heights for Noosa.

We were probably fortunate in the make-up of this first regional council as most successful candidates supported the Abbot line of moderate development and at least paid lip service to the desirability of pursuing a clean green policy for the coast.  However, as time went by some changed their views on development and others who are still believers will not be contesting next year’s election. So who knows what we will get in the next Council but one thing is for sure Noosa’s position will only worsen until such time as we regain our own council.

I noticed the bureaucrats now have their heads down busily preparing another proposal for the ‘harmonisation’ of parking metres along the coast. If it works for Caloundra, so the thinking goes, then it must work for Noosa.   Never mind we have a very different culture to Caloundra and attract a very different tourist market.

I’m constantly amazed at how governments seem obsessed with expanding and finding further ways to intrude into the private lives of their constituents, and how we as constituents seem powerless to prevent this intrusion.  The overlapping of responsibilities between Federal, State and Local governments produces a minefield of incomprehensible and unnecessary regulations producing untold sums of money from tax and rate payers for little or no benefit.  The red tape it produces is a major contributor to Australia’s on- going productivity decline.

These new dog laws are topical example of this overlap.  At a time when both the Federal and State governments are looking to liberalise dog access to alfresco dining areas, similar to what exists in most parts of the developed world, our very temporary Coast Council is passing legislation to do just the opposite.

The first thing one considers when setting up a new business is how to differentiate it from other like businesses, yet here we have Australia’s 4th largest Council going ‘hell bent for leather’ to eliminate the differences between Caloundra, Mooloolaba, Maroochydore and Noosa.  It’s these differences that make the Coast such a popular and interesting tourist destination.  Instead of ‘harmonising’ the differences we should be capitalising on them (vive la difference) and promoting them.  The global tourism market is undoubtedly the most ‘cut throat’ and competitive of all markets so if we want to be a serious player in this market we had better start giving customers what they want and stop telling what they must have.

Bob Ansett