With the festive season nearly upon us, this year we have further reasons to rejoice in the knowledge a state election will be held in few months time.  Queenslanders will then have the opportunity to wave goodbye to an arrogant, autocratic government that forced Noosa and other councils to merge in defiance of community wishes.

The latest Galaxy Poll indicates voter support for the government continues to linger around the 28% mark suggesting Labor will struggle to hold as little as 12 seats in a new Parliament. Not surprisingly Bligh’s top bureaucrats have clearly ‘sniffed the wind’ and are heading for the nearest exit with 6 of her department heads gone and many more to follow.

For Noosa, it means the opportunity to re-establish our council. Being part of Australia’s 4th largest council, with staff numbers exceeding 2500, has not been in Noosa’s best interest. Quite the contrary, for we are a small inclusive community intent on preserving the special features differentiating Noosa from other coastal regions.

The bureaucrats are pretty much running the Sunshine Coast Regional Council (SCRC) and appear to have refined all the skills and cleverness of the ‘Yes Minister’ syndrome.  We keep hearing stories about how inwardly focussed this council has become   with one council insider complaining, “the place is top heavy with management who are more interested in restricting staff from getting out and doing their job than encouraging them to be pro-active and responsive to residents and business needs. A current   example is the restriction imposed on staff from talking directly with councillors as they are now required to go through a manager’s co-ordinator (whatever that might be) then, no doubt after a bit of filtering, the managers Personal Assistant passes the information on to the relevant councillor.   Worse, technical officers have been told they are not to answer inquiries from the public instead referring them to ‘customer service staff’ who must prepare and lodge an information sheet then send it to the technical officer for actioning.”

Now this bureaucratic nonsense may be suitable for the federal government or even a state government, but for a local council, you’ve got to be kidding.  Little wonder we in Noosa are paying 85% more in general rates and water to the Regional Council than we were 4 years ago.  Yes, I said 85%.  Noosa’s rate payers are now paying $42.0 million in general rates, then there’s the $8.0 million Unity Water must pay annually to the SCRC which they recover by adding the $8.0 million to household water bills.  That’s $50.0 million and 4 years ago we paid a total of $27.0 million. 
So much for the economies of scale promised by the Beattie/Bligh government at the time of forced amalgamation.  Noosa desperately needs its council back not only because we can’t afford to be part of this Soviet style politburo, but because we need the freedom to determine our own future.

Interestingly, in keeping with the politburo definition of our regional council, we hear they are now secretly engaged in sourcing a firm to do a ‘so called’ independent financial model on the cost of de-amalgamation for Noosa residents.  No doubt motivated by the Morton Bay council who did a similar thing earlier this year because they wanted to discourage Redcliffe residents from pursuing their campaign to separate from the Morton Bay council.  It didn’t work as the costs were proven to be highly exaggerated.  Should the SCRC succeed in finding an organisation to falsely inflate the costs of Noosa’s de-amalgamation you can be assured we will get a reputable expert to tear it apart line by line. Of course, ultimately it will be the Boundaries Commission that determines the final cost.

It’s rather surprising the SCRC wants to discourage Noosa from gaining its independence given the Stockland Group’s announcement they are about to begin sub-dividing their Caloundra South land into 50,000 lots effectively creating a community much larger than Noosa and more compatible with the Regional Councils specific “community of interest”.

So it’s going to be an especially good festive season and exciting New Year.  Best wishes to one and all from the Friends of Noosa, your continued support has enabled us to get to where we are today.

Bob Ansett