Courier Mail September 2008 - Bob Ansett

QUEENSLAND council amalgamations are back on the political agenda with the Liberal National Party's Partners in Government policy, allowing merged councils to de-amalgamate.

The LNP plan is designed to rebuild relationships between state and local governments, considerably diminished by the Labor Government.

It has committed to facilitate and fund demergers by communities wishing to regain their right to self-govern.

At the same time, anti-merger campaigners in the former Douglas Shire met 500 residents who unanimously voted to de-amalgamate from the Cairns Regional Council. Read full story here......

There were many reasons why Noosans opposed amalgamation but none more than the desire to retain the very special qualities differentiating Noosa from all other beachside communities. We knew it would be difficult to hang on to these differences once local government was forcibly removed from us.

Inexorably this is happening with frightening swiftness. One example is the review of parking policy by the Regional Council, intent upon standardising parking laws across the coast, with parking meters high on their agenda.

Why, you may well ask? What’s wrong with having differing policies? The fact that Caloundra has over a 100 parking meters, is of little interest to Noosa. Let them have them. But not for Noosa, we don’t want them. We aren’t a large city, we are a friendly village, and wish to remain that way. The idea of homogenising the coast is precisely what we fought against in our “Save Noosa”, campaign. It’s typical of bureaucratic laziness endemic in public service and the reason why efficient big government is an ‘oxymoron’. Local government is at its most efficient representing constituency’s of up to 80,000 according to international research. Our council represents about 290,000 expected to rise to 340,000 by 2011 thus rapidly approaching the population of Tasmania. How frightening is that?

Another example of growing bureaucratic incompetence is the build up of rubbish along access roads to Noosa. What a wonderful way to greet visitors to this Biosphere Reserve. When contacted by the Noosa Journal, a council officer remarked “the situation is complicated as there is no firm agreement in place with Main Roads and rubbish collection has entered no man’s land”. This council has been in place for almost 6 months now, and there’s no excuse for not having an agreement with Main Roads. A Noosa council responsive to its residents would have had this very important matter dealt with instantly.

We are witnessing the gradual degradation of Noosa as it’s absorbed into he Sunshine Coast Regional Council. ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ is a familiar political tactic and history tells us, this council will morph into one obese bureaucracy, with decision making based on the ‘lowest common denominator’ factor.

For this and many other reasons the Friends of Noosa are delighted to hear the new LNP party has announced a policy aimed at facilitating the return of self government to those former shires wishing to once again enjoy this democratic right. We had a similar undertaking from the former leader of the Nationals, Geoff Seeney, so it’s comforting to know this issue remains at the forefront of the LNP’s policy platform. Thanks go to local member, Glen Elmes for championing this cause. Now all we need is a change of state government next year.

In preparation for this happening, we invited Don Cummins, the former mayor of Mansfield Victoria to share his experience and expertise with us on how he managed the de-merging of Mansfield from their forced amalgamation with the much larger Benalla shire. Don was the key driver in this extraordinary achievement, persistently working to restore local government to Benalla. It took 8 years and a change of state government to effect, but this little shire of only 8000 people ‘never gave up’ and thus succeeded against all odds.

During those 8 years, as part of a regional council, rates went up significantly, services declined, response time to community needs blew out and in general residents lost control of their own destiny. Sound familiar?

With his support, we are focusing our strategies and adopting some of his most successful tactics. The point he hammered home to us was, don’t accept the deprivation of democratic rights, no matter how long it may take, regain the right to self govern.

Interestingly, Port Douglas, launched its own de-merger campaign in late August. It was initiated in a meeting of over 500 rate payers who voted unanimously to de-amalgamate from the Cairns council. Fed-up with rate rises and declining services they resolved to set up an advisory board to work with the Cairns Council to bring about their separation. No doubt the LNP policy on de-merging will also resonate strongly with them.

Our September message to the Noosa community is ‘DON’T GIVE UP’ being part of this regional council is a short term aberration that will ultimately be overturned.

Bob Ansett

The issue of amalgamation costs continue to fester after the Queensland Local Government Association predicted the overall cost of council mergers would most likely exceed 200 million dollars compared with the measly 27
million allocated by the state government. Some difference!

Anna Bligh responded by saying “should costs blow out councils can ask for more money”. Sounds good, but as we know with this government, things are never quite as they seem. On cue, the minister for local government, Warren Pitt quickly pitched in, saying, “He doubted the state government would need to provide any additional financial assistance as it would first be necessary for councils to deduct merger costs from future savings arising from efficiencies of scale.”

All well and good, but how on earth are councils going to predict future savings when the state government has no idea of the economies of scale. Having done no economic modelling on council mergers they, simply assumed ‘big has got to be better’. The fact, is nobody knows whether there will or won’t be savings, but the chances of increased operating costs are far greater than savings if the experience from other council mergers
here and overseas are any guide.

While there has been the odd hiccup the regional council has functioned pretty well since inception 6 months ago. Given the momentous task of forging three councils together, then finding ways to work as a united team to achieve common objectives, they have done well so far. Of course, the electors of the Sunshine Coast helped immensely by electing like-minded councillors all opposed to rampant development at any cost.

It’s not so much the current council we fear but future councils that may be influenced by special interest groups (developers) who have their own agenda for Noosa. Remember, the northern end of the Coast only elects 3 of
the 12 councillors and Bob Abbot won’t always be mayor. So Noosa remains vulnerable.

The Bligh government has made their position abundantly clear on future Sunshine Coast development, seeing it as a natural reservoir for expansive housing growth aimed at accommodating a further 75,000 people at the southern end of the coast. Yet, at a time of intensive public debate over global climate change, Noosa represents a model for the future on how to manage urban growth in a sustainable manner. UNESCO recognised this in awarding Noosa a Biosphere Reserve status last year, calling it “a Biosphere Museum for governments around the world to emulate”.

So if our politicians are really concerned about climate change, they should be out there promoting this invaluable asset that’s capable of being packaged as a model for others to emulate. For unless others see the value of conserving and using in a sustainable way the natural and cultural resources of their particular region Noosa will increasingly become an island in a sea of discontent.

Accordingly, it has never been more important for Noosa to control its own destiny than now. That means regaining our democratic right of self government. Noosa is what it is today because we have had a government reflecting the interests of its constituency for the past 90 years. We are now a community of nearly 50,000 people and have demonstrated time and time again our ability to govern ourselves.

Bob Ansett
Friends of Noosa

On Friday the 4th of July Capt. Bligh and her motley crew sailed into Noosa, shouting from the ‘masthead’ “I love Noosa as its beauty is like a magnet”. (Which of her 300 ‘spin doctors’ came up with that one?) Ironically, no one has done more to destroy the magnet and put this beauty at risk than Anna Bligh.

Meanwhile the Minister for planning, Paul Lucas, surprised us by announcing the makeup of the Noosa Iconic Legislation Assessment Panel. Surprised because we expected the Panel to consist of non-Noosans. However, four of the Panel have residences in Noosa; three have been active over the years in preserving Noosa’s environment and quality of life. Russell Green, Peter Bycroft and John Mainwaring are well known within the community. The fourth Noosa resident is Peter Wood, previously Deputy Mayor of Toowoomba and Commissioner of Queensland Local Government Grants Commission. Leo Jensen the fifth member of the Panel, while not a resident of Noosa appears well qualified as past President of the Planning Institute of Australia. Interestingly both Peter and Leo are also members of the Port Douglas Iconic Legislation Panel.

In a rare response to community clamour the Bligh Government made a ensible decision for a change, which hopefully will protect the essence of our (Noosa) Town Plan. Whether this occurred because she has at last
recognised the importance to Queensland of our Biosphere Listing or because of her sudden drop in popularity in the opinion polls, it’s nevertheless a positive for Noosa. Meanwhile further cracks are appearing in the walls of newly amalgamated councils, all the way from Port Douglas to Toowoomba and of course our own regional council. Mostly linked to substantial rate increases. As we reported on numerous occasions, neither Bligh nor Beattie commissioned any economic modelling on the cost of council mergers or conducted basic ‘due diligence’ studies. They simply said big is beautiful and therefore economies of scale will flow leading to big savings for tax payers.

Well, the Local Government Association of Queensland have assessed the costs of council mergers and believe the real cost will exceed 200 million dollars. To illustrate how far off the government’s financial forecasts are, they budgeted for a mere 27 million dollars to cover amalgamation costs for the state.

Here on the Sunshine Coast it has been estimated 40 million dollars will be needed to install a state of the art computer system to efficiently link the three former shires onto one system. In Toowoomba they claim their costs will increase by 13 million over the next decade in wage parity alone.

Prior to announcing the 9.1% rate increase for Noosa Residents and 17.6% rate increase for rental properties, Mayor Bob Abbot claimed the new council was facing a ‘FISCAL CRISIS’ aided and abetted by the state  Government reneging on payment of 6 million compensation for water assets. Further, the SCRC have deliberately kept the increase down by postponing needed infrastructure investment and minimizing other capital expenditure. This would seem to indicate years of substantial rate hikes even without taking into account Bligh’s intention to dump a further 75,000 people into the Sunshine Coast and the infrastructure costs associated with
it.

On this subject a very topical critique of the Queensland Governments forced amalgamation process was published in the Australian National University Journal. Titled, “NO LESSONS LEARNED” they summarised their study with the following three observations.

1. The Queensland Local Government Reform Commission (LGRC) learned nothing from the hard-won experiences of other states that previously embarked on similar structural reforms of local Government.
2. The LGRC also ignored Australian and International literature on structural reform.
3. The LGRC also ignored recent state inquiries conducted by South Australia (2005) New South Wales (2006) Western Australia (2006) and Tasmania (2007) who were unanimous that structural reform (council amalgamations) was not a magic bullet that could cure financial ills of Australian Local Government.

The report concluded noting, “If structural reform in other states failed to remove financial un-sustainability, why should it be expected to work in Queensland. Local infrastructure across Australia is in such a parlous condition that only the injection of billions of dollar – far beyond the financial capacity of local governments –could remedy the situation”.

All of which confirms Friends of Noosa’s position from the very beginning that the LGRC was nothing more than a sham aimed at deflecting anticipated community anger away from the Beattie/Bligh government.

We are pleased to announce John Taylor of Sea Change Noosa has joined our executive group and has taken over management of our webpage. A reminder, our web address is: http://www.friendsofnoosa.org

Bob Ansett

“PULL YE FINGER OUT”, cried Capt Bligh hoisting the Bounty’s spinnaker demanding more speed from her crew in fast tracking her obsession to plonk a further 75,000 people on the Sunshine Coast. Damn the wishes of the new Sunshine Coast Regional Council (SCRC) elected by a constituency diametrically opposed to rampant population growth. ITS FULL SPEED AHEAD! Don’t worry about consulting with the SCRC, don’t worry about
lack of infrastructure or future infrastructure funding, this is about opening up land for the masses and producing greater income for Capt. Bligh’s incompetent government.

As the George St. conspiracy becomes more transparent, we better understand why water was confiscated from local governments. The real reason behind forced council amalgamations, and the establishment of the Urban Land Development Authority which further centralises planning and development in the hands of First Mate Paul Lucas. The very same person who oversees the ‘Moronic Legislation’ promised by Peter Beattie to protect Noosa’s iconic environment and life style. The same person who will ultimately be appointing THE PANEL to assess all development applications applicable to the former Noosa Shire. We now know it’s all about neutering local government so there can be no impediment to Capt. Bligh and her mates riding roughshod over the state of Queensland and the interest of its people. Eat your heart out Mugabe.

This should come as no surprise but given the incompetencies of the state government, the Moronic Legislation is yet to be gazetted into law. Nor has Paul Lucas exercised his ‘divine power’ in appointing THE PANEL. So we now have the farcical situation in which the SCRC is required to submit development applications to a non-existent panel, await a mandatory 20 days for no reply then continue to process the applications. Only in Queensland!!!

Funnily enough it seems to be working okay which reaffirms our view, State Government should stay out of Local Government and focus on its own problems, like fixing hospitals, health, education, transport, water, and ports. Given Capt. Bligh’s penchant for amalgamating anything that moves, Noosa Tourism will need to be particularly vigilant ensuring the Noosa brand isn’t morphed into the regional Sunshine Coast brand and continues to
effectively promote Noosa as Australia’s ‘iconic’ holiday destination. With about 1.7 million visitors a year of which roughly 400,000 come from overseas, neither the Sunshine Coast nor Queensland can afford a dilution of the Noosa Brand. Tourism Noosa has pointed out the risks associated with being a small part of a Super Council which may result in a diminished capability to maintain management practices underpinning marketing and communication,  ndustry development and ensuring our pristine environment is sustained.

On a positive note, Friends of Noosa are pleased to announce Greg Holman of ‘Holmans Accounting and Financial Planners’ has joined its Executive committee adding additional financial management to the Association.

Bob Ansett
Spokesperson Friends of Noosa

Only two months into council amalgamations and serious issues are already emerging. It should come as no surprise that no one seems to have the slightest idea of what
ultimate costs will be borne by Noosa rate payers over the merging of the three Sunshine Coast shires. Incredibly, no ‘due diligence’ study was ever conducted to determine cost
benefits. No ‘financial modelling’ was carried out, only vague utterings by the Beattie/Bligh government assuring us ‘economies of scale’ will flow, ultimately leading to greater
efficiency and reduced costs. They have produced no empirical evidence to support this claim, while evidence obtained by ‘Friends of Noosa’ show just the opposite is likely.
Globally, Super Councils tend to grow exponentially leading to bloated bureaucracies and inefficiencies.

The State government provided $27.0 million to cover transitional costs of merging over 70 Queensland councils yet on the Sunshine Coast alone, the reported cost for a new
computer system, needed for the merged council, will cost around $10.0 million, over one third of the allocated funds. Add wages, relocation costs, travel allowances, new
equipment, modified council chambers, communication systems, signage and any number of other hidden expenses and the real costs are more likely to be four times the allocated
27.0 million.

Then we have the co called ‘Iconic Legislation’, a misnomer if there ever was one. Perhaps ‘moronic legislation’ is a better description for what was originally promised by a
rattled Premier to placate the people of Noosa. The concept was to enshrine planning processes, environmental control and flora, fauna management within the Noosa
community, which would be designated as Iconic. As always with this government, things are never quite what they seem, so when the legislation finally passed through parliament
it effectively shifted total planning power to the State by not only empowering the Planning Minister with authority to override decisions on any ‘development application’ but even
worse, responsibility for selecting a panel of 3 to 5 people, who may or may not come from the Noosa Shire and could include representatives of the Property Council. Sounds like an
April fool’s Day joke, but unfortunately it isn’t.

In addition to effectively removing planning responsibilities from local governments assessed as ‘iconic’, rate payers will also be burdened with funding the costs of the Panel
and its associated support team. We don’t know how much because it seems the government don’t know or are not about to tell us, what remuneration each panellist will
receive.

Of course money is of no concern to the Bligh government, as she recently orchestrated a pay raise of nearly $100,000 a year for her newly appointed chief of staff, the formally
discredited Mike Kaiser. His package of $268,000 puts him in the upper echelons of public servants pay and in fact places him above the Premier in the income stakes. But not to
worry, Ms. Bligh fixed that problem by creating a plum government job for her husband to help defray family expenses.

Recently, the Auditor General who was asked by the Friends of Noosa to intervene in the amalgamation process on grounds it was nothing more than a sham, lambasted the
secrecy of this government. An argument we pressed in a complaint to the CMC after being denied access to documents that passed between the Bligh government and the so
called Independent Reform Commission on council amalgamations. The Auditor General highlighted 40 examples of this culture of secrecy. Amongst them were 11,000 documents
handed to cabinet including briefing notes from Beattie to Bligh, and most other documents relating to council amalgamation, thus exempting them from Freedom of Information
exposure. This from a Premier who in her first week in office promised to run an open and transparent government while announcing a review of FOI policy so as to improve
public access to government documentation.

As Machiavelli once observed, “politics have no relation to morals”. But be assured the Friends of Noosa will be carefully monitoring the performances of both the State and
Regional governments.

Bob Ansett
Friends of Noosa