Annual Report 2017-18

Discretionary funds                                     Competitive neutrality
Section 109 of the LG Act, defines discretionary         Council’s is committed to ongoing compliance
funds as funds in the local government’s operating      with National Competition Policy principles and its
fund that are:                                          legislative obligations in this area. It is committed
                                                        to ensuring that its business activities operate on
•   Budgeted for community purposes; and                a level playing field with private businesses in the
•   Allocated by a Councillor at the Councillor’s       community.
    discretion.
                                                        Council ensures that the pricing practices for each
There were no Councillor discretionary funds            business activity comply with the principles of
established during the period.                          full cost pricing such that total revenue, inclusive
                                                        of identified and measured community service
Beneficial enterprises                                   obligations and net of any advantages and
                                                        disadvantages of public ownership, should aim to
                                                        cover the following elements:
Section 39(3) of the LG Act defines a beneficial
enterprise as an enterprise that a local government     •   Operational and resource costs;
considers is directed to benefiting, and can
                                                        •   Administration and overhead costs;
reasonably be expected to benefit, the whole or part
of its local government area.                           •   Depreciation;
                                                        •   Tax and debt equivalents; and
Section 39(4) of the LG Act provides that a local
government is conducting a beneficial enterprise if      •   Return on capital / return on cost.
the local government is engaging in, or helping, the    During the period, there were no investigation
beneficial enterprise.                                   notices provided to Council relating to competitive
Council did not engage in any beneficial enterprises     neutrality complaints. Accordingly, The Queensland
during the period.                                      Competition Authority did not make any reportable
                                                        recommendations to Council in relation to a
                                                        competitive neutrality complaint.
Business activities
A business activity is defined in Schedule 4 of the
LG Act as “the trading in goods and services by the
                                                        Services, facilities and
local government”.                                      activities, for which special
Council conducted the following business activities     rates/ charges levied
during the period:
                                                        Below is a list of Council levies and special charges
•   Waste management; and                               for the period:
•   Holiday parks including the Boreen Point
    Campground, Noosa North Shore Beachfront            •   Tourism and Economic Levy;
    Caravan Park and Noosa River Holiday Park.          •   Noosa Waters Lock and Weir Maintenance
                                                            Levy;
Significant business activity                            •   Noosa Waters Canal Maintenance Levy;
                                                        •   Noosa Junction Levy;
In accordance with threshold of expenditure and the
methodology prescribed by s.19 and s. 20 of the LG      •   Hastings Street Precinct Maintenance Levy;
Regulation, Council’s waste management activity         •   Noosa Main Beach Maintenance Levy;
was considered a significant business activity for the   •   Rural Fire Charge;
period.
                                                        •   Hastings Street Community Safety Program
                                                            Charge; and
Commercial business units                               •   Lower Noosa North Shore Electricity Charge.

Pursuant to s 27(2) of the LG Regulation, a
commercial business unit is a business unit
that conducts business in accordance with the
prescribed key principles of commercialisation.

Council did not nominate any business activities as
commercial business units during the period.

Page 28 | 2017-2018 Annual Report