2020-02-11 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                    11 FEBRUARY 2020


5                        NOOSA BIOSECURITY PLAN 2020 - PUBLIC CONSULTATION OUTCOMES
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                              Principal Environment Officer, Peter Milne
                                    Environment & Sustainable Development Department

Index                               ECM/ Subject/ Pest Management

Attachments                         1.    Summary of submissions
                                    2.    Draft Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020
                                          (Note: 43 page attachment provided separately to this report)



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Principal Environment Officer to the Planning & Environment
Committee Meeting dated 11 February 2020 and;
A.                       Note the submissions received as summarised in Attachment 1 and thank the submitters for
                         their input into the Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020;
B.                       Adopt the Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020 as shown in Attachment 2; and
C.                       Note that subject to Council adoption of the Biosecurity Plan a 2020/21 budget submission
                         will be made to undertake a data mining and mapping project to help build knowledge of the
                         extent of invasive species across the shire and assess the effectiveness of management
                         controls in accordance with the Biosecurity Plan.



REPORT
The Noosa Pest Management Plan 2015-2019 expired last year. New biosecurity legislation was
enacted in 2014 that requires local governments to have a Biosecurity Plan in place, consistent
with the new Biosecurity Act 2014. A Draft Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2020 was provided to Council
at the P & E Committee Meeting on 12 November 2019. Council requested additional information
on the Draft Plan with regard to the Noosa Environment Strategy 2019 targets and strategies,
climate change impacts and investigation into alternative technologies and techniques for
managing biosecurity threats. The updated draft was approved for public consultation at the
Ordinary Meeting of 21 November 2019.
1.                       Public consultation
Under biosecurity legislation, a public consultation process is not required for the development of
local government biosecurity plans. However, it is considered good practice and the draft was
released for consultation between 25 November 2019 and 23 December 2019. The consultation
period was further extended to 20 January 2020 to allow more time for input.
A range of media was used for the consultation process. Targeted consultation was undertaken
with internal Council staff and external key stakeholders including other government agencies,
natural resource management groups and environment organisations. Notifications of the draft
Plan were sent to over 220 Land for Wildlife (LfW) participants and Bushcare Program Leaders
(over 200 participants in the Bushcare Program). Your Say Noosa and Facebook social media
were used to promote the Draft Plan to the general public.

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