2022-12-12 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   12 DECEMBER 2022




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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                                  12 DECEMBER 2022

                ATTACHMENT 4                         K

                                                     —— SOLICITORS ——

               Our ref: JTW:25964                                                                 pe ke ae
               Your ref: Clint Irwin                                                              petite orl 4001.
               pats     20 20                                                                     rons:  7 210
               The Chief Executive Officer
               Noosa Shire Council
               9 Pelican Street
               Tewantin, Qld
                E-mail: [email protected]

               TEEWAH       NORTH      SHORE AIRFIELD RESERVE:                 PROPOSED       REPLACEMENT         OF
               COUNCIL AS TRUSTEE
               This letter responds to the request for advice made during the 15 July, 2022 telephone discussion between
               Clint Irwin and John Woods.

               Background
               1.     The Noosa North Shore airfield is a 43-hectare reserve located at Teewah, adjacent the Great Sandy
                      National Park, circa 10 kilometres north of Noosa Heads.
               2.     Council has received from the Department of Resources (DoR) a 12 July, 2022 letter informing it
                      that:
                      (a)   the Department of Environment & Science (DES) wishes to acquire the reserve for integration
                            with the national park, to facilitate better management and protection of the park vegetation;
                            and
                      (b)   to progress the proposed transition, DoR seeks Council's co-operation in relinquishing its
                            reserve trusteeship.
               33     We are asked whether the State can remove Council as trustee if Council is not willing to resign.
               Advice
               4.     By Land Act section 51, relevantly, the Minister for Resources may remove a trustee from office if
                      satisfied that the removal is in the public interest.
               5:     The public interest is a rubbery concept, which (not surprisingly) the Act does not attempt to define.
                      In a 2011 High Court judgment, the Chief Justice observed that when used in a statute, the expression
                      derives its content from the subject matter and the scope and purpose of the statute: a court is not
                      free simply to apply its own idiosyncratic notions of public interest.
               6.     The Land Act is the instrument by which the State exerts ultimate control over how its land is used,
                      and, per section 4, the Act’s stated object is (paraphrasing) to ensure State land is managed in
                      a principled manner for the benefit of the people of Queensland.

                            Liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation
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