Mayor Budget Speech 2021

Our business community- small businesses are very much the lifeblood of this Shire, and we have over
7000 of them. They continue to be supported. Our $35k in economic development grants will continue
and we continue to provide internal support to many of our businesses through our Peregian Digital Hub,
our mentoring, and the continuation of our business round table.

Speaking of influential Shire groups - the environmental groups and advocates in this community should
be pleased with the addition of $276k to boost funding for environmental levy initiatives and an increase
of $50k in our grants program to further Council’s net zero emissions goal as well as support the
community’s efforts to reduce emissions.

Waste is a core council business and we have allocated $500k for an additional weighbridge at the
Noosaville Waste Facility which is much needed to address congestion concerns for customers.

Our mobile library is back in business this coming year- providing a smaller more flexible bus- enabling it
to visit more people at more places and the addition of our library kiosks makes access to books and
reading that much easier for many of our residents.

The Council has instigated some really ‘big things’ but there are other ‘smaller things’ that we have
enacted. Increased communication to our Hinterland residents through the publishing of Your Noosa in
community newspapers, increased consultation and support of Kin Kin through our dedicated
engagement officer Ian Williams, and an additional investment of $22k in flying fox management.

There’s much to be proud of in this budget. And no doubt we will hear from each of the Councillors about
what matters to them most.

I’ve spoken about many things, yet there is one area which I haven’t addressed. I’ll do so now. I stood on
an election platform of increased fire management, of increased mitigation and of increased
preparedness.

Last year we increased our fire mitigation but this year, I am incredibly pleased to announce that we
have increased our fire management budget by 100%. We have allocated an additional $300k for fire
management and mitigation. We have doubled our cool fire burns to seven planned burns a year,
widening almost 2 kilometres of existing fire trails around our Bushland Reserves and the creation of two
kilometres of brand-new fire trails. Importantly, we’ll appoint a dedicated fire management officer to train
up our own staff so we can carry out our own controlled burns without relying on private contractors. We
have also introduced a bushfire resilience and response levy on our rates notice as we acknowledge that
this isn’t just a rural issue- it’s one that can and did affect all areas of our Shire.

In addition to on the ground resources, this budget also includes $1.96m to fund the development of the
exciting Digital Hub fire tech living lab, which once completed will be a ‘living’ bushland laboratory and
testing ground for cutting-edge technologies for the early detection of bushfires. Noosa is becoming
known as a centre of excellence for bushfire-fighting technologies, and this project will assist in
cementing that reputation.