Annual Report 2016-17

Corporate Plan Theme 5: Excellence as a Council
“The Noosa Shire community is proud of its Council”


•   We have had another successful financial year.        •   Council has recently undertaken its first external
    Revenues were above budget, expenses were                customer satisfaction survey. The survey was
    below budget, debt levels are lower than at              undertaken by Market Facts Qld Pty Ltd to
    the beginning of the financial year and cash              enable us to benchmark with other Queensland
    reserves are higher than at the beginning of the         local governments (LGAQ also use this firm to
    financial year. At the end of 2016/17, Council            undertake state wide customer service surveys).
    adopted its budget for the 2017/18 financial year         Our benchmark scores were above state
    with a 2% general rate increase.                         averages in almost every category.
•   Council has successfully achieved another            •   Council continued to undertake a series of
    unmodified audit from the Queensland Audit                service reviews looking in detail at operations
    Office (QAO) with the 2015/16 financial                     to find ways in which we can be more efficient
    statements being “signed off” by the QAO.                 in delivering services. This included areas such
                                                             as the Noosa Leisure Centre, Environmental
•   Behind the scenes, the Audit and Risk
                                                             Health, and Building and Plumbing Services.
    Committee has continued to add value to our
                                                             Following these reviews, Council adopted
    compliance and performance for governance
                                                             additional staff resources in some parts of the
    and finance. This has included an oversight of
                                                             organisation to ensure that appropriate service
    our strategic risks, review of key governance
                                                             levels can be delivered.
    and financial policies, review of organisational
    KPI’s, development of Business Continuity            •   The transformation of our Workplace Health and
    Planning etc. Our two external members of the            Safety performance has continued. Significant
    Audit and Risk Committee in particular have              progress has been made in relation to our
    added significantly to our overall governance             documentation, processes and practices for
    practices. Although not high profile, this                Workplace Health and Safety. Based on the
    Committee plays an important role in making              Local Government Workcare Performance
    sure that Council “dots the i’s and crosses the          statistics for category D Councils, we have
    t’s” both in governance and in the management            transitioned from one of the worst performing
    of risk. Council’s Internal Audit Program included       local governments of our size to one of the best
    internal audits on Procurement and Council               performing local governments of our size for
    investments.                                             Lost Time Frequency and Lost Time Injury.
•   Council commenced a review of our                    •   A Digital Strategy has been developed for
    organisational structure at the end of 2016 with         management to focus on opportunities
    the new structure being adopted in March 2017.           available with emerging digital technology.
    Following considerable internal consultation,            This strategy focuses particularly on improving
    the Planning and Infrastructure Department               our organisational efficiency using digital
    was split in two with a new Environment and              technology as well as improving our interface
    Sustainable Development Department and a                 to our community. During the year, more mobile
    new Infrastructure Services Department being             technology was rolled out to our external
    created. Also during 2016/17, Council added              workforce.
    additional staff resources to our Infrastructure
                                                         •   We commenced negotiations for a Noosa
    Design and Delivery Branch and Asset
                                                             Council Certified Agreement. These negotiations
    Management Branch to enable them to deliver
                                                             with unions will continue into the 2017/18
    expected outcomes.
                                                             financial year.
•   Our enterprise risk management has been
                                                         •   We transitioned our ICT systems to the latest
    further developed with risk management
                                                             version of the Cloud which provided enhanced
    practices being further embedded into Council
                                                             security and stability for our systems which is
    operations. Council was recognised by Local
                                                             important given the number of cyber-attacks
    Government Mutual for our risk management
                                                             occurring at the moment. We have also
    practices. Our comprehensive Business
                                                             continued to roll out our ICT strategy to enhance
    Continuity Plans are all but complete and will be
                                                             our system capabilities.
    tested in early 2017/18.
                                                         •   We undertook significant training and
•   Our Noosa Aquatic Centre, Noosa Leisure
                                                             development for leadership capabilities within
    Centre and The J all had outstanding years.
                                                             the organisation. This included the continuation
    The Noosa Leisure Centre had its highest ever
                                                             of the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)
    annual attendance, The J had its highest ever
                                                             program for our senior management staff
    revenue and the Noosa Aquatic Centre had its
                                                             (approx 30 staff leaders).
    strongest ever financial performance.




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