2014-01-13 Deamalgamation Report Attachment

Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to document the process of the de-amalgamation of the new Noosa
Council from the Sunshine Coast Council and provide a level of context around decision making.

The strong and continued desire for self-determination by the Noosa community culminated in the
State Government appointing a Queensland Boundaries Commissioner to investigate the viability
of Noosa de-amalgamating from the Sunshine Coast Council. The Boundary Commissioner’s
report found that a new Noosa Council would be financially viable and the Noosa community
overwhelmingly voted to de-amalgamate in March 2013.

The State Government developed the Local Government (De-amalgamation Implementation)
Regulation 2013 (LDIR) to guide the process and nominated 1 January 2014 as the change-over
day when the reconstituted Noosa Council would be operational.

The scale of the de-amalgamation process was vast and complex with demanding timelines;
however with the efforts of the Transfer Manager, consultants and dedicated staff, the new Noosa
Council was declared into office and conducted its first meeting on 2 January 2014.

A number of significant issues and challenges were successfully addressed during the de-
amalgamation process. These included but were by no means limited to:

    Minimisation of ICT cost while ensuring the new Noosa Council had the systems and
     infrastructure in place to operate efficiently and effectively. This was achieved using an
     innovative solution that is a first for local government and delivered state of the art software
     and infrastructure which will see the organisation well into the future. At the same time it will
     save $4 million in capital expenditure and $1 million per year in ongoing operational costs.
    Ensuring the financial stability of the organisation through the separation of assets and
     liabilities and the establishment of an interim organisational plan and budget. This was
     realized through the development of a lean organisational structure and careful forward
     planning that enabled Council to adopt a budget at its first meeting that was balanced, sees
     depreciation fully funded and a zero rate increase for the community in the first 6 months of
     operation to 30 June 2014.
    Establishing and populating an interim organisational structure with a very short time line and
     limited financial resources. A significant number of staff were identified to transfer back to
     the new Noosa Council, significantly more than were required to populate the lean
     organisational structure developed. This resulted in a number of highly skilled staff being
     shed in order to ensure the future financial viability of the organisation.

In line with the LDIR, a Transfer Manager (accountable to the Minister for Local Government,
Community Recovery and Reconstruction) was appointed to take all necessary steps to achieve
separation of the new Noosa Council from the continuing council and prepare the new council to
be business ready and operational at 1 January 2014. Subsequently the De-amalgamation
Transfer Committee was established and community representatives appointed by the Minister to a
Local Advisory Committee.

The Transfer Manager engaged comprehensively with the Noosa Community during the transition
process to ensure information on the de-amalgamation process was available and accessible and
to gauge views on local issues.


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