2019-07-18 OM Agenda - Item 1 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Fishing Futures

                  COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT PLAN AND STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

                                                    COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT PLAN

As part of the development of the Noosa River Management Plan, the Noosa Shire Council have commissioned
an evidence-based desktop study of the Noosa River, estuary and beach fisheries. The information gathered
will be used to inform the River Plan. The focus of this paper is on the commercial fisheries that operate in the
Noosa region to better understand the activities of fishermen and current management arrangements that
regulate these activities. From this, the paper provides Council with a number of options on how it can more
closely work with the Queensland Government to have greater input into the activities in the Noosa River,
estuary and beaches.

Following consultation with key stakeholders including commercial fishers from the Noosa region, a
community and stakeholder engagement plan has been developed to inform residents of Council’s preferred
options from the paper and seek to their views on those options.

The community and stakeholder engagement plan is developed based on the views of those engaged with
during this project and represents the next stage of a process Noosa Council can utilise following agreement
on preferred options to measure community support for those options.

                                                       KEY MESSAGES FROM THE STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

In the time it has taken to prepare this paper, a consistent message from stakeholders has identified time and
again; there is a recognition that the waterways are under significant pressure from multiple user groups, who
have some strongly held and divergent views over the activities currently permitted in the Noosa River,
estuaries and beaches. Further, there is an expectation that at some time in the future, Council is likely to seek
support from the community to more closely control the permitted activities allowable in the Noosa
waterways and beaches.

Feedback ranged from ‘the river is being loved to death and it needs a break’ through to ‘the biggest contributor
to the degradation of the Noosa waterways is over development and sediment run off’ and ‘commercial fishing
needs to be removed from the lakes and waterways’. These views are permeated by a common theme that there
is an expectation that ‘someone’ needs to do ‘something’ about it.

This community and stakeholder engagement plan is in response to this feedback and provides the Noosa
Council with a pathway to hear the views of the broader community and measure support for Council’s
preferred options. Council’s preferred options are included in the plan and seek feedback from the community
to implement the proposed changes to the permitted activities in the Noosa River, estuaries and beaches.

Importantly, the community and stakeholder engagement plan identifies the current regulatory framework
for the management of commercial, recreational and charter fisheries does not provide Council with the
authority to alter or change the permitted activities in the waterways. This authority lies with the Queensland
Government. The community and stakeholder engagement plan is informed by the stakeholder analysis
conducted over the months of January through to April 2019, with select key stakeholders who have been
assessed as having a high level of interest in the Noosa waterways and that if change was initiated, would also
have a medium to high level of impact on those individuals and groups.




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