2023-01-16 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   16 JANUARY 2023




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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                             16 JANUARY 2023

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              Looking inwards                                                —

              As part of our initial collaboration,            areas are impacted in drought, and our
              conversations were held with council staff       transportation infrastructure can be damaged
              from across a range of different service areas    in extreme heat. In the short term, this means
              about the risks from a changing climate.         we may have to cease some of our services,
              This spans staff from waste management           and in the longer term it will lead to higher
              to transport, from parks and gardens to          costs for us as Councils — in increased
              community development, from people and            repairs, maintenance and replacements,
              culture to economic development, and from        associated with reduced asset life, and rising
              environmental operations to planning and          insurance costs.
              development.
                                                                Our  services
              The message is clear: our Councils are                            ..
              already experiencing impacts from a changing     We rely on electricity, water, waste,
              climate. Staff anticipate the impacts will be    telecommunications and transport _
              Sinner avaeaibated As haeards bacon               infrastructure (‘critical infrastructure’) to
              increasingly frequent and severe. Whilst many     provide services. More severe and frequent
              of these impacts are specific to individual      climate hazards ere Cats this critical
              service areas, there are some common impact       infrastructure to fail more often. Occasional,
              themes that emerged.                             short disruptions can be managed through our
                                                                business continuity planning process, but we
              Our people                                       are not yet prepared for the ‘new normal’ of
                            .   .    .               .          repeated and longer disruptions that are likely
              Our workforce is being disrupted when climate    to occur with a changing climate.
              hazards happen, especially during or after
              other events such as the COVID pandemic.         We also rely on a wide range of other
              Some of our staff are impacted personally,       suppliers to run our operations and provide
              some can't get to work, and others are helping   services. The COVID-19 pandemic has
              their communities respond. More frequent and      reminded us that hazards elsewhere can
              severe events are putting greater demands on     disrupt our supplies. We are exposed to global
              our staff and services, for example, to provide  supply chain issues that arise from climate
              and manage cool spaces as refuges from            hazards, just like other organisations.
              heat. Many of our staff also work outdoors,                      ;
              which places them at higher risk of personal      Our community
              harm, and the productivity of all our staff is   As Councils, we play a unique role in
              impacted through heatwaves. These and other      supporting the wellbeing of our community,
              staffing issues will make it increasingly difficult our vibrant local economy, and our healthy
              to run our services as normal. Therefore,        environment through the provision of our
              how we respond to these disruptions, and the     services. Our staff are aware that our ability
              provision of adequate resources required to      to maintain exceptional service provision is
              do so, remains an important issue to address.    foundational to the success of our region,
                                                               and when our services are compromised,
              Our assets                                        it has flow-on impacts. Our planning and
              Council assets can be damaged by rapid           development choices also leave a long-term
              and severe hazards such as storms and             legacy for our region. There is more we need
              bushfires, but they are also impacted by         to understand about our changing climate,
              slow and chronic hazards such as drought         especially increasing temperatures, to support
              and heat. For example, the landscape and         our region’s climate resilience.
              character values provided by our prized parks
              and gardens, streetscapes and recreation

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