2016-01-11 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                 11 JANUARY 2016


“Jury members were given free range to consider, weigh up and develop their thoughts on the topic
and together with their fellow jurors, this group worked diligently to prepare the recommendations
which are now presented to the Mayor and Councillors.

“There was no draft solution provided to them; they started from a blank sheet of paper and what
the Jury produced has both breadth and clarity of intent.

“The members of the Jury are to be congratulated for their commitment and focus; and Noosa
Council should now be seen as a national and international leader in sharing decision-making
power with the community.”

5.    Independent facilitator feedback

“The Noosa River Jury successfully found areas of priority action that they could agree on. They
also successfully grappled with the question of management- identifying the concerns and risks
from their point of view that meant for some it should stay managed by the existing authorities.

“While this was frustrating for those who saw things differently, it is an indicator of the success of
the process that those who disagreed felt confident enough to still put their views as members of
the community despite some very strongly held views put by others.

“The report provided at the end of the Jury process identifies the areas the group saw as important
for action; however it does not reflect the full process of deliberation undertaken by Jury members.

“An additional session time, ideally a full or half day, would have given the Jury the opportunity as
a whole group to better represent the fullness of their deliberations.”

6.    Council officer feedback

The Planning and Environment Manager provided the following feedback on the Noosa River Jury
process:

“The Jury process is very empowering for the community and our Noosa River Jury did very well
to digest a lot of information, have an understanding of the current complex State legislative
arrangements that exist around the Noosa River and work together to form a recommendation for
Council.

“The process could benefit from more structure at the outset such as clearly defined topics and
goals for each meeting to ensure Jury discussions stay in scope and sufficient time is allocated to
work through the Jury’s final recommendations.”

7.    How we can improve the Community Jury process

Overall the Community Jury process is considered to be a success. The organic waste Jury
reached a consensus and supplied a report that all Jury members could stand by. The Noosa River
Jury reached consensus on 12 recommendations and achieved a majority decision of 75% on the
overarching question of whether Council should begin the process of applying to the State
Government for greater control of the management of the Noosa River.

The community has been provided with complete access to the process and invited to participate
through attending “pop-ups” and Jury meetings, contributing to Your Say Noosa and reading and
responding to media coverage. However, as evidenced by this report, there are still some areas
where the process can be improved upon. In general terms, these are:




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