2021-07-12 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                  12 JULY 2021


        Council and Tourism Noosa by December 2021. This would provide a 6 month lead time
        before the agreement commenced which would assist both Council and Tourism Noosa
        in planning for future budgets. The new agreement needs to be adopted by both Council
        and the Tourism Noosa board.
       Key Funding agreement issues - there are a range of issues to be negotiated in the
        funding agreement but like any funding agreement, the two key issues are (i) amount of
        the proposed funding and (ii) term of the agreement. There will also be other terms and
        conditions but these are, inevitably, some of the key matters to be determined.
       Opportunities – there is opportunity to improve some of the performance measures and
        reporting compared to the current agreement. This would represent an ongoing maturing
        of the relationship between Tourism Noosa and Council and support enhancement of
        transparency for the funding agreement.
       Transparency – both Tourism Noosa and Council have expressed a desire to make this
        process and funding as transparent as possible. Opportunities to enhance this
        transparency will be explored as part of this process.
       Legal review - there will need to be time for both Tourism Noosa and Council to have the
        draft funding deed reviewed by their respective lawyers before the document is
        presented for consideration by both the Tourism Noosa Board and Council.
       Good Governance and financial management - this funding agreement represents one
        of the most significant financial commitments that the Council makes given the total value
        over the life of the funding agreement. The current agreement involved a total payment
        of $12.6M from Council to Tourism Noosa over the life of that agreement. Both Tourism
        Noosa and Council share a desire for good governance and strong financial
        management associated with the expenditure of these funds. To support this, it is
        proposed that:
             Council, in conjunction with Tourism Noosa re-look at the current governance
              model that has been in place for 20 years to see whether it needs to be updated.
              Previous discussions with the chair of Tourism Noosa indicates that Tourism
              Noosa is looking at this issue already. The governance arrangement are based
              on the Constitution which is largely unchanged from 2000. A review should be
              undertaken to look at the governance arrangements to make sure that they are
              “future fit”.
             Council, in conjunction with Tourism Noosa undertake a review the internal
              financial management processes to ensure that appropriate controls are in place.
              As indicated above, this agreement involves considerable funding and Council
              (and Tourism Noosa) need to be certain that good internal controls are in place to
              manage this.
             In short, these reviews are designed to ensure that Council and Tourism Noosa
              have comfort that the right governance and financial controls are in place so that
              public funds are well managed.

   Previous Council Consideration
   Ordinary Meeting, 7 May 2015, Item 8, Page 10
   That Council note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the General Committee Meeting
   dated 4 May 2015 and authorise the Chief Executive Officer to enter into a 2 year funding
   agreement with Tourism Noosa in accordance with the proposed terms and conditions outlined
   in the report.
   Ordinary Meeting, 7 August 2017, Item 3 Page 7
   That Council note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the Services and Organisation
   Committee Meeting dated 8 August 2017 and authorise the Chief Executive Officer to enter

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