Meeting minutes

ORDINARY MEETING MINUTES                                                          20 JUNE 2024


            increased system siltation from the upper catchment. Catchment Management
            requires collaboration and working together to manage interrelated issues. There
            are multiple agencies with varying responsibilities across the river, many of which
            have interrelationships with others both in terms of planning, regulation and
            management. Noosa Council will continue to have an advocacy, partnering and
            collaborative role with all key stakeholders to ensure the strategic goals of Council
            and the community as articulated in key strategies are considered by stakeholders
            and various agencies when making decisions and reviewing current activities.
            Council will continue to work closely with and have an advocacy role with MSQ to
            ensure there is safe and equitable access for all users of the river, whilst ensuring
            the environmental values of the river and catchment are maintained.

            Question 2.
            Mr Sengstock, it's been almost eight months since the October 2023 Draft Noosa
            River Catchment Management Plan procedural motion requiring the Council to
            undertake full community and stakeholder consultation and report back with final
            and fully costed NRCMP in July 2024. We have seen no Community Consultation
            on the NRCMP. Does that mean the Noosa Council will ignore the October 2023
            DNRCMP procedural motion in favour of Cr Stockwell's December 2023 notified
            motion Accelerated River Action? If so, what is the value of a Council procedural
            motion?

            Response provided by Director Strategy & Environment, Kim Rawlings
            Council have not ignored the motion from Council from October. The motion of
            October however unfortunately did not adequately take into account the impact of
            timing as a result of caretaker period, the election and induction of new Council,
            taking approximately 5-6 months collectively. As previously advised, Council staff
            have been working with the new Council as part of a comprehensive induction
            process to bring new Councillors up to speed across a large array of information
            and projects. The River Plan is but one of these issues amongst many our new
            Council is seeking to consider and determine a way forward on.
   11.3.    NICK HLUSZKO

            Question 1.
            Conservation Park FAQ: If Noosa Council did not ask the Department of
            Environment and Science (DES) to indicate support or otherwise (for the
            Conservation Park) as was reported at the Ordinary Meeting of May 16, 2024, why
            then had Noosa Council already prepared and submitted a 2 page draft Factsheet
            titled 'Conservation Park FAQ's' to DES on 27 September 2023 seeking
            assistance with the content of the factsheet that included the following notation '...
            such as Local Laws officers supporting Maritime Safety Queensland as registered
            Shipping Inspectors', in circumstances where Noosa Council had not consulted
            with Maritime Queensland about the issue nor had disclosed to Noosa ratepayers
            that Noosa Council would be asking them to pay for Local Laws officers to be
            registered shipping inspectors particularly during the cost of living crisis.

            Response provided by Director Strategy & Environment, Kim Rawlings
            Firstly, let's be clear and accurate about the question asked at the Ordinary
            Meeting on 16th May – It was "Has the Council contacted the relevant state
            authorities to see if they would approve a Conservation Park over the Noosa
            River". As previously stated, the answer was no as this would have been pre-
            emptive to the process required to explore and consider a Conservation Park. So
            in saying that, given the community confusion about the Conservation Park
            concept at the time and the misinformation that was being shared, Council at the
            time thought it would be useful to draft a fact sheet on what a Conservation Park
            is and what process would be required to be undertaken if this idea was to be