2019-07-15 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT                                                     15 JULY 2019

REPORTS DIRECT TO GENERAL COMMITTEE

6     LGAQ ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROPOSED MOTION – UTILITY RELOCATION COSTS

Author            Project Manager, Mark Poynter
                  Infrastructure Services Department

Index             ECM/ Subject / Local Government Association of Queensland

Attachments       Nil


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Project Manager to the General Committee Meeting dated 15
July 2019 and approve the submission of the following motion to the Local Government Association
Queensland 2019 Annual Conference for consideration and debate:
That the Local Government Association of Queensland lobby the State Government and public
utility infrastructure owners for the development of a more equitable cost sharing protocol for the
relocation or replacement of their infrastructure arising from local government works related to the
remaining life of the asset and any capacity upgrade generated by the relocation or replacement
works.


REPORT
The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) Conference is held annually and
provides a forum for all Queensland councils to come together to table and debate contemporary
issues of importance to their local areas and communities, as well as identify issues that are likely
to be relevant to other local councils.
A current issue of concern for Noosa Council is the costs associated with relocating utility
infrastructure (water, electricity and telecommunications) to enable the installation and/or upgrade
of community infrastructure. There is little to no opportunity for Council to negotiate the costs
associated with the relocation, especially when the mandated new utility infrastructure is a
significant upgrade to the existing installed infrastructure.
While some utility owners are regulated at a State level, there are those (namely
telecommunications) at a Federal level that use the same techniques with regards to utility
relocations processes and costs.
The State Government, through the Government Owned Corporations Act 1993 (the Act), currently
regulates and controls Energex and its related operations. The objective of the Act is to improve
Queensland's overall economic performance and the ability of the government to achieve social
objectives by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government owned corporations and
improving their accountability.
The Act provides for government owned corporations to have two shareholding Ministers – the
government owned corporations Minister (the Treasurer) and the portfolio Minister, in this case the
Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.
Currently the only input Local Governments have into the utility relocations process is to apply for
consideration and await for the utility owner’s determination. Council’s design and delivery teams
endeavour to develop engineering designs that avoid known utility locations to mitigate the
probable costs associated with relocating them. However, this can impact on the quality of the final
product and ultimately public amenity.
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