2014-02-25 Planning & Organisation Committee Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                              25 FEBRUARY 2014


BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Local Government Act 2009 requires Council to decide each financial year whether to apply
competition reform to its identified business activities.

Certain activities of Council are required to be identified as business activities if they trade in
goods and services that could potentially be delivered by a private sector firm for the purposes of
earning profits in the absence of Council’s involvement. They do not include the non-business,
non-profit activities of Council such as libraries, swimming pools, parks maintenance etc.

The primary purpose for Councils to apply NCP reforms to its business activities is to assist in
removing anti-competitive conduct, encourage greater transparency in the operation of its
competitive activities and improve the allocation of Council’s limited resources.

A number of different reform options are provided under legislation for application to identified
business activities. Attachment 1 outlines the different reform options, however
Commercialisation or Full Cost pricing reforms are generally applied to larger or financially
significant business activities, whereas the Code of Competitive Conduct is applied to the smaller
or prescribed business activities.

The general premise to consider is that the larger the Council business activity the larger the
potential financial impact on the local economy and potential competitors, and hence greater
level of reform applied to ensure ongoing competitive neutrality.

SCRC resolved to apply competition reforms to the following activities for the 2013/14 financial
year:

 Business Activity        Reform Level
 Waste Management         Significant
 Airport                  Code of Competitive Conduct
 Caravan Parks            Code of Competitive Conduct
 Quarries                 Code of Competitive Conduct

Amendment to the Local Government Regulation 2012 was enacted to delay the requirement for
the de-amalgamating Councils to assess whether competition reform is required to be applied to
activities until the 2015/16 financial year. It is however felt that it is appropriate to review the
applicability to Noosa Council’s activities now to ensure clarity in the application of competition
reform moving forward.

PREVIOUS COUNCIL CONSIDERATION

Nil.

REPORT

1.     Business Activity Classification

Expenditure thresholds are published each financial year by the Department of Local
Government, Community Recovery and Resilience, and Councils are required to determine if any
of their activities deemed competitive in nature are classified as either a significant business
activity based on the definition under the Local Government Regulation 2012, or a prescribed or
smaller business activity when implementing the Competitive Code of Conduct. The published
expenditure thresholds applicable for the 2013/14 financial year are as follows:



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