2026/27 Budget And 2026/27 To 2035/36 Long-term Financial Forecast

The levying of rates and charges, national competition policy, council's estimated financial position as at the 30th of June 2026 and council's 26/27 budget and 26/27 to 2035/36 long-term financial forecast. As required under the Local Government Regulation, Council must annually review and adopt its investment policy, its debt policy, revenue policy and procurement policy. These statutory policies ensure Council maintains sound financial governance and transparency in line with legislative requirements. While the remainder of the policy policies outlined in the report not specifically required under legislation, they do represent best practice and support strong internal controls, effective decision-making and long-term sustainability. The majority of the policies reviewed remain materially unchanged, aside from the minor renaming, grammatical, formatting and disclosure improvements. Key updates include: the debt policy is being updated to reflect the proposed $10.8 million of borrowings for waste management capital infrastructure works in 26-27. Over the 10-year forecast period, Council plan to borrow $40 million. The procurement policy has been amended to include an additional section for procurement approvals where procurement falls outside of council's policy thresholds but remains within legislative thresholds. The management of restricted cash policy has been amended to reflect the intent of the Local Government Regulation 2012 in terms of the classification of externally and internally restricted cash. Together these policies and others the foundation of council's financial management framework reinforcing our commitment to prudent stewardship of public resources and continued service to our community.

Frank Wilkie31:08

I could be wrong. No, we've suspended Standing Orders to do the speech. I don't allow you to go more than five minutes if you want. And then we'll come to the. This is before the. Yeah. But there'll be a mover and a seconder for when we adopt the budget and long-term financial forecast, and there's an opportunity to speak there as well.

Council today is fulfilling one of its most important responsibilities, adopting the annual budget. This sets council's financial direction for the next 12 months and underpins the delivery of essential services, infrastructure projects community programs across our region. Under the Local Government Regulation 2012, Council is required to adopt a budget for each financial year. The budget before us today represents the result of careful planning, extensive analysis and alignment with our long-term goals as outlined in the Corporate Plan and our financial sustainability policy. The total recommended budget for the 26-27 year of $248 million is made up of $163.5 million in operating expenditure, which funds day-to-day services such as waste collection, parks and facilities, maintenance, customer service, community programs and many more. $84.4 million in capital investments includes $27.5 million for asset renewals, $27.7 million for upgrades and new infrastructure projects, and $29.2 million of recovery works associated with recent natural disaster events, with these works being fully funded through the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. Excluding disaster recovery works, council's capital investment for the 26-27 year is proposed as $55.2 million. Council continues to be impacted by the same inflationary pressures that our residents are experiencing. Rising costs across labour, asphalt, concrete, utilities, construction materials and service contracts. These cost pressures are also contributing to a flow on increase in depreciation expense. Despite these challenges, through prudent financial management, strong interest revenue, ongoing efforts to ensure our Fees and Charges fully reflect cost pricing and reduce costs, reduce cross-subsidisation, today Council is presenting a balanced budget with a forecast operating surplus of a small $42,000. Council must report both its operating surplus from a service delivery and net result which includes capital funding received from grants, subsidies, developers and other contributors. So the net result of $45.9 million includes government capital. Grants. And subsidies of $42.6 million for projects including recovery works of $29.2 million and the renewal of the Tewantin Doonella Bridge at $3.9 million. Donated capital roads and stormwater assets of $1.6 million and capital monetary contributions of $1.6 million. The net result excludes capital expenditure as required under the. Accounting standards. However, this funding ultimately contributes to the delivery of our capital works. Program over the 10-year outlook period, with the exception of the asset sustainability ratio, council's forecasted results are well within the bounds set by the Queensland state government and under the sustainability framework. The asset sustainability ratio reflects. Council's forward capital works program with a significant focus on renewal works from 2627 to 2930. And it is worth noting that over the 10-year forecast period, the average for this ratio is well within the Queensland state government benchmark. Council's management asset plans are currently being updated with these improved plans to further inform council's future operating and capital works programs, and in turn, the asset sustainability ratio. I commend this budget to Council for formal consideration.

Jessica Phillips31:54

Yeah, that's right. All right. Support for this budget today is conditional on a commitment from this organisation to undertake a full service review. It is time that we critically examine how we spend ratepayers' money and ensure every dollar is delivering the greatest possible value for our community. This morning I spoke to a local business owner who made the difficult decision to let a staff member go recently and he was quick to point out that it wasn't because of Council or rates but rather a broader economic pressure facing families and businesses right now. That conversation reinforced something for me today. If we are asking our community to continue finding money to pay their rates, then we have an obligation to look at our own spending through the same lens and ensure that we are operating as efficiently and responsibly as possible. I have wrestled with this budget, I'll be honest. I've spent a lot of time reading the detail, asking questions, listening to our community and reflecting on what our decisions today will mean for our future. Before I vote I want to talk about a word that gets used a lot in this chamber and that word is legacy. It's a word that we hear all the time. It's in strategies and reports and plans and workshops but legacy isn't a slogan. Legacy is what people are left with because of the decisions we make today and the decisions we keep making over many years. When I think about why I became a police officer 16 years ago and why I eventually put my hand up to run for Council, I keep coming back to the same thing. It's in my DNA to fairness. Not just for a select few but fairness for most and equality not just for the people with the loudest voices but for the people who quietly got to get on with life and not ask for much. A belief in response taking responsibility for my own decisions and remembering that a seat in this chamber is about service not status. It's also why I joined the police but also very much why I ran for Council and anyone who knows me knows I won't always agree just to keep the peace. I'll always have an opinion some sometimes people will agree with it and sometimes they won't but my opinions aren't driven by emotion they're driven by my experience by listening and by doing my best to make the right decision. I have lived here my whole raising my family here I have a mortgage school fees and the same pressures that thousands of other families are facing across the Shire and before I came a Councillor I have never filled out a Council survey not because I didn't care but because I was just busy I don't think I'm in the minority today isn't about me but I just want to talk about thousands of people who simply trust their local Council to get on with the job and that's something I remind myself all job isn't just to listen to people who write submissions and email us or stand at the lectern our job is to listen to the silence as well because the social fabric of every community is built on trust and it can be divided by losing trust. That's why I never forget that none of us none of the money uh belongs to us we're warming the chairs for four years we adopt four budgets that's it every dollar belongs to someone else everyone every dollar belongs to someone maybe working overtime maybe trying to pay off their mortgage maybe someone on a fixed pension someone running a business someone wondering if they'll afford another rate rise before I support spending money I'm going to always ask myself a simple question would I spend my own family's money this way and if the answer is no I don't think I'm comfortable spending anyone else's I don't think anyone in this room would disagree with aspiration but I do think we have to ask ourselves who do we think we're leaving this community better for because I do hope it's not for only those that can afford it I really care deeply protecting our environment and I always will but local government isn't always about choosing between environment and then the community it's about getting the balance right and I do believe that this Council has possibly lost that balance not because of the Councillors sorry not because Councillors didn't care not because anyone had bad intentions but because budget after budget year after year the dial kept moving in one direction and at the same time Council made a conscious decision to keep rates low many times under CPI and possibly celebrated keeping rates low while committing future generations to aspirations so who is eventually going to pay keeping rates under CPI sounded reasonable and responsible while back then but while rates being constrained the organisation continued to grow and service levels expanded and new priorities emerged the scope of what Council was trying to do became bigger and something's had to give too often it was the things people didn't immediately notice asset renewal possibly deferred infrastructure aged maintenance was pushed into future budgets and the fundamentals of local governments slowly slipped down the priority list and eventually the bill always arrives and that's where I've found myself today ratepayers are being asked to fund the consequences of yesterday's legacy decisions we will see it in ageing sporting facilities community buildings that have been patched instead of renewed toilet box that it should have been a toilet box that should have been replaced years ago volunteers are spending their weekends writing grant applications just to replace infrastructure that should have been planned for then we call those grants assistance in what helping volunteers job that look good long-term planning could have already done I don't think that's a legacy I would like to leave legacy isn't always about what's measured on what we build it's measured on what we chose to neglect that's why I believe this organisation now needs to look inwards if we're asking our community to contribute more they deserve the same from a commitment from us I do want to see a general review this organisation I want to see us challenge whether our structure is still fit for purpose I want to ask can we be leaner more efficient or more disciplined with spending public money and I want our community that we are prepared to reduce our own costs before asking them to continue carrying one more burden because leadership isn't asking community to tighten its belt leadership is being prepared to tighten our own first I do want to acknowledge something very important and this year's budget process has been very transparent probably the most I've seen in my term and the Acting Director and the finance team have been nothing short of professional responsive and diligent through this process so today my speech is not about them it's the cumulative effect of our decisions that have been made over years for me local government choice should always start with basics protect our environment absolutely but we need to maintain our assets invest in community infrastructure support our volunteers deliver core service as well spend ratepayers' money as carefully as we would spend our own because it isn't our money it's borrowed trust every budget we adopt is an important an opportunity to either strengthen that trust or weaken it and I want this community to know that every decision I start I make starts with the same question is this fair to today's ratepayer and fair to future generations and fair to every community across this Shire not just the loudest voices one day every one of us will leave this chamber someone else will warm the chairs what will remain is the legacy that we leave behind not what we said not what we promised but what we protected and what we chose not to neglect and that is the legacy that I hope I am remembered for

Frank Wilkie63:15

Thank you. Councillor Lorentson. Any other Councillors wish to deliver a budget speech? We now move that standing, I now move that Standing Orders be resumed. May I have a seconder? I Thank you, Councillor Phillips. All in favour? Yes. That's carried. Which brings us to item 4.5, which is the budget and 26/27 to 2035/36 long-term financial forecasts. And again, we have Acting Director Gatt. Welcome, Barbara. Thank you, Through the Chair.

Tom Wegener67:44

Yeah, I'd just like to congratulate and thank mark and Zach and the team for the hard work that they've done. I think we've heard from just about every Councillor that there is a concern that perhaps we're not keeping up with the asset management and things like that, about three years ago, one of the directors said, gosh, we've cut our budget to the bone. And since then, I think we've continued cutting in relation to the amount of expenses going up. So although we're pulling in more money from rates and things, we're not keeping up. And that's something that we've heard reflected here in the speeches today. I'm looking forward to this next year because I believe we're really going to have a good, long, hard look at the budget and start and review the process, but also really look further into the future and have our 10, really look at our 10-year asset management plan, which is, I think, really going to be helpful for the next year's budget and for DC in the long-term. So Thank you. Councillor Council Councillor Finzel.

Karen Finzel68:49

Okay, thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Councillors, executive staff and members of the Noosa community. You for coming together today as we share the Noosa Shire Council budget. Through the Chair, I'd like to express my thanks to the Mayor and Councillors around the table, the CEO and the staff who've committed to a long-term timeframe. Time this. The budget is difficult at this time given there's the global pressures, fiscal policies, high debt and rising risks everywhere and I think that's reflected challenges that have faced us before us today. But however the beauty of this Noosa Shire and its community is one about resilience. As a long-term residence here this budget reflects more than numbers on a page. It reflects what we value as a community, the choices we make together and the future we wanted to create for Noosa. When we think about Noosa we know it is so much more than a place. It is a coastline we protect, the landscapes we cherish and the villages we connect. The stories we carry and the people who make this community feel like home. As we look ahead, we recognise that many people are navigating challenging times, including myself and others around the table. We all live here, we play here, we raise our families here and those pressures on our household budgets are experienced by each and every one of us. Rising living costs, housing pressures, global uncertainty, supply chain disruptions. Increasing costs of delivering services are challenges affecting family, business and Council alike. This is why this has is been a time together spent over many workshops of careful planning, responsible financial management matters, including our commitment that we've heard around the table today to continue robustly looking at our policies, our strategies and what informs our expenditure. We are all committed here to continuous growth and rigorously unpacking quo. Our financial policies underpin the 26-27 budget supporting the Noosa Corporate Plan and of course most importantly sitting at the heart and centre of that is the voice of our people. Guiding sustainable investment, responsible resource management and decisions that protect community priorities, strengthen resilience and deliver long-term value for our present our residents now and into the future. Financial sustainability is not balancing the budget. It is about creating the capacity to continue delivering the things that matter most to our community and I think we've heard that around the table today as each Councillor has represented the people in their community and as we all do together. It is it about maintaining roads, parks, facilities and public spaces. It is about protecting our natural environment and investing in the places where people gather, connect and create memories. It is about recognising that wellbeing is built through community connection. Our environment, arts, culture, heritage and shared spaces all contribute to the identity and sense of belonging that make Noosa unique. The strongest decisions, in my opinion, come from listening while navigating unprecedented change and facilitating equity through the real human struggle that affects us all. Meaningful community engagement helps Council understand the priorities, ideas and concerns of residents, businesses, community groups and the Traditional Custodians. By working together, we can ensure decisions reflect local values and the aspirations of the people who call Noosa home. When we listen to each other, trust grows. When we work together, stronger outcomes are achieved. As we look to the future, there will always be challenges. But there is also great opportunity when a community comes together with a shared purpose. Our future is shaped by all of us. Through the conversations we have, the choices we make, and the care we show for this place and for one another. Together, I believe, continue we to can continue create to a new self. That is connected, sustainable, inclusive, and strong, underpinned by the commitment that each one of these Councillors who've been elected to this position commit to this Shire and their roles daily. A place where people feel they belong, where our environment is safe, valued, and where future generations can proudly say this is home. Thank you, everyone.

Amelia Lorentson53:02

Excuse me before anything else I want to thank the officers in particular mark and Zach and your team who prepared this budget. It's a significant body of work. Thank you also to my fellow Councillors and most importantly to the community. The people of Noosa place their trust in us to make good decisions with their money and that trust is something not any of us should take for granted. I'll be voting yes to support the budget today. Under the Local Government Act without an adopted budget Council can't lawfully spend, can't pay staff and can't deliver services. That obligation is the primary reason I'm supporting this. But a yes vote doesn't mean I'm satisfied with the direction we're heading. It means that I think the right thing to do is to keep this organisation moving, while being honest about what needs to its numbers, the budget sounds great. A net surplus of $45.9 million, an operating surplus, an $84.4 million capital works program. Every financial sustainability ratio met I do want to note that the capital program of $84.4 million is funded through grants, depreciation reserves, borrowings and reserve transfer. It's not funded through rates. I also want to acknowledge that this budget continues our investment in the environment, from the Environment Levy and bushfire resilience levy through to coastal foreshore works and bio-retention renewals. These are important commitments and I want to see them maintained even as we get tougher on discretionary spending elsewhere. But I have five concerns that I would like on the record. First. Infrastructure design standards. In April this year, the international scientific committee, responsible for the official united nations climate scenarios, retired its most extreme pathways as implausible, substantially reducing the plausible worst case for sea level rise by 2100. I'm not raising this to debate climate policy. Climate risks are very real. I'm raising it because some of our upcoming coastal and infrastructure projects may still be designed to the now retired scenario and if so we could be spending more than we need to. I'd like Council to confirm our design standards have been reviewed in light of this change. Second, our long-term asset position. Our own forecast project the asset sustainability ratio falling below the State government benchmark for several years, reaching 54.1% by 2030-2031. If we're not keeping pace with infrastructure renewal, cost doesn't disappear. It just shows up later as deferred maintenance or as a future rate pressure. I want a credible long-term asset strategy, not just annual compliance with ratios. Third, our exposure to external funding and external shocks. More than half our capital program, $42.6 million, comes from external grants, including $29.2 million in disaster recovery works. The commonwealth announced plans to shift to a 50/50 disaster recovery funding split. Queensland and the LGAQ are fighting it. But if it proceeds, we are directly exposed. And beyond that, this budget is adopted in and beyond that, this budget is also adopted in the genuinely uncertain global environment. Shifting trade relationships, supply chain disruptions, construction sector inflation. These affect what we can deliver for every dollar we spend. I want genuine resilience. Built in. Into how we plan, not just ratios that look healthy on paper. Fourth, built purpose-built resorts. I've raised this before and I'll keep raising it are not the same as short-term accommodation generally and they shouldn't in my opinion be rated in a similar way and that disparity today remains unresolved and I'll keep pressing for it. Fifth, the fraud. Last year we confirmed that $1.7 million of rate-based funds was lost, $2.3 million stolen, $640,000 recovered to an AI-driven social engineering attack. Council acknowledged that human error contributed to the failures in our internal controls. This budget is largely silent on what's changed to prevent it happening again. Ratepayers are absorbing an overall 9.1 per cent increase this year. They deserve a clear account of the remediation that's been put in place. I also want to speak to my continuing concern about the sports inclusion officer. And I want to say a little bit more than I did at the General Committee, because I think this deserves to be said plainly, rather than absorbed quietly into a budget line. Council's own sport for all report, which was presented at General Committee last week, sets out who we are talking about. A median age of 50.5 years in the Shire. Well above the Queensland median. 36% of our population here in Noosa are aged 60 and over. 29.6% of residents are living with one-term health conditions. And 5.6% over 3,300 people in this Shire require assistance due to a profound or severe disability. That's not a marginal group. That's thousands of residents for whom the practical accessibility of this Shire is not a nice to have. It's the difference between participating in community life and being quietly excluded from it. The $70,000 role that engaged 25 clubs 16 inclusion plans and trained almost 150 people hasn't been continued. While $140,000 has been found for a social strategy. I understand the value of a strategy but a plan is not a person. It doesn't return a phone call. And it doesn't sit with a family and work out what's actually possible for them. This is personal for me. Years ago I advocated and fought for the all-access beach mat. Something that sounds really simple. I found funding through our wonderful MP Sandy Bolton and the extraordinary Tewantin Noosa Lions Club. And yet it still wasn't supported until our former Mayor living herself with a disability understood why it mattered so much and backed me. I invite every Councillor in this room to join me at the next seahorse nipper program, a designed for children with disability. Come and speak to the families raising those children and ask them why, and sports inclusion officer matters. Residents don't want the big plans and commitments. They want the practical work that makes this Shire usable for everyone who lives here. How we spend our money shows what we value. From the outside it could look like plans matter more than the people in the Shire. On this I think we have fallen short and I want that said plainly rather absorbed again quietly into a budget line. I want to finish with something from yesterday. I met with residents from Cooroy. They didn't ask me about strategies, they didn't ask me about plans. They asked about roads, footpaths, rubbish and keeping rates down. I was able to tell them that this budget includes a $1.5 million for gravel road sealing and safety, proposed to continue for 10 years, subject to annual budget approval. That's real. But $1.5 million a year across a Shire of this size doesn't go very far. And that's exactly why getting our spending priorities right matters. So much those residents weren't asking for more spending. They were asking us to spend better. And I'm going to say that last loud. I think we have a spending problem. Not in the sense that we're fiscally reckless, the numbers in this budget show that we're not. But over time, we've accumulated too many commitments, too many programs, too many projects that each have individual merit, but collectively crowd out the things people are actually asking. Roads, footpaths, rubbish, keeping rates down. We need to be willing to say no to defer things, to cut things and go back to the basics. And we need to do that with genuine long term thinking behind it. This is the second consecutive year of above inflation rate increases and the community's trust is not a blank check. The decisions now have consequences for the next Council and the one after that. We have an obligation not to defer hard decisions, not to push costs into the future, and not to leave the next group of elected representatives a set of problems we were too uncomfortable, we were too comfortable to confront. Long term planning isn't a document on a shelf. It's a willingness to make difficult now so the community isn't paying for our board in Slater. I'm supporting this budget today because that's the right call. But a yes vote today for me is not a signal that I'm satisfied. It's a commitment from me that I will be, I will keep pushing for better.