Corporate Plan 2023 - 2028

Good afternoon everyone. I declare the meeting open. I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting in the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi people and I pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging. I note that all Councillors are in attendance and we have Councillor Tom Wegener online so under section 254k of the local government regulations I move that Councillor Wegener can attend the meeting via Microsoft Teams. Happy to second. Thank you Councillor Wilkie. All in favour? Thank you. Welcome Councillor Wegener. You. Today's Special Meeting is to consider our Corporate Plan 2022-2028. We have our CEO Scott Waters here to present the report. Scott, thank you.

Thank you Councillor Stewart Mr. Mayor, thank you for the time and effort from yourself and all the staff that's gone into this. Question I've got is with regard to objective 1.1 in the Corporate Plan and the role the Council undertakes in that. 1.1 says we maintain and improve water quality, the health of waterways, wetlands and catchments in our roles as a partner, an educator and a regulator. I notice the element of funding. Is it in there? We undertake elements of funding in all of those areas. For mine, would it be a minor change that could be undertaken under D, authorised CEO to make any necessary minor changes to the Corporate Plan if required, to add the element of funder in there, or would I be required to make an amendment to what we have before us today?

I'm happy to move to staff recommendation on page 3. Thank you everyone. This is an exciting day. Corporate Plan that we adopt today is the commitment we make to our community. It has been shaped by our community and the value, elements, priorities and themes it espouses are clearly community driven, led and focused. Over 1,000 of our residents took part in shaping this plan and I thank them for their interest, enthusiasm and efforts. Their voices, thoughts and aspirations have been well and truly heard through the formation of this document. I'd also like to thank all Councillors who were actively involved, our CEO executive team, Kerri and Kim especially, for your tireless works, this is very much a collaborative document. We have seen significant changes globally, nationally and locally over the past few years, so it is timely to revamp this important strategy. Strategic document. The we present you with reflects the aspirations and strategic priorities of all. This plan sets a vision for the future, identifies objectives and outlines how we will work towards our common goals as identified unified by community. Our community and customers are central to what we do as we continue to make Noosa a great place to live, work and visit. Central to this document is a renewed commitment to our residents and the community of Noosa Shire to ensure their collective voices are heard and responded to. Our review of the caucus plan has allowed us to reinforce this commitment and has provided us with the opportunity for a focus aimed firmly on the delivery of services and resources that meet both community needs and expectations. From the cradle to the grave, it covers and includes everyone in our community, all people of all ages with all abilities. Our new Corporate Plan is structured around five pillars, recognising the importance protection. Of protecting both our lifestyle and unsurpassed natural environment is paramount. This plan commits Council in collaboration with residents to build a healthy and resilient community. The plan is future focused with the knowledge that we must protect the residential amenity of our community while providing appropriate and necessary services, infrastructure and community assets across our Shire. With the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics set firmly on the agenda for South East Queensland, this document also considers how we can best leverage from this once-in-a-generation event. What legacy projects we want to work toward and advocate for as 2032 and beyond is in sight. Similarly, much of plan talks to the need to partner and advocate within the context of our role as elected representatives of Noosa Shire. Advocacy and partnership can, does and will involve continued engagement and collaboration with a variety of key stakeholders, none being more significant than our Federal and state government representatives. Although a Corporate Plan is a legitimate from local government, we believe it is an extremely important document for our Council. It outlines both the way Council will budget for and prioritise programs and services over the next five years, ensuring we achieve our collective vision and goals. We continue to provide. Our community with programs that connect our residents, promote healthy and active lifestyles, grow our economy and support our small businesses. We take very seriously our role of managing a natural environment so it can be enjoyed for many years to come. This Corporate Plan outlines not only a collective vision but also provides a strong commitment from Council. It has an outward focus putting the community at the forefront of all decision making. Many projects that align with the goals and vision of our new Corporate Plan are already underway. Because of such significant community consultation, other exciting projects are sure to follow. Again, I want to thank everyone for their feedback, whether they took the time to do the survey, and/or attend community sessions. Your input has played a pivotal role in preparing our Corporate Plan, so it accurately reflects your aspirations for our future. This is your document, and most importantly, your community. We are both humbled and grateful for the opportunity to work with and for you.

The Mayor. Thank you very much for the question, Councillor Lorentson. A fantastic sample size. We as a Council did everything we possibly could to be able to go far and wide with consultation. This wasn't just about consulting online, it was going out to our communities, in our community facilities and working Face-to-face. In relation to First Nations, we work directly with Kabi Kabi and you'll see that come through the document itself. It absolutely pays respect to our First Nations people, particularly Kabi Kabi and Noosa. We've done the best that we can. There's always room for improvement, but this is a level of consultation. Is commensurate with what a Corporate Plan should be delivered. It's provided face-to-face it's provided online. We were able to not only advertise within our local newspapers, there was also radio advertising. That was done at the time. There were flyers that were put forward. That but just that wasn't enough for us. Once we formed the document, we went back out to the community and asked their views about the document and where we needed to make some changes and incorporate those, we absolutely did. So we've done the best that we can and I think it's a fantastic sample size for us, plus all of those are from our community that do the face-to-face sessions. I know Councillor Wilkie was at all of those as and did a great job of stepping in there to help us with those. So this is a real team effort and great to see our Council has this delivered for us today.

Brian Stockwell13:45

It's an interesting process we've went through that has really reaffirmed the community's core values. So the large response quite clearly showed that. The response and we asked quite clearly what is the most important thing that the Corporate Plan should focus on? What is the most important thing that the Corporate Plan should focus on? There was another one there that is actually a little bit unusual. And that was transport and traffic management. And that is. A current issue that, aside from just filling potholes or resealing roads, it's about how do we enjoy the connectivity that roads give us and why the Destination Management Plan, which is one of the initiatives here, is so important. And why this Corporate Plan suggests we move from a Transport Strategy to a movement.

Brian Stockwell14:39

I strategy. I think that's one key difference about this Corporate Plan is people are saying that we need to do something about the current road conditions. That their lifestyles are being impacted by what's currently happening in the busy parts of the Shire. The other interesting one is when the consultants who did the consultation did a qualitative analysis, not on any specific question, but everything written by the community, they did Leximancer where they analysed what words were used. Once again, right up the top, environment. But what came second was housing. And once again, there is going to be some difficult decisions coming up for this Council in the next five years about how it responds to that focus area. Because it is, like many places across Australia, a huge challenge at the moment to maintain a community balance. To have a range of housing choices. I think it's objective 2.1 that outlines that. To me, those two different areas, if they were the only two changes made to the last Corporate Plan, would give us five years of work. Because they're the two key issues that are impacting on the liveability. Of course we still have to invest and protect and natural environment, our scenic amenity and all those other assets that go to what this Shire provides in the way of benefits of living here and visiting. But the crunch point that's going to come about is how we get people to go to enjoy those places without congestion, without lining up in cars, with good transport mechanisms that don't create greenhouse gases, and how we house the full range of our population so that we've got the people to work in our businesses. So we have places for people over 50, when they become single, once again, can move into and can afford to live and enjoy retirement. How we create this community creates new challenges. Roles for local government, and that won't always be expected by a community, and some will say, "No, just leave it to other levels of government." But for me, as a community saying this is our second highest focus area for the next five years, I think it's incumbent on us the to be five part I of all levels.

Amelia Lorentson17:26

I will I'm not going to speak to it, I'll be quite brief. Will speak to it significant piece of work. Piece of work and yeah it gives me great joy to be able to stand here this time and yeah it gives me great joy to be able to stand here this time during this term of Council to speak about our Corporate Plan the gives us a really clear picture of what the community wants the future of Noosa to look like. What they want is for it to be green and a great place to live, work and visit where the community comes first. Our commitment today is to ensure that we deliver this future to our community. I'm going to quote. It comes straight out of the Corporate Plan. Part of that commitment today is that we commit to ensuring that we difference, our communities celebrate our point of difference, that our communities celebrate culture, heritage and place, that we are connected, we're engaged inspired by our unique environment, resilient economy and sustainable future, that we are Noosa, Different by Nature, Noosa's always chosen a different path to other councils, to build a plan of success. And today we make today that commitment we make that commitment that it will continue to do so. The last three years in Council has shown us that we need to be agile, courageous and show strong leadership as we negotiate constant challenges and make decisions in the best interest of our community and make decisions in the best interest of our environment and in the best interest environment. It's also shown us as a team that we must work as a team and share this common vision to protect our future. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who provided feedback. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who provided trust and gave us their trust and the hard working council officers to acknowledge and thank those that came before us those that before our environmental and community activists who for over 50 years have advocated and fought hard to. Protect our environment and the place that we now. And the place that we now find it. Noosa, the most beautiful place on earth.

Frank Wilkie19:55

Thank you Madam Mayor, I too thank you Madam Mayor, CEO and the staff and fellow Councillors for their work in compiling this document and also the feedback from the community which has affirmed what we suspected and that is the community values the environment. That and the residential amenity and liveability extremely highly and in that sense this Corporate Plan is not a revolution, it's an evolution of the journey that Noosa Council has been on for decades now. Is a beautifully written document that draws upon some very well thought out strategies and plans and some beautiful images as well and a lovely close. It is also a challenge. My hope for this document is that also a challenge that it crystallizes the thinking of us as Councillors and also the staff that we deliver on what the promise that is within this document. For it will be, its value will come to naught if we are making decisions that will fit with any strategies and we are making decisions that will fit with any strategies and plans, it's a very important, clarifying piece of work. It will help crystallise our direction and.