Draft Burgess Creek Integrated Catchment Management Plan (Icmp)

Amelia Lorentson199:57

Lorentson informed the meeting that I have a conflict of interest for item 7.3 draft Burgess Creek Integrated Catchment Management Plan icmp on this agenda my brother lives approximately 550 metres from the mouth of the Burgess Creek and I've recently purchased a property in Sunrise Beach approximately 550 metres from the mouth of Burgess Creek this distance has been checked confirmed. And by the governance team any previous statements I made on this were estimates in an abundance of caution and consistent with advice from the office of the independent assessor I believe it is prudent to declare this interest consistent also with recent legal advice previously considered by this Council on the question of proximity alone gives rise to a conflict of interest only not a material personal interest my position falls within that same characterisation the integrated catchment management plan for Burgess Creek is a Shire-wide body of work it forms part of a broader Noosa catchment strategy for waterways and the decisions before this meeting affect the entire community it is in that community interest that I wish to contribute I've consistently declared this interest and believe I am able to consider this matter impartially and in the public interest I choose to remain in the meeting room to vote on the issue

Thank you Mr Chair before introducing the I this item I'd like to acknowledge the advocacy and support from Councillors that we have we've worked through the process of identifying community environmental issues to be able to present this draft plan the development of the Burgess Creek integrated management plan has been a significant undertaking and a commitment to long-term evidence-based approach to managing this catchment is important I know the project has been funded by government Queensland through their budgeting process and without that support we would not have been able to progress this plan to this time I'll also acknowledge the passion and dedication of the Burgess Creek community throughout this process we've heard from residents environmental groups recreational users agencies and other stakeholders who care deeply about the future of their local community through their knowledge lived experience and constructive input they have made valuable contributions to the development of the draft plan through the development of this project we have enjoyed a king or we have continued to enjoy a close working relationship with Unitywater as one of the prominent stakeholders in the catchment I make a final acknowledgement for the catchments in coasts team from Council and in particular our principal Environmental officer for this project while the generous support from the Queensland state government has been critical it has only been able to stretch so far and we value the inter-departmental collaboration that allows us to produce this plan today which is largely been developed internally by Council the Burgess Creek catchment is a small compound comparatively complex system that has undergone significant modification but nonetheless retains strong environmental processes and strong community and strong connections to the community the draft plan provides a whole of catchment framework for managing Burgess Creek over the long term which brings together technical evidence and community input to establish a shared vision improve for the catchment and identifies practical actions to improve water quality, strengthen ecosystem health, manage stormwater and erosion impacts, protect recreational and amenity values and improve governance and coordination between Council agencies and plan also establishes monitoring and adapt, a monitoring and adaptive management framework ensuring that future decisions continue to be guided by evidence and ongoing learning. I would also like to note the draft plan has not been fully costed at this stage. This reflects the time and resource constraints of the project and the fact that the plan is intended to establish a strategic framework and agreed direction before detailed business cases and funding decisions are developed importantly, not all actions represent new expenditure. Some actions are already being delivered through business as usual operations. Some are identified within council's forward planning and infrastructure program, such as LGIP, and others are intended to be progressed through grant opportunities. Some of which are already in train. At this stage of the development, we are seeking Council endorsement of the draft plan for public consultation, which will provide the broader community with an opportunity to review the plan and help shape the final version before it back to Council for consideration.

Brian Stockwell226:04

I might try an amendment. Can you just bring that up? It's the one that I circulated last night, Councillors. And so the amendment, and I'll read it out, is that item B amended to read that approve the draft Burgess Creek Integrated Catchment Management Plan provided as attachment one with the following amendment to appendix G, S2, action 4, and that to read, action 4, continue to encourage the adoption of best practice catchment management by residents through delivering targeted behaviour change initiatives and compliance, in and that then table below. That table below, define target practices and pathways, for example, diffuse sources, nutrients, dumping, pool overflows, grass clippings, and then the change in key enabler to add identification of diffuse sources, urban nutrients and contaminants, and in the deliverable to add urban catchment management education, and then down in S2, it's to add what was in the original top is an example to reduce illegal connections to stormwater. Can you just flip back up? Yeah, there we go. Yeah, so you can see there that was just taken and there, so that's my amendment. Do we seconder? Councillor Phillips. So I'll explain, Councillors. As written, the action referred to illegal stormwater connections up top being the only thing to be addressed by that action and then in section 2, 4.1, it talked about dumping pool overflows and grass clippings. And what I couldn't see anywhere else in the action plan was just what is probably the standard starting point for any integrated catchment management. That's improved land practice by all those in the catchment. And so what this amendment does is just broaden that action out to look at adoption of best practice. And that in urban catchment is things like where you wash your car, what sort of fertiliser you do, or do you actually not need fertiliser, you put a native garden in and, you know, what are the things that you can do to reduce the amount of nutrients, contaminants what a lot of people don't understand in urban and peri-urban catchments actually pet droppings is a very large source of nutrients into the waterways so that time when we have the first flash stormwater going down through the pipes and getting into the wetlands that can all be ameliorated by just adoption. Of best practice so this amendment just talks about bottom-up processes that when people get the knowledge or awareness of what the have an understanding of the skills needed or the practices needed and sometimes there's a little bit of incentive provided in if changing practice requires money then that's the way you get that broad adoption of commitment to good catchment management and that you see the result in better water quality and it also obviously just keeps in the compliance angle which was obviously put in regard to if we do have illegal stormwater connections into stormwater that means why that is an issue is that when we do have storm events that the sewerage treatment plant gets overloaded by water a significant increase in volumes because of illegal connections because they're funneling all the water from the roof into the sewerage treatment plant where it should be to the gutters or into the gardens

Brian Stockwell198:38

And item three is the, let's get the correct word, Burgess Creek integrated capital management plan. We welcome Director Kim and manager Ben to the table. And we have some conflicts of interest to declare on the first one. So I wish to inform the meeting that I have a conflict of interest for item 7.3 draft Burgess Creek integrated capital management plan. This agenda, due to my role as president of the Noosa Lions Football Club which has fields in the engagement, I do not believe a reasonable person could have a perception of bias because the club does not profit from or suffer a loss as a result of the plan and while and area than most allotments has no significant greater interest than the many people who lived in the catchment. As I have specialist expertise and significant experience in the subject matter I choose to remain in the room and vote on the matter and for those listening today's meeting is the first meeting under the new legislative requirements that allows the Councillor to make the decision about whether to stay in the room on a conflict of interest declaration. Councillor Lorentson. Aye Councillor Amelia

Jessica Phillips232:28

Yes, please. Okay. The Council investigate opportunities to utilise the Environment Levy, including future Environment Levy program allocations to support the stage implementation of priority actions identified in the Burgess Creek integrated catchment management plan with a report to Council on funding options, project prioritisation and delivery timeframes.

Brian Stockwell242:36

All those in favour? Yes. That's unanimous it becomes part of the motion. Okay. So we've had Councillor Wilkie and Councillor Wegener from memory. I've got to write those two down. Anyone else wish to talk? Anyone to the substantive motion? I've spoken. Okay. I will. We need to understand where this particular plan's come out of. What a lot of people might realise is actually community started asking for this sort of plan back 2018, 2019. One of the local Sunrise Beach the local Sunrise Beach residents who was involved in the Australian water association was trying to get up a Birch creek catchment thing to run STEM education for the girls at the Sunshine Beach high and that was probably the first time that I raised it. It's a good catchment to demonstrate urban catchment management. And the uh the um drafter as it has it put in front of us has done a lot of what could be considered good integrated catchment management. One area I'd like to see come out of the consultation is a key aspect of integrated catchment management is fact that you aim to get these processes to be collaborative with shared decision making and community ownership. So when I look at the governance structure in the draft and you see community input off the two angles from the technical advisory group and the project coordination group, that's not quite what integrated catchment management says. Catchment management says they're all combined together so you've got the various knowledge that's coming together and that the community's got that opportunity at a strategic level to guide it and you know I've just we had the 250th meeting of the Mayor river catchment coordinating committee and that committee has been operating for 30 years and attracted probably hundreds of millions of dollars into the catchment for good work and it is a really good example of true integrated catchment management. And so I think during the consultation process we should aim to just test that commitment does the Council, does the community happy that we sit with the Council Project Control Group and just community input or do we want to make it such that the community actually is the drivers so we can ensure that we do get the right balancing decision and the priorities and it would just be interesting to see at this scale if that would be successful and I suppose the other thing is part of integrated catchment management is not just all about environmental issues so part of this catchment is the recreational values and you know how do we balance the investment is you know when we lose access to the beach is that a higher priority than the water quality or is it just another priority that we have to try and funding sources for so to me it's a good basis to go out to the community as but we can probably think about the sort of questions we ask and we probably also and I believe it's happening it is written by people with technical specialists so I'm guessing that a lot of people wouldn't read through say that appendix G that I've met very to be able to interpret so it's important that we do have that layman's executive summary these are the key issues this is what we want to do about it what do you think that's all anyone else wish to talk Councillor Wilkie do you like to close