Noosa Events Strategic Framework, Policy, And Governance

Jessica Phillips78:37

Um, I will not support this procedural motion, given that I have the information needed to vote today, but I'm happy for the rest of the decision of the Councillors. Um, whether they would like a procedural motion, um, to the Ordinary Meeting, or further information to be provided. Um, all those in favour? No. Aye. All those in favour of a procedural motion? So that's um, Councillor Wilkie, Councillor Stockwell, Councillor Wegener, and those against. On procedural Council, please. I'm sorry. And. Against the procedural motion is Councillor Wilson and Phillips. So the procedural motion is carried, um, to the order of meeting. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Sian. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. Okay. Um, moving on to item 7.2.5, the Noosa events strategic framework: policy and governance. And. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillors. Um, as you know, this is a joint report, um, prepared by, uh, both, uh, directors of the environmental strategy and development regulation department. So we, um, along with Anthony put a lot of work into this. So I just wanted to give you a quick run through, um, on the report of recommendations. So the report before Council proposes a contemporary coordinated approach to planning, funding, assessment, and management of events across Noosa. Events make an important contribution. To community connection, cultural expression, local business activity, and Noosa's identity, but they can also place pressure on public spaces, infrastructure, environmental values, and community amenity. Proposed framework is intended to provide a clearer and more balanced approach to managing these benefits and impacts, and also acknowledging Council's recently assuming responsibility for the sponsorship and strategic management of major destinations since last year. The report brings together three key components: the Noosa events strategic frameworks 2026 to 2031, a new consolidated Noosa events management policy, and terms of reference for a new Noosa events executive group. Together these documents establish a clearer relationship between Council's strategic event governance, funding and investment decisions, permit assessment and day-to event management. The strategic framework establishes Council's long-term direction for events and is organised around five priorities. Improving the shared event experiencing. Maximising community benefit, actively managing event impacts, shaping a balanced and Noosa appropriate events portfolio and leveraging major opportunities that can deliver long-term benefits for the Shire. These priorities are supported by a five-year action plan including proposed outcomes, measures and targets. The new events management policy will provide the practical framework for assessing, approving and managing events on the Council control plan. It consolidates the existing events policy Noosa Main Beach events policy into a single document. Importantly, it retains the existing Main Beach event limits and key policy settings previously adopted by Council, while strengthening sustainability expectation, organiser accountability, contingency planning. Assessment processes and the management of events in high demand locations. It also provides clearer separation between Council's event funding decision and the regulatory permit assessment process. The proposed events executive group will provide strategic leadership and oversight of Noosa's overall event portfolio. Its role will include monitoring implementation of the strategic framework, reviewing funding and investment priorities, considering significant risks and emerging opportunities and improving coordination across Council. The group will operate at the strategic and portfolio level rather than undertaking operational permanent assessment or day-to event management. The framework has been informed by consultation undertaken through the destination management internal Council workshops, engagement with event organisers and businesses, and the recent events industry roundtable. The feedback identified support for events that reflect Noosa's values and deliver genuine community benefit, whilst also highlighting opportunities for improved communication, planning certainty, industry relationships, approval processes and accountability. Council is being asked to adopt the strategic framework, the events management policy and the executive group terms of reference, appointing two Councillor representatives to the executive group and authorising the Chief Executive Officer to establish the group and progress the supportive procedures, guidelines and operational tools and actions contained in the framework. Council also being asked to repeal the two existing event policies and replace them with the new integrated policy. Initial implementation will be undertaken with existing operational budgets and staffing resources with no additional budget allocation sought from this report. Of the framework will help identify. Future decisions around event funding, sponsorship, investment and program design with any future financial implications to be considered through subsequent Council budget processes.

Frank Wilkie84:53

Thank you. Well today we introduce also the Noosa events strategic framework 2026-2031 and the accompanying Noosa events management policy. It's a forward-thinking approach that will help ensure events continue to enhance our community while protecting the lifestyle and amenity that residents value most. Events are an important part of what makes Noosa a vibrant and connected community. They bring us together, celebrate our support local businesses and contribute to our social and economic well-being. But as our community has consistently told us, successful events must also respect our environment, our public spaces and the everyday lives of residents. This is exactly why this new strategy is so important. The framework establishes a clear vision for the future of events in Noosa, but it does so with a strong focus on balance. It recognises that events should deliver genuine community benefit, while carefully managing impacts on residents, neighbourhoods, traffic, access to public spaces, public infrastructure and sensitive environmental areas. One of its core strategic priorities is the active management of event impacts, ensuring that community amenity remains at the centre of event planning and decision making. Importantly, the new policy introduced governance, improved assessment processes, clearer accountability for event organisers. It includes enhanced sustainability expectations, strengthened contingency planning requirements, capacity controls for high demand locations and a more coordinated approach. Assessing and managing events across the Shire. Existing limits and protections for key locations such as Main Beach are retained, while governance arrangements are strengthened to ensure future decisions remain responsible. The establishment of the Noosa events executive group will provide strategic oversight of the entire events portfolio, helping Council monitor performance, address emerging issues and ensure event remains aligned with community expectations and Council priorities. Most importantly, this strategy sends a clear message. We're not seeking more events at any cost. We're committed to supporting the right events, in the right places, at the right scale, at the right time. Events that strengthen community connection, support local businesses and showcase the best of Noosa, while safeguarding the peace, character and amenity that residents rightly deserve and expect. This framework gives us the tools to achieve that balance, and positions Noosa for a future where community experiences and resident well-being go hand in Thank you for your work on this.

Brian Stockwell122:22

2018-19 When Councillor and Director Kim was talking about we were under a huge pressure to keep on improving more events and it was at a stage where every time we had an event we'd had quite a lot of community complaint. We're not seeing that same pressure for new events. The market for events and the level of complexity associated with getting events and insurance and etc is one where we're seeing downward pressure on events. So it is the right time to start looking at setting forward the framework that we want to go into the future because there's no doubt it'll be cyclical. For the first time we some guiding principles that are aligned with the Destination Management Plan and I think that's really important at the strategic level. We haven't given staff previously the level of guidance about what this community and its Council expects. So we've had an administrative process complying against the act, against some policies which were probably fit for purpose at the time but had, you know, we've moved past it. But now we see that the events framework basically duplicates the core guiding principles came out of the consultation as Councillor Wegener was questioning about what the community was expecting, about, you know, putting the community apart, authentic, being balanced, the right events, the right place, right time, treading lightly and lead better. These are all things that should guide some transition of our events, you know, like the, you know, the TN-led Trees for Tourism program developed over the years. And it was a voluntary program where it's mostly event organisers would collect donations from their participants and that would lead to planting trees along the Noosa Trail that I walked yesterday, some growing very nicely. What we're saying now is that's an expectation, it's not an expectation that when you're having an event and people come to Noosa, that those people participating are also helping to contribute to this community, whether it be by Trees for Tourism or some other way, that they're actually feeling part of this community. And that you know and we must acknowledge that a lot of our bigger things have very large cohorts of locals participating you know my silly son's been running around this place for the last couple of years doing silly things and um and it's I understand what Councillor Wilson is talking about in terms of can we measure that specific measures but we have to realise that this is a strategic format when we get down to the next level for example what we expect our event organisers to report back on that's when we get into the specifics and that's where we can do the refinement that you know particularly our large events down to our community events we can have this sliding scale of performance measurement such that we do have a building baseline of community sentiment of participant sentiment. So there's lots of ways we can do it but I'm quite happy that this framework does do what was intent when we first took over the events portfolio and one of the main things was it brings all the Council together and so the executive leadership group it provides better coordination guidance as to the policy objectives and the strategic guidelines by which to assess both existing and new events so I think it's a step forward.

Jessica Phillips126:12

Thank you Councillor Stockwell I'm going to speak to it over the long weekend I had the chance to read an amazing book Paul that starts with why you hear me ask it all the time about why originally when we had our very first workshop on events framework strategic framework it was about removing events from Tourism Noosa bringing it into Council so then we could streamline the events organisers were a one-stop shop so they don't have to apply for the traffic permit through us and then go through another process with TN so originally the why made a lot of sense to me I don't agree that it morphed over time to a DMP alignment rather than its strategic intent at this beginning however with the amendment going through that it'll come back to us in 12 months one of the reasons why I'm going to support today with that amendment is that we I feel that we spend a lot of time in operational as a Council and our job is strategic policy setting I think one of the reasons why I feel we go into operational is because the policies take a long time to come back to us which is why I've asked for it to come back for every 12 months and then I can help shape the strategic direction of Council rather than wait it may not happen even in my term so I'm going to support the framework today even though I have some reservations not from staff but just as time went on I feel that it got um it lost its mission its intention I think if we'd stayed on track Council listens um things would have been addressed through that as well because a lot of that aligned with um the why um things easier on event organisers making it easier on Council um so the real test will be whether the real test of the framework will not be how comprehensive the document is today um it's the outcomes that it produces in the annual report that comes back to us I think it's really important again for policies to come back to Council to help shape the strategic direction because things change so back in 2018-19 we know that was the year or two before COVID which I understand is why things changed then costs of living has changed it's a very quick evolving community even though some things remain the same I think it's really important for us to be able to set strategic direction for us to see policies um come back to us more often and you'll hear me not talk about it just with this one but I'm going to be um heads up I'm going to be asking for a lot more um so then I stop asking for the operational request and I get to control more of the direction of the policy which Council should be doing um I'll support the framework today but I hope that the conversation around the table assists in future planning for staff thank you Council of things though you're the only one that hasn't spoken to the um the motion. Motion to in front of us the otherwise vote.

Frank Wilkie135:03

Look, the development of strategy and policy is squarely in the Councillors field of responsibility, and we're fortunate that we have relationship with staff where we do get regular. On the development of strategy and policy, and we're also fortunate with the two meeting structure where if there is any tweaks that need to be done between now and nine days hence when the Ordinary Meeting takes place, Councillors that have reservations can work with staff to put in place perhaps more. Harder Measures of Success or KPIs that they would like to see. I do would like to acknowledge that yes this does this continual improvement in terms of the events policy and now the introduction of strategic framework was driven in part by the DMP and the feedback from the community. They wanted us to take a closer events to make sure that the their impacts were managed more effectively and I'm looking forward to not just the regular monthly reporting back on the progress of this but also the annual reporting so we can stay abreast of how it's progressing so thank you.

I'm happy to um you referred to there is a lot of change and I guess that's why it's a five-year directional document with an action plan and measures and then that governance set up so it means that it's not definitely not a set and forget so to your point I think the initial focus is about really um that kind of leveraging and managing the current you know really getting that vetted down both decision making resources etc and get that really in line with the new principles or the general principles and the actions I think as we move forward quickly no doubt you know we hope we're going to get knocks on the door maybe it's related to the Olympics um so as part of that new governance the terms of reference include considering new events so there'll probably be an operational assessment first the team will assess bring it to the new exec group which is two directors and two Councillors as the proposed and key staff I think it's that forum that starts to consider maybe not you know small community events new and that goes through a normal process and probably through grants and existing but anything big new that we um the operational assessors that's worth an assessment that aligns generally it fits it's a good fit given all considerations my understanding then we'd escalate that to the executive that's. Correct yeah and just to add to that we are we do get inquiries for new events you know we've in the last few weeks we've had inquiries for new events so it's an ongoing process and this allows a you know updated and contemporary framework and the associated governance to properly assess those.

Jessica Phillips88:15

Thank you. Just J, request that the Chief Executive Officer provide an annual report to Council on the implementation and performance of the Noosa events strategic framework 26-2031, including progress towards the framework's objectives and any recommendations for improvement. A minute. I'll second. Thank you, Noosa. Thank you, Richard, for assisting in the wording of this amendment. I'm moving this amendment because the report asks Council to adopt a strategic framework that will guide event decision making over the coming years. I also believe we need to be clear, need to have a clear mechanism for reporting back on how that framework is actually performing during our Councillor induction. Continuous improvement and importance of reviewing previous decisions was specifically discussed in our training. That principle is particularly relevant Council adopts a framework intended to guide decisions over a number of years. This framework will influence event assessment, funding and sponsorship decisions, investment priorities and the overall mix of events supported across Noosa. So therefore I just believe we evidence over time to determine whether it's achieving the outcomes Council intended. An annual report back to Council will allow us to consider what's working, what's not working as intended, what measurable benefits are whether unintended consequences have emerged, whether the event makes it remains appropriate, and whether adjusted adjustments are required. Importantly, it will create evidence base for future decisions on future for councils, rather than waiting until the end of the strategy, period and attempting to determine, sorry, retrospectively, whether it worked. Council will have information available throughout the implementation. I do not consider this will be unnecessary bureaucracy because performance reporting is a normal part of good governance. Council can adopt the framework to guide significant decisions and allocate public resources, then I believe that we should receive sufficient information to assess its effectiveness. The amendment is just to simply complete the governance cycle, plan, implement, measure, review and approve.