Financial Performance Report September 2026

Frank Wilkie0:00

Welcome to the Ordinary Meeting of Thursday the 15th of October 2026. Declare the meeting open at 10am. I acknowledge we're meeting on the traditional lands and waters of the Kabi Kabi people and I'll pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging. Also acknowledge their recognition of each and every one of us as joint custodians with the responsibility in looking after this beautiful place that we all love. I'd also like to note the passing of former Noosa Councillor, Councillor Brian winfield. Brian was a very well well-loved and respected Councillor from Cooroy in the pre-amalgamation Noosa Council. He was pivotal in driving the establishment of the house with no steps and on behalf of Noosa Council we pass on our condolences to the family. I note that Councillor Amelia Lorentson is an apology. All other Councillors are in attendance. Except for Councillor Brian Stockwell and Councillor Karen Finzel who are on the line. Item 4 is a confirmation of the Minutes. I have a mover and a seconder for the Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on the 17th of September 2026. Happy Councillor to move. Phillips seconded Councillor Finzel. All in favour? Yes. Thank you. We have one petition. I move that the petition with 10 signatories submitted by Gerry Campbell requesting that Council remove or reduce the yellow line markings in Antipodes Close Castaways Beach be received and referred to the Chief Executive Officer to determine the appropriate action. May I have a seconder please? Seconder, Councillor Wegener. I'll just read out some further details. Antipodes Close has operated as a residential cul-de-sac for approximately 30 years without these extensive restrictions. The new yellow no stopping lines were installed at both ends of the cul-de-sac and along one side of the street without prior consultation or notification to affected residents. Requested Council provide for traffic and safety assessment and reasons why supporting the installation. Restrictions of this extent were considered necessary. Thank you. All in favour? Aye. Yes. Thank you. There are no presentations, there are no deputations, there are no public questions. I have one Mayoral minute that was included in the agenda which is the CEO performance review report. So please keep in mind the attachments to the Mayoral minute are confidential so if we wish to speak to them we'll have to go in a confidential session with Councillors only. As Chair of the CEO performance committee consisting of myself Councillor Brian Stockwell and Councillor Nicola Wilson, I present the attached Chief Executive Officer annual performance review of the Council. The purpose of the minute is to advise the Council of the outcome of the CEO's annual performance review conducted by the performance review committee on September 1st 2026. The report provides a brief update on the CEO's annual review undertaken by the performance review committee which was facilitated by LG Services Group. LG services have been contracted to facilitate the annual performance review of the CEO. Performance review committee members are thanked for their dedication and commitment and positively contributed to the review process. The annual review has been undertaken. This report serves to advise Council on the findings and recommendations. The process undertaken by the performance review panel was assisted by Mr Scott Mason of LG Services Group as an independent facilitator. The Councillor survey was forwarded to all Councillors with the completion date in time of 20 August 2026. All seven Councillors completed the survey. Was also sent to the CEO which was completed. CEO's responses were presented separately to that of the elected member of the results. CEO provided a verbal presentation to the performance review committee, including major highlights of the 12 month period, the performance of the organisation, challenges, opportunities and areas for improvement. PR committee asked the CEO specific to provide a comment on the CEO's presentation. The committee then undertook the formal assessment by quantitatively scoring performance against stated objectives and documented comments where appropriate. I also would like to thank all Councillors participating in this process and particularly the work of Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Nicola Wilson who put in considerable hours to undertake this regulatory requirement. As I said, if we need to discuss it, we need to go into confidential. All in favour? Yes. Aye. That's carried. We have no notified motions. That brings us to committee consideration of committee recommendations. 11.1.1, Audit and Risk Committee recommendations. Queensland Audit Office 2026 committee briefing paper. 11.1.2, Queensland Audit Office 2026 interim report. 11.1.3, Noosa Council response to Queensland Audit Office's interim report. 11.1.4, pro internal audit report, IT general controls, 11.1.5, internal audit update. 11.1.6 risk management and BCP update. 11.1.7 strategic internal audit plan, 2026 to 2028.11.1.8 Queensland audit officers forward work plan for 2026 to 2029.11.1.9 performance measurement update. 11.1.10 ICT Cyber Risk Report. 11.1.11 Queensland. Audit officers local government report 2025 recommendation status update. 11.1.12 2526 asset valuations and the impact of Australian accounting standards board.1.1.13 2526 accounting for infrastructure damage by significant weather events, disaster recovery program. 11.1.14 2526 draft financial statements and end of financial year update. 11.1.15 financial services workforce planning update. 11.1.16 financial environment exception reporting, 31st of July, 2026.11.1.17 Fringe Benefits Tax update.1.18 super on contractors project update. 11.1.19 audit committee recommendations en bloc. I have a mover and a seconder for the Audit and Risk Committee recommendations to be adopted. Moved Councillor Wilson, seconder please. Have you just seconded? Councillor Phillips. All in favour? To proceed. Aye. Yes. That's unanimous. Which brings us to the General Committee recommendations dated 6th of October, 2026, 11.2.1. Planning applications decided by delegated authority. 11.2.2, there's a Material Change of Use for multiple dwellings in Maple Street and Myall Street, Cooroy. 11.2.3, Noosa Biosecurity Plan 2026-2031.11.2.4 the Noosa Destination Stewardship Council draft terms of reference was referred to the Ordinary Meeting for a further report and will be dealt with at item 13.2.11.2.5 the zero emissions ZEN alliance agreement was referred to the Ordinary Meeting for further consideration and will be dealt with at item 12.1.11.2.6 Noosa events strategic framework policy and governance. I'd like to deal with this item separately to add in the Council appointments to the representatives on the group. So I'll move the General Committee recommendation with the addition of the names Councillor Amelia. Lorentson and Councillor Jessica Phillips as representatives on the Noosa events executive group in item E as noted on the screen. May I have a seconder? I'll second. Thank you. I waived my right to speak. We covered this last week but anyone is free to speak if they wish. Okay, I'll put it to about a thousand. Taylor? Aye. Yes. That's unanimous. 11.2.7, the Noosa Aquatic Centre Upgrade Plan and Noosa Aquatic Centre facility strategic plan. 11.2.8, Noosa Shire Council Sole and. Specialised supplier lists. 11.2.9, Council meeting schedule 2027.11.2.10, change of time and venue for Ordinary Meeting, date of 17 December 2026.11.2.11 was referred to the Ordinary Meeting for further consideration. It was a confidential item regarding the Noosa regional gallery detailed business case and considerations, which we'll deal with at 12.2.11.2.12 is the General Committee recommendations. Block. I have a move and a second for the General Committee recommendations to be adopted, except we're dealt with separately. I'm happy to move it.

Yeah, thank you. And through the Chair, I will take the report as read. The September report reflects Council's financial performance as at the 30th of September, 2026, against our revised budget. The report covers the first three months of the financial year, or 25%. Results generally remain largely influenced by timing differences, budget profiling or expenditure profiling, and carry forward works. As at the 30th of September, councils reported a favourable net result variance to budget of 2.5 million. This comprises a favourable operating position of 2.2 and a favourable capital position of 0.3 million. I would like to draw attention to the following matters detailed in the report. All of my preceding comments relate to balances as at the 30th of September. Council has received 71.9 million or 43.8% of its full operating revenue budget of 164.2 million. The favourable variance to date approximately 1.9 million, reflects higher rate and waste utility charges together with investment earnings and interest on overdue rates and charges. Operating expenditure is 40 million or 24.3 million of year-to-date expenditure. Operating expenditure is approximately 0.4 million favourable year-to-date to budget. This is generally tracking within acceptable budget parameters with variances largely of timing or profiling in nature. Further analysis will be provided in subsequent reports as trends or underlying patterns start to develop to provide greater confidence in financial reporting. Council's business activities provide an operating variance of 1.8, sorry, Council's overall operating variance includes 0.4 million relating to Council's business activities. Waste management is a reported favourable position while holiday has a reported unfavourable position today. The holiday park experience is primarily related to the timing or the profiling of our expenditure when matched against its revenue profiling. Management's current position is we believe this will remedy itself by the end of the financial year. In regards to tourism while and economic development, investment year to date is broadly tracking at its budget profile with a current $5,000 underspend versus budget. Council's capital revenue to date is $6.2 million with $6.1 million of that from capital grants and subsidies and the balance from cash contributions and infrastructure charges. Council's actual capital works expenditure is $12.7 million today, or 12.7% of Council's overall $99.7 million capital works budget. Moving forward in regards to the October 2026 report, detailed quarterly reporting will be provided that is currently presented to the Capital Works Executive committee. This will provide more detailed analysis and a revised graph which will provide additional commentary to support the financial metrics. Council's total cash on hand is $146.6 million including $6.7 million held in trust. Council's investments continue to perform well against all agreed benchmarks. In regards to rates and utility charges, Council has collected $57.6 million or 50.5% of its $114 million budget. I would like to just draw attention specifically to the more detailed reporting on our rates or REVs. As of the 30th of September, the total rates or REVs were 11.7 million dollars or 9.2 percent of Council's underlying rates. There was approximately 3.2 million dollars of rates paid during the September period. This generally reflects our consistent six-monthly trend of REVs which increases in July and January and decreases over the preceding months. It is worth noting that Council is currently undertaking its standard arrears correct collection process with about 800 ratepayers expected to be referred to Council's debt agent during October 2026. This represents seven million dollars in long-standing significant arrears that are greater than 12 months overdue. The initial referral does exclude any ratepayers who currently have approved payment arrangements or are expecting financial hardship through financial hardship arrangements. This month's report also includes the quarterly rolling program of our measures of financial sustainability. There are no issues of concern associated with the results presented in the report. It is worth noting that measures currently adopted are defined as a point in time and generally reported as at the 30th of June each year through our financial statements. It can mean that interim results are somewhat screwed noting that the measures screwed, skewed, thank you, apologies, skewed, apologies on that one, sign it up, you know, it's going off, sorry, apologies, good, yeah, and so interim results can sometimes be skewed. All current metrics in the current financial year meet accepted benchmarks. For those that have longer term which fall below benchmarks are expected to refine and correct themselves as our long term forecast and budget assumptions are addressed. So those that are currently falling below benchmarks will be remedied as we move forward. In the August 2026 report, there was a modification to our credit card surcharge service fee as a result of broader changes to legislation, I just want to provide assurance that all of our systems have been updated to reflect that change and no credit card surcharges exist within Council's operating system. Just in terms of closing comments, Council remains in a strong and stable financial position and current variances are typically drawn from operating trends or timings of Council's underlying budget as opposed to risks they're currently presenting. Thank you, I'll be happy to take questions.