Pat Spicer

Thank you. Mayor and Councillors, thank you for the opportunity to speak on community consultation. Effective community. Consultation requires more than notification. It requires a provision of clear, accessible information and meaningful, respectful engagement before decisions are made. So community. Input can genuinely inform outcomes. Transparency is fundamental to this process. It requires proactive information, sharing rather than relying on requests, meetings that are open inclusive, and supporting documents that are readily available, timely, and understandable to the residents. Council's current consultation approach relies mainly on its website, limited publicity, selective letter drops, pop-up events, one-on engagement with. Staff. Facebook posts and Your Say surveys. While this approach may be efficient and cost effective for Council, it creates significant barriers for many residents. Reliance on the website assumes residents have the time, technical skills and capacity to locate and interpret lengthy and technical documents. This excludes many people and discourages meaningful participation. Up events often held during business hours and in locations that do not support inclusive or detailed discussion. One-on engagement requires residents to be already informed. Without prior to information such conversations cannot be effective. Facebook is not universally used and should not be relied upon as a primary consultation tool. Requiring QR code registration for meetings creates unnecessary code access barriers with simpler alternatives are available. Finally, Your Say surveys are widely perceived as instruments for creating sentiment rather than genuine consultation. When surveys appear leading or outcome driven, being structured to support predetermined outcomes, confidence in the process is undermined and participation declines. I now turn to the case of 62 Lake MacDonald Drive, Cooroy. Council advised residents in 2024 that a letter had been sent in July 2022. Most residents did not receive that letter. One resident, who did receive it, requested further but no additional information was provided. Council's intentions for the site were embedded in the Noosa Housing Strategy 2022, action 5511.5.11, with planning activity commencing as early as 2019. A letter drop occurred on the 23rd of May 2024 to residents in Dianella Court and via Facebook. At the Council meeting in the community meeting in Cooroy on the 15th of May 2025, the Director Strategy and Environment confirmed that residents in Cary street did not receive that letter. A broader letter dropped on the 5th of August 2025 to more than 2025 to more than 130 hundred and thirty three surround surrounding properties was an improvement. However, by May 2024 planning was already well advanced. A land purchase price had been agreed, grant funding a Memorandum of Understanding signed. Planning had moved well beyond what could be reasonably described as preliminary or essential behind the scenes work. At that stage meaningful community consultation should already have occurred. Following the May 2024 correspondence residents requested meetings with Council. Steering committee was formed with broader resident participation through an active email and messaging group. These meetings are described as community consultation on Council's housing in karuik web page, which was created only after residents requested engagement. Information was not shared proactively. Attendance of meetings was restricted, particularly where presentations were involved. Presentation materials were provided only to attendees and with instructions not to share them. This approach is inconsistent with principles of transparency, open meetings, publicly available and genuine consultation. Small group engagement alone is inadequate, where decisions affect the wider community and set precedents. Future development, particularly in hinterland towns such as Cooroy. I now refer to Council's resolution on the 20th of January 2025, which requires that the process for considering and investigating future uses of lots 2 and 3 at 64 Lake MacDonald Drive include community consultation. That is proposed. To occur only after feasibility work at Noosa Heads and Tewantin. Residents are extremely concerned that civil works currently underway deliver infrastructure for housing, suitable for housing, effectively pre-empting future decision making and limiting genuine consultation on alternate uses. To avoid misunderstanding, I would like to clearly articulate the community's expectations in relation to community consultation as follows. First, a public community forum open to all residents. Held in Cooroy on the future uses of lock 2 and 3 at 64 Lake MacDonald Drive. Second, clear and accessible notification of. That forum, including date, time, location and key issues. Using methods that do not rely solely on digital platforms. Third, open and transparent notification information sharing, including a clear explanation of the implications of receiving $178,000 from the Australian government's housing support program and $4 million.099,040 from the Queensland government's Residential Activation Fund in 2025 and how this funding affects future land use options. Four. 4. Assurance that community views will be genuinely heard, respected and reflected in outcomes consistent with Council's resolutions and stated consultation processes. Finally, Cooroy seeks equitable treatment. Land community should not experience reduced transparency or consultation compared with coastal centres. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Through the Chair. Background information. The Queensland Audit Office local government 2024 report, 13/2024/25 available Queensland Audit Office available on the website. The press release in October 2025, stating Council had been directed not to release information about the fraud so as not to jeopardise ongoing investigations. The report of the December Ordinary Meeting outlined the rather comprehensive measures that have been put in place in retrospect, but were staff aware of this possible fraud target area prior to the event? So my question is, while there were restrictions on releasing information to the public regarding the loss of 2.4 million through fraud in December 2024, were all the staff in the financial department fully briefed on the contents of the Queensland Audit Office report immediately after the report was received, as it explicitly warned fraud risk in super master file data changes and provided a case study of a recent Council loss through such data changes being made to supplier bank account details. Thank you.

Through the Chair, I don't feel that answers the question, because it doesn't say when the staff with were informed back. In March, and that was my question. The report that mark gafferstone has been exemplary, and I admire the way she's undertaken her role. Point of order, know. Thank you. I know I have no right to call you. Background information. Housing Strategy. The housing crisis requires action by all levels of government. Council has. Acted in this area by amending the Noosa Plan to allow greater diversity in housing, making it easier for housing to be built on land owned by churches, etc. allowing residents to build granny flats or smaller houses on their existing residential lot, and providing incentives for developers to build affordable housing. Councils were originally set up for four essential services to the community: roads, water, waste collection and wastewater. Responsibility of local government today are quite extensive, including infrastructure, local roads, footpaths, stormwater, drains and bridges. Waste management, public health, overseeing public health services including food inspections and managing public pools and other facilities, animal control, registration, parking, planning and development, land use and zoning, building approval. Signage and advertising, community services and facilities, parks and recreation, libraries and community centres, arts and culture, aged and child care, safety and environment, fire prevention, emergency management, environmental management, government and representation, to other levels of government, local laws, strategic planning. While this list is not exhaustive it serves to indicate that Council has a large area of responsibility. The why question is one I get asked regularly and can't answer the question so I'm asking. Why is Noosa Council taking on the State responsibility of providing housing, spending millions above grants to remediate and install all infrastructure for housing at 64 Lake MacDonald Drive, Cooroy, as well as entering into a contract with Coast2Bay to build 26 units when it is in fact that the site does not meet the Housing Strategy actions of ready access to services, transport and proximity to work.