By JONATHON HOWARD
DIRECTOR of the Noosa Biosphere Limited governance board, Peter Homan, has labelled Noosa Council’s Biosphere restructure “complex, radical and unexpected”.
Mr Homan, who was nominated as an NBL director in 2008, said council’s decision was also a “betrayal” to those who had contributed so much during the past six years.
Mr Homan claimed there had been “no community consultation about the new Trust model” – a claim refuted by Noosa Council.
“There was no discussion of the Trust model at any forum organised by Noosa Council over the past four months – it was out of the blue and gave no time for any assessment or evaluation,” he said.
Mr Homan said it appeared as though a “privatisation” of the Noosa Biosphere had occurred, “with the Trust having all the power,” he said.
He said council’s community engagement exercise could have been handled very differently.
“We wanted the Noosa Council review to result in a meaningful stepping stone, not a tombstone, for Noosa Biosphere Limited,” he said.
“All the community capacity and goodwill that has been nurtured and valued within the enterprise over the past six years has now been lost.”
