By Nicola Wilson, Ca (noosa Shire Councillor Candidate)
As we have heard loud and clear lately, Noosa is demanding genuine, “transformational” change to arrest the decline in our lifestyle. And there’s something else. We – the residents – want to drive that change, along with our Council, not have it forced on us by vested interests.
Tourism Noosa is asking council candidates to “Tell us about your ideas for how you will sustain Noosa’s visitor economy across the region.” Really? The clear suggestion is that our Council should be sustaining the visitor economy. That is not its role.
There are over 7000 businesses in the Noosa region. Less than 1,000 are related to direct tourism services such as accommodation, food services and retail.
Council’s role is to ensure services and infrastructure are provided to the entire community. This includes ensuring roads, bridges, traffic management, parking, and waste management can support all of us…residents, local businesses, and tourists.
Crucially, Council’s role is also to ensure we protect the environment that underpins the entire local economy and resident amenity. It’s why people come here.
My background in finance and analysis for large corporations has me questioning several basic assumptions about the way our Council spends our money.
Residents need to be able to trust their council to spend ratepayers’ money wisely.
In the past, the tourism levy mechanism was clear; businesses operating in the tourism industry paid the levy, and in return Tourism Noosa’s campaigns brought visitors to hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops and services in the key tourism precincts.
Now, with the majority of tourists being driven to self-contained short-term accommodation (the ‘Airbnb’ tsunami) much of that income is diverted away from local businesses and into the hands of property investors, most of them outside our shire.
The next council will need to consider whether to continue its $2.5 million per year funding to Tourism Noosa (of which $1.1 million was spent on marketing, the rest on salaries, legal and compliance fees and “other corporate costs” in 2023).
Does the industry still need that level of marketing support when services and infrastructure are already struggling?
We will need some robust discussions to clarify priorities, with input from well informed, independent Councillors and all of the community.
