“Save where we can to spend where we must” was Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart’s catchcry on Monday when she urged fellow councillors to defer environmental grant allocations.
Debate raged at Council’s General Meeting when the allocation of environmental project grants raised issues of transparency and budget savings in Covid-stressed times.
Mayor Clare Stewart said with $300,000 of council’s environmental grants pot of $375,000 already allocated to continuing projects there was only $75,000 of the funds under the current councilors control.
But she argued for the need to retain funds where possible rather than direct them to grant projects that had merit but were neither urgent nor time sensitive.
Cr Stewart said 4500 people were on Jobkeeper allowances in Noosa and 1500 jobs had been lost in Hastings Street alone.
“We have a fifth of job employees on Jobkeeper,” she said. “We are heading for an economic cliff.”
“All these projects have gone through the correct process and have merit but I urge you to defer funds to environmental grants to the budget.”
Cr Joe Jurisevic opposed Cr Stewart’s view, saying community groups were “chomping at the bit to get back out there” and the grants provided opportunities to upskill people with the possibility of employment.
Cr Tom Wegener agreed it was the right time to invest in skilling people and to invest in an industry that was slightly removed from Noosa’s tourist reliant economy.
“When times are hard that’s when you spend for the future,” he said.
After consulting with a council officer it was revealed there was no evidence the projects would be employing or upskilling people.
Cr Amelia Lorentson said it was time grant applications included greater emphasis on KPIs and benchmarks as the public were calling for greater transparency to prevent them becoming the subject of “public misunderstanding and mistrust“.
Cr Frank Wilkie took offence at the implication of improper conduct, saying it was hurtful to the community groups which had made applications through correct processes.
He added the funding for the environmental grants came from the Environmental Levy which could only be used to fund environmental projects.
Councillors voted three in favour, three against funding the environmental grant projects. Cr Wilkie, as chair, used his deciding vote in favour of funding. Cr Brian Stockwell removed himself from the room because of a perceived conflict of interest.
The final decision will be made at Council’s Ordinary Meeting on Thursday.
