Thursday’s Noosa Council Ordinary Meeting was d¨¦jà vu. On livestream before our very eyes, we watched the metamorphosis of the newly elected council into the old council. Hopes of a more progressive approach were dashed.
Just as the Wellington council did in 2016, the new council voted against a medical centre, this time in Cooroy, reversing an earlier 4-3 vote in committee. It left Mayor Clare Stewart alone standing in the interests of the health and medical needs of the community.
The Cooroy locale applied for is directly across from the Eden rehabilitation hospital. But staff recommended refusal of the application on the basis that under the Noosa Plan this is a ‘character precinct’, although the house is not heritage listed.
The old timber house on the block is not fit for medical purposes under Australian standards. The applicant, Dr McMenamin of Noosa Radiology, undertook to conserve the house but move it elsewhere, replacing it with a new medical building with its design echoing some features of old Queenslanders.
In the committee the vote was 4-3 against the staff’s recommendation to knock back the proposal.
But the losers in this vote – Crs Stockwell, Jurisevic and Wilkie – who favoured the refusal – decided to use the next three days to fight back.
Instead of getting a medical centre and a heritage building on an appropriate site, the community missed out on both.
So how did a 4-3 vote for the medical centre turn into a 6-1 vote against it?
Immediately after Monday’s meeting, Cr Stockwell posted a home-made video of ‘character’ houses on his Facebook page, urging people to “let my colleagues know your views” to oppose the original vote. This was shared immediately by Cr Jurisevic on his Facebook page and Cr Wilkie followed suit with a call to action on his own page.
This one-sided advocacy stimulated much social media comment and many emails to councillors urging them to change their mind and refuse the application.
And so three councillors back-flipped and the proposal sank. Only Mayor Stewart voted for the centre, pointing out that by 2036 30 per cent of the Noosa population is forecast to be over 65 and 44 per cent over 55. She also revealed the owners of the ‘heritage’ house had told her it had been renovated and no longer reflected its previous 100-year old character.
This stupefying decision took me back to my days as a brand new councillor in 2016.
Back then Dr McMenamin of Noosa Radiology had proposed to purchase and develop a block of land opposite Noosa Hospital for a medical centre incorporating a PET scan and angiography, which Noosa lacked – and still lacks.
Even though I argued in favour, the council unanimously knocked the proposal back, my novice vote included.
This turned out to be a momentous turning point for me. I reflected that, in meekly following the mob, I had participated in a decision that was not in the community’s best interests.
I understood that, having been elected as an independent, I should always carry that obligation to place community interest first.
And, furthermore, I suddenly realised that I was now part of a regressive, negative, narrowly-focused council.
I resolved I would never again allow sectional pressure to trump community interest. The next four years of my term saw me battle for better governance, greater openness and a will to always act in the best interests of the community, no matter what pressure was applied to me.
I beat a lonely but successful path to secure significant improvements in transparency. And the council experienced its own comeuppance at the 2020 election when the shire voted for a new mayor and, for the first time, put three women councillors in office.
In both 2016 and 2020, the proposal to build a medical centre adjacent to an existing hospital was a progressive and logical attempt to provide a health hub in a medical precinct.
I fear that this 2020-2024 council is showing the same signs of regression that I fought during my term in office.
Meanwhile, Noosa’s hinterland population is growing and the need for a medical centre is real. Oddly the Noosa Plan provisions for medical precincts only in coastal areas.
So here we are. Another application for a medical centre refused by Noosa Council, with no attempt to find a suitable solution.
It seems that in Noosa Council, everything new is old again.
It’s time for the community to back its mayor and demonstrate to councillors that they are there to enhance the shire, not regress it.
