Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart called for the end of a $1.2 million commitment of ratepayer money moving an alternate motion to cease negotiations and finalise funding from Noosa Council for the Noosa River Oyster Ecosystem Restoration Project at Council’s General Meeting this week.
The Alliance and Funding Agreement between The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Noosa Shire Council, ratified by the previous council in 2019, outlined funding of $1.2m towards the initiatives from TNC and a matching investment from Council of $1.2m over a period of three years.
Cr Stewart said this council had not been able to undo the signed contract but had the opportunity to review the agreement and move forward with clear intentions.
“This is solely my opinion on the matter and not that of the full council, but as this agreement ceases in September 2022, I feel we now have the ability to argue on whether or not we should enter a new agreement, partnership, alliance or contract with the same party going forward.”
“Since this Council was formed in April 2020, the Oyster Reef Restoration Project has come before us on occasion.
“Nearly two years ago, I requested all documentation and correspondence between the TNC and the State Government regarding the state approvals required for this project.
“According to the agreement, it was the requirement of TNC to ‘obtain all required State Government permits/authorities for installation of oyster reefs’ and this was to be completed within 12 months, which would mean state permits should have been achieved by 1 July 2020.
“After nearly two years of delay, we were advised verbally that the State had issued conditional permits.
“Despite this, it is still my opinion that this project is risky.
“I feel we are betting ratepayer money on a project that could fail. We have no guarantees and therefore, we must always err on the side of caution when dealing with public monies.
“We must be overly prudent in our financial deliberations when spending the hard-earned money of our ratepayers.”
“We have before us a contract that commits our ratepayer to $1.2 million dollars, currently of which $750k is quarantined.
“The funding quarantined and allocated for this project could be realigned on others which can be instigated and implemented right here right now with little or no risk to our community and be of great benefit to our community and our waterways.
“I believe the hard-earned monies of our ratepayers can be better allocated to projects that can be delivered and results achieved in the near future.”
Cr Stewart also put forward an amendment to garnish further openness and transparency in regard to the project.
“This amendment will allow Council to review the procurement process to instigate the project, risks associated with the project and how these are to be mitigated and incorporated into key performance indicators and any other matters that the council should be made aware of in entering into the agreement.“
At its Ordinary Meeting Council majority voted to authorise the chief executive officer to continue to negotiate the agreement with The Nature Conservancy.
(This is the opinion of Cr Stewart – Mayor Noosa Council and not the resolved position of the Council. The Mayor respects the resolved position of the Council.)
