Labor mocks reborn Noosa

Noosa’s hopes of de-amalgamating have been scoffed at by Labor, with local government Minister Desley Boyle describing plans for local residents to have autonomy from the Sunshine Coast council as a “recipe for chaos”.

Ms Boyle’s dismissive comments to last month’s Parliamentary Estimates Committee follow on from reported comments on Wednesday to the Local Government Association of Queensland as to the success of forced amalgamations.

President Paul Bell confirmed the minister, in addressing the Mackay LGAQ state conference, was upbeat about the positives of amalgamation on Tuesday.

But LNP local government Shadow Minister Howard Hobbs said Labor’s undemocratic process already helped create a $2 billion debt to councils that could blow out to $6 billion by 2012.

This politicking comes at a time when Noosa groups are steaming ahead and strengthening alliances designed to help de-couple Noosa and surrounding areas from the regional coast council.

Mr Hobbs told the Noosa News on Wednesday that the LNP would honour its promise to grant Noosa a boundary review upon winning office, but that the minister had derided the notion in the House on July 21.

Hansard records support Mr Hobbs’ claim, with this from Ms Boyle:

“Unfortunately, I am aware of alternative proposals for local government and they would be, in my view, a recipe for chaos.”

“Little is known about the chaos policy. We have glimpses only in statements from the shadow minister for local government and from the leader of the LNP, but these glimpses are frightening indeed.

“It seems that they intend to allow communities to decide whether they would like to undo their amalgamations, sort of.

“For example, they have said that they might de-amalgamate the Sunshine Coast with Noosa, no questions asked, but elsewhere, where there is perceived support for de-amalgamation, they may or may not.

“The Member for Noosa had said that that de-amalgamation is on the cards too.

“He said, ‘It remains LNP policy to give local communities the opportunities to have a say in whether they remain amalgamated or not’.”

Friends of Noosa is the latest community group to join Noosa’s de-amalgamation alliance made up of Eumundi Doonan Verrierdale (EDV) action group, Noosa Biosphere Association (as opposed to council approved Noosa Biosphere Ltd) and Noosa Parks Association.

Alliance spokesperson and former Noosa mayor, Noel Playford, who spoke to the Noosa News while at the Mackay conference, said the alliance initiatives were well underway.

He said a genuine commitment was shown by members who had collectively agreed to create a paid secretarial position to organise community workshop rollouts.

“We will be running a program running community workshops that will talk about the size, shape (and) design of the new council.”

He said the alliance was determined to listen to the views of the community and be prepared to act positively at any time.

“We are planning for the future,” he said.

EDV spokesperson Johanne Wright said she believed there was still plenty of community commitment to de-amalgamation and was delighted at the alliance formation and its timing.

“We do think that the present state of political flux creates opportunity for community groups to bring up their concerns and work towards better outcomes,” she said.

In 2007, the state government ran roughshod over community wishes and transformed grassroots’ representation into a Coast-wide bureaucracy.

More than 7000 people registered their protest in Brisbane, and Noosa News published 17 pages of anti-amalgamation opinion letters.

Community spokespeople said they would never give in. They are proving true to their word. But is seems clear that it will take a change of government to give their community aspirations some political clear air.