“Professor Ken Wiltshire AO on Noosa’s Biosphere Reserve nomination – v. State Government on Noosa amalgamation

1/08/2007 Noosa Council and Professor Kenneth Wiltshire, AO – former Chairman of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO

WORLD RECOGNITION FOR ICONIC NOOSA COMMUNITY AND TOURIST DESTINATION UNDER THREAT BY QUEENSLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AMALGAMATION

Noosa is about to achieve international recognition as one of the world’s greatest examples of sustainable development.

In late September, Noosa’s nomination by the Australian Government to become a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve will be decided in Paris.

There are around 500 Biosphere Reserves in the world but very few in Australia and none in Queensland.

Becoming a Biosphere Reserve is recognition of the successful relationship between a community and its natural environment in a true partnership.

Noosa is a perfect example of a community with true community spirit with a model of governance that has true consultation, involvement and united visions that is a key requirement to become a Biosphere Reserve.

Being recognised as a Biosphere Reserve will give Noosa the international recognition that it deserves and will be one of the best examples in the world of how to achieve sustainable development that is the one of the main global issues in the world today.

The greatest growth areas in Tourism throughout the world today are in eco and cultural tourism. Being recognised as a Biosphere Reserve will make Noosa one of the world’s greatest destinations for ecotourism that attracts tourists who value the environment and who wish to learn an experience.

HOWEVER, the latest attempts by the Queensland Government to amalgamate local governments are putting all of this at risk.

The actions of the Queensland Government are surprising, since that Government is a supporter of the nomination of Noosa as a Biosphere, along with the Commonwealth Government and of course the Noosa Shire Council.

To become a Biosphere Reserve, the community involved must be able to demonstrate its cohesion and commitment to living in harmony with the environment. The current Noosa Shire Council perfectly demonstrates this at the moment and indeed the boundaries of the Biosphere Reserve are exactly the boundaries of the Noosa Shire Council for this very reason. Any amalgamation would remove that sense of identity and create the possibility of development swamping the environmental values that Noosa currently enjoys.

It is also important that Noosa is the gateway to the World Heritage area of Fraser Island and in the near future it seems certain there will be one substantial ecotourism resource stretching throughout this region. This will be lost as well if the current amalgamation proposal is implemented.

Noosa is truly an iconic community and needs to stand alone to continue its international recognition as one of the world’s greatest examples of a thriving community in harmony with nature.

Background :
Professor Kenneth Wiltshire, AO, is the former Chairman of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO and Australia’s representative on the UNESCO Executive Board from 1999 – 2005. He was the inaugural Chairman of the World Heritage Wet Tropics Management Authority and is currently Professor of Public Administration at the University of Queensland Business School.”

“The states are past masters at beating up local government. Restructuring our broken 3-tier system of government is the real problem we need to fix in Australia.

The Convenor of Beyond Federation, Mark Drummond, wrote an excellent article to members about the Queensland mergers. He said: ‘Local government amalgamations have occurred in Australia over recent years largely because local governments represent the level of least resistance in the government structure reform landscape. Local governments, the ACT and NT do not have the same constitutional protection as the States.

The States can see change is needed, but won’t support much at their level, so it all falls to local government to come up with the financial efficiencies and improvements generally through amalgamations.

State governments have used this local government reform approach to distract attention away from vastly more meritorious reforms at the Commonwealth and State levels. So it’s been a sort of delaying tactic.

The States know they’re endangered species in their current form. The problem with this local government reform emphasis – generally centred on amalgamations – is that local governments in Australia account for less than 7% of total government expenditure.

The vast majority of efficiency gaining potential and improvement potential generally is at the Commonwealth and State levels accounting for the other 93% of total government expenditure,
and the interface between Commonwealth and State levels.

The amalgamations that I’d like to see are those between the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments that would produce a single national government.

I’m not a supporter of most of these QLD amalgamations, nor of forced amalgamations generally, and DO support the idea of allowing people in their own local areas to hold referendums on these types of issues.’

An Australian Local Government Act repealing State Acts, is what’s needed for Australia. Under this arrangement, funding for roads, flood mitigation, and local infrastructure would go directly to local government.

The ‘Roads to Recovery’ program does this brilliantly and should be extended to enhance community pride and well-being. Spare us from the highly disruptive premier stunts that deflect attention from the real reform agenda.”

It’s usually not much fun revisiting places of which one has fond memories to witness the devastation by insensitive humans later. Recently I revisited Agnes Waters after 30 years and was horrified at the greebly overcrowded MacMansionville it has become. Won’t go there again.

Woodgate is still pleasant for a few days off … though there’s some massive land clearing about to change it forever too. When do these developers ever get their fill? When the entire coastline is under concrete?

“One that has slipped below the radar is a former Transport Minister, Steve Bredhauer who is now closely associated with a prominent land developer by marriage.”

In the good ole days, you used to be able to take your air bed down the Maleny end of the Obi Obi Gorge after a flood and paddle for miles down the creek.

But the coastal slumlords needed another dam to fuel their insane development nightmares. Don’t swim in the Baroon Pocket Dam when the algae is in bloom.

“You wouldn’t want to drink the stuff, but my, the lawns will grow”.

(Thanks for the nice comments appreciated)

What has happened to Obi Obi?