Cassowary Coast Regional Council

The beginning of a new year is an appropriate time to highlight some of the priorities that I have for the Region in the year ahead;

1. Develop a Corporate Plan for the Region commencing with community consultation. For those of you unable to attend the advertised meeting dates, the ‘draft’ Plan will be available for public comment – expected in February.
2. Conclude a six monthly review of the budget. Whilst it will be possible to reallocate expenditure, any increase will need to be matched by a decrease in expenditure elsewhere. The previously referred to example of grass cutting frequency has been modified with costs met from savings.
3. Progress the Major Capital Works agenda items – Cardwell Sewerage, Innisfail Water Supply Pumps, Jubilee Bridge and the Tully Multi-Purpose Centre. The Innisfail Sewerage Treatment works is unlikely to progress beyond planning in 2009. The Jubilee Bridge is not currently in any Capital Works Program. The Mission Beach pool remains for later, hopefully before this Council’s term concludes.
4. Undertake an assessment of the capacity of the Council to responsibly borrow (for long terms at favorable interest rates) to supplement grant monies to enable some of those urgent capital items to commence. Whilst there will be criticism of Council if it does borrow, it can be justified on the basis that the future users of the infrastructure will bear some of the costs and the facilities will be built sooner and no doubt cheaper.
5. Set-up a community-based Committee to provide assistance on rating policies to apply for the 2009-2010 year after the revaluations have concluded and residential and rural rate integration across the Region commences. This is possibly the biggest issue coming up this year and the task will not be easy as differences for north and south for residential and rural rates are significantly different.
6. Review community safety issues following the health and fire inspections carried out in 2008 on food outlets and backpacker hostels with air, road and rail traffic safety assessments in the New Year. The tragic train crash on New Year’s Day has prompted Queensland Rail to inject some $10 Million into Far North Queensland Rail Crossings.
7. Move into the Shire Hall and make full use of the public facilities and the Council office space. Once the cost of the renovations to the basement level are known (expected by the end of the month) a full accounting of the costs and benefits will be made public.
8. Work closely with other levels of Government to ensure that Local Government is recognised and funded appropriately. The Constitutional Conference for Local Government in Melbourne before Christmas represented the beginning of this process. The funding of Local Government, predominantly with taxes on property (already burdened with State Land Tax) and Developer Contributions which affect housing affordability, needs review. Roles and responsibilities of all three levels of Government are influenced by cost and blame shifting, whilst community expectations are constantly changing. These wider issues will dominate the next decade or longer.