Cassowary Coast Regional Council

The council meeting last week approved the appointment of three persons to act with councillors on the Audit Committee for the Cassowary Coast Regional Council, with all the usual functions of risk management and financial overview. Those appointed are: Ruth Faulkner, who is a chartered accountant and lives at Bingil Bay; Bruce Gillan who is an Innisfail Solicitor and served on the Johnstone Shire Council Audit Committee and Rod Bradley, who was previously employed in local government as an accountant and was a councillor of Cardwell Shire Council.

They have different skills, a mix of backgrounds and are residents of different parts of the region. The positions are essentially unpaid, except for a small allowance. Audit Committees are common in private industry and are regarded as an essential part of good governance arrangements.

The last Cardwell Shire audit report of its financial statements was unqualified, but this was not the case with Johnstone Shire, where the report was qualified. That is there were issues regarding the figures in the accounts. Council regards best practice governance highly and has set in practice system changes designed to produce an unqualified audit report on our CCRC financial statements. The Audit Committee will assist in this process.

The other appointments made last week were to a Rating Advisory Committee. The task of integrating two quite different rating systems is onerous. Water rates, general charges for services, commercial and industrial rates and pensioner rebates were integrated from last year, but the two main areas of residential rates and rural rates are yet to be integrated.

Council has the whole of its first term to complete this integration. Even if overall rate income was to remain unchanged, which is not an option as local government cpi increases have been identified by investigation of our financial position as the bare minimum increase required, there would have to be adjustments to the rates on industrial properties simply because of the different methodologies presently used.

In order to get representation from across the region council agreed that the Rating Advisory Committee would comprise:

• Peter Kromoloff as facilitator. Peter has many years experience in rating and was a leader in introducing differential rating. He was until recently employed by Cardwell Shire.
• Tom Harney, a cane farmer from Tully and chairman of Tully Cane Growers.
• John Casale representing Innisfail Banana Growers, whose area extends to Cardwell.
• Siby Nucifora representing Ag Force and the cattle industry. Siby is also a prominent tea grower.
• Chris Abbott representing the three main timber companies, ITC Ltd, Great Southern Ltd and the Rewards Group.
• Sarah Mort representing Great Green Way Tourism, Mission Beach Tourism and Tropical Coast Tourism. Sarah is also a property developer in the Cassowary Coast Region.
• Bill Sue-Yek representing the pensioner groups in the region, in particular the Innisfail and Tully Districts Senior Citizens Groups.
• Phil Hoare representing the Innisfail Chamber of Commerce and a retailer in Innisfail.
• John Hughes representing the Tully and Cardwell Chambers of Commerce and the proprietor and editor of the Tully Times newspaper.
• Lindsay Hallam from Hinchinbrook Real Estate, Cardwell, representing the rental property management industry, with endorsements from estate agents across the region.
• Lee-Ann Cavanah, a significant property owner in the region.
• Ron Hunt, a past councillor on Cardwell Shire Council, involved in local community organisations and a commercial and residential property owner.
• Pete Faulkner representing the Mission Beach Community Association, who operates a dive training and business consultancy in Mission Beach and has a background in investment banking.
• Neville Kleinert, an Innisfail accommodation provider.

We look forward to their valued input and assistance.