The Sunshine Coast Regional Council faces a challenging new year with the economic downturn trickling down to local government level in 2009. Nevertheless, as Mayor Bob Abbot told Hinterland Times editor, Michael Berry, he remains focused on the essentials.
Mayor Bob Abbot
HT: Do you have a list of priorities for the new year?
BA: I don’t have a list, but my priorities are for public transport, right across the region and the continual cultural development of the council itself. How we’re delivering our services, the levels of engagement and connectivity with the community. These things are taking up a fair amount of my time. We’re going through the corporate planning process now and I said throughout the election I would deliver a Sunshine Coast Council everybody could be proud of. I need to develop the culture of the council so at the end of four years the people of the Coast can judge me on that. What will affect their thoughts on that most of all is how they are able to communicate with council, how the service levels around them on a daily basis affect them; that we are innovative in the way we do business, and we do have the capacity to deliver a level of service in the community that will meet their aspirations.
HT: How do you think the general economic downturn will affect people on the Sunshine Coast?
BA: We need to get an understanding of how unemployment is going to affect the Coast. We also need to get an understanding of what climate change is going to cost us. And that’s not directly connected with the economic crisis but it can have a negative impact on it if we don’t balance those things in the short term.
One of the problems we face on the coast all the time is that our economy is based on tourism, construction and retail, and all of those sectors will be negatively affected in the next twelve months, and we need to be well and truly aware of that.
There are some positives in it for us. The cost of our borrowings will be going down, our cost of fuel is going down, so our cost of what we do in the community will be better.
HT: One of the negatives that many see is the increasing urbanisation of the Coast, something they see as undermining the lifestyle values of the region?
BA: The state government has given us a position over the next twenty years of increasing our population by another 100,000 people. We’ve taken the view that the worst thing you can do is to increase the size of our urban footprint and go into greenfield developments that continue our urban sprawl, and make our capacity to deliver public transport and all of those things that relieve congestion, a lot more difficult.
HT: You don’t consider Caloundra Downs a greenfield development?
BA: Caloundra South is within the existing planning scheme. But Caloundra South is specifically designed for what they call transport oriented development (TOD) and it will rely very heavily on developing nodes of higher density living based around the public transport corridor with living, working and playing concepts. The aim is to reduce the number of trips people have to make from the Caloundra South area to the rest of the Coast and when they do, public transport is easily accessible to them. Nambour also has real potential for TOD in the CBD and up to the old mill site where you could have higher density living and surrounding the railway line with good access to Brisbane and the rest of the Coast.
HT: Quality of life on the Coast – do you think it’s changing, or are we relaxing what we’ll accept as quality of life? More important perhaps, is there a tipping point – a time you believe we will lose that quality of life?
BA: I think there is a tipping point. From what I’ve learnt and from what I’ve seen, there are certain sizes for towns and regions to work. We are sustainable now at 300-350,000. But we have another 70,000 to go with Palmview and Caloundra South and a few other smaller developments around the Coast. So we are going to go past that point. And I think the next tipping point is when you go from what is a large high population regional area to a mammoth city in its own right, and that’s around half a million. But I like to think in the future, this region is not going to elect a council that believes in growth at any cost. I would hope by the end of my second term, if I am elected again, we would not want to grow beyond the point of losing our position, our size, our lifestyle, our ambience.
HT: What about yourself in 2009. Are you going to position yourself in a different way?
BA: Yes I am. I’ve spent the last nine months making sure that the people of the Sunshine Coast knew I was here. I have deliberately spent a lot of time on the road talking to groups of people, large groups of employees, and I’ll continue to do some of that. But now we’ve got the strategy in place and building the structure, I need to spend more time working with the CEO and councillors and senior staff on delivering those major strategic issues. At the same time we have to keep building our community consultation and engagement process. So my daily contact may drop somewhat, but the organisation’s daily contact and communication with the community will increase.
HT: Do you have a new year’s message for Sunshine Coast people?
BA: With the start of a new year, individually and collectively, we’re always buoyed by the opportunities of the year ahead. I am very excited about where this Council is going and how we can work with the community to take this region down a path of productivity and protection we all know we’re going to need to ensure a sustainable region. My hopes are high and my only wish is for those who are really interested in what we’re doing is to stay engaged. Become involved and ensure your views of the world are well and truly heard, because that’s what we’re looking for. And I wish everyone a prosperous new year.
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