Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

John Knaggs was appointed CEO of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council in August 2008. For several years before that he was CEO of Maroochy Shire, the Coast’s largest council. With a career in local government planning and business change,  John has taken on his most challenging job to date – leading the fourth biggest council administration in Australia.
In his first major media interview, John Knaggs tells Hinterland Times editor, Michael Berry he is both humbled and excited by the enormity of his new leadership role.

HT: The amalgamation… has it been a success in your view?

 JK: The merger was always going to be challenging and it continues to be so, but I am very happy with the progress that the organisation’s made, the people in it and perhaps most particularly, the enormous goodwill that the workforce has shown during this exercise, and it has continued to deliver services in the community.

HT: After 12 months there is still a distinct separation of the three administrations .
JK: Well, if people think this is going to be done and dusted in a year, they are kidding themselves. The merger of three, different working cultures into one, highly effective administration will take a number of years. We haven’t even got into the information technology side of the business yet and the integration of systems and processes. So for the last 12 months the emphasis has been on people, and not dropping the ball in relation to business ongoing

HT: Frustrations I hear from the hinterland include the excessive fees and bureaucracy, and assessment processes that often bog down the approval of projects.

JK: A lot of the pace of the development approval process are driven by what standards of assessment, or levels of assessment are in the local planning scheme and are indeed driven by the Planning Act or building control requirements.
Let me give you an example. In recent times there have been a number of bed and breakfasts happening within the areas relevant to the Caloundra and Maroochy planning schemes.  There’s some concern in Council  that similar investment doesn’t  take place in the northern Noosa hinterland. Why is that? It’s because of levels of assessment that were determined in the Noosa planning scheme which are more stringent , than the other two schemes, and take more time and potentially give frustration to some of the stakeholders.
In one place for example, a bed and breakfast  could be code or self assessable, whereas in other places, you might need an impact assessable application. Straight away that starts to inform people’s perceptions about what’s favoured and what’s not. So they are the sorts of things we have to be careful about and not be too quick to judge. Having said that I am alert enough to know that there are systems and processes that take too long. I’m not dispelling that at all.  Across the whole country the development assessment process tends to get bogged down by the rules we as a community set.
So, the three planning schemes will exist for some years and will continue to pose different options. And that can’t change overnight. They are law and can only be changed through public process.  The Council has indicated its desire to put together a planning scheme for the whole region.  That will take at least 2 to 3 years I think.

HT: I notice the outline of the corporate plan on the website. Is it an amalgamation of the three old councils’ vision, or does it strike in new directions?

JK: I think it strikes in quite exciting fresh directions. For some it’s not new, for others it will be. There are directions in relation to entrepreneurship and setting better pathways to job creation and economic prosperity across the whole Sunshine Coast, and the hinterland, the rural sector in particular are I think critical in the history of the Coast right now.

HT: In the economy theme of the corporate plan a sustainable tourism industry is the only industry that’s actually mentioned. Why is that?

JK: It’s self evident to everyone that we need to put effort into broadening the economic base of the region. Tourism is made up of many, many things, from the mechanic to the landscape gardener to whomever. It crosses an array of trades and professions across the Coast. And similarly we need to think about new economy jobs. For example, the fact that Council is laying 29kms of conduit with high speed Broadband from Palmwoods through Sippy Downs and to Maroochydore, and likewise with the broadband and data centre investment in and around Cooroy towards Noosa, these are plans now coming to fruition that give us high speed connections to the world at capital city prices.

HT: It wasn’t so many years ago that your job was called Town Clerk. CEO reflects the corporate world. Is it a natural transition in your view?

JK: I think being a CEO in local government in the 21st century is one of the most challenging jobs there is, both within the public sector and private sector. One of the great challenges professionally  is always to see the big picture and to see where the pieces of the puzzle line up on the table; how they can be connected and ought to be connected.

HT: Since your appointment in August, you’ve had time to climb to the top of the hill and look down on what this job means to you. How does it look?

JK: Firstly, there’s been no surprises. Everything I have seen and see ahead is pretty much what I expected. There’s a few things that I’m focused on at the moment. That’s to settle and build a highly effective organisation, to motivate it and given the good will of people we will be successful. When I get to the financial bottom line I need to find revenue to enable the organisation to be more successful. We are losing around $25 million in revenue per annum by the loss of the water business.
We don’t have an ability to grow a rates base or a tax regime similar to state and federal governments in order to deal with rising expectations.  Fresh relationships with other levels of government and new approaches to business and service delivery will be vital.

HT: You’re obviously not deterred by these enormous restrictions on Council’s earning capacity. Why is that ?

JK: Because I am passionate about our ability to deal with those challenges and  to work with the community and other levels of government, particularly during this economic downturn. Even though we’re not certain of the full recipe, I believe we have the ingredients sitting on the table now. We just need the right formula to put them together.
I don’t see myself doing this forever. I have made it something of a mission for the next five years. I‘m excited and humbled to be at the helm right now at this key time. I have a personal and professional passion about being in this mix.  At an international scale, you can see lifestyle regions around the world within two hours of a capital city having significant potential for local strength and economic resilience, but there are threats to that lifestyle also. And I think that’s a very exciting set of circumstances.  Exploring the lifestyle benefits of who we are and how we might engage with the world, and local government’s role in that process.