Noosa Council mayoral candidate John Morrall answers the burning questions

Noosa mayoral candidate John Morrall answers five burning questions and tells us where he stands on the biggest issues including short term accommodation letting. See the video.

Noosa mayoral candidate John Morrall answers five burning questions and tells us where he stands on the biggest issues, including short term accommodation letting.

The Noosa River is part of what makes Noosa a popular destination. What measures do you plan to effectively manage the Noosa River, considering factors such as water quality, recreational activities and environmental conservation?

First and foremost, we don’t have the decision-making powers over the river, that is a state, MSQ problem, but it’s still also a major problem for Noosa Heads. I was fortunate to have asked a few people that have been on a river for 50 years to take me out and have a look at all the issues and the problems that are going there. The most important thing for me, as the mayor of Noosa Heads is to try and build that relationship with MSQ and the state government to be able to blend the land to the water and work together to resolve some of the problems there.

Noosa is widely known for its pristine coastline. How will you balance the competing interests of residents, tourists, business owners, surfers, swimmers in managing and protecting the coastline? 

First and foremost, my residents are the most important people in Noosa Heads, the tourists are there, we can’t stop that growth, we can’t stop the population growth. Basically the most important thing is we need to have a sustainable infrastructure look at to try and get that better. There’s no point in us now sitting here and complaining about this growth that’s happening. We need to look 10 years down the track.

Noosa Shire Council mayoral candidate John Morrall. Picture: Iwan Jones

Noosa is facing increasing pressure to manage its expected population growth, with council not wanting higher buildings in the town as proposed in the Draft South East Queensland Regional Plan. If elected, what do you propose to solve issues regarding population growth?

Yes, yet gain, you can’t control population growth, that’s going to happen. You know they’ve had caps in the past and the reality is there is really no such thing as a cap. Again, it gets back to infrastructure, making sure that we handle that infrastructure with that population coming into town. Affordable housing obviously becomes a part of that, but you know, my priority is probably more affordable housing for the worker because then we need these people in here to actually support our town and keep our town ticking over.

Hinterland residents of Noosa always complains that it gets missed by the council. How do you propose to address the unique needs and challenges of both hinterland and coastal communities in Noosa?

I’ve been in this town for 26 years, so I know both sides. We all talk about what are your policies? If for anyone that’s ever heard of what an organisational chart is, this is what I’ve done for policy and then I’ve done a two-tiered org chart. What is more important to the hinterland as far as their top five policies, what is more important to I call it the water and what their top five policies are, because they’re both very different to each other? I do believe that the hinterlands has been left out in a lot of things.

Noosa Shire Council mayoral candidate John Morrall. Picture: Iwan Jones

How do you plan to regulate and manage short-term accommodation letting, including Airbnbs, in Noosa to balance the economic benefits of tourist, with the need to preserve residential neighbourhoods? What more can the council do to restrict short term accommodation letting in the area?

I don’t think it’s necessarily a question of restricting, what it is about is controlling. There is a policy in place right now, that’s not being policed. Which of course, the snowball effect of these are the party houses. I live in the community, I’m affected like everybody else. So this is exactly what I’ll do. When I get into the job and I’m elected as mayor of Noosa Heads, I will throw that policy on the table, I will rip it apart with all the new councillors, with community and all admin staff. But right now the policy in place needs to be policed. If your STA (short-term accommodation) is not registered, you will not be trading. At this stage, they way I see it right now, if you have a party home, and with that party home if you get three strikes, you’re going to lose your licence.