A Sunshine Coast councillor has fired back at “doomsday sayers” questioning the council’s major projects from the airport upgrade to the solar farm.
Finance portfolio councillor Ted Hungerford said the latest monthly financial report showed the council was debt-free for its airport expansion and international broadband cable projects.
“This will burst the bubble of the doomsday sayers, those who were saying that we have financial mismanagement … (that) these projects will be failures,” Mr Hungerford said.
“That’s despite us presenting outstanding financial reports each month. “The solar farm, the subsea cable, the city centre, the airport were all the same, even recently with speculation the payment (from Palisade Investment Partners) won’t happen.”
The latest report showed the council’s debt reduced to $479m following the payment of $312m from Palisade Investment Partners for the Sunshine Coast Airport Expansion Project.
“Maybe they’re hoping things will fail … but this blows any doubt out of the water … it shows how pathetic they really are,” Mr Hungerford said.
Mayor Mark Jamieson responded “well said”.
Wedding venue approved
The council also unanimously approved a wedding and function facility at Kiels Mountain despite concern raised from neighbours.
The application was for a function facility to add to a short-term accommodation and cabin site at 426 and 430 Kiel Mountain Rd.
Of the 393 submissions received, 258 were in favour and 144 were against, with many of the objections coming from neighbouring properties.
Divisional councillor Ted Hungerford said the conditions placed on the approval would protect what residents were concerned about.
“I’m so impressed by the quality of the conditions and the thoroughness of this to highlight that so the community can have confidence that the council takes them seriously,” Mr Hungerford said.
The council’s conditions include that no more than 100 guests would be allowed at functions.
It would only host one event a week and never on a public holiday or a Sunday, unless it was followed by a public holiday, with a maximum of 40 a year.
Functions would be limited to 7am to 10pm.
‘Far from a done deal’: Inter-urban break protection plea
Councillors voted unanimously in support of a zero net emissions plan in a bid to reduce organisational greenhouse gas emissions. It comes after the council in November, 2021, recognised the state of climate emergency and a need to achieve net zero emissions by 2041.
Mayor Mark Jamieson said a key challenge was to preserve the inter urban break – 63,000ha area at the southern end of the region which also took in parts of Moreton Bay.
He called on residents to join the council’s push to protect the land from development.
“We want that area preserved because we don’t want that to end up like the area south of Brisbane,” he said.
“Going from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, you’re never sure when you’ve left Brisbane, you’re at Logan or the Gold Coast.”
He said the matter was discussed when Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was in Nambour earlier this month.
“That’s far from a done deal,” he said.
“There’s a lot of work.
“Because there’s people on the other side who would advocate that would be a great place for more houses.”
Councillor David Law pointed to the State of Environment report which was recently released by the federal government.
“We need to protect the inter urban break and mobilise the community to support that,” Mr Law said.
He said the report found that Australia had lost land cover the size of Tasmania over the past 30 years due to mature forest clearing.
“We have to be careful,” Mr Law said.
