MBRIT’s new deal delegated to council CEO after seven councillors declared conflicts of interest

THE decision to nut out MBRIT’s new contract with the council has been handballed to staff after seven councillors declared conflicts of interest during the vote.

Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism’s new deal with the council is deferred to staff. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

THE decision to nut out Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism’s (MBRIT) new contract with the council has been handballed to staff after seven councillors declared conflicts of interest during the vote.

Councillors at their May 29 Committee Meeting were to vote on increasing the council’s support of MBRIT in a new service level agreement, one year before the present agreement was due to expire.

Five councillors declared perceived conflicts of interest before the vote because they attended MBRIT chief executive and chairman Shane Newcombe’s recent wedding. These were Mayor Allan Sutherland and councillors Mike Charlton, Julie Greer, Koliana Winchester and Matt Constance.

All stated they were Mr Newcombe’s friend while Cr Constance also added that he officiated as marriage celebrant at the wedding.

Cr Darren Grimwade declared a perceived conflict of interest stating he was also Mr Newcombe’s friend, though he did not attend the wedding.

The seventh councillor, Cr Adrian Raedel, declared a perceived conflict of interest because one of his friends is an MBRIT employee.

A council spokesman said the conflicts of interest were in response to recent changes to the Local Government Act, including a new code of conduct for councillors, bringing them into line with MPs and government staffers.

Because seven of the 13 councillors would not vote on the matter, the council did not have a quorum.

Councillors then voted to delegate the matter to council chief executive Daryl Hitzman.

The council spokesman said Mr Hitzman was not a friend of Mr Newcombe and did not attend his wedding.

MBRIT’s present service level agreement with the council of $6.6 million over three years was up for review last month. “Council set a benchmark for MBRIT to grow visitor expenditure to $810 million and increase annual tourism to 3.6 million visitors by the year 2019,” the spokesman said.

“Those benchmarks have been met and new programs and projects identified to expand the billion dollar visitor economy in our region,” he said.

When the MBRIT agreement was made in 2016, Mr Newcombe said MBRIT wanted to increase visitor numbers and visitor expenditure in the region.

Back then, he said there were about 2.9 million visitors to the region contributing $670 million to the economy.

Last month’s tourism data claimed there were 3.6 million visitors contributing close to $1 billion into the region’s economy.

The data was prepared by external consultant and tourism industry auditor EarthCheck, the council spokesman said.

Quest Community News, publisher of Pine Rivers Press, publishes Moreton Life in partnership with MBRIT.