Exclusive: What will happen to your rates under COVID as Coast council finalises budget
There is never a shortage of talking points on the Gold Coast but there is likely to be more in the coming weeks. HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT
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THE offshore cruise ship terminal is parked. A hinterland cableway is a long way from being approved. HOTA is open. What next for Tom Tate and his councillors on “legacy items”?
The short answer is in the pages of the council budget to be delivered on June 23. Will it empty the wallets of ratepayers confronted with their toughest 12 months due to COVID-19?
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Councillors are finalising the document behind closed doors. Some journalists are asking questions, wanting to get a story about the potential rate rise. Silence so far from City Hall.
What can be written is this year’s rate rise will be the same as CPI — let’s speculate somewhere between a 2.2 and 2.5 per cent increase.
What is more surprising, when thinking about milestones like budgets, is the quick passage of time. Our mayor and some of our councillors have been in office almost a decade now.
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They have bickered about environmental timebomb issues like Black Swan Lake and the Mayor’s pet project of an offshore cruise ship terminal (CST) at Philip Park on The Spit. He admitted in the past week the CST would be decided by the next council.
What happens as the first frosts of winter appear is that councillors warm to each other.
Each budget under the most recent council watches has had unanimous support for a conservative rate increase closely tracking our cost-of-living rises.
The other legacy item the Mayor remains protective of, and insiders say privately proud of, is the free public transport travel for seniors and veterans. This will remain.
Mayor Tate told your columnist: “Our city has done it tough through the COVID pandemic. Providing whatever fiscal relief we can for all ratepayers is top of mind as councillors work through our $1.8b budget.
“My view is that through sensible planning, we can aim for a 10th consecutive budget that keeps any rate increase as close to CPI as we can.
“I am also pushing to ensure further record transport funding in 2021-22. Keeping our city moving is a key priority for residents.
“We will continue to crunch the numbers over the next three weeks before the budget is delivered on June 23.”
Special budget papers show some of the major projects “loaded with remaining commitments” include the Pimpama Sports Hub ($25m), the long-term recycled water release system being built across the Broadwater ($9m), Coombabah sewerage works upgrade ($57m) and the art gallery ($10m).
A council insider says the city is adding another lane to the Sundale Bridge and duplicating the Isle of Capri Bridge. But these much-needed projects, along with recycled water, “are not what you consider sexy” or a hot item for media coverage.
HOTA, despite some opposition from staff in the mayoral office in the early days, will remain the immediate physical legacy item from Cr Tate and his councillors.
The responsible rate increases? That is a legacy which sets the bar for his mayoral opponents and those contesting divisions against councillors, at the next election. Can you beat it?
TRUTH ABOUT GOLD COAST CABLEWAY
May 14, 2021
THE biggest challenges for a cableway in the hinterland are fire and water. Like most things about the Gold Coast, it’s all about location. Is Springbrook really the best place?
In 2000, the Coordinator General made an assessment of the Naturelink cableway proposed by a consortium headed up by businessman Terry Morris and Ray Stevens.
This was an ambitious $50m gondola cableway stretching more than 11km from Mudgeeraba to Springbrook on a moving wire system capable of carrying 120, six-person detachable cabins. It would land at a property off Carricks Road near the Purling Brook Falls.
The environmental impact statement suggested the Coast was poorly equipped for nature-based activities and servicing the seniors market. This remains true today. We need a new tourism attraction.
Nothing much has changed with the protest group, either. They now post on Facebook, opposed to the $170m Neranwood to Springbrook proposal promoted by the council.
Its key concerns back then — fire risk in the national park and state forest, contamination of the water supply in the Little Nerang and Hinze dams and the potential of Springbrook losing its World Heritage status. They’ve resurfaced, and they’re real.
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If anything, the fire risk is heightened, given climate change and how eco-tourism resorts in the hinterland were wiped out in the past two years by an uncontrollable blaze.
The Coordinator General noted that Springbrook had 10 wildfires between 1981 and 2000, including six of high intensity. During three of them, flames extended 30m above the canopy.
“In the 1994 fire, the majority of the canopy along the proposed cableway was destroyed,” the Coordinator General said. “This fire completely burned Purling Brook Fall from ground to canopy and sections of the walking track were closed for up to 12 months.”
The report cautions that the state could face liability in terms of fire damage to cableway infrastructure, and death of a passenger or worker.
The Coordinator General was “not satisfied the environmental effects of the proposal can be addressed adequately” and found Naturelink must not proceed.
At the same time, a World Heritage Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia report put “uncontrolled or inappropriate use of fire” at the top of its list in terms of threats followed by “inappropriate tourism infrastructure”.
The latest Springbrook pre-feasibility study addresses the “bushfire hazard”. “Locating the facility in non-bushfire prone land may not be possible,” it says.
What about a boutique cableway to Mount Tamborine instead, to Gallery Walk? Critics will question the view, claim the landscape is boring and visitors want to be in the World Heritage forest and not taken on “a joy ride”.
The critical thing here is up to $500,000 of ratepayer money not being wasted.
A state political insider suggests council must ensure a heads of agreement is reached with the state government before proceeding on further expensive studies, the most important showing how environmental concerns can be mitigated.
Will Labor under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership agree, given her Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon depends on the green vote in the party’s only Coast seat of Gaven? From my view, to see the great mountain view, this will continue to be a trip by car.
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