Toowoomba council: 13 key issues for mayor Geoff McDonald, councillors in 2025
With the first meeting of 2025 just a couple of weeks away, here are the key issues for the Toowoomba Regional Council over the coming 12 months.
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2025 could well be one of the most consequential years for the Toowoomba Regional Council in its short history, after a rollercoaster 12 months that has set the stage for more tension, conflict and controversy.
Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald and his 10 councillors endured a serious test of what he called “team unity” during 2024, which included budget-busting projects, scandals and plenty of fiery spats.
Chief among the extraordinary moments that defined the year was a secret photo of councillor Kerry Shine asleep during a meeting, that circulated on social media in the weeks leading up to last year’s council election.
All current councillors - except for Deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff - denied taking the photo when asked.
Ms Vonhoff only admitted to taking the secret photo of her colleague following a lengthy investigation by The Chronicle that also exposed work culture issues within the organisation and secured new commitments from local leaders to work together.
The need to start paying for the highly-contentious Cressbrook Dam safety upgrades led to huge rate rise for residents, while union action and staff dissatisfaction plagued the back-half of the council’s first year of the new term.
This culminated in chief executive Brian Pidgeon announcing in December he would not be continuing in his role past June.
With so much at stake, here are some of the key issues and burning questions for council in 2025:
1. Appointing a new CEO
One of Queensland’s longest-serving chief executives will not be in his role beyond 2025, after it was revealed Brian Pidgeon was not seeking an extension to his contract.
Mr Pidgeon, who has been in the position since 2013, faced increasing pressure from both inside and outside the organisation in recent years.
Questions were raised during his tenure about the culture in council’s operational team, a perceived lack of planning for major projects like the Cressbrook Dam upgrade and shortages in staff coinciding with an explosion of expenditure on consultants.
This came to a head last month when it was revealed Mr Pidgeon would remain on leave and not seek an extension to his contract.
The hunt has reportedly already started to find a new chief executive, with the position considered lucrative across the local government sector.
There are reports acting chief executive Nick Hauser, who has been with the council since amalgamation, could vie for the position as an internal succession.
But several councillors have expressed a desire to conduct a nationwide search and appoint someone outside the organisation.
The process could take the next six months to finalise.
2. Finding a new planning scheme, GM
The leadership shake-ups within the Toowoomba Regional Council haven’t stopped with the top job.
Planning and development general manager Nikola Stepanov, who is well-regarded by the industry and is popular among officers, revealed just before Christmas she was leaving in January to take up a job in North Queensland.
Ms Stepanov was brought on-board back in 2022, after serving as the state’s integrity commissioner, to clean up one of the most controversial departments in council.
What followed was a massive clean-out of top brass within planning, with several heads rolling.
Internal data showed Ms Stepanov’s staff satisfaction surveys were the best in council and also among the best across all local governments in Queensland.
It can also be revealed a number of planning staff are also reconsidering their futures after Ms Stepanov decided to move on.
Her eventual replacement will need to deal with a number of immediate issues, including the need to develop a new planning scheme to replace the 13-year-old current document that has been regularly delayed.
Currently, the new scheme is not expected to be delivered until 2026 at the earliest.
3. Cressbrook Dam upgrade to pressure finances
The Toowoomba Regional Council has just 10 months to finish the most expensive project in its short history — or face “significant” penalties from the state government.
The highly-controversial Cressbrook Dam upgrade, worth at least $270m on last estimate, must be completed by October.
It has already placed incredible pressure on the council’s financial management, which led to a five per cent rate rise, more borrowings and delays to multiple projects in June’s $703m council budget.
More pain is expected at this year’s budget as the council tries to wrap up the project with no guaranteed external help from state or federal governments.
How mayor Geoff McDonald and his colleagues manage the landing of Cressbrook could be the defining issue of the current term.
4. Race on to secure Olympic venue
Toowoomba will need to draw on the talents of its best diplomats and lobbyists to secure any sort of direct involvement in the 2032 Olympic Games over the coming weeks, after a disastrous 12 months for the city’s bid to host top events.
A planned upgrade of Clive Berghofer Stadium was killed in a review last year led by former Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk, after the city failed to present a unified front on the proposed $80m revamp.
On the contrary, the proposal received as many community submissions against it as the $3bn Gabba upgrade in Brisbane, and councillors squabbled over whether the TRC should even vouch for it with a written endorsement.
It was a massive bungle considering Toowoomba was pencilled in to host preliminary football events during the Brisbane Games, while the upgrade would’ve helped attract more top-quality sporting events to town in the coming years.
Now all Olympic hopes rest on the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland’s proposal for a Toowoomba Equestrian Centre at the showgrounds, which was already in the works and will be built regardless of the city’s involvement in 2032.
The project will be submitted to the new LNP government’s latest 100-day review of Olympic venues, and it appears all sectors of the city are now actually behind this one.
Mayor Geoff McDonald and deputy Rebecca Vonhoff have a big task enticing games organisers to consider Toowoomba, that task made even harder considering the Gold Coast is putting forward its own bid for equestrian events.
5. Land supply woes worsen
It’s been a continued trend for several years since the pandemic (and arguably before it), but Toowoomba’s lack of housing reached crisis levels in 2024.
The city’s rental vacancy rate sits below one per cent and the cost of housing has increased dramatically due to significant internal migration and a failure to ramp up construction.
While this has hardly been a purely local issue, the need to fast-track the production of new lots and infill development has been a pressing concern for local developers.
Many key stakeholders have argued for a review of the council’s priority infrastructure area (PIA) mapping, while others want to see major landbankers like Clive Berghofer sell off more land.
In a positive move, the council last month made a $350m submission for trunk infrastructure to the state government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund, which includes $1bn guaranteed to be spent in regional Queensland.
A successful bid to bring forward these projects could unlock 50,000 new lots over the next seven years — which is an awful lot of roofs over the heads of new families.
6. Need to reform landclearing, vegetation laws
On the flip side, the council was under consistent pressure across 2024 to re-examine its vegetation management laws after activists and residents expressed concerns about rampant landclearing by developers.
While this has been disputed by the industry, environmentalists secured enough support from councillors to explore bringing in a temporary local planning instrument (TLPI) to try and clamp down on the activity.
But this was quashed at a meeting in December, over concerns the process was being rushed and wouldn’t actually address the problem it was trying to solve.
The decision has pushed the issue into 2025, when officers will return a report into councillors’ options.
7. How much will parking fines be?
Should a parking fine in Toowoomba cost as much as one in southeast Queensland?
That’s the question that will be resolved this year, after parking woes again plagued the council in 2024.
A plan to increase parking fines from $61 to $100 (in line with councils like the Gold Coast) was deferred in October until 2025, after councillors like Gary Gardner believed it shouldn’t apply to suburban areas.
The decision was also influenced by issues with the council’s new parking app, which led to many users being charged twice while paying for a spot.
The issue was blamed on a third-party.
8. What is council doing with public transport?
The council will amass more than $3m from a new public transport levy — and still has not explained to residents what it will do with that new money.
One of the more controversial elements of the 2024-25 budget was the introduction of a new tax to put towards advocating for future upgrades to Toowoomba’s public transport system.
While the extra levy technically won’t cost ratepayers more due to ceasing of the ‘Park and Open Space’ and ‘Biosecurity and Bushland Conversation’ levies, the announcement left many residents confused as to its purpose.
A non-scientific Chronicle poll of nearly 300 people revealed more than 90 per cent of respondents were not happy paying for it.
The TRC will have a chance to explain its planned advocacy to the state government before the next budget in June.
9. More pressure on councillor’s lengthy conflicts
Toowoomba’s maverick councillor Gary Gardner will likely face more scrutiny on his perceived and prescribed conflicts of interest in 2025, after a contentious first year in the job that saw him barred from certain debates.
Mr Gardner, the executive chairman of FKG Group and a prominent developer, has been one of the council’s most outspoken elected members with a blunt agenda he hopes to achieve in one term.
His register of conflicts on the TRC website sits at a staggering 13 pages and his involvement as the head of a company frequently interacting with the council led to a number of clashes last year.
One of the most heated exchanges occurred in September, when Mr Gardner was booted from the council chambers during a vote on changes to the application process for closing roads and footpaths as part of construction projects.
Mr Gardner called the efforts to get him removed were “disgusting”, a comment he quickly retracted after he was told it verged on misconduct.
There is no suggestion Mr Gardner has used his position on the council to further his business or personal interests in any way.
However, with FKG still a prominent local player that will be lodging applications with council, there is no doubt the issue will rear its head again in 2025.
10. Staff shortages, $132m contractor costs, culture issues continue
Constant union strikes, skyrocketing consultancy costs and a shocking number of job vacancies were defining features of the council’s operational organisation in 2024 — and there is no reason to believe it won’t continue.
The Services Union, which represents more than 700 indoor workers at the council, held at least three stop-work actions last year in a bid to improve the offer from leadership.
TSU alleges Toowoomba indoor staff are among the lowest-paid workers among comparable Queensland councils.
The very public disputes came as it was revealed the TRC spent more than $132m on consultants in 2023-24, with at least $15m dedicated to carrying out ordinary council business.
This has been fuelled by staff vacancies in the hundreds — an issue outgoing chief executive Brian Pidgeon said he “couldn’t do much more” about.
As of the latest report delivered in December, there were 254 vacancies at a rate of 14.5 per cent.
The Chronicle’s investigation into culture issues inside the organisation — which coincided with our probe into the councillor leaked photo scandal — uncovered an often toxic work environment.
Multiple council insiders slammed Mr Pidgeon’s leadership after it was revealed senior TRC officers had been heard using “misogynistic slurs” to describe certain female councillors.
In some good news for the organisation, the most recent reporting showed increased satisfaction with council by people leaving the TRC.
11. Leaders pressured to continue meetings
A major win from The Chronicle’s investigation into culture issues at council in May was the pledge from local leaders from all three tiers of government to hold quarterly meetings in-person.
Mayor Geoff McDonald and deputy Rebecca Vonhoff agreed to meet regularly with Groom MP Garth Hamilton and state members David Janetzki, Trevor Watts and Pat Weir to discuss key opportunities where interests aligned.
So far at least one meeting was held in 2024, but the structure holds even more significance now that Mr Janetzki is the treasurer and all state MPs are in government.
With issues like Cressbrook, the Olympics, the SEQ City Deal and Inland Rail all likely be addressed in 2025, residents and stakeholders will be keen to see when the next meeting will be held.
12. Where is Highfields’ new town centre?
It’s a community-shaping project now stretching into its eighth year of development.
Not a single shop, unit or footpath has been built inside the council’s mooted Highfields town centre, which was slated for a large parcel of land on Highfields Road opposite the shopping plaza and cultural precinct.
The idea was first developed back in 2017 when the TRC bought the land off developer Clive Berghofer, which also stopped it being used for a purpose the council deemed inappropriate for the community.
After plans were endorsed in December 2019, the project saw minimal public development for years despite calls from the Highfields Chamber of Commerce in 2022 for the council to fast-track it.
The TRC has now started upgrading the roads and installing essential infrastructure like sewerage at the site, including the O’Brien and Kratzke Road intersection realignment worth about $12m.
It is believed the council will commission a development application this year and move ahead to selling off parcels to developers.
13. Railway Parklands project future still unclear
The centrepiece local project in the SEQ City Deal is the planned Railway Parklands, yet there is no answer as to when work will begin on it.
The $25m parkland precinct, which would create a new green space near the centre of town, was one of the few Toowoomba projects to make it into the trilateral agreement in 2022.
Under the deal, all three levels of government would contribute funds to build the parklands and deliver housing in the surrounding area, with Toowoomba Regional Council needing to have finished the business case by the end of last year.
That has not happened, and the lack of progress has been a cause for tensions between the TRC and Groom MP Garth Hamilton.
Mayor Geoff McDonald said in May a key obstacle to delivering the business case was the scope of the funding designated for council, which was reportedly meant to be used to deliver new housing.
Mr McDonald said that arrangement was impossible, given the council-owned land in the precinct was not suitable for housing.
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