New Council and FODS: Same budget bottom line
Tuesday February 11th 2014
New Council and FODS: Same budget bottom line
Just over two months after Douglas Shire residents elected their four Councillors and Mayor at the local government election on November 9 last year, the officially de-amalgamated Douglas Shire Council (DSC) unanimously adopted its inaugural budget on January 24.
The majority of the Douglas community hailed the budget a victory, largely due to a six-month rates freeze and $6 million earmarked for capital works.
Though lean, the budget demonstrates the Shire’s financial sustainability, reflects the sound nature of pre-referendum financial modelling calculated by David Carey and the Friends of the Douglas Shire (FODS), a vocal, apolitical de-amalgamation advocacy group established in 2007.
Importantly, it also negates the Queensland Treasury Commission’s dire financial predictions.
Among those celebrating are members of the FODS steering committee:
- Robert Hanan (recently awarded Inaugural Civic Recognition Award)
- Michael Gabour (owner of Radio Port Douglas)
- David Carey (General Manager with former DSC, recently elected Douglas Shire Councillor)
- Roisin Allen (co-founder and former secretary of Douglas Shire Sustainability Group, current member of the Douglas Local Marine Advisory Committee)
- Gail Shaw (artist)
- Mike Berwick (chair of Terrain NRM, former Douglas Shire Mayor)
- Byron Kurth (Managing Director of Managing Australian Destinations
- Alan Carle (Managing Director of Botanical Ark)
- Julia Leu (recently elected Douglas Shire Mayor)
The Newsport spoke with FODS spokesperson, Robert Hanan, about the budget success.
“I think the way that the State Government tried to sell [its budget calculations] was, 'These are the Queensland Treasury Corporation figures; it's going to be a $701 [increase in rates] for the first year and then $400 for the years after',” Mr Hanan said.
“But, what many, many people did not bother to do was to look at how QTC got those figures and what limitations they were operating under. QTC looked at the figures and then used the Cairns model to extrapolate through to a new Douglas. But, Cairns is a great big bureaucracy and their cost of doing business is significantly more than ours. So that was a major flaw.
“The other flaw was the paucity of the information that Cairns Regional Council actually released to QTC. When [Transfer Manager and Interim DSC CEO] Jeff Tate came on board, they had to give him whatever he asked for, so we got the real numbers in the end.
“Whether or not [the adopted Douglas Shire budget] is exactly aligned with the FODS model – and the actual Douglas Shire budget is obviously different from David’s model - the result is the same: No rate rise and some capital works.
“David started with a blank sheet of paper and said, 'Okay, we're going to build a council,' and did it from the bottom up. He started with a completely fresh sheet, but you were able to see that it would work.
“One of the only benefits of amalgamation is that we've come out the other side of it with probably one of the most progressive Council structures in the country.
“We've come out with very, very good staff morale because of the restructure. I think there's a very positive mood, certainly among outside staff, and inside staff as well.
“The result comes out of a lot of work. When we put our [FODS] model up, and even during the fight for de-amalgamation, I don't think we even had any notion of how much work would be involved in getting the Shire back. But we got the people together, and we are very optimistic.
“It's a good budget. It's tight; there's not a lot of room there, but there is a bit of leeway. The provision is there to pay off the de-amalgamation debt within the first 12 months, as required by the State Government, and we still have $6 million in capital works.
“I'm very positive, not just about the budget, but the really important thing is that the staff are right behind it. And that filters right through the community.”
