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Mostly sunny min 10° - max 23° Abbot: How I'll use my power
12:00a.m. 17th March 2008
New Sunshine Coast Regional Council Mayor Bob Abbot relaxes at home with partner Sue Coburn and dog Toby. Photo by Geoff Potter
The Sunshine Coast's first mayor Bob Abbot says he is happy with the elected councillors who will make up his team for the next four years but he’s not kidding himself about the challenges, including a personal goal to lose weight slowly.
He answered these 12 key questions:
Do you expect all councillors to work with you to allow delivery of the policy platform you took into the election?
What I’m expecting is all councillors will be willing to work as a team for the benefit of the region. It’s a great team. There is experience, enthusiasm and a lot of commitment and focus on the right things from all the campaigns. I’m more than happy with (the Noosa divisions 11 and 12), both Lew and Russell have good strategic capabilities.
What are the biggest challenges confronting this council’s first term?
The real challenge is to develop a culture in council. The rest of history will rely on the culture we build. I think it’s really important. It means a culture of working together, a culture of trust and creativity working outside the square. I think we’ve got a real chance to make a real difference here and set the direction for the future.
You want to make the Sunshine Coast a model for sustainability. What are the key foundations?
To get understanding of the economy is extremely important in the future. We need an economy that doesn’t rely 100% on tourism and population growth. We have to get an understanding of what a critical role the environment plays in our future and how we need to focus greatly on the community. If you develop a lovely place to live for people then it will also be a lovely place to visit.
What do you think the electorate most wants from the new council and is it deliverable in one term?
The answer to the second part of that question is obviously not, but what we can deliver in the first term is a council that is focused in the right direction, that is responsive to community desires and aspirations and a council that looks very closely at what the important things are long term and sets a foundation. That is the biggest challenge for this council – to set a solid foundation of service and community involvement and building community capacity.
There may be as few as three former Maroochy councillors elected to the regional council, does that surprise you?
Not really. I think the community has spoken quite loudly and what’s happened is the community has said we want a change, particularly the Maroochy community. I’m not saying that in a derogatory way to any who didn’t survive but they’ve made their choice and we need to move on.
Will the new council look at development approvals granted – but not acted upon – and seek to revoke those approvals that were given against the advice of planning staff and contrary to the intent of planning schemes?
They’ve got approvals in place now that have to be honoured as far as I’m concerned. If there are reasons to review them they will be reviewed. I’m not in the business of tearing down previous decisions of previous councils after they’re long gone. So unless there is something radically wrong with what’s going on, it will carry on. The two issues that I’m most concerned about in terms of the decisions of previous councils are the Maleny Golf Course and the Kulangoor Bioreactor.
What is the first task you will need to confront when you take up your post?
The very first task is to get councillors and staff together and set ground rules for the future. You will always have personality clashes but I’m looking to establish some solid ground rules and I’m expecting that the councillors will all be focussed on what they said they wanted to do; make a better future for the Sunshine Coast.
You have previously said that Nambour is the logical centre of local government for the region. Does that still hold true?
It’s geographically the centre and there are already facilities in the Nambour buildings for councillors and mayor but as far as the mayor’s office is concerned, I am planning to be in all four centres at different times. We will meet in each of the three meeting chambers on a rotational basis and the councillors will be housed in the council building nearest to where their electorate is at the moment.
How do you explain the huge level of support you received in Division 9 where you recorded 78% of the vote – do you have a stack of relatives there, or what?
(Chuckles) No. If you look at the history of Coolum and Eumundi areas, they were always keen to join in the old Noosa shire because of the values we had. That’s not a surprise, that’s quite logical. There are certainly a number of places where I was extremely impressed with support, towns like Mooloolah and Maleny.
Will you instigate a review of the Local Growth Management Strategies for the three local governments?
I support reviewing all three. The Maroochy and Noosa ones still have further processes to go through and the Caloundra one is with the minister (Paul Lucas). I think the minister has withheld signing off on it until he has a look at the new council. I’d suggest he should give us another look. I wouldn’t expect them to change dramatically but there are issues with dealing with infill that have become prominent during this election. The future predictions on green space are reasonable.
Do you expect the state government to respect the mandate you were given at this election and will you use it to address aspects of the SEQ Regional Plan that conflict with your policy platform?
Yes, I do. I’m aware of the mandate and I’m aware of the fact we are now the fourth biggest local authority in Queensland.
There were attempts by your opponents to make your health an issue as well as concern expressed by supporters about your weight. Is it an issue you feel you need to address?
I’ve had all the medical tests I need to and I don’t have any things immediately in front of me that are a problem. I certainly intend to address the situation with my weight but that will just take a matter of time.
To keep up to date with the latest voting, check out our election page
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Recent Comments
I'm sure that it didn't escape your attention that Divisions 11 and 12 (the old Noosa Shire) had a huge voter turnout and that you polled about 95% in both. This is despite the interference campaign run by the "No Common Sense VoteVeto party".
Alex Tymson
Residents' Activist
Thanks Bob.
So are we, Bob! Caloundra council went totally against majority community wishes and the expert advice of its own planners. Please, please review this crazy decision.
That is what im getting from this election result.
Everyone complains about population growth saying and this is the key words WHEN THEY MOVED HERE things werent this bad or this was better.
How can people complain about a problem that they caused? A town will become a city nothing can stop this and trying to keep the coast a town has been what has caused the problems.
It has suffered so much from it. It is the reason why much smaller cities like townsville get civic centres and there own sporting franchises.
It is the reason why we have higher unemployment then other areas and high housing.
Complaining and trying to stop people moving here is just another way of saying that the coast is a giant retirement village and you don't want young wippasnapers playing on your lawn.
You seem to forget that it is people moving to the erea that often bring jobs with them.
and p.s Having lived on the coast for the past 18 years I can say the high rises haven't affected the area in a negative way unless you own a mansion and one blocks your million dollar view.
People forget that 10 years ago Moololaba was a rundown hole that you wouldn't travel to after about five in the evening.
Bob also gained a lot of votes in division 9 because of the close proximity of many residents to the Ferntree Creek proposed site.
The KADAG committee are to be congratulated on the work they have done in supporting all those in the community who are opposed to this dump over the past 18 months.
Peter Sheen , President of KADAG has been an excellent spokesperson for the residents and I am sure that many residents would join me in thanking Peter for his diligence and hard work on our behalf.
I really think you've misunderstood what the sentiment is. What people want is PLANNED development which is done in a SUSTAINABLE way. Most folks aren't advocating putting the shutters up and locking the door.
Example:
Build a huge residential development at Peregian Springs but leave the road access as single file each way...and then be surprised when the traffic density becomes too much for the infrastructure. Oh, but it's OK becuase eventually they'll widen it.....the clocks ticking and we're waiting.
There's many examples around the world where population has boomed and those in decision making positions have approved plans and development which provide an excellent lifestyle whilst preserving the environment.
It lays infrastructure BEFORE the developers have even realised what's going on. Details available upon request :-)
I don't have the "I've been on the Sunshne Coast for 20 years and I have more rights than all the new folks" badge.....but you only have to have been here a year or so to see clearly what the issues are and what needs to be done.
I'm afraid one of the key inhibitors on the Sunshine Coast is the unwillingness to look further afield than Australia to find the remedy. Australia isn't the first nation to stumble across these issues.
If your lifestyle has not been affected by what has happened over the last five to ten yeras then you must not venture out of doors very often.
However, regarding the development issue; I agree with Boris. What is at issue is HOW a region is developed.
On a given piece of land, you can have a vast ugly suburb with endless expanses of "little boxes made of ticky-tacky, all just the same", or you can have a well designed development, controls on buildings, wastewater, solar power sources and even drought tolerant plants in gardens.
Local and State Governments have the power put these controls into place; they have to power to refuse DAs if they do not comply with their planning scheme, or with the Regional Plan.
Unfortunately what has happened is that to a large extent, developments have gone ahead in a piecemeal ad hoc fashion, a little bit here, a little bit there and some dodgy ones have certainly snuck in...aka "death by a thousand cuts".
One of the most valuable "gifts" that Bob gave to Noosa (and now hopefully to the whole region) was a sense of holism, of belonging, of developments occurring within a specific context; of a true local community.
Further, in my opinion, THE major issue with the growth of the Sunshine Coast is that the development has gone ahead without the infrastructure required to service it.
I'm sure everyone has seen those pointless 50m concrete walkways going nowhere that developers have been forced to put in alongside their developments.
What we need council to do now is to ensure that the region does not become a grid-locked Gold Coast; that we have decent roads, a good efficient public transport system (please for goodness sake, get CAMCOS fast forwarded, and do something about the woeful Sunbus) and provision for safe cycling and pedestrian walkways.
This was in fact why the baby bonus was introduced (well besides buying votes). The only people that will benefit from stopping growth are real estates cause wait for it...They will make more money. Rents and housing prices will skyrocket. No one can deny this, if you take away supply when there is high demand the price goes up.
Thats basic economics so I hope it wasnt to much for you. O and yes my lifestyle has changed in the last 5-10 years like I dont have to travel to brisbane every weekend to find things that cant be brought here and I dont have to catch a bus into maroochydore or take my car there cause I can do my shopping in my suburb.
However like I said I would like to see a town plan created the same way to Kobe city(I think it was). They didnt just say what was gonna happen in the next 20 years they made a full scale model showing every building, carpark, train station, library etc...
Creating something that could be visually seen and then people would know excactly what the coast would look like in 20 years.
New arrivals seem always to have viewed the area as almost pristine, at least when compared with the huge conurbations they have mostly escaped to come here.
They generally don't register the little bit of loss of amenity to everyone else their newly cleared and levelled suburban block represents, but they are outraged when they discover that the beautiful melaleuca stand behind their back fence is the site of stage five of River Palm Forest Lake View Gardens where they were so pleased build a year before for a fraction of the proceeds from the sale of the house they left behind.
Newcomers have the same rights as anyone else, but their cosmopolitan contempt for the natives is a bit wearing.
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