Letters to the Editor – 12 September 2023
Concerns about the proposed Birkdale whitewater project and Redland City Council’s secretive decision making are aired in letters written ahead of the Redland City Council meeting on Wednesday 13 September.
Community opposition to the Birkdale whitewater project is reflected in strong support for a petition to Queensland Parliament. This petition has achieved more community engagement than any of the consultation exercises undertaken by Redland City Council.
If you have something to say about a topical issue email your letter to theeditor@redlands2030.net
The saga of the Secret City
The article in the Courier-Mail 8th September 2023 about a Redland City Councillor’s complaint brings to a head my concerns about the standards of governance and operation at Redland City.
It’s yet another chapter in the saga of the Secret City, the Council that makes its biggest decisions in camera, and, apparently, without the benefit of councillor input. The elected representatives of the People of Redland City are not particularly important, it seems, in plotting the course of the City in the best interests of the residents, as is required of them by the Local Government Act.
It seems that once again the councillors, when faced with the need to rubber stamp a ready-made decision, are again being given the minimum amount of time to digest the detail, and effectively no time to consult with their constituents.
Of course, yet again, contracts have already been let, so it’s all too late! All done with no publicly available business case or risk assessment. And, it would appear, not available to the Councillors until now. How can it be so when the City is committed already?
The same report leads one to the belief that councillors are not treated in keeping with their role by council officers.
How does the Secret City’s Council make its decisions? What happened to democracy and elected representatives? It appears to me the Residents’ Voice is not important here, and is, in fact, a risk to the City Agenda.
Who is running the show in Redland City?
D.J.C.
Redlands
Birkdale whitewater project
The story in the Courier Mail about Cr Paul Golle’s attempt to put forward a motion seven weeks ago but have it come to naught raises the question about of who runs the Council? If elected officials can’t have a proposition even considered and discussed there is something wrong!
In my view Council officers should facilitate the varying views and opinions of elected Councillors being made known to the community. They need to find a way to enable these views to be aired. …its called democracy! If it was surely urgent enough there are ways including a Mayoral Minute which do seem to pop up from time to time, and do enable Councillors to discuss important or late issues in open Council!
The Birkdale Whitewater project has a terrible record and it has a lingering odour about it. Surely a few more weeks would not damage the already flawed Olympics process and it would give the community a chance to consider the advice being fed to our elected Councillors.
R.C.
Cleveland
Whitewater project will hurt ratepayers
The future financial burden on Redlands ratepayers, of Council inheriting responsibility for the Olympic Whitewater facility operations and maintenance represents a real risk for sustained increases to our already high rates to support it.
The history of post-Olympic whitewater venues falling into a state of disrepair or ruin without significant public subsidy is well established.
Of added concern, the State Government. is now pressing Council to formally commit funding and resourcing on up-front capital works identified through its Olympics Infrastructure design and planning process. It has identified ‘common infrastructure interdependencies’ between the Whitewater venue and parts of the Birkdale Community Precinct Council is responsible for delivery on.
A vote by Council to commit these funds and resources is being taken on 13th September meeting. From the relevant Council Agenda item 14.2:
“To mitigate this risk, the Olympic and Paralympic Infrastructure Office has requested that Council affirm its support for the project by committing to ensure that Council will allocate sufficient funding, resources and commit to work with the State in good faith on the delivery of the elements of the precinct that are Council responsibility but have an interdependence on the part of the Whitewater venue.”
As per usual, the projected ‘common infrastructure element’ cost estimates remain undisclosed to the ratepaying public, under the commercial-in-confidence alibi. The same remains true for the projected operational costs, revenue forecasts and assumptions of the Whitewater business case.
Further, in today’s construction paradigm constraints with suppliers, materials and skilled resources have resulted in delays, contingency risk and cost blowouts as an accepted norm. This is clearly articulated in the Federal Government’s 2022 Infrastructure Market Capacity Report, which states:
“An overheated construction market, characterised by escalating input costs, labour shortages and worsening productivity, continues to place extraordinary pressure on construction companies, suppliers and projects.”
and:
“The pressure the industry is experiencing to supply labour and materials in step with demand creates unprecedented uncertainty on project outcomes … As such, it is no longer a question of if a project will slip, but more likely when, by how long and at what cost”.
The Birkdale whitewater project kicks off within this maelstrom and adds to an array of capital works projects underway by Council, staggering in cost and scope – the Birkdale Community Precinct; Weinam Creek PDA; Heinemann Road Sports Precinct; and Toondah Harbour PDA (infrastructure provisioning) represents an estimated combined budget upwards of $500M.
Realising the construction risks outlined above will have dire consequences for ratepayers, as cost blowouts mean upwards pressure on rates as Council struggles to maintain its budget position.
And, how do the challenges faced by Council maintaining its existing aquatic facilities, prepare it for the upgrade in capability required of the safe and efficient operation and maintenance of a highly sophisticated, engineered rapids facility moving vast volumes of water at high speed and turbidity?
Also imminent is the handover to Council from Lendlease, of the operations and maintenance responsibility for the Southern Redlands Wastewater Treatment Plant (servicing Shoreline and currently under construction). It goes without saying the expertise for these highly specialised facilities, with demanding compliance requirements, will not come cheap – nor will the plant and equipment operating budgets.
The size and scale of these major capital works, all rolling simultaneously, in the event of project failure arguably must present a dangerous liquidity risk for a local council the size of Redlands.
Even more so considering the latest Census data, only 77,000 residents of its 160,000 residents are in paid employment – leaving the balance of non-school age as fixed income recipients, and hardest affected by exposure to rate rises.
Finally, any rush to put this vote should be considered in the context of Council elections in March 2024, and the commitment by the State Member for Capalaba that Whitewater construction funding would be withheld until after this election. It makes little sense to be locking Council into binding positions on any Whitewater planning and development when its go-ahead is not even assured at this stage.
I urge Councillors to consider this perspective on behalf of their constituents and, for the compelling reasons above, make the brave call to vote down Item 14.2. Our endeavours need to focus on more useful and cost-beneficial enterprises for the Redlands community, rather than a venture like Whitewater that carries little justification – especially given there exists an interstate alternative for Olympic canoe slalom events.
M.M.
Redland Bay
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Redlands2030 – 12 September 2023
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One Comment
Insightful letters and all pointing to a failure of a consultation process…including claims that there is support where there was clearly little. the Consultation Report published in the Council Agenda needs to be re-run without the bias.