Breakaway shire proposal gathers support from locals
A ‘Hinterland Shire’, west of the Bruce Highway (highway marked in red) might encompass around 14 towns with Nambour holding the Shire Chambers.
Public reaction to a proposal for a “hinterland shire” west of the Bruce Highway, has been so encouraging that a petition and initial public meeting is now on the table.
The man behind the breakaway shire idea, former Maroochy Shire Council Deputy Mayor Trevor Thompson, raised the issue last month.
“I feel like the feedback has been incredibly positive,” he said. “People can see the benefit. It’s just that it will be a huge, drawn-out process. I was just trying to find out the level of support and it’s been very good.”
Last issue Mr Thompson called for a breakaway shire so hinterland residents could run their own local government, possibly from the Fred De Vere building in Currie Street.
He said it was about time people west of the Bruce were listened to by a Council that was often criticised for being out of touch with the grass roots needs of hinterland ratepayers.
Support for Mr Thompson’s proposal gathered momentum on Facebook last week from residents, businesses and organisations.
“Hopefully we can get some like-minded people together,” Mr Thompson said. “All I want to do is to try and do something positive. We can whinge all we want but it’s no good unless you can come up with an alternative.”
He said a hinterland shire of about 55,000 residents would be eminently viable.
“It’s fine to say that they’ve been matching rates gathered in the hinterland with money spent in the hinterland but they have to factor in infrastructure charges on developments.
“What they’ll try and do is compare rates collected in the hinterland to money spent in the hinterland. That’s one fair way of doing it. What they won’t tell you is that there have been, and continue to be, millions of infrastructure charges paid to council from hinterland developments that are not spent in the hinterland. For every block of land on the Sunshine Coast – I think it’s between $18,000 and $20,000. And that has to be factored into the equation. And there is a lot of development potential in the hinterland.
“When I was in council I moved that any infrastructure charges collected from a developer in a certain area must be used in that area.
“That never came about and the hinterland has never, ever been getting a fair slice of the action from infrastructure charges from developers.
“All I’m doing is throwing up fresh ideas. We have to have constructive conversations. And you can disagree or we can agree. But at least you have to have a conversation to try and invoke change.”
Mr Thompson said anyone interested in assisting him to convene a meeting or raise a petition should contact him on 0447 110 177.
Hinterland shire would be a 'no-goer’ says insider
A person with extensive local government experience has cast doubts on the hinterland shire proposal.
The idea for a breakaway shire was put forward by former Maroochy Shire Council Deputy Mayor Trevor Thompson. His idea, to investigate forming a hinterland shire west of the Bruce Highway, has received strong support on social media. Mr Thompson said a hinterland shire would have a similar population to other Queensland Councils and would be eminently viable.
However, the insider, who did not want to be named, said a hinterland council would not have the economies of scale to work in practice.
“The reality of the situation is that you can't compare, say, Noosa Shire to a proposed hinterland shire because the hinterland just doesn't have the high value properties to raise the high value rates.
“The hinterland doesn’t have the big shopping centres, we don't have the tourist resorts, we don't have the high rises, we don't have the density.”
The person said the State Government was more interested in merging councils than breaking them up, because there were already a number of councils in Queensland which were struggling to be viable.
“The hinterland needs the rate base and the development potential of the Coast to prop it up, not the other way around.
“You would need a new CEO and all the bureaucracy that goes with a new council. You need at least six councillors. And all the infrastructure. It just doesn’t work.
“In any case the whole local authority (not just the hinterland) would have to broadly agree (with the breakaway) because it will have an impact on the Coast as well.”