IS IT GRANDSTANDING ABOUT NOTHING?
Seems Misleading When Examined
The Business Impact Plan: That Exists Only on Facebook
A breakthrough has been discovered for local government innovation, a Noosa councillor has announced a Small Business Impact Plan - that appears to exist everywhere except in the actual Notice of Motion Cr claims credit for - lodged for next meeting of Council.
Wasn’t this initiative already announced at last business meeting by Council CEO?
The Motion, headed “Strengthening Small Business Consultation on Major Council Works,” contains three straightforward requests.
None of them says:
“Small Business Impact Plan.” Not once.
There is no motion to develop one.
No motion to adopt one.
No motion to co-design one.
And no motion committing Council to producing one.
Instead, the actual Motion asks the CEO to use the Business Roundtable to “explore” what improved consultation with small businesses should look like and then report back with a recommended approach. One would wonder what goes on in these Roundtable meetings with businesses - if consultation is not already happening.
Isn’t that what they are there for in the first place?
Yet on Facebook, the story has apparently been upgraded - according to the councillor’s announcement, the Notice of Motion is now seeking:
“the development of a Small Business Impact Plan, to be co-designed with local businesses through the Business Roundtable.” Which raises the obvious question: Where did the Impact Plan come from?
Because it isn’t in the Motion.
It appears to have materialised somewhere between the Council paperwork and the Facebook post - a mysterious administrative space where a request to explore an approach - can apparently be transformed into a fully fledged plan to be co-designed with the community.
A Plan that could cost Council $ millions (that Rates could not cover without steep increases) a plan not endorsed by CEO either - despite previous claims by this same Cr. in the media.
It’s a remarkable new form of political pressure. No need to wait for the outcome. Announce the outcome and gain credit for something that isn’t happening - push push push again.
The Doonella Bridge experience may well have highlighted gaps in consultation - based on traffic management plans prepared through staff, but this formal Motion doesn’t establish a Small Business Impact Plan as the costly solution. It asks officers to investigate what better consultation should look like. That’s a fairly important distinction.
Because if the Business Impact Plan is the actual objective, why wasn’t it put in the Motion? And if it isn’t the objective of the Motion, why is it being presented to voters as though it is - via a Crs personal Facebook page?
Perhaps Noosa has discovered a revolutionary new stage of democracy: consultation after the announcement, planning after the claim, and facts somewhere down the bottom of the Facebook post - if at all. Totally missing this time.
The only thing apparently missing from the Small Business Impact Plan is the small detail of Council actually resolving to create one.
In the Real World:
20/08/26 Ordinary Meeting Motion: “Let’s explore what better consultation might look like.”
Crs Personal Facebook Post: “We’re developing a Small Business Impact Plan.”
Same meeting. Same councillor, same modus operandi - see previous articles.
Two very different versions of reality.
Local Government is not a Fantasy World last time we looked. It’s serious business governed by Legislation, Codes of Conduct and Standing Orders for Meetings.
Looks like - until voters wake up to these allegedly misleading tactics - in our unfortunate recently toxic form of Noosa politics - the Facebook version gets the headline.