Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council Community Meeting Taking the

Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council Community Meeting “Taking the next step”

Welcome from the Mayor • Welcome to Country by Monty Gilbert • Condolences to the family for the recent passing of an elder of the Kowanyama community. • 1 minute silence

Welcome from the CEO - Purpose of the meeting Thank you to all community members and staff who have made the time to attend. This is just the first of many more community meetings to come. • Purpose of this meeting: • To provide an update to community members on Council’s projects • To seek the community’s view on our next Corporate Plan • For community agencies to provide updates

Program for today • Council – update and questions and answers • Community Agencies - update and questions and answers: o o Katter Leases Ergon School Cattle Company • BBQ

How we will achieve this We may not have answers to all your questions – but if we can’t answer a question straight away we will commit to contact you after the meeting to provide a response. 1. Being respectful of each others views 2. Being respectful of the presenters 3. Working together for the future – we can’t turn back time, but we can make the future better Having regular community meetings – we won’t be able to solve all issues in this one meeting

Key Activity – our Council leadership • We are committed to stabilising our structure to make sure we have a workforce who are committed to the community for the long-term. • We have two teams, those in Kowanyama and in Cairns who are committed to work together for the benefit of the community • New Code of Conduct – to provide guidance to all staff and Councillors

Key Activity – Community Works • Topsy Creek – To provide employment and improve transport. by the Government for compensation. • Housing • Football Ground • Rodeo Ground • Playground • Airport Grounds and Carpark • Farm Road • Community Pool – Fencing • Skate Park • Laundry Mat No funding has been provided

Key Activity - Local Employment and Business Development • One of Council’s key focus is providing more opportunity for local employment and business. • If you have a local business that you think Council could use please let us know • We will be working with all external contractors to make it a requirement for them to employ local people

Key Activity - Finances • In order for council to obtain new funding for Council projects, we need to show Government agencies that our finances are in order, and our procedures are being followed. • To achieve this auditors have visited both our Cairns and Kowanyama offices. These recent audits have been a success and we continue to work with the Queensland Audit Office to further strengthen our procedures.

Key Activity – Council Charges • We have now stopped the collection of the Funeral Fund and Community Benefit Fund • Funerals will be administered by Sports and Recreation. We are working with the Sport and Recreation to finalise this. • General Service Levy is no longer being charged to community members in accommodation managed by the Department of Housing and Public Works. Instead rent will be collected through individual tenancy agreements • Katter lease holders are still charged General Service Levy. • We are reviewing the General Service Levy, changes will take place from 1 July 2017. We will have more information from the June Council meeting.

Key Activity – Transparency We want to build our communication with community. We will do this by: • Having regular community meetings – once every three months • Holding regular council meetings – once every month (third Wednesday of the month. Community members are welcome to attend to hear first-hand about council activity) • All minutes are on-line at: http: //www. kowanyama. qld. gov. au/our -council/council-minutes • Hard copies are available at the Council office

Key Activity – Strategic Planning There are three key documents that Council needs to have: • Five Year Corporate Plan – which sets the direction of Council over the next five years • Annual Operational Plan – which details what Council will be doing over the next year • Annual Budget – which details how Council is going to pay for the activities in the Operational Plan • The most important document is the Corporate Plan, we need a new plan by December. • We would like to work with community members over the next few months to create our new five year Corporate Plan

Corporate Plan – what would you like to see over the next five years? Questions In our previous plan we had these outcomes – do we want to keep them the same? Health, wellbeing and lifestyle. Safety of children. Promotion of family unity. Education. Strong leadership. Commitment and determination. Accountability and transparency. Business development. Employment opportunities. Training and capacity building. Maintaining culture How would you like to contribute to the development of the plan? Should we schedule more community meetings and workshops or would you like the opportunity to provide input via a survey? Or would you like both?

Local Fare Scheme • Aims to improve the standard of living of local residents by making air travel to neighbouring communities to access health, education and employment facilities more affordable. Instead of paying the full fare the government pays for part of the fare which reduces the price. • The scheme is only a trial – the government is currently monitoring the benefits and costs of the scheme. There is a chance that the scheme will be stopped if community members don’t use it. • If a booking is made, but the community member doesn’t show up, the booking is wasted. This means there is less money available to cover future fares for other community members. • Between July 2017 and now there have been 178 bookings where community members have not turned up.

Thank you from Council We look forward to working together. I can be contacted at the Council office or via the following telephone number or email. I may have other meetings at the time but please leave your details and I can arrange a meeting with you as soon as possible. Fabian Williams Chief Executive Officer Ph: 4083 7132 Email: Fabian. Williams@kowanyama. qld. gov. au