When I was on Noosa Council I derived much pleasure from working with many professional and highly dedicated council staff. These were people who truly wanted to do the best by the community they served. I am still in touch with some, but many have also left the public service. 

Noosa Council staff have had a rough time since 2020. In part, that has been a product of circumstance. In the pre-Covid era, the majority of staff worked out of the Pelican Street building, where employees from different departments rubbed shoulders with one another. There was also plenty of intermingling between councillors and staff. Indeed, the elected body were encouraged to speak with staff to garner a better understanding of council’s varied operations: and there is no business as varied as local government.

Of course, some staff operate from the works depots at Noosaville and Pomona, the Cooroy and Noosaville Libraries plus the Leisure Centre, Aquatic Centre and The J at Noosa Junction, but most of the 500 staff were based in one place: Pelican Street Tewantin. During the 2016-20 council era, every new staffer, no matter what level, received an induction that included information about Noosa’s history and the council’s goals. 

Then along came Covid, coinciding with the 2020 council elections. When the incoming councillors arrived, it was to an empty building, with little opportunity to meet staff or even to witness the council machine in operation. During this time, interactions between staff from varying departments, even simply chatting in the tea rooms, also ceased. Silos began to develop, with less liaising between council sections and departments. Even as Covid restrictions eased, many staff continued to work from home. 

This couldn’t be helped, and it needed strong leadership to turn the problem around. Unfortunately, early in the last council term, CEO Brett de Chastel departed, and a new CEO was appointed – one who had seemingly set his sights further afield and lasted only a year in the job. When he swept through the joint, Scott Waters not only instigated structural changes, but also reportedly told staff to forget the “old ways” because Noosa Council was entering a new era. 

After leaving for a bigger pay packet, Waters was temporarily replaced by the recently appointed Director of Infrastructure, Larry Sengstock. The staff operated under a temporary CEO for a long time before Larry was finally made permanent in July 2024. Larry’s replacement as Infrastructure Director was only confirmed a few weeks prior to Christmas. Inevitably, it’s been an unsettling period for many Noosa Council employees.

Pre-covid, Noosa Council enjoyed very low levels of staff turnover, far less than comparable councils around the state. In the past four and a half years there has been a significant exodus of staff at all levels. The most recent Annual Report by council reveals that almost half – 46% – of Noosa Council staff have been employed for 2 years or less. How does this compare with public servants elsewhere? If one uses the 2024 report for all Queensland government employees as a benchmark, 11% have been in their job for less than one year and 15% for between 1 and 2 years. Even though the churn rate is likely to be greater at the local government level as compared with higher levels of government, Noosa Council’s 46% situation does appear to be extreme.

The result of this exodus is a massive loss of corporate and local knowledge. As a staffer told Noosa Matters, some of the new staff “are using their authority to override or disregard staff’s views without considering the implications or the historical context. This is disempowering for staff that have long term knowledge.” 

Whereas pre-Covid, most staff lived in Noosa Shire, thanks to the churn rate as well as housing availability dilemmas, today at least half of the staff live outside the shire boundary. Finding good staff and the availability of accommodation are linked issues. Noosa Matters is informed that Council has made some excellent staff appointments that have fallen over because the appointees have been unable to find suitable accommodation in the area. 

It is not always easy to find new staff, and some lack experience of working for local government. As one staffer put it, “It’s an internal challenge to deal with that inexperience. Some new staff seem to take their readings of councillors’ viewpoints, say from a workshop, and change their approach or strategy just because they think the councillor won’t support something. The big challenge is for us (staffers) to provide the councillors with best practice advice that is in the interests of the whole community and to maintain our professional integrity, not simply react to councillors who are swayed by loud minorities.”

This is a position I have heard from numerous staff. Sadly, some of our councillors appear to be focussed on a handful of council-baiting, opinionated keyboard warriors on the bully pulpit known as Facebook. Councillors were elected to make decisions in the interests of 56,000 residents, not a handful of aggressive bullies. Reacting to echo chambers on social media does not make for good democracy. 

The result is that some councillors avoid making difficult decisions because they are fearful of social media blowback. Grandstanding on a supposed need for increased community consultation can actually be a smokescreen, allowing difficult decisions to be kicked down the road. Note that I am not denigrating effective and targeted community consultation, but some decisions have been unnecessarily delayed even after adequate consultation has occurred. As one staffer put it to Noosa Matters, “Councillors need to grow in their confidence and conviction knowing that they have broader community interests to consider alongside the few louder voices. This is what staff need to feel motivated and empowered. If hard decisions are delayed, this demoralises staff.”

The relationship between councillors and staff has certainly changed since my time in office. Covid played a part but so has councillor behaviour. The former ease between staff and elected councillors appears to have degenerated somewhat. It’s important to understand that elected councillors are forbidden from directing any staff under the Local Government Act. The only way they can instruct staff is via motions at statutory meetings, including the endorsement of strategy and policy documents, plus budget allocations. It would be utter chaos if councillors were allowed to direct individual staff. Noosa Matters is reliably informed that one particular councillor was, in the words of a fellow councillor, “continually in the face of the staff”. This became the catalyst for a new directive during the last council term that councillors could no longer liaise with staff below manager level. 

The other issue that staff must contend with is that the Council keeps growing as the state devolves more responsibilities onto local government. The Local Government Association of Queensland has done the figures. In 2002, the financial impact of services shifted onto all local Queensland councils from state and federal governments amounted to $47 million over a 12-month period. Two decades later, this cost shifting has increased by 378% to $360 million a year. At Noosa Council, there were 14 new staff roles established last financial year alone, though some of these may have been existing casual staff converted to full-time. Ballooning staff has added to a problem with available workspace in the Pelican Street building. A recent decision to move two departments – Community Services plus Strategic & Environment – to Goodchap Street, Noosaville will need to be closely monitored to ensure that further siloing isn’t the outcome. Noosa Matters understands that some efforts have been put in place to address the problem, such as interdepartmental manager meetings.

It’s important to acknowledge that the majority of council staff are doing an excellent job, working very hard and serving the community well. Councillors, meanwhile, need to think long and hard about priorities to avoid overloading and burning out the staff. As one staffer described it to Noosa Matters, “…it is unsustainable to rush and chase every shiny new thing in order to keep up with the bigger councils. Working on some key priorities, doing these very well, and collaborating with others to get good things done is far better than continuing to take on too much.” This position was reinforced at a recent meeting of council’s Services and Organisation Committee. By mid-year, the meeting was told, only a quarter of the Capital Works Program had been achieved. As the CEO reportedly told the meeting, ‘It’s time to say, we’ve got to deliver the stuff we have on our plate and stop looking at new things all the time.’ (Noosa Today, 21 February 2025) Are the councillors listening, and who is reigning them in? 

I have often marvelled at those who continue to work in local government. They are in the invidious position of having their professional expertise, often derived from significant tertiary education and years of experience, repeatedly questioned by people with no real expertise who just happen to get themselves elected as their overseers. Often in government one sees the Dunning-Kruger effect at work, where people presume to know more than experts because they overestimate their own intelligence and are too ignorant to appreciate what they don’t know. The worst case of the Dunning-Kruger effect occurred during my time on the amalgamated Sunshine Coast Council, where one particular councillor consistently assumed that he knew more than any staffer on any given topic, and treated them accordingly. Where an us-versus-them culture exists in government, good decision-making is the loser.

So, spare a kind thought for those people whose career achievements are so often at the mercy of political hubris. It’s always easy for residents to blame staff for council failings, particularly as the staff can’t defend themselves. In my view, the great majority of council employees are doing the best they can, despite the sometimes-dubious motivations of the elected councillors.