Over the past three years I have talked with Noosa Councillors, Council employees, community organisations, clubs, schools and business owners in this region, specifically in relation to establishing Boomerang Bags Noosa (BBN) as a social enterprise in this community.
Having had this experience, I felt I would like to contribute to the discussion in recent newspaper articles, letters to the editor and on social media about the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF).
The Biosphere & getting rid of plastic bags
One of the first community meetings I attended after I decided to establish a ‘boomerang bag’ community in 2015 was the inaugural annual general meeting of the Noosa Community Biosphere Association (NCBA).
Here I met John Wood, who had been elected as Vice-President of the just formed association. John initiated a petition to ban plastic bags in Noosa which led us to discuss the best way forward to implement Boomerang Bags Noosa (BBN) as a catalyst for change.
Soon after, we began pounding the pavements looking for support. John’s initial drive, and that of NCBA which endorsed the idea, were invaluable in the ultimate success of the program.
Over the course of the BBN journey, I maintained close contact and often shared stalls with NCBA at environmental events across the Sunshine Coast. I cannot speak highly enough of Annie Guthrie, Kylie Moses, Darren Walters and Michael Davis in promoting the Biosphere ideals and giving their time and energy so freely.
As my personal connections grew, new friendships formed. It was at our local soccer club that I first met Bettina Walter, then Executive Officer of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation (NBRF). After our initial meeting, we started bumping into each other at the beach as we walked our dogs and discovered we were both passionate about the environment and about our desire to leave a better legacy to our daughters.
We hit it off and became close friends, and later business partners. We had long discussions about what it meant to live in a Biosphere Reserve. Bettina had a wealth of knowledge, having researched successful reserves around the globe.
My friend begins to encounter terrible problems
By now Boomerang Bags Noosa had grown to support some 20 local shops and market stalls and I was bombarded with phone calls from interested parties wanting to co-brand.
We were supplying bags to NCBA, Slow Food Noosa, the Noosa Triathlon, Peregian Springs State School and many more organisations and were rushed off our feet.
Continuing to observe NCBA, I noticed Annie Guthrie and Kylie Moses’ unwavering positive attitude in promoting the Biosphere despite a complete lack of financial or physical support from the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation. I can’t tell you how many events I attended where Annie and Kylie were engaging with the community and not once did I see any Foundation director attend.
The NBRF appeared to me as an elitist group that had no interest whatsoever in the local community. I also began to realise that high level Noosa bodies had no appetite for businesses in the environment sector – everyone seemed content, in fact proud, that all work was carried out by volunteers. People with passion would get sucked in, used up and spat out.
By now the same small group of volunteers was attending meetings for BBN, NCBA, ZEN Waste and Plastic Free Noosa; each requiring time and effort to administer, develop plans and proposals and manage social media.
I could also tell things weren’t going well for Bettina and that her role as the only executive supporting the NBRF Board wasn’t welcome.
Bettina told me how she had raised matters relating to conflicts of interest and how her concerns and input were routinely dismissed. Then she was told, as Secretary to the Board, that her attendance at Board meetings would be by invitation only.
Because I hadn’t known Bettina for long, I was careful not to take everything she said at face value. But as I got to know her and her friends and previous work colleagues, I learned she was a well-educated, independent and strong individual who wasn’t afraid to fight for what was right and fair.
If her role as executive officer included raising issues of conflict of interest, reputational damage to NBRF and breaching the trust of the community, then that was exactly what she would do. I thought there was nothing wrong with that.
In discussions with Noosa people, I started to learn more about the history of power plays in the region and found particularly insightful Tony Wellington’s newsletter – The Gumshoe (“stomping where others fear to tread”) – which had been disbanded around the time he was elected to Sunshine Coast Council.
A public travesty & a personal tragedy
Over 2014 and 2015, I witnessed my friend going through a tough time. I think the worst was the harrowing time Bettina spent documenting the bullying and harassment she had been subjected to – and then having to relive it through the forms and other documents required to prove she had actually experienced it.
When the perpetrator, then Mayor Noel Playford, resigned, Bettina tried to re-engage and get back to work. Her efforts were unsuccessful. A toxic culture had pervaded the whole NBRF from the top down. It was clear to me Bettina didn’t fit the mold they had in mind. The directors seemed to want an old-style secretary who would take the minutes and shut up.
By now, the NBRF Board was looking for a way to get rid of Bettina. I provided moral support at a couple of meetings. At the first meeting, then Chairman Campbell Corfe informed Bettina the Board had decided to make her role redundant.
When Bettina asked how a self-elected Board could govern itself without the professional and consistent support of an Executive Officer, he informed her that the directors were well-educated and could handle it.
Bettina started looking into legal action and spent many weeks assembling paperwork and talking to lawyers. She was told that, although injustices seemed to have occurred, the process of getting justice was complex, costly, emotionally taxing and ultimately was probably not worth it.
Months passed with Bettina still seeking a reasonable and fair outcome. It was consistently denied. By this time she hadn’t earned any money for over a year and her mental health was suffering.
Neither NBRF nor Noosa Council, which established it and funds it, addressed this injustice then and they have not addressed it since. And, to my knowledge, neither organisation has taken steps to prevent similar abuse happening in future.
To make matters worse, Noel Playford, after retirement as mayor and director of the NBRF (although he remains one of a small number of members), was appointed to the Queensland Councillor Complaints Tribunal dealing with the way complaints are dealt with. It was a bitter blow to the many people who knew of his track record on the NBRF Board.
The changes begin to be rung in
Today – through discussion on social media, newspaper articles, letters to the editor and in private conversation – there has emerged a large group of people with otherwise very different perspectives who are united in their wish to correct the sorry saga of a dysfunctional NBRF.
It’s time that Noosa Council, the proponent that created this flawed concept, stepped in and put matters right.
I feel for those new Board members who have become embroiled in this and who are now trying to work with a displeased and disengaged community. But much damage has been done.
While I don’t feel the deep hurt so many others in the Noosa community have voiced to me, I feel deeply saddened that the excellent work of so many wonderful people is being undermined by a small group of players who seem to want to control Noosa’s political agenda.
At a bi-annual forum for community natural resource management and environmental groups organised by Cr Brian Stockwell, it appeared people wanted to get the situation back to “the way things were before” NBRF, when – under a different Biosphere administration – representative sector boards were working towards common goals.
Peter Hunnam, who had just become President of the local environmental group NICA (Noosa Integrated Catchment Association), concluded the workshop by providing an overview of workable strategies based on his own extensive experience in natural resource management.
The Pacific Round Table that Peter has worked on for the past ten years provides a shared vision for the entire Pacific region, which makes a shared vision for Noosa Shire seem like a walk in the park.
One of the reasons Peter said he believed a shared local vision was not coming to fruition lay in the way grant funding was allocated: more than 400 community organisations scrambling to find an ad hoc project to be funded for a limited time frame creates competition rather than sharing.
So where do we go from here
My wish is to see a plan to protect not just our environment but the people who live in it: the communities who engage with it, the businesses who trade in it and the ecosystems which rely on it. We need to address how humans live and interact within this environment rather than locking people out.
As a ratepayer, I would rather see my environmental levy used by Council to create more jobs and provide better infrastructure and support in working towards common objectives.
The functions of NBRF could be managed within Noosa Council and the funds used to establish a stronger internal Council team to facilitate a Sustainable Round Table as discussed at Councillor Stockwell’s community forum.
Funding ongoing programs rather than ad hoc projects could help build a shared vision rather than continuing on this divisive journey.
Perhaps, as a first step, the Council can facilitate a meeting with NBRF and NCBA Board members, Council representatives and members of the community where grievances can be aired, apologies made and a clear vision established.
It’s time to start building social capital to reduce the trust deficit that currently exists in our community.
