Yanni van Zijl is best known for her stunning thought-provoking art creations often involving discarded plastic packaging. Here are Yanni’s answers to our questions:
Fixing Crumbling infrastructure or keeping a budget surplus – What’s more important to you?
Both. I don’t think we need a surplus as much as we need to live within our means and keep rate rises to a minimum. That might mean changing some of the priority areas of spending away from new spending to taking care of what we have.
We have candidates promising all sorts of things that would have to be funded from increased rates or levies or taking funds away from current programmes. I’m not making any promises for spending.
I see the demands of increasing tourism in both the coast and hinterland as a big issue when it comes to infrastructure. How does our small rates base of residents pay for infrastructure for visitors?
Active Transport – Would you commit to getting things moving?
I understand there’s a reference group and several consultant’s reports and I would support continuing this process and looking for outcomes that ‘get things moving’. We also need to work collaboratively to develop cycleways across our borders with neighbouring shires.
I’ve already had some talks with people in Peregian about cycleway connections and will be talking with more people to get a clear picture of the issues. It’s important to remember that our population is ageing so active transport modes other than bicycles such as mobility vehicles need to be considered if we want to keep cars off our roads.
We also need to consider is how residents access major cycleways and pathways. It’s not much use if our suburbs have poor connectivity to the major routes.
I will be asking about local issues like whether roads and pathways are safe in local neighbourhoods. These are sometimes the most important things.
Would you support increasing Noosa Shire’s carrying capacity?
I support the provisions of the Noosa Plan that limit population growth in the shire. How the modest increases are incorporated into our existing towns and villages is something the new council will need to consider but innovative solutions like infill and tiny homes are not off my list of possibilities.
‘Carrying capacity’ also has to refer to more than the local population. I have read that at the moment the number of visitors to Noosa is growing at more than three times the growth rate of the local population. I don’t think that’s sustainable and if it continues and increases at some point visitors are going to outnumber residents.
Tourism will also have an increasing impact in the hinterland. We’ve successfully limited residential population growth and adopted values that recognise we have to live in harmony with our natural environment. How tourism growth affects these values will be a major issue for the next council.
Would you commit to trying harder to protect our Sunrise Glossies?
While I commit to ‘trying harder’ I recognise that in some ways the deal has been done and sadly we are in line to lose significant important Glossy habitat unless there’s a miracle turn around. As a councillor I would push for Council to enter into the negotiations with the community and the developer to find compromise and alternative positions that recognise the special place that might be destroyed by this development. It would be a first to be able to bring about such significant change in a development, but I don’t think we should give up.
With the Noosa Bush Beach and Creek care group we have actively been working on weeding and revegetating the strip between Hills Street roundabout and the traffic lights on Heathland Drive, with an aim to plant more food trees for our Glossies, sadly they are fussy feeders and will eat from one tree and not another. This sight was chosen as we understand the issue and threat to these magnificent birds and understand the importance in maintaining wildlife corridors.
Which long term climate change action(s) would you champion?
I think we have to think short and long term. The recent bushfire season has shown us that things are changing. We can expect change to happen rapidly in some areas and more slowly in others.
Through my art practice I’ve long been a campaigner for action on our impacts on the climate and I think we need to set an example in things like supporting zero emissions.
In the short term as a shire we also need to educate and prepare our communities for the inevitable impacts of climate change, with revised disaster planning and changed planning provisions. This will be one of my priorities if I am elected.
Find out more on Yanni’s website or connect with her on her Yanni for Noosa Council facebook page.
We wish Yanni all the best and we thank her for taking the time to answer our questions. Go Yanni, help create a beautiful future!
