Current Campaigns

For years community organisations have been calling for more accountability of Councillors in their dealings with developer applications, takeover of public open space, manipulation of the City Plan reports with large areas blacked out, secret meetings and conflict of interest voting in Council. These concerns and others were documented in the All That Glitters 4 Corners Report in September and confirmed in the recently released Crime and Corruption Commission’s Belcarra report on investigations into offenses under the Local Government Act and the Local Government Electoral Act.

The public community meeting which was cancelled has been rescheduled for next Thursday 26th October in Albert Waterways Hall. The public meeting calls for urgent reforms in Gold Coast Council to ensure much improved transparency, accountability,ethics and equity following the revelations on 4 Corners program All that Glitters and the conclusions of the Crime and Corruption Commission Belcarra Report.

The issues that concern community members are many and include –

The undue influence of the development industry,
the trashing of our new city plan without regard to community amenity,
Using our parklands as some sort of land bank for developers,
Failure to provide additional public open space for our growing population and to protect our wildlife
Failure of many Councillors to represent their constituents properly.
The impact of light rail on koala habitat and community amenity
The failure to protect dwindling koala populations from land-clearing
Secret meetings and large blacked out sections of reports paid for by ratepayers
Failure to leave the chamber for votes on matters declared a conflict of interest

Gecko Environment Council has a number of concerns about the Our Natural City Strategy and the HaveYourSay Questionnaire. We urge you to respond to the questionnaire before COB Tuesday 16th May and you are welcome to make your own choices but we ask that you bear these matters listed below in mind. To view the Strategy click on Strategy . For the survey go to www.gchaveyoursay.com.au/naturalcity. The draft strategy is not written from a protection of nature perspective as the previous Nature Conservation Strategy was. It is focussed on what recreational activities the conservation/ natural areas can be used for regardless of whether they are high impact or not. The Natural City does not give enough weight to important issues of conservation and protection of rare and threatened species, ecosystem services and impact of climate change. The questions do not differentiate between areas of high, medium or low conservation values in proposing all sorts of human recreational activities.