9 April 2019 - Ordinary

Ordinary meeting for Tuesday the 9th of April. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land and paying respect to elders, both past and present. I'll call on the General Manager first to outline some procedural

Matters. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Members of the public attending the meeting are advised that in the event of an emergency, you will be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit, following the guidance of our wardens. I would also like to advise members of the public that in accordance with the Code of Meeting Practice, meetings of the Council are recorded. In the terms of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, this may involve the recording of personal information provided at the time of the meeting. Recordings are made to assist staff in compiling the minutes of the meeting and to enable the podcasting of Council's meetings. The provision of any information that is recorded is voluntary.

If any person does not wish to be recorded, they should not address or request to address the meeting. Recordings may be made available to other persons where such access is in accordance with the relevant regulations, and the recordings are stored on Council's record management system. For the benefit of those persons who will be addressing the Council tonight, it is expected that you will refrain from making any insult, allegation or personal reflection against any person, present or not, at this meeting. This request relates both to your address to Council and any answers given in response to questions from Councillors. Finally, it is also requested that if any person in Council chambers has a mobile phone, that they either turn it off or turn it to silent.

Thank you, Mr Mayor.

Thank you, Mr Conroy. We have two Councillors on leave, Councillor Garrow and Councillor Tree, I believe. Mr Conroy, you've got another request.

Yes, Mr Mayor, I've received a further request from Councillor Tiffany Tree for leave of absence from Council from Wednesday 10th of April 2019 until Tuesday 7th of May 2019 inclusive, including the Council meeting on the 30th of April 2019.

Do we have anyone who'd like to move that? Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Deputy Mayor. All those in favour say aye. Declare it carried. Do we have any declarations of interest? No. Oh yes, sorry, Councillor Reynolds. Item 64, not significant, non-pecuniary. So you'll be staying in the chamber? Okay.

Any others? No.

We move to the minutes of the last meeting.

Would someone like to move we accept the minutes? Deputy Mayor, Councillor Conolly. All those in favour say aye. Declare it carried. We have one item tonight which is subject to public address.

Item 64, the notice of motion, and our first speaker is Marie Jean Bauer. Thank you.

Sorry, Councillor Reynolds wants to tell us about his declaration

Of interest. One of our children is a paramedic, but not based in the Hawkesbury. Okay, thank you.

Good evening, and thank you for this opportunity to address you. My name is MJ Bauer, and I'm speaking for the notice of motion. I'm speaking out tonight because the Hawkesbury is in real trouble. We're at risk of losing lives if indeed lives have not already been lost, because we routinely have no paramedics in the Hawkesbury at night time. We have one intensive care crew rostered on from 11 p.m. onwards, but that crew routinely gets sent away to Castle Hill, Parramatta, or even further afield. This leaves us with no one, no one to cover Sydney's largest LGA. Is anyone else here as appalled at this as I am? Theoretically, a general duties crew is supposed to be sent to Richmond to replace the intensive care crew, but the reality is that they rarely make it, as they get responded to emergencies on their way.

However, if they do make it to Richmond station, they still don't have the local knowledge, nor are they as highly skilled as the intensive care paramedics they have replaced. So in turn, the slack is then picked up by the local on-call crew, who have already worked a minimum 12-hour shift during that day. No one wins here, not the residents of the Hawkesbury, and certainly not the overworked paramedics. Let me give you an example. Penrith crews will often get sent up the Putty Road instead of a local crew. So there they are, a long way up an unfamiliar road, with little to no comms and very little local knowledge. And less experienced than Richmond crews have, especially with such skills as helicopter landings.

Our Richmond crews are particularly experienced in that sort of thing. So response times are affected, and therefore this is critically important in saving lives. When my partner lay dying in anaphylactic shock from a paper wasp sting, New South Wales Ambulance had to send a general duties crew from Blacktown to Grose Vale where we live. Their GPS sent them via Wilberforce. Certainly not the paramedics' fault, but proof that local knowledge can never be underestimated. Had it not been for a local intensive care crew who heard the call over the radio and decided to leapfrog the job, my partner would most definitely have died. Local knowledge of roads, shortcuts, colloquial names for landmarks, these saves lives.

It's as simple as that. The state government recently announced 750 new paramedic jobs to be introduced in New South Wales over a period of four years. Fifty of those are support admin staff. The other 700 do not take into account attrition rates of paramedics, such as retirement, PTSD job reallocation, injuries or death. Not one of those 700 new positions has yet been allocated to Richmond, and the concern is that those extra crews will be classed as general area resources instead of Richmond Hawkesbury resources. This is our chance to lobby for permanent crews to be stationed at nights at Richmond Station. It is also paramount to insist that these crews not be sent away from the Hawkesbury LGA.

Leaving us vulnerable and unprotected. Something like this has been done before when Warragamba residents demanded permanent crews for their station and got them. This was also primarily because the local politician lived in the area, but hey, I'm looking at, what, 10, 11 local politicians living in this area, so we should be way ahead in this race. I urge this council, as our local elected representatives, to advocate on behalf of our community, which stands to lose lives if the status quo is retained. Please support this notice of motion and appeal to the state government via Robyn Preston to have this extra crew allocated to Richmond Station on overnight shifts and for these crews to remain in the Hawkesbury LGA for the protection of all Hawkesbury residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms Bauer. Are you happy to answer any questions? Yes. Are there any questions, please? No.

Thank you. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lou Bianchi.

Did I get that right?

Lou. That's right. Lou.

Thank you. Please proceed.

So, good evening. My name is Lou Bianchi. I'm speaking on behalf of the Australian Paramedics Association of New South Wales, of which I'm an executive member. APA NSW is proudly apolitical. We are a registered trade union representing the majority of on-road paramedics, who make up 100% of our membership. I've lived in the Hawkesbury since 2003 and have been a paramedic for 22 years and an intensive care paramedic for the last 15 years. I've worked at Richmond Station since 2010. Richmond Station covers an area of almost 3,000 square kilometres, slightly larger than the Hawkesbury LGA, covering northeast to Gunderman, Maroota and Upper Macdonald, west to Mount Tomah and sometimes as far as Mount Wilson, northwest to Putty, southwest to Hawkesbury Heights, southeast to Berkshire Park, Shanes Park and off into Bidwill, west to Castle Ray and east to Oakville, Maraylya and sometimes Vineyard.

We have 20 staff consisting of probationers through to intensive care paramedics like myself. Our roster consists of 12 and 15-minute shifts plus our overtime. The number of paramedics we had at Richmond Station in 2009 are the same numbers we have here today. Yet ambulance responses for October-December 2018, compared to the same time in 2017, have increased by 9.1 per cent in the Nepean Blue Mountains, and an increase of 22 per cent across New South Wales in the last five years. Data from the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command showed that there was a total of 13 fatal injury crashes for January 2019 in the Hawkesbury LGA alone. There are two crews on a day shift, one on an afternoon shift, and one crew on a night shift.

Richmond Station has on call, meaning that the day shift crew are on call after their day shifts and are frequently called out overnight. So let's think about these numbers. You've got two day shift crews. It takes two crews to treat a patient in a cardiac arrest. So an example when all the holes of the Swiss cheese line up for a great outcome is when a toddler is found drowned in the Hawkesbury River and triple zero is called. Two experienced crews are on Richmond Station, thankfully one of them is in intensive care. They arrive at the North Richmond Bridge within minutes, scoop up the toddler and commence resuscitation. The CareFlight helicopter arrives a number of minutes later. It is an amazing save.

So now that's two crews out of the system for a period of time. If the afternoon shift is already on a case, then a crew from out of the area needs to stand by at Richmond. But there's not enough fat in the system for that. Like I said, the workload has increased, but the number of paramedics hasn't kept pace, so the Hawkesbury is often left uncovered. Some cases are in point. When a large tree branch fell onto a small little girl at Pitt Town, the intensive care paramedic came from Blacktown, and the GD crew came from Penrith. Another case, the first paramedic at the multiple fatality in Bilpin was a single inspector from Richmond. He was on his own with six critically injured patients. His closest backup was a single paramedic at Springwood and the intensive care Richmond crew at McGraths Hill.

So now we're on a night shift and there is one crew on shift, one night shift crew for 68,000 people and covering 3,000 square kilometres. Oh, and an on-call crew that have already completed a 12-hour plus shift. It only takes one case to overstretch our resources. The 700 paramedics over four years is certainly welcomed, but it only plain catch-up and so far no new paramedics are coming Hawkesbury's way. To add insult to the Hawkesbury community, the Richmond intensive care paramedic is sometimes sent to fill the ICP rosters at Penrith, Northmead, Blacktown and Castle Hill. We have been advocating since 2013 for this practice to stop, yet there is no progress. Let me give you two recent examples.

The Richmond ICP crew were sent to Castle Hill for the shift. They were in McGraths Hill when a cardiac arrest was called in at Kurmond. The patient was a three-week-old baby not breathing and no palpable pulse. Are Castle Hill's babies more important than our babies? Recently, I was sent an IPN, Supercentre, to fill the IC roster. My partner and I were in South Windsor when a triple zero call came in for an asthma attack. On arrival, we had a seven-year-old boy who was almost in respiratory arrest. As an intensive care, I was able to administer more advanced medications which helped prevent the child from dying. So the availability of a nearby ambulance and an intensive care really made that difference.

Richmond paramedics live in the Hawkesbury, our families live in the Hawkesbury, and we want to be here to look after our communities. I'm appealing to the council to support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms Bianki. Are you happy to answer? Of course I

Am. Sorry, thank you.

Councillor Sam Brogan has a question.

Thank you, Mr Mayor, and thank you, Ms Bianki, for that very lucid explanation of the issue. I think we around this table would concede absolutely that the system is stretched and that this is an absolutely vital service that you're providing, and I'd like to thank you for the work that you do for the community What I'm trying to establish is whether the way in which the system is stretched disproportionately disadvantages the Hawkesbury compared to the stretching that we're seeing elsewhere . And the only statistic you gave in your presentation said that call-outs were up 9% locally and up 22% in the state, and that would suggest that we're getting off rather lightly. Are we being stretched disproportionately more or less than the rest of the system? So

That statistic was in the Nepean Blue Mountains in the October to December period . Our resources in that area were 9.1%. But over the last five years, in New South Wales, paramedic responses have gone up 22%. So that's the difference there. So you're looking at a five-year period.

If I might, that sounds like it's a difference in our favour rather than against us to make the case that we are

Disproportionately... That's only in a quarter, though. That's only in one quarter. So in this last quarter of October to December, we had a 9% increase in our responses. I think that's really quite huge. If you were to look at over 12 months, I would think that would be reflective, and we're not even into... Winter yet, so that's in a summer period. In what you were saying as well, in terms of our resources in the Hawkesbury, what you've got to remember is Richmond is the full stop. There is no one beyond Richmond. We meet Singleton at Putty and the halfway house. We meet Lithgow at Mount Wilson. So where we're getting sent to Castle Hill and Northmead, you've got all these amazing resources. But at Richmond, if you leave that area, you've got nobody else. And so centralising your intensive care is closer to all these wonderful resources. Is that for me? No

Just keep going.

Like you've got your trauma centres and you've got all these amazing other resources around. At Richmond, it's just us. You know, I'll do a cardiac arrest on my own, and I've done that plenty of times because there's no one else around. I've done jobs up, like travelling 45 minutes and my closest resource is Blacktown. And this isn't something that just happens sometimes. It happens frequently, and it's not good enough. All I'm saying is we don't have the ability to stretch those resources when you're talking about such a big area. There's no one else.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Ms Bianchi, thank you very much for that. And you've certainly put a lot of meat on the bone, so to say, but sorry about that metaphor, but yeah, I certainly appreciate it. Two questions, if I may. One relates to the weekend. Is there any variation to the crewing on the weekends versus weekdays, or is that all the same?

So there's no difference. It's just a rotating roster. So regardless of what's happening. So, for instance, I'll give you a good example. One time I was going to be sent to Castle Hill for the shift. Now, it was a weekend, and I said to the dispatcher, are you aware that we have the bridge to Bridge, we have Colo Park, we've got a weekend full of beautiful weather and bike riding, and I'm the only intensive care for this whole area, and you're going to send me to Castle Hill. This is where I'm needed. I need to be where the most high acuity cases will eventuate, and thankfully I was there. But sometimes it takes that sort of negotiation to say, please do not send me away. Okay,

Thank you. Any other questions? Just one more. Yep. I live at Yarramundi on Springwood Road, and I'm sure that road is well known to you. Yep. Can you, is it possible to give me some idea of the sort of responses that you have on Springwood Road? Because it seems to me, living right near the bridge, that the ambulance is travelling and the police are travelling that road almost on a regular basis. And I'll give you an instance. About a week ago, there was an elderly gentleman who ran , you know, he obviously had a stroke or something similar to that, ran into my front fence, which is fine. I mean, that's unfortunate for him as well. But we had, luckily, we had two ambulances turn up within about three quarters of an hour, which I guess, I don't know how that sits with you, but what are the statistics on Springwood Road? It seems to me to be very regular.

And I was coming from Penrith, and they called me and said, listen, we've got a job on Yarramundi, and it was a rollover. It was a single vehicle rollover. So I attended that case on my own. They did have resources coming. In the end, it was okay. But Yarramundi is a really interesting case because we've done lots of incidents there. So Richmond covers Yarramundi, but Springwood

Also comes down. So we tend to share that area, but it is our area.

Oh, sorry, it is our area. So we do tend to cover Yarramundi, Agnes Banks, and we get drawn into Cranebrook as well. We do plenty of jobs at Hawkesbury Heights, like I said. It is a really, really treacherous road, and I understand that sometimes there's just no one nearby to attend, and 45 minutes is not unusual.

Thank you very much.

Pleasure . Councillor Reynolds. Yeah, thanks, Ms Bianchi. Do you find, I know in town that quite often the paramedics have to stay with patients in the emergency department. Do you find that that also occurs out here? Yeah

Absolutely. I find that PN's actually, out of all the hospitals, quite good at trying to offload. But it's not unusual to be there with nine other crews, all of us just standing around just waiting to offload. It's happened a number of times already this year, and we're not into winter. Winter is obviously much worse. Westmead is probably one of the worst examples of that, where you might have 10 ambulances there on a regular basis, unable to offload. I think staff do their best, but what's happening is then we all get drawn into Nepean or Westmead, and we're sitting there. And there's all these cases going around, and it is really not unusual for a dispatcher to say, I have five outstanding casualty jobs. Can anyone clear? Now that happens all the time, all the time. Okay,

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Any more questions? Thank you, Ms Bianca. Thank you very much for coming. That's the end of our speakers. Deputy Mayor, I assume you wish to move this. I

Do wish to move a motion, but it's the one I'll ask them to put up on the board, which is similar, but it's slightly different. I've had a conversation with Councillor Conolly about it, and he expressed the need to perhaps have some more information prior to us committing. So it's a three-point motion, which is very similar to this one, but, and I thank Councillor Conolly for that input on that. Can we

Wait and see it before we— Yes . Or I call for a seconder.

Okay.

Still typing.

Sorry, Jodie.

Oh yeah, it's only the last point.

All right.

Councillor Conolly is happy to second it .

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I think that most of it's been said by the speakers, and I thank them for speaking. And I also would like to thank, as Councillor Zamproni did, for the service that the paramedics give to our community. It's certainly a concerning issue, and one that we know we have a deficiency in certain areas of the Hawkesbury, and from what has been said, it can impact the entire Hawkesbury area, which is quite problematic. And I think that we can take on our role as advocates in this regard. Councillor Conolly raised the issue of getting some more data, thank you, before we proceed with stronger advocacy, perhaps. And I'm happy with that because we have heard some things tonight, but if we put it into a report, we can then perhaps be armed with more information to take it further and to be more effective in our advocacy.

But in the interim, I would think we can perhaps facilitate a meeting between Ms Bianki or a representative of hers with Rob and Preston so that that discussion and those points can be raised with her. And then when it comes back to Council, we can then take it from there on another level. And I hope that satisfies the paramedics that we do it that way. In terms of the services, there's nothing more can be said about how crucial it is for us to have this service, so no more needs to be said, I don't think.

Thank you. Any further speakers? Councillor Wheeler.

Thanks, Mr Mayor. There's a terrible sense of déjà vu in all of this. My dad was an ambo back in the day when they wore a full woollen suit and had to knock on doors and ask people to help carry stretchers, and often people refused, and he would come home fuming. And he left that profession and went back to nursing because he couldn't afford to feed his family on the wage; it was so poor. And we still seem to be getting this wrong. I followed Dad and became a— An Army Reserve medic, and one of my jobs as a sergeant was deploying medics to provide medical care for a couple of hundred soldiers at a time. And one of our rules was always that you kept one foot on the ground, that the medic, that you never left a dangerous site without a medic, that another team would come in, pick up the casualty, take them away, but the medic always stayed with the rest of the soldiers.

And that is clearly what's not happening in the Hawkesbury. We're lucky to have one foot on the ground at any time, by the sound of it, let alone all the time. And the fact that we're expecting people who've already worked a gruelling 12-hour shift to cover what might happen after they've gone home and knocked off for the day, that's simply not reasonable in a profession that saves people's lives and makes life-and-death decisions all the time. I know that awful feeling of not being able to deal with the catastrophic mess in front of you simply because you don't have enough manpower, and no one should have to do that for a job. That's outrageous. We had a woman at pre-poll come to talk to us whose husband had died because an ambulance just didn't arrive in time.

And she was so grief-stricken and angry, and she couldn't even work out how to vote because she was just so overwhelmed by the awfulness of what had happened to her. I wish everyone in the Hawkesbury could listen to this podcast and realise that when they ring triple O, their expectation that someone will turn up actually isn't going to be met. People think that they will be okay because they'll ring triple O, and the police will turn up and an ambulance will turn up. Forty-five minutes is a very long time to watch someone, even someone you don't like, or someone that you've never met, lie in agony and you unable to do something. To watch a child or a loved one is incomprehensible. We have money for all the wrong things and not money for this.

We've heard that there's a full stop, that this is the full stop at Richmond. But in fact, the full stop is actually at Westmead for trauma treatment. You know, our tertiary and trauma facilities are a long way from here already. So if you've already, if they've got a, if the ambulance has to travel that distance to get to us and then back again, that's an hour and a half from decent care. That's not acceptable on the edge of the CBD in the 21st century in a wealthy country. So my only other plea to everybody besides getting behind this notice of motion would be, for pity's sake, do a first aid course. It's the only thing standing between you and 45 minutes of watching someone die. Everyone should have an up-to-date first aid course. Every three years, every 12 months for CPR. Every child over the age of 13 or 14, please do a first aid course.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. Any further speakers? Councillor Reynolds.

Yeah, thanks, Mr Mayor. I'd just like to add a personal experience dealing with the matter. Some time ago, probably might be two, maybe even three years ago, my wife and I were coming home through the main street of Windsor, and a lady had had a fall between Thompson Square, between the Macquarie Arms and the roundabout. She'd tripped and fallen, and she'd landed on her shoulder, which had been replaced four weeks beforehand. And she went down on that shoulder, and when she fell she broke her hip. Her husband was there and we called triple O. The local ambulances were out of area. There was no one to help. My wife has a first aid certificate, current first aid certificate, but there was nothing we could do, and we sat with her for over 50 minutes.

And the pain was just nauseating. And it's an incredible, the feeling of helplessness is just horrible. And I remember saying to my wife at the time, if this was the mother of a high-ranking politician, this problem would be fixed tomorrow. And it's a sad thing to have to say, so I have no hesitation in supporting this motion, and I know that everybody else will too. Thank you.

Just briefly, thank you, Mr Mayor. I'd just like to thank the councillors for those contributions, and I think that we can all see the importance of it, and I'm sure that we will do our best to push the matter forward as much as possible. But thank you, Councillor Wheeler, for raising that about first aid courses. They are something that are so crucial and we should all do them, and I should update mine again. So thank you. Thanks for the support.

Thank you. I'll put the motion then. All those in favour say aye. Those against? Declare it carried unanimously. Thank you very much for that, and thank you to our guest speakers for coming. We move now to item 58, the National General Assembly of Local Government. Would anyone like to move that?

Moved, Deputy Mayor, seconded Councillor Rasmussen. Deputy Mayor, do you wish to speak to it?

Not necessary, just that, yep, great, it's on again.

Does anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak to it? No. I'll put the motion then. All those in favour say aye. Those against? Declared carried. So how many delegates are we allowed to have? Five. Five.

It was just a general question.

General Manager. I think we should go for quality, not quantity, Mr Mayor.

I was saying that because of the debacle that we had in the previous about the voting.

So up to five, I think is what I heard.

So would we like to have any nominations, please? Councillor Sam Brogner, Deputy Mayor and Councillor Wheeler, that's three. Any more?

Well, there you go.

Three nominations. I'll declare those three nominations carried.

Moved, Councillor. Moved Deputy Mayor, seconded Councillor Rasmusson. Deputy Mayor, do you wish to speak to it?

Not necessary, just that, yep, great, it's on again.

Does anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak to it? No. I'll put the motion, then all those in favour say aye. Those against, declare it carried. So how many delegates are we allowed to have?

Five.

It was just a general question.

General Manager. I think we should go for quality, not quantity

Mr Mayor.

I was saying that because of the debacle that we had in the previous about the voting, but past that.

So up to five, I think is what I heard.

So would we like to have any nominations, please? Councillor Sam Brogner. Deputy Mayor and Councillor Wheeler, that's three. Any more? Well , there you go

Three nominations. I'll declare those three nominations carried. If anyone else later on suddenly feels the urge, then maybe talk to the General Manager and see if we can

Deem

You to be quality at that stage.

Some people like cold weather.

Item number 59. Moved the recommendation. Moved, Councillor Connelly. Seconded, Deputy Mayor. Do you wish to speak to it, Councillor Connelly? No. Anyone wish to speak to it?

Just briefly, Mr Mayor. I just think this is probably the most valuable conference I go to each year. Every single year, there's updates of what's happening in something that is so pertinent to our council, and it's really, really important that we're represented there. And it's, I hope that one day in the coming years our council will present something there. That is my hope.

Thank you.

Councillor Rasp. Yeah,

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Just briefly and quickly, these conferences are extremely valuable. You learn a lot. You see what other districts and other LGAs face, and of course, as we all know, nothing, nothing apart from the tides in the Hawkesbury, nothing comes close to the possible floods in the Hawkesbury. Nothing. So it is important that I think we go. Not only do we go and learn from others, but we go and share our experiences. And some years ago, three or four years ago, I think, yeah, we won, actually won an award because of our work that we did on our floodplain study and so on. So we are leading the pack in many ways, but we do learn and we do take away from those conferences. Now, Mr Mayor, I know you'll deal with who goes afterwards. Thank you very much.

Okay. Any further speakers? If not, I'll put. Do you need right of reply, Councillor Conolly? I don't think so. I'll put the motion. All those in favour say aye. Those against? Declare it carried. Mr Conroy, how many delegates do we have for that one? Again, I think there's some discretion for Council, but in the past I believe we've had one or two delegates, I believe. Okay

Do we have any nominations? Volunteers? Deputy Mayor? Anybody else? Councillor Rasmussen.

Mr Mayor, I'd like to go. I'm just not sure. I may have some specialist appointments during that, but I'll check to make sure. But if I don't, then I would like to go.

It's also possibly close to a federal election too.

I'm not sure that's going to worry me.

So, we have one definite, the Deputy Mayor, and one possible, Councillor Rasmussen . Anybody else ? Possibly Councillor Wheeler. Are we happy to move it that way?

Moved by Councillor Cotter, seconded by Councillor Richards that we move that way. All those in favour say aye. Declare it carried.

Item number 60, Hawkesbury Sister City Association.

Move that way.

Moved Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Conolly. Councillor Rasmussen, you wish to speak to it?

No, I don't, thanks.

You don't. Does anyone wish to speak to it?

Somebody brought it up.

Do you wish to speak to it?

Okay

According to this, it was Councillor Wheeler.

Item 60, Councillor Wheeler.

Yes, sorry, there's a correction in the recommendation. I doubt Holly Purcell has had a gender change, so could we change that Mr in the recommendation to Ms,

Please? Okay.

Sorry, if I read my own notes,

I'd

Know this.

Is that the length of your speech, Councillor Wheeler? Thank you. That's the end of your speech. Right.

So it's been, the recommendation with that one change has been moved by Councillor Rasmussen, I believe, and seconded by Councillor Conolly. Did I get that right? All those in favour say aye. Declare it carried. Thank you.

Item 61, the Hawkesbury boating events. I'd like to move, Mr Mayor.

Sorry? I'd like to move that recommendation.

Second that. Well, sorry, Councillor Sam Brogna moved, and Councillor Kotlash heard a light on. Were you going to second it, Councillor Kotlash?

Yeah, well, that, yes, I, yeah.

You were, okay. Moved by Councillor Sam Brogna, seconded by Councillor Kotlash. Councillor Sam Brogna, you wish to speak to it?

Yeah, and it's to make a point about the recent announcement by the Upper Hawkesbury Powerboat Club that the Bridge to Bridge is being cancelled this year, and I regard that as a great shame. I recognise that this is a different event, but it's worth noting in this chamber that a signal event in the sporting calendar on the river has been suspended this year, and I made some inquiries with the commodore of the boat club as to why that was the case, and I was told that the primary reason was safety and also an apparent lack of interest from competitors. There were only 30 competitors in the race last year, and that's a great shame. Now, the viability of a particular sporting event is up to the organisers, and our role largely is to just provide consent and some minimal regulation about, you know, the safe use of the waterways and reservation of park spaces and so forth.

I do wonder if some outreach to the powerboat club might allow us to at least pose the question if there's anything more that council could be doing to make this event more viable for them, whether it's by way of promotion or whether it's by way of the Well, I'd regard that comment as uncalled for, Councillor Conolly. Yeah, so I'm happy to support this recommendation. It's for a different event, but I did want to remark that the Bridge to Bridge really is a classic event, and it's a shame to see it languish . And, you know, if it's being held in our area, we should do what we can to support such events.

Thank you, Councillor Sam Parobno. Councillor Coe, lest you wish to speak. Yes,

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I support this event. I just was— I'll probably start with a question. When I went through the business papers, I was a bit unclear why this needs to have exclusive access to Governor Phillip Park. I was just wondering whether that could be explained, because I thought I would look up our policy, which is called Governor Phillip Reserve Exclusive Use Policy, and it doesn't actually describe what exclusive use means and why this particular event needs exclusive use. So could I start with getting that explanation, if I can?

Mr Organ, I believe. Through you, Mr Mayor, essentially exclusive use, and I happened to go back and look at the policy and tighten that up if that's required. But again, they control access to that particular area and to the boat ramp. So they actually have—we don't give use of the river; that's Maritime to do that—but you need to deny access to the boat ramp and, depending on the event, some of them charge to gain access to that area. And it also controls the movement of boats and security within the park itself. So that's one of the key things. So again, public is denied access to a particular area of it unless they're paying or have otherwise been authorised. Okay,

Thank you. Because, as you rightly pointed out, the policy doesn't actually define that, and it also — and I am a bit concerned about the content of the policy because it says in our recommendation that the following policies are to be considered when assessing this approval. And this policy has particular parts in it that are obviously from a council resolution, however many years ago, I'm not sure, but it says, The application by Ski Racing New South Wales for exclusive use of Governor Phillip Reserve on the 1st of— oh, it's 2007, actually— be approved. So I don't think that that sort of policy statement is giving anybody a guideline to what might be required for their event. So whilst I'm happy to endorse the recommendation, could we possibly have this exclusive use policy upgraded in the meantime?

Because I think it's on in September. Would that be, through you, Mr Mayor, would that be a—

General Manager—

A thing to do that we could do?

So the Mayor moved a Mayoral minute early in his current term where we started looking at all the policies. There's 105 of them. From recollection, there are about 38 that are literally one or two sentences long, and they're more a statement than a policy. So we're in the process of mapping those across to other documents. Michael Wern was going to do a briefing to councillors when we had some spare time, just to give everyone an update. So there's a fair bit of crossover, and there's also opportunities to rationalise them, and we're working our way through that process. And that is one of those 38 that I'm referring to.

So just to be clear, so that means that when we have events and activities and particular things that require a policy to address their activities , are they on the top of the list? Because we're just presenting people a policy that, as far as I'm concerned, is not a policy. It's just a list of resolutions for some other event.

So the 38 or so that I'm referring to are the ones that we're dealing with as the first round.

Okay, that's what I wanted to hear. So I

Suppose we needn't change the recommendation in the business paper. I might put that down as a question. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I was just wondering if when we have these reports, if when we have about the event, if we could just know what they are. So are they just boats and where are they going from and to? And do they have skis, skiers on the back or what they are? Because people ask, or for people who are wanting to know why there's an exclusive use of the park. I know there's a number that the Powerboat Club hold, and it would be just good if that could just be included, saying this is a whatever. And with regard to the bridge-to-bridge, Councillor Zambrano, I believe it was also cancelled a number of years ago. Councillor, former Councillor Porter raised the issue that the safety requirements for that.

For that race, were so stringent that they didn't have an adequate number of volunteers at that time. Pretty sure it was the bridge to bridge or the other one, whatever the— yeah, it was the bridge to bridge. Yeah. Okay thank you

Any further speakers?

Councillor Rasmussen. Yeah, thank you, Mr Mayor. Just quickly, these are great events in my book. They've been going on in the Hawkesbury for a long time, a bit like polo, anyways. They're great events. They bring lots and lots of people into the area. They bring, you know, expenditure back into the area. I think, yes, there are some downsides to it, but the positives outweigh those things. The issue, apart from security, and some of them are entry, fee entries, but the big one I've always heard, the people the committee have told me about, is the safety of mixing the general public on ramps and boats and things like that, as well as competitors. Marshals find it really, really challenging to try and control the public in line with the competitors and visitors and so on.

So I thought safety was one of the big issues to make it exclusive. But they are good events. They're great tourism events, and I think we should try and encourage more events, not necessarily like that, but certainly more events in the Hawkesbury.

Councillor Wheeler, did you wish to speak?

Thanks, Mr Mayor. Just a couple of quick points. I assume the recommendation says that there's a traffic management plan. I assume the organisers are aware of the changed traffic conditions through George Street and that the traffic management plan has some information about how they'll cope with the changes to both George Street and Court Street, given that that's the main way down to that park. And the only other issue is noise, which Wilberforce tends to be heavily impacted by the noise on the river, so we don't get to watch anything interesting, but we get to hear it all. And it's not so much the day itself. People are— Comfortable with that? It's the day before when everyone's trying out their boat and getting it revving to its full potential, and that tends to rattle the windows of the average Wilberforce house, and people get cross and bail me up at the shops to tell me all about it.

Could we please give the organisers a bit of a reminder about noise constraints from their boats in the lead-up to and during the event?

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. Any further speakers? I believe Councillor Sam Brogno that Ms Stewart has a longer answer to your question about bridge to bridge.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Councillor Zamprogno, I just wanted to let you know that while we didn't sponsor the bridge to bridge this year and an application wasn't made under the event sponsorship program for that event, an application was made by Ski Racing New South Wales for the Hawkesbury 120 Ski Classic. And so, as part of Council's event sponsorship program, we did actually sponsor that event. So there is an opportunity there for those event organisers to come forward and to apply for sponsorship, and that is something where we would be encouraging because we've met with that group previous to their announcement, and we had reiterated that that event sponsorship program is available for them to apply for their event.

Through you, Mr Mayor, is it the case that we've provided a degree of sponsorship for the bridge to bridge in the past?

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I'm not aware that we have sponsored that. That event as part of previously, but I could be incorrect, but definitely under our event sponsorship program, in the last year and a half or so we haven't sponsored that event. But we have met with some of those organisers and they haven't made an application.

Thank you

Any further speakers? I would just like to say that on the weekend I had the pleasure of going to the BMX Championships at Colby Park, and there was well over 2,000 people there, which makes it probably one of the biggest sporting events in the area. And I think we need to start looking around at some of these other events and bringing them up because I know traditionally we've been all about boats and the river and that's fine, but I think there's new players in the field and as a council we need to start looking to support them as well. So I'll be bringing that up at another date. Councillor Sam Brogno, do you wish to exercise right of reply? Okay, I'll put the motion. All those in favour say aye. Those against? Declare it carried. We move to—

Reports of committees, item number 62. Councillor Rasmussen, you

Move that way, Mr Mayor.

Do we have a seconder? Councillor Wheeler. Thank you, Councillor Rasmussen, and you wished to speak.

Sorry, Mr Mayor, just briefly. It's been a frustration, I think, of all of the committee, and I know Councillor Garrow isn't here tonight, and I'm sure she would make perhaps similar comments. But we really have been spinning our wheels on this as a council tourism committee for way too long. There have been a number of players, we've not known what's going on, we've had bits of information, and so on. And I'm just hoping that very soon now we can bring all of the players—I mean, they're obviously interested, every one of them who volunteer their times for these various other committees that are running out there are obviously interested in tourism and want to do the best for tourism in the Hawkesbury, which is great, and I do applaud that and I encourage that.

But it is time we all got together and formed up one cohesive group so we can actually get tourism in the Hawkesbury fired up. So hopefully at the next tourism committee meeting we will get that process started. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further speakers? No. If not, I'll put the motion. All those in favour say aye. Those against, declare it carried. Item 63.

Through the Waste Management Advisory Committee, do we have someone to move that? Councillor Wheeler, seconded Councillor Rasmussen. Councillor Wheeler, do you wish to speak?

Thanks, Mr Mayor. Just briefly, there's a couple of things that are probably worth drawing Council's attention to in this report. First is the grant funding received by the Hawkesbury Remakery. So they're currently in negotiations with Council about a venue, and the idea is to provide a centre where people can take goods for repair, facilitate the rehoming of goods, but also facilitate the upskilling of and skill swapping, sharing of local residents to keep waste out of the waste stream. They're a very enthusiastic crew. It's a really lovely model that's been successful elsewhere, and it's very exciting to see it coming to the Hawkesbury and to see a local group taking that on. The other point that is worth noting is on page 39 of the business paper, talking about saving our recycling, but in particular the waste levy and what little of that waste levy is returned to Council.

So 18% of the 300 million collected annually from local government returned to Council. So Hawkesbury Council is an interesting case in that we own our own waste facility, and so we pay quite a lot in waste levies, and you can see on the bottom of page 39, $3,348,850 in waste levy in 2017-18 alone, and we received $100,000 back in non-contestable funding. That's a pretty staggering amount, and it's unsurprising that Local Government New South Wales— And Council supported this at the Local Government Conference, is calling for that waste levy to be returned to local councils. Councils are paying to do this work, and the state government is collecting that money from us. So we've got all the responsibility and none of the dosh, and that's pretty grim.

That's money that's collected from ratepayers and from residents who take their waste to the tip and pay to go across the weighbridge, and we get very little back in return. And I think the community needs to be aware that that money is leaving the LGA and not coming back, and it's their money that's doing it. The Waste Management Committee is looking at a few different ideas. In particular, the reuse shed, which is currently probably the size of a double garage, I suppose, where people can drop off useful goods. Because of the way the waste levy works, you have to pay to drop the items off, but people can come and collect things that are in the shed and take them home, keeping them out of landfill.

So it's a system that really could be ramped up, but would require much more investment from Council or partnering with another organisation. It's done successfully in a couple of other places using different models. Kimbriki is a good example. Wingecarribee Council runs another setup on a much, much grander scale. The Waste Committee is keen to look at other options, and there's still a resolution on the table, I think, from Council to do that. But baby steps, and it seems to be gaining some traction, which is good. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Just to take up on what Councillor Wheeler said regarding the campaign to get a bigger return of the levy from the State Government, I think that the recommendation about us joining that campaign is wonderful. But I think we also have to actively monitor how that's going and really be a part of really pushing for that, because that's the key to the future innovations to enable local government to do these sorts of innovative things in the waste sector. And also, we all know waste is going to become one of the big issues in the future with the projected population growth in the Western Sydney area. So I hope that we can really be a part of that campaign in more than a way of just sending a letter. I think we should be really active within it and try and get something done about it.

Thank you. Any further speakers?

I'd just like to say that this is an issue that WesROC has been chasing for a while, the waste levy. I had a number of emails about it today, and I'm sure if the waste levy was returned to councils, even if we received 50 percent of it back, we could then go ahead and do some of the innovations that we need to do. And there are a whole lot of new innovations, as you know, just waiting to be delivered to solve our waste problem, and that money should be used for it. So I'm really glad we're joining the statewide campaign, and WesROC will be doing that too. Councillor Wheeler, do you require a right of reply? No. Then I'll put the motion. All those in favour say aye. Those against declare it carried. Questions on.

Questions. Any questions on questions?

Councillor Sam Progner.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. At the last meeting, I inquired as to the status of a notice of motion that I moved in June last year, where we said that we would write to the Premier, the Minister for Planning, the local MP, the Greater Sydney Commission, and seek some broad and honest declaration of what the status of the south-eastern portion of our LGA was in terms of development, and that was aimed at giving some certainty to communities who are unsure about what the future holds for them. That was 10 months ago, and I can see in the response that's come through here that we've received acknowledgements of our correspondence, but no detailed reply, but that we have received a response from the Greater Sydney Commission and from RMS.

I'd like to ask whether those responses could be circulated to councillors, and considering that we now have a new member of Parliament for Hawkesbury and a new Planning Minister in the shape of Mr Rod Stokes instead of Anthony Roberts, whether perhaps a reminder could be issued to those new inhabitants of those roles to get this process moving along, please.

Thank you. Mr Conroy, any response to that? We can attend to that, Mr Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions on questions? No. We move on to questions for the next meeting. Councillor Ross, do you have any? Councillor Rasmussen? Councillor Wheeler. Yes

Could we arrange for the toilets in the Deerubbin Centre and Richmond Library to be deep cleaned and the graffiti removed, please? They're just not clean enough. So they're obviously wiped over each day, but that isn't sufficient to maintain them in a decent state. Could we get some replacement bins to Colby Park where the bins were burnt out several weeks ago? And could we have some information about why the fencing has been removed from areas of Colby Park, which now allows people to drive much closer to the grass area and playing area, please? It sounds like it's a safety issue.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Just a follow-up on if we could have a time frame for completion of the works in the Hanna Park vicinity. This relates to photo. I believe there's been some photos sent in regarding potholes in the entryway, I think it is, or I'm not—I'm sorry, I'm not entirely sure where the potholes are. They may be in the street rolling, going into there. But apparently, I'm gathering the work isn't completed. Is that correct? So just if we could have a time frame of when it will be completed would be good. That's one question. The second question is, can we have the current numbers of tutors who are using Richmond and Windsor libraries, and if any of these are not-for-profit organisations, and how much was collected in fees for the 2018-19 year?

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kotlas. Councillor Zamprogno.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I'll be making a more detailed representation through the council portal, but I want to ask in this forum so that a portion of the answer can be made a part of the public record. Last year we engaged in a process of looking at a preschool in Smith Road at Oakville, and we engaged in what I thought was a really positive process of interacting with the nearby neighbours and the applicant to find a form of that development that was acceptable. And it involved changes to the building layout, the placement on the block, the car parking, the waste disposal, and the roadworks outside that development. I now hear that the works have commenced, and I'd like to ask whether there was ever any obligation to report back to the nearby neighbours when changes to the DA needed to be made as part of the conditions of consent, and also to ask whether there has been any effort for the applicants to receive a waiver from the roadworks that were part of the conditions of consent, and in fact whether such an application has any chance of success, since it seemed to be fairly crucial to our satisfaction to approve that.

Councillor Conolly

Councillor Richards. The general manager wants to address us on a couple of issues after the meeting is closed, so please don't run away yet. Is there any further business? If not, I'll close the meeting at 7:34. Thank you.