The NPAQ and City of Gold Coast
Sometimes I am asked to give a speech, and on the night the opportunity pivots or changes. Sometimes there’s less time because of other presenters or on the odd occasion the schedule just changes. Recently, I prepared to give a speech at the Annual National Parks Association of Queensland Dinner, as one of their newest Advisory Council members. On the night, the opportunity to speak shifted to a shorter personal introduction and summary, so this speech never got presented in it’s prepared form.
Speaking at the 2023 NPAQ Annual Dinner
But, I’m really proud of the work of the City of Gold Coast in the context of our natural areas, so I thought I’d share the content with you anyway.
Here ‘tis.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Councillor Glenn Tozer and I’m the elected official for about 45,000 people in the south-west of the City of Gold Coast local government area and I’ve recently joined the Council for the National Parks Association of Queensland.
I want to start by acknowledging the Turrbal people and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge also that the land I represent is under the traditional custodianship of the Kombumerri people. I feel confident that the Kombumerri people with whom I share a close and growing relationship in my area, would want me to thank the Turrbal people for their hospitality while my wife Jude and I are gathering here with you tonight. The Kombumerri people and I also share a view that it is right and proper to acknowledge elders wherever we are, from whatever culture or heritage and, accordingly, I pay my respects to many Elders in this organisation who have served and volunteered and donated time and resources to the admirable objective of growing and protecting National Parks in Queensland. Thank you.
I’ve been asked to say a few short words to introduce myself to members and I gave a little thought to how best to do that this afternoon, as Jude and I drove up from the Gold Coast via the Scenic Rim. We had the honour this afternoon of witnessing the launch of a short film Jude directed about the community action in the area around Mt Barney National Park, rejecting coal seam gas mining from their region, over ten years of protests. It’d be wrong of me not to plug it so if you’re interested, the Moving Mountains Exhibition is being hosted at The Centre in Beaudesert until 2nd September.
However, the main reason I volunteered to join the NPAQ Council is because I love our natural areas in the division I represent, including all of Springbrook National Park and a snippet of Lamington National Park. I thought I could get a better understanding of the challenges National Parks face, the opportunities we see, by broadening my view. What many may not realise is that the City of Gold Coast currently manages over 13,000 hectares of natural estate in about 800 reserves. There’s about 3,500 hectares under active restoration captured in about 300 separate projects. Many of these projects are adjacent to or linking with the National Parks of Springbrook, Nerang, Tamborine, Lamington or South Stradbroke Island. Frankly, the work we do helps our nearby National Parks, and the good work on limited resources that the QPWS does, helps our conservation estate. I thought that joining the NPAQ council might improve that joint work together and awareness of it. Our teams at Council are led by Dr Tim Robson and DJ McKenzie and I want to thank them for their work.
Perhaps one opportunity where greater synergy could be realised between NPAQ and the City of Gold Coast is through Council’s nation-leading NaturallyGC program. We plant 50,000 trees every year, through about 200 workshops and events, and we have 19,000 participants chip in and help out each year. In my initial chats with our council team, we reckon there might be ways to integrate some of the NPAQ programming and objectives into our own. Who knows, maybe the NPAQ could be the conduit to take some of our successful programs into other local government areas, because of the NPAQ’s broader Queensland focus? Could the NPAQ attract more Gold Coast members by partnering with Council? I think these are important questions. I’m looking forward to influencing positively to that end.
So, it's for those reasons I joined and I see my time on the NPAQ council as a great opportunity to help grow the NPAQ, continue fundraising efforts for our causes, and find ways we can partner with other like-minded community and government organisations to grow our national park estate, and improve their management and subsequent impact on Queensland. Thanks for having me.