Moree Plains Shire Council last week voted to release the confidential report behind its pool decision from February last year, but it didn’t reveal anything significant the community didn’t already know.
Council voted to make the February 2025 report public at its Ordinary Council Meeting on Thursday, 20 August, after Michael Phipps, the new owner of Moree Online News, requested its release. The report was the one council considered immediately before deciding to stop redevelopment contract negotiations at the Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre and investigate an aquatic centre at Taylor Oval instead.
“I think there is a strong public interest in the community being able to see, as far as reasonably possible, the information that informs such a significant decision,” Mr Phipps said.
“I also welcome council’s recognition that information which was properly confidential at one point does not necessarily need to remain confidential indefinitely.”
Mr Phipps said he was not seeking to reopen the debate over the merits of council’s original decision, only to ensure the community could understand it.
Council’s Manager of Legal and Governance, Daniel Baldwin, introduced the item, telling councillors a redacted release was the quickest way to inform the public.
“This report brings forward a redacted version of what was considered by council last year in order to take public understanding of the rationale behind council’s decision,” Mr Baldwin said.
“In view of the timing of Mr Phipps’s request, presenting this report was considered the most expeditious way of getting the material into the public domain, if that is councillors’ desire.”
The report itself found that pushing ahead with a planned 50-metre pool at the aquatic centre carried increasing costs beyond budget, insufficient contingency, reliance on grant funding that was not assured, and financial and infrastructure risks, including further costs from delays, variations and continued unforeseen issues arising from building new infrastructure alongside ageing existing facilities. It was wholly consistent with the information given to the public at the time of the decision.
Cr Kelly James wanted council to change the report before its release, arguing its contents were out of date.
“We are being asked to supply a report to the public, which is fine, we can do that, that’s not a problem,” Cr James said. “But that report is no longer valid.”
“Because the items that are identified in this report as being a problem are no longer a problem.”
Cr Peter Mailler spoke against an amendment to change the report before its release, urging council to pass the original motion instead.
“We can release the report,” Cr Mailler said. “What people want to do to interrogate the information on the report, they can do subsequently.”
“Instead of holding up the release of the report for another month, we should get the information out there, and then if there are questions that follow from the from the media organization or from the public, then they can then be tabled in a report subsequently, or that that can be information provided in due course because it’s public information anyway.”
Cr Mailler said the report remained directly relevant to explaining council’s original decision, despite the time that had passed.
“The purpose of the request was to understand why the decision was made at the February meeting, and this report was relevant to that,” Cr Mailler said.
“So all of the information in that report is actually relevant.”
Following the vote, Mayor Pearse confirmed the report had gone out, before continuing with further discussions about the pool project.
“That report has now been released and provided to Moree Online News, and also provided via council’s actual business paper online,” Mayor Pearse said.
Mayor Pearse also pointed to council’s broader commitments on the aquatic centre’s future, including two actions in the 2026-27 Operational Plan and Budget: continuing to fund the facility’s operation, and planning for its long-term future.
“I would like our community to note that council has made a commitment to plan for the future of the MAC,” Mayor Pearse said.
“That is warranting further investigations, and we are going to strive to put as much of that as we possibly can on the public agenda.”
Council also received an updated financial report on the existing Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre, which has cost more than $2 million a year to operate and more than $1 million a year in capital works, funded by both council and grants, over the past five years. Loans from its 2011 to 2014 reconstruction are still being repaid, with repayments continuing until 2041.
Council has resolved to carry out further site condition investigations at the aquatic centre, including geotechnical, engineering and hydrogeological work, with a report to come back to council as soon as practicable.
Separately, council has endorsed the Stage 1 plan for the Taylor Oval Masterplan to progress to detailed cost planning, following community consultation. For the longer-term masterplan, council has endorsed the inclusion of a children’s leisure pool, splash pad and additional shading in Stage 2, and will assess the site for the potential use of hot artesian water. An Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment for the site is expected to be considered before council reviews and adopts the longer-term Vision 2040 Masterplan.
Mayor Pearse said she wanted future decisions on the aquatic centre made in the open.
“I’m hoping that essentially every agenda we have going forward, there is more information that both councillors can receive and our community can receive at the same time.”
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