Advertising of a Saltwater Business Plan

Published on Wednesday, 19 March 2025 at 1:46:02 PM

Section 3.59 of the Local Government Act 1995 requires from a local government, before it enters into certain major land transactions, to prepare a business plan, advertise the business plan Statewide and to invite and consider public submissions before that local government decides to proceed with the proposed transaction.

The City prepared an Operational Business Plan for the (then) Busselton Performing Arts and Convention Centre, now named Saltwater. As certain major land transactions are exempt from the requirements under section 3.59, in 2020, the City sought external advice to find out if the Saltwater Business Plan needed to be publicly advertised in accordance with these provisions. The advice received by the City at the time was that formal advertising was not required and on that basis the City progressed with construction of the building without formally advertising the Saltwater Business Plan. The City did however, share the Operational Business Plan on its website to ensure full transparency with the community about the operating budgets and projections relating to Saltwater, and this information has been regularly updated and publicly available for the last 5 years.

The City has since received further advice that, based on an alternative interpretation of the Local Government Act, advertising in accordance with section 3.59 might have been required. Therefore, although construction of the Saltwater building is approximately 80% complete and the contractors have advised the City that construction will be complete around mid-2025, to demonstrate Council’s commitment to full transparency, the City will prepare and advertise to the community a formal Business Plan, in accordance with section 3.59 of the Local Government Act, later in 2025.