Nambour Now committee supports leader in push for clear answers on safety
From the Nambour Now Committee
We want to express our strong support for our chair and advocate, Helen Tagg.
For the past 10 months, Helen has worked tirelessly to support the Nambour community and push for practical improvements in our town.
She has helped rally residents, business owners and community members around important issues affecting Nambour, including homelessness, public safety, business confidence and the use of public spaces.
These issues affect people from all walks of life, including business owners, vulnerable people, women, children, older residents and people experiencing homelessness.
That is why community advocacy matters. It gives residents a voice, encourages accountability and helps ensure local people are heard when decisions are being made about their town.
Nambour Now continues to seek constructive engagement with all levels of government. Helen’s advocacy has focused on strengthening relationships, improving resources and building better connections across Nambour.
Put simply, Helen has given countless hours of her own time, while also caring for her young children, to advocate for a safer, stronger and more compassionate Nambour.
Her work has been aimed at addressing growing community concern around safety, security, and the future of our town, while also recognising the need for compassion and support for vulnerable people.
Nambour Now is a community group with a strong belief in Nambour’s future. We want to see our town succeed, with a balanced approach that supports people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable members of our community, strengthens local businesses, and ensures our public spaces are safe, respected and accessible for everyone.
We admire Helen’s leadership, passion and commitment to the issues that matter to the Nambour community. We also believe her advocacy has consistently been guided by honesty, transparency, fairness and respect.
For the past seven months, Helen has submitted questions to Sunshine Coast Council seeking clarity on its policies, legal reasoning and decision-making processes, and has also sought opportunities for genuine community consultation on these matters. While Council has provided responses, key questions about how decisions are applied in practice remain unanswered.
During this time, Council has also declined opportunities for direct facing community consultation and collaboration on how its approach to public safety and homelessness could be improved or refined, despite ongoing feedback from residents and a community petition expressing dissatisfaction with the current approach.
As community advocates, we find this concerning and inconsistent with Sunshine Coast Council’s stated commitment in its Corporate Plan (2025–2030) to build community trust through clear accountability, open access to relevant information and transparent decision-making.
We believe this situation presents a clear opportunity to put those commitments into practice.
Nambour Now believes the community is entitled to clear communication. A response is not necessarily the same as an answer.
Asking clear and pertinent questions about public policy, public safety, homelessness, parks and community wellbeing on behalf of the community should not be treated as unreasonable.
Helen has worked hard to turn community concern into organised, constructive advocacy. It should go without saying that she has our full support.
We call upon Sunshine Coast Council to engage directly with the Nambour community, provide clear accessible explanations of how its policies are applied in practice, and work collaboratively with residents to strengthen both community safety and support for vulnerable people.
This is a clear opportunity for Council to demonstrate its stated commitment to transparency, accountability and genuine community engagement.
As Helen Keller said: “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.”
Pictured: Nambour Now chair Helen Tagg, front, with her committee at Sunday’s meeting.