QLDC community trust survey results delayed for an extra month

Council managers say that the results of a new QLDC confidence and trust survey won’t be released in mid-May as originally advised to Crux, but in a councillor workshop on June 17.

The additional delay is attributed by the QLDC comms/PR team to the “volume of other work.”

The survey closed on March 30^th for the general public, after an exclusive period where an invited group of people were asked to take part.

QLDC CEO Mike Theelen even issued a media release inviting residents to "Tell us how you really feel."

Crux has lodged an official information act request to access the raw data gathered in the survey, as well as correspondence between the council and the survey company. This response is due on May 26.

It will be noteworthy to see on what grounds the QLDC might attempt to refuse this request, on the assumption that “too much other work” is unlikely to be an acceptable legal defence.

The council’s trust and confidence rating dropped to 15% in 2023, after which they made the decision to drop this element from their result community survey, instead launching a special stand-alone survey in March 2025.

Crux replicated the exact QLDC trust and confidence questions of the 2023 survey in 2024 and found the level had dropped to just 4%.

This is the full statement received from the QLDC comms/PR team.

“Findings from the QLDC Community Insights Survey are scheduled to presented to Councillors at a public workshop on 17 June (this is later than originally intended due to the volume of other work also needing to be shared at workshops).

“Details will be published in advance along with the workshop agenda and an accompanying media release.”

Agendas are normally published just 48 hours in advance of council meetings and workshops.

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