My name is Bob Cartledge, and I have nominated for secretary of the Body Corporate Committee.
I have a long history of public service. I worked in the federal public service for more than 20 years, primarily as a specialist adviser to senior management in government departments and authorities on matters of national security. I hold a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Canberra, completed postgraduate studies at Queensland University of Technology, and was admitted to practise law in 1998.
I had my own law practice on the Sunshine Coast before accepting an academic appointment with the University of the South Pacific in 2009. As a law lecturer with the USP School of Law in Vanuatu and Fiji, I was admitted to practise in both jurisdictions and established and managed USP Community Legal Centres in both countries.
After leaving USP, I worked with the International Development Law Organization, a UN-affiliated non-government organisation, in South Sudan, with short assignments in Nauru and the Marshall Islands. I retired in 2018.
My wife and I have been owner-occupiers in Southport Central Residential since August 2018. We were drawn to the range of facilities on-site, and to the convenience of having retail outlets, doctors, dentists, chemists, clubs and the Broadwater Parklands nearby.
I have previously served on body corporate committees in Canberra and Queensland, including the Southport Central Residential Committee in 2018–2019. That experience gave me a sound appreciation of the complexity of managing a body corporate as large as ours, and of the particular issues now confronting us.
In my view, several issues have been mismanaged here at Southport Central Residential. These include the failure to re-establish effective relationships with the other Southport Central body corporates and the visible lack of maintenance, which is adversely affecting property values and may contribute to increased insurance premiums.
Transparency in body corporate management, particularly financial management, is essential. Although the BCCM Act and Regulations do not expressly use the term “transparency”, the need for it was highlighted in the September 2022 Adjudicator’s orders concerning body corporate investments in CTS 35751 Investments Pty Ltd.
The Adjudicator ordered that the Body Corporate for Southport Central Residential must, within a reasonable time, divest itself of its shareholding in CTS 35751 Investments Pty Ltd and recover the funds invested in that company – noting in the ‘Reasons for decision’ that there appeared to have been “a wholesale failure of even a basic level of appropriate and transparent decision-making and record-keeping over an extended period”.
I am personally committed to ensuring significantly greater transparency in the affairs of our body corporate than has been achieved in the past. My position on many of these issues is reflected in the more than 20 editions of Reporter published over the past 12 months and communicated to all owners.
We need to recover control of monies invested with CTS Investments, ensure the Sinking Fund is properly funded, and confirm that ‘Residential’ complies with its obligations under the approved cost-sharing arrangements. We must re-activate the Building Management Group and rebuild a constructive working relationship with the Commercial and Retail Body Corporates.
If elected, I will draw on my experience as a solicitor and mediator, my working knowledge of body corporate legislation, and my familiarity with the issues facing our body corporate. I will act in the best interests of all owners, keep owners fully informed, and encourage greater owner involvement in body corporate affairs.