· Web viewWe of course celebrated—not celebrated, that’s the wrong word—but commemorated Anzac Day yesterday. No doubt all Councillors would have been out at various ceremonies

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

The 4492 meeting of the Brisbane City Council,held at City Hall, Brisbaneon Tuesday 26 April 2016at 2pm

Prepared by: Council and Committee Liaison OfficeChief Executive’s OfficeOffice of the Lord Mayor and Chief Executive Officer

Dedicated to a better Brisbane


THE 4492 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,

ON TUESDAY 26 APRIL 2016AT 2PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS_______________________________________________________________i

PRESENT:________________________________________________________________________1

OPENING OF MEETING:____________________________________________________________1

MINUTES:_______________________________________________________________________1

QUESTION TIME:__________________________________________________________________1

CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS:___________________________________________15ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE__________________________________________15

A REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 10 MARCH 2016_________________________18B FOURTH NARASHINO AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NARASHINO, JAPAN, REGARDING THE

PROTECTION OF THE YATSU HIGATA TIDELANDS LOCATED WITHIN JAPAN AND BRISBANE’S BOONDALL WETLANDS____________________________________________________________18

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Special report)_____________________________19A TEMPORARY LOCAL PLANNING INSTRUMENT 02/16 – PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED

PRIOR TO 1911__________________________________________________________________27PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE_______________________________________________28

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – PUBLIC TRANSPORT SNAPSHOT____________________________32B PETITION – REQUESTING COUNCIL RESTRICT ADVERTISING ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT____________33

INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE___________________________________________________________34A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – INFRASTRUCTURE – PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW__________________36

CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE_____________________________________________________________37A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE OVERVIEW_____________________42

ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE____________________________________43A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – PROGRAM 1 – CLEAN, GREEN AND WATERSMART CITY_________46

FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE_____________________________________________________________48A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – FIELD SERVICES GROUP OVERVIEW_________________________49

LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE__________________________________________50A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – CLEM JONES CITY HALL CONCERTS__________________________53

FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE_______________________________________54A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION AND REPORT – NET BORROWINGS – CASH INVESTMENTS AND

FUNDING FOR THE MARCH 2016 QUARTER____________________________________________56B COMMITTEE REPORT – FINANCIAL REPORTS (ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE, RATES, INVENTORY,

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, PROVISIONS AND MALLS) FOR THE PERIOD ENDED DECEMBER 2015______56C COMMITTEE REPORT – BANK AND INVESTMENT REPORT – 29 JANUARY 2016________________57D COMMITTEE REPORT – BANK AND INVESTMENT REPORT – 26 FEBRUARY 2016_______________57

PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:_____________________________________________________58

GENERAL BUSINESS:______________________________________________________________58

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:________________________70

[4492 (Ordinary) Meeting – 26 April 2016]

Dedicated to a better Brisbane


THE 4492 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,

ON TUESDAY 26 APRIL 2016AT 2PM

PRESENT:The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK) – LNPThe Chairman of Council, Councillor Angela OWEN (Calamvale Ward) – LNP

LNP Councillors (and Wards) ALP Councillors (and Wards)Krista ADAMS (Holland Park)Adam ALLAN (Northgate)Matthew BOURKE (Jamboree)Amanda COOPER (Bracken Ridge)Vicki HOWARD (Central) (Deputy Chairman of Council)Steven HUANG (Macgregor)Fiona KING (Marchant) Kim MARX (Runcorn)Peter MATIC (Paddington)Ian McKENZIE (Coorparoo)David McLACHLAN (Hamilton)Ryan MURPHY (Doboy)Kate RICHARDS (Pullenvale)Adrian SCHRINNER (Chandler) (Deputy Mayor)Julian SIMMONDS (Walter Taylor) Steven TOOMEY (The Gap) Andrew WINES (Enoggera)Norm WYNDHAM (McDowall)

Peter CUMMING (Wynnum Manly) (The Leader of the Opposition)Jared CASSIDY (Deagon) (Deputy Leader of the Opposition)Steve GRIFFITHS (Moorooka)Charles STRUNK (Forest Lake)Shayne SUTTON (Morningside)

Queensland Greens Councillor (and Ward)Jonathan SRI (The Gabba)

Independent Councillor (and Ward)Nicole JOHNSTON (Tennyson)

OPENING OF MEETING:The Chairman, Councillor Angela OWEN, opened the meeting with prayer, and then proceeded with the business set out in the Agenda.

MINUTES:413/2015-16

The Minutes of the 4491 meeting of Council held on 19 April 2016, copies of which had been forwarded to each Councillor, were presented, taken as read and confirmed on the motion of Councillor Kim MARX, seconded by Councillor Andrew WINES.

QUESTION TIME:

Chairman: Are there any questions of the LORD MAYOR or a Chairman of any of the Standing Committees?

Councillor McKENZIE.

Question 1


Councillor McKENZIE: Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the LORD MAYOR. We have seen in today’s Courier Mail that the State Government’s Cross River Rail project may reduce travel times for commuters. While this project may benefit residents who live on or near the train lines, can you highlight the anticipated benefits for bus users of the Metro Subway System for residents travelling from suburbs often remote from train stations?

Chairman: LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman, and I thank Councillor McKENZIE for the question. There was an article, I noted, in The Courier Mail of today’s date where there was discussion around the Cross River Rail plan and the travel time improvements expected as a result of that particular project. I think any transportation projects that result in a travel time saving are welcome. We have continuously said that the city certainly welcomes the Cross River Rail project, but equally we have to look towards making sure that the greater used form of public transport—in this case, in the City of Brisbane, buses—are also catered for in terms of that public infrastructure.

The reality is that our city, as I said here last week, lacks rail corridors by comparison to our southern counterpart cities of Sydney and Melbourne. That means that there are some structural issues within our public transport arrangements that mean that we have to look beyond rail infrastructure alone to cater for the public transport infrastructure needs of our city.

So we certainly welcome the proposed travel time savings from a Cross River Rail project. But the Metro, as proposed by us during the Council election, on which we will conduct a business case between May of this year and May of next year, is very much equally as important for the network of Brisbane.

I have been on the record previously as saying that I am not a strong proponent of multimodal trips. That is for a number of reasons, and I will explain those in a moment. But it was on that basis that people were sometimes a bit quick to judge the Metro to say, well, that’s a multimodal trip; you are getting people off buses and on to the Metro. That is true. But the key to all of these things is the amount of time that is used, the amount of convenience or inconvenience as the case may be, that people are put to in terms of their public transport trip.

So, in the case of the Metro, it is an easy transfer from one platform to an adjoining platform without the need to swipe on or swipe off, with a guaranteed faster travel time, and I will refer to that more in a moment. My concern has always been if you make the multi-modal trips such that the trip time expands beyond what it otherwise would be with a single mode of travel, and I am also concerned about the interchange arrangements, so that an example of a wet day, we are not putting people at a significant inconvenience, and in a case due to the elements of weather, to a position where it would be easier for them to take a motor vehicle than to undertake a multi-modal trip.

When we are talking about Cross River Rail and Metro together, I think they can produce a very, very strong public transport outcome for our city. We have always at our level of government been engaged in buses and trams before that, but we, as a city government, as I said last week, we built the Eleanor Schonell Bridge and we are now very focused on delivering, over time, the Metro to this city.

The Metro will do two things. It will save significant travel time for residents, reducing that currently scheduled 12-minute trip from Woolloongabba to the city—but which is often a 20-minute trip because of delays around the cultural precinct, over the Victoria Bridge—and it will reduce that down to six-and-a-half minutes. The travel from Herston will be five-and-a-half minutes, down from the current scheduled nine minutes. So these are significant savings, and the good thing about it is that they are a guaranteed time through to 2031 and beyond. That is the problem with the existing system if we leave it unchecked; the current 12-minute schedule, 20 minutes from the Gabba, is only going to get longer. It will get longer as more and more buses are required to bring residents to the city.


- 2 -

The fact of the matter is, because we don’t have a larger number of rail corridors, a lot of people are still going to have to use buses, regardless of the Cross River Rail, because of people’s travel time distance to the nearest railway station. Where I live at Eight Mile Plains is a single example; it is a long, long way to the nearest railway station. So, Madam Chairman—

Chairman: LORD MAYOR, your time has expired.

LORD MAYOR: Thank you very much.

Chairman: Further questions?

Councillor CUMMING.

Question 2

Councillor CUMMING: Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. My question is to the LORD MAYOR. You were the Infrastructure Chairman responsible for delivery of the Go Between Bridge which was initially going to cost $240 million and deliver the city a big fat cheque. The cost of the bridge blew out to $317 million, and finally ended up costing ratepayers $370 million, and the big fat cheque has never eventuated. The number of vehicles currently using the bridge is nowhere near the original traffic projects.

Isn’t it true that your Brisbane Metro is on track to be your next Go Between Bridge with cost blow out after cost blow out and servicing a radically reduced number of patrons?


LORD MAYOR: Well, thanks very much, Madam Chairman. I appreciate that this is the first time now in some months that we have heard the Labor Party talk in very negative terms about proposed public transport infrastructure in this city. It seems now that this is what they were thinking all along, that they were never serious about a light rail proposal, and Councillor CUMMING has confirmed that today.

Councillors interjecting.

LORD MAYOR: He has confirmed that today.

Chairman: Order!

LORD MAYOR: They were really thinking that we should not be building public transport infrastructure.

Councillor interjecting.

Chairman: Councillor CASSIDY.

LORD MAYOR: We have built a lot of infrastructure in this city—


Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON.

LORD MAYOR: I remind Councillor CUMMING and the Labor Party that all of this infrastructure is going to provide capacity in our network into the future.

One of the things that this city suffered from each and every week was when there was an accident that involved one of our river crossings, we did not have the cross-river capacity to deal with it. So, every time that one of those bridges, whether it is the Story Bridge, the William Jolly Bridge, Victoria Bridge—when one of them went wrong, there was chaos in this city.

So the Go Between Bridge has provided a very terrific opportunity in terms of the extra cross-river capacity and it builds that capacity not only for today in 2016; it has the capacity for the future. The same applies to Clem7, to Legacy Way, to Airportlink, to all of those projects.


Chairman: Councillor SUTTON.


- 3 -

LORD MAYOR: All of those projects are not just for today; they are capacity building for the future, and they will serve this city for a long time to come.

So, Councillor CUMMING, we are going to be undertaking a business case, and that business case will be made very public. It will be conducted from the month of May this year through to May of next year. All of the figures will be available at that time. To come out and pre-empt before we have even started the business case about potential cost overruns is interesting.

I hope it is not on the back of that State Government report that Councillor CUMMING previously referred to, which was completely flawed. It was a flawed report because it did not take into the account the statements that I had made at the time when I announced the costings around the initial costing arrangements for the Metro, which was $1.15 billion, which took into account a 50% risk contingency in the construction build. That was part of the total $1.54 billion associated with the project.

I think what I would like to hear from Councillor CUMMING is: do you generally support the building of public transport infrastructure? Is it something that our city needs? Because, if the answer to that from Councillor CUMMING is no, then that will clearly confirm that Labor have only been talking about this; it’s been all talk and it hasn’t been a genuine belief in the building of public transport infrastructure in our city.


Chairman: Order.

LORD MAYOR: It was the same ill-conceived, light-on-detail approach that they took in the election campaign with regard to light rail. They never could explain how Montague Road wasn’t going to have to be closed; how Ann Street wasn’t going to have to be closed to traffic; how all of these other major corridors, including Skyring Terrace, wasn’t going to be able to be closed to traffic. Maybe, Councillor CUMMING, now in the post-election period, you might be able to get up and explain how that was going to work, because it certainly wasn’t explained by the Labor Party during the election period.


Councillor WINES.

Question 3

Councillor WINES: Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the Chairman of Public and Active Transport Committee, Councillor SCHRINNER. Brisbane’s bus users know that this Administration is committed to having Australia’s most modern bus and ferry fleet as well as fighting for fairer fares. Can you update the Chamber on the most pressing issue in Brisbane’s public transport system, which is fairer public transport fares, and how this Administration will continue to stand up for the residents of Brisbane?

Chairman: DEPUTY MAYOR.

DEPUTY MAYOR: Thank you, Councillor WINES, for the question. As we saw in this morning’s Public and Active Transport Committee, where the focus was again on fares and affordability, this is the number one issue facing our public transport users in the City of Brisbane and indeed in South East Queensland.

We know it; TransLink knows it; public transport lobby groups know it, but today marks eight months and one week since the State Government commenced their fare review, and we still have no outcome. The latest murmurings from George Street are that we may have to wait even more time, several more months, before we get a result. Let me be very clear: when they do release something, I predict that they will fail to make a decision. They will release something for consultation which will then possibly go on for months and months more. Meanwhile, delaying and delaying any decision and any fare relief for the commuters of South East Queensland. Something has to change, and something has to change urgently.


- 4 -

We all want to talk about fighting traffic congestion. We all want to talk about improving public transport. Here is something that can be done immediately to boost public transport patronage and to reduce traffic congestion. Last week in the Chamber I talked about some comments made by Robert Dow from the Rail Back on Track lobby group. As I said at the time, Robert and this Administration don’t always agree, but one thing we do agree on is the need for action right now on fares.

On 31 March, Mr Dow published a post saying, “sort out the fare system now. The community is running out of patience with a government that fails to deliver”. Today, once again, Mr Dow has hit Twitter, and published another post, and he said today, “the March 2016 TransLink performance snapshot has been released, and shows that fare affordability remains the standout issue”. He says it’s time for action. So once again today, Robert Dow calling for action, joining with this Council, and most importantly, Mr Dow is a member of the Fare Review Panel, the expert panel that the State Government appointed to review the fare system. Mr Dow is on there.

He is publicly making comments extremely critical of the State Government’s delay on this fare review; extremely critical. Week after week, day after day, Mr Dow is reinforcing what we’re saying. I am not sure if, given that he’s a member of the panel, that makes him a disloyal chap, but the reality is he has a right to speak out on behalf of commuters on this issue, just as we will continue to do.

We saw in the Committee this morning, if you take a five-zone fare in Brisbane or a five-zone trip in Brisbane on a bus, a train or a ferry, you are paying 24% than you would on a similar trip in Sydney; you are paying 32% more than you would on a similar trip in Perth, and you are paying 53% more than you would on a similar trip in Melbourne. We are being ripped off in South East Queensland with the level of fares that are being charged by TransLink. People are voting with their feet. They are turning away from public transport because of this.

There is a simple solution. Make the fares cheaper. Review the system. Release the review that the State Government started eight months ago. When you look at the history of fares in South East Queensland, back in 2009 a single zone trip on the go Card, if you are talking single zone return trip, would cost $3.84 for a return single zone trip. Today, $6.70 for that same single zone trip. It is no wonder that people are voting with their feet.

We need action. This Administration will continue to fight for fairer fares. We will continue to lobby the State Government to push until this matter is resolved. But it is more than just the cost alone. There are some key and important issues that Council is demanding that the State Government sort out. Not just the cost, but also things like some of these fare zone anomalies.

We have a situation where, in parts of Brisbane, if you catch a train from one particular suburb of Brisbane and a bus, you will actually be paying a different fare. You will be paying a cheaper fare to catch the train than you would to catch the bus. It just doesn’t make sense. These sorts of anomalies need to be sorted out.

Chairman: DEPUTY MAYOR, your time has expired.

Further questions?

Councillor JOHNSTON.

Question 4

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, my question is to the LORD MAYOR. In March this year, a petition was lodged with Council to save a house built in 1937 in Eversley Terrace, Yeronga, which contains a character house and a World War Two bunker in the property grounds. Three weeks after the petition was lodged, and despite strong community opposition, Council approved demolition of the character house. LORD MAYOR, why did you and LNP Councillors vote against urgently


- 5 -

protecting all pre-1946 character houses last week to ensure this situation does not happen again?


LORD MAYOR: Madam Chairman, I would have to take this particular property on notice. I am not aware of the individual property concerned. Obviously this city has thousands of character houses spread across the suburbs of this city. So I thank Councillor JOHNSTON for the question.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Point of order, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: Point of order, Councillor JOHNSTON.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Just to be clear, my question was: LORD MAYOR, why did you and LNP—

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, you do not get two questions. You asked a question—

Councillor JOHNSTON: No, no, that—

Chairman: —and the LORD MAYOR provided a response.

Councillor JOHNSTON; Madam Chairman, my question is one of relevance. The question I raised was why—

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON—

Councillor JOHNSTON: —he voted against a pre-1946 motion to protect—

Chairman: Councillor—

Councillor JOHNSTON: —these houses to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, do not repeat your question.

Councillor JOHNSTON: The LORD MAYOR did not answer the question.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON—Councillor JOHNSTON, I remind you that, under the Meetings Local Law, when I speak, Councillors in this place remain silent. You have repeatedly interjected when I have been attempting to speak and give a ruling. You are not permitted in Question Time—

Councillor JOHNSTON: You have to let me speak and make a point of order—

Chairman: Order!

Councillor JOHNSTON: —before you make a ruling.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, the LORD MAYOR had provided an answer to your question. You do not get two questions in succession in accordance with the Meetings Local Law. I do not uphold your point of order. The LORD MAYOR is entitled to give an answer in accordance with the question that is asked, and the LORD MAYOR has provided an answer.

Further questions?



Councillor JOHNSTON: Madam Chairman, as the LORD MAYOR did not answer the question, I move dissent in your ruling because it does not address the point of order.

The dissent motion lapsed for want of a seconder.


Chairman: Councillor HOWARD.

Question 5

Councillor HOWARD: Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the Chairman of the City Planning Committee, Councillor SIMMONDS. Earlier this month we saw Labor MP Grace Grace and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad joining a public


- 6 -

meeting calling on their own government to refuse the demotion of a heritage home and to review the Master Plan for Bowen Hills. Can you update the Chamber on how the State Government development areas constantly fail the community?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you—


Chairman: Order!

Councillor SIMMONDS: Whoa! Thank you—a little sensitive over there this afternoon. Madam Chairman, thank you very much for the call, and thank you to Councillor HOWARD for the question. Good to see that sitting over that side of the Chamber hasn’t influenced the quality of your questions which are always top notch, Councillor HOWARD. I know that, like you, we want to know about the different approaches that occur when it comes to planning in this city, because it has an impact on local residents and the local community.

There are some very different approaches that are taken to planning in our city. Let’s look at our approach. We discussed this before. We know what our approach is. The award-winning neighbourhood planning process, where we go on no less than three separate occasions, including with a renewal process, including with a draft neighbourhood plan. When the statutory requirements are only for one period of conversation, we are out there with more than three, having a discussion, an active discussion, with local residents about what they’d like to see in their area.

Then, of course, on top of that, you have an Administration which is the best friend that this city’s heritage has ever had. We have come along in the new City Plan and we’ve protected properties that are pre-1911, not just in the Demolition Control Precincts (DCPs) but in a very specific sense by mapping 400 additional properties individually. It is in stark contrast with what is happening in the Australian Labor Party. First, the State Labor Government have put in place the urban development areas in Fitzgibbon, Woolloongabba, Northshore, and Bowen Hills. It couldn’t be a starker contrast.

These areas involve no consultation with the local community, involve secretive DAs that don’t even get onto a website let alone are advertised to the community, where they approve heights well above community expectations, not to mention the City Plan, and where there is minimal, if any, infrastructure charges or certainly none to Council, that is for sure. The State might be getting them but we don’t know; it’s a secret. But certainly none to Council.

That is perfectly acceptable to the Labor Councillors opposite, and perfectly acceptable to their Labor colleagues in the State. No consultation—and it leads to a farcical situation that we have seen play out in the last couple of weeks where Labor at a State level are secretly approving within the Urban Development Area of Bowen Hills the removal of key heritage components off one heritage listed house, the Abbotsleigh House, without community consultation or they are offering up the Tivoli Theatre as a redevelopment opportunity, yet this farcical hypocrisy that you then see the Minister and the local State Labor Member out there protesting against their own planning process for Abbotsleigh House to try and protect that, calling on their own government to reverse their current planning regimes.

Well, that is exactly what happens when you don’t have a consultative process of the likes of which this Council does and this Administration does. Councillor HOWARD, if you were looking for any greater certainty or any greater common sense at the Council level with the Labor Councillors here, you won’t find it. Why is that? Well, look, I won’t beat around the bush. Let’s just get to the point. They may have Councillor SUTTON as their planning spokesman, but Labor cannot pretend to be in favour of protecting heritage when they have elected as their Leader the biggest heritage vandal that sits in this Chamber. Right? The only one who’s out there demolishing heritage—and let’s have a look at the evidence.


- 7 -

Councillor CUMMING, this one was brought to my attention after last week, a memo from 27 July 2011, where we were discussing the heritage-listed—not just pre-1911—a heritage-listed church in Bay Terrace. Of course, what does Councillor Peter CUMMING, the now Leader of the Opposition, write to Council? He said, look, “I note that the church was not always where it is now and has only been in that location for around 65 years.”


Councillor SIMMONDS: It is pretty blasé, I don’t think I am being unfair with the emphasis. He then goes on to say, “in all the circumstances, I am happy to see the church demolished”. It is on the Heritage Register. Oh, blasé; no, demolish it, it’s not a big deal. It’s not a big deal. So is it any wonder when he’s got such a blasé approach to heritage that he is out there with his own property demolishing pre-1946—

Chairman: Councillor SIMMONDS, your time has expired.

Further questions?

Councillor CUMMING.

Question 6

Councillor CUMMING: Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is to the LORD MAYOR. Predominately in Wynnum Manly Ward but in other parts of Brisbane as well, a rogue builder is building new houses in low-density areas which include granny flats. These houses are then being sold to investors as duplexes with two rental streams. No reference is made to the need for the granny flat to be let to a member of the same household as is occupying the main house, as stipulated by City Plan 2014. Rather, the granny flat is being let to unrelated people. Around 60 duplexes have been built in this way, with the latest being on Kianawah Road and North Road at Wynnum West.

Does the fact that this activity is flourishing show that your 2014 City Plan has holes in it large enough to drive a truck through and reveal the weakness of the enforcement action taken by your Council?

LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman, and I thank Councillor CUMMING for the question. It is a fair question, Councillor CUMMING. What we cannot do when we deliver a City Plan—it is then up to obviously people to observe that plan. So in the case of where we are aware of properties that are not in compliance with the City Plan, we do take action in relation to those.

In the case of properties at Wynnum, we have been through a long legal process; the courts have been involved in relation to those processes as well, and we will continue to undertake every legal avenue that we have in relation to situations where people are falsely advertising what can and cannot occur in relation to properties relative to the Town Plan.


LORD MAYOR: Often and regrettably—

Chairman: Just a moment, please, LORD MAYOR.

Councillor JOHNSTON, I asked you last week to not call out across this Chamber and interject in that way. If you do not desist in that behaviour, there will be a warning.

LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR: Thanks, Madam Chairman. Often and regrettably, people who are purchasers get caught up in these processes. They accept information which is wrong from selling agents or other entities, and they are the ones that I feel very sorry for in this process. They are often very small-time investors.

So, we will use whatever force of law we can to make sure that the City Plan is upheld, to make sure that the people who are small and innocent investors are not taken for a ride in relation to the City Plan. We are very much aware, Councillor CUMMING, of examples down in Wynnum where this has occurred,


- 8 -

and we have invested significant resources of this Council, through the legal processes, in correcting those wrongs.

But we will never be able to make everybody comply in the first instance in relation to city plans. I just say, not only to Councillors here but to the people of Brisbane at large, if you aware of circumstances where the City Plan is not being adhered to, where the law is being broken, then please let us know, because we do have the mechanisms through Compliance and Regulatory Services within this Council to take action, and we do.

So, Madam Chairman, I have sympathy with the question that Councillor CUMMING is putting to me. I don’t think we are at odds in relation to this, but there is also the limitations of law. We are exercising, however, every aspect of that legal framework that we can to more-so protect those innocent investors in that process.

In relation to some of those investors, we have to stand by our City Plan. I am not saying that some of these small investors will not be detrimentally impacted out of this. But what we will do is to work with them so that they have as soft a landing as possible in terms of the investments they have made. We have sympathy for these small-time investors who have been caught up in it, but as I said, we will continue to undertake whatever mechanism we can to ensure that the 2014 City Plan is held to account.


Councillor MARX.

Question 7

Councillor MARX: Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the Chairman of the Field Services Committee, Councillor MATIC. Residents can see the results of this Administration’s commitment to investing in resurfacing and improving our road network. Can you highlight this Administration’s record of investment in maintaining our roads and our ongoing commitment to keep Brisbane on the right track by delivering Smoother Suburban Streets?

Chairman: Councillor MATIC.

Councillor MATIC: Thank you, Madam Chairman, and I thank Councillor MARX for the question and the opportunity to stand here as the Chairman for the Field Services Committee to outline this Administration’s and this LORD MAYOR’s strong commitment to making sure that we are keeping Brisbane on the right track.

This Administration sets a very clear vision of where it wants to be. We have heard the LORD MAYOR speak about public transport, and the importance of investment in that network of dealing with a growing city, of dealing with planning, but this LORD MAYOR and this Administration is also focused on the grassroots day-to-day activities that are so important to Brisbane residents. Smoother Suburban Streets is part of that.

It is so important as a Council that we continue to invest strongly in this area to make sure that we continue to deliver those important outcomes for Brisbane residents as is expected. It is important as an Administration that we provide that level of funding and commitment in our Road Resurfacing Program to make sure that those outcomes are delivered. This Administration has continued to do that.

In the last term, there was $290 million invested in rebuilding our Brisbane streets, and that program is still continuing to the end of this financial year. We saw the announcement by the LORD MAYOR in this financial year of the $100 million to continue that strong investment in making sure that our roads are smoother, and making sure that we deliver on those outcomes.

Madam Chairman, for us as an Administration, it is always about value for money; looking for those opportunities to find and make those dollars stretch, to make sure that we address those issues and deliver more and above what we actually set out, and we continue to do that.


- 9 -

You can see that through our streets in Brisbane at the moment; that strong commitment to that space. In this 2015-16 year, for example, there were 380 streets that we’re looking to make sure that we resurface, but through the hard work of the team we were able to deliver 495 of those. That is the kind of value for money that this Administration is about; that is the kind of commitment that we are delivering for Brisbane residents.

But that is not only about the term that we have just seen. It is also about where we are going; the four years ahead of us. That is why the LORD MAYOR made the announcement of a record investment of $360 million over the next four years to revitalise 2,000 suburban streets. That is an enormous investment by any standard of any council in Australia, but that is what this Administration is about; making sure that we are getting out to the local areas. We are making our commitments to the wards across our city. We are making that commitment to Brisbane residents to continue to make their trips safer and more enjoyable as they’re out there getting to work or doing their day-to-day activities as is expected.

That is why this Administration is strongly committed to making sure that we are delivering for Brisbane, to making sure that we are keeping Brisbane on the right track, because these are the core services that residents expect. That is why we continue that commitment. When we go out there and look at these opportunities across the city, we have major roads and minor roads that we’re always looking at, and making sure that we are attending to all of those issues across those streets, making sure that we keep up to date with the opportunities, the technologies, making those dollars stretch.

That is why the last four years we have seen such a strong investment and a record investment in the number of streets that we are rolling out, and that is why we are making sure in this term that we are doing the same thing. Some 2,000 streets across a city is an enormous amount of work, but this Administration is up to the task. By making sure that we stay on top of that, we are also dealing for the future, because as our roads continue to get more use, as our city continues to grow, there is more and more emphasis upon these basic amenity issues of resurfacing. That is why this kind of investment is absolutely necessary.

But what we see, Madam Chairman, from our side of the Chamber is what we don’t see from those opposite. We don’t see any planning for the future; we don’t see announcements about record investment in road resurfacing; we don’t see the attention to detail from those opposite that we get from this Administration and this LORD MAYOR. Why? Because those opposite, as you can hear from their questions, are not about outcomes; they are not about setting a vision.

Councillor CUMMING, in his opening statements to the media when appointed to the role of Opposition Leader, was not to set a vision, but to criticise and to try and find the political advantage. That is not what this city is about. That is not what makes a city grow and move forwards. That is not about what is important to local residents.

What is important are those things that deliver outcomes locally. It is about those things that matter to people at home, about being able to travel down their local street to get to work or to go shopping, to make sure that those streets don’t have those potholes, to make sure that those major roadways are properly dealt with—the line-marking, the resurfacing; those are the basic services that this Council is about, and that is what this Administration is about. That is why we have this record funding to make sure that we continue to deliver for Brisbane as a great city now and in the future as well.


Councillor CASSIDY.

Question 8


- 10 -

Councillor CASSIDY: Thanks, Madam Chair. My question is to the LORD MAYOR. Will you today commit to publicly releasing the full details of the business case for your so-called Brisbane Metro, and bring it to this Council Chamber for debate, or will you try and hide it like you did with the business case for the Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade?

LORD MAYOR: Well, Madam Chairman, I am absolutely delighted with the question, and I can absolutely confirm that the Brisbane Metro business case will come here. But I would just say this: when the business case comes out for Cross River Rail, will the Labor Party, if that business case shows a lower benefit-cost ratio than Kingsford Smith Drive—


Chairman: Point of order against you, LORD MAYOR.

Councillor JOHNSTON.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Madam Chairman, the Meetings Local Law prescribes that you cannot argue about the substance of the question. The LORD MAYOR must answer the question. He is asking questions about a question; he is not answering the question—


Councillor JOHNSTON: —in line with the Meetings Local Law.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, in accordance with section 53(5) of the Meetings Local Law, there is to be no debate on a point of order. The LORD MAYOR has five minutes to provide an answer to the question, and I am going to allow him to do so.

LORD MAYOR.



Councillor JOHNSTON: Just to be clear, are you not upholding my point of order?

Chairman: I am not upholding your point of order because the LORD MAYOR has five minutes to answer the question, and the LORD MAYOR is able to provide context for the response to be provided. I remind you as well that, in accordance with the Meetings Local Law, repeated points of order are not permitted. They are considered spurious and not in accordance with the Meetings Local Law.

LORD MAYOR, please continue.



Councillor JOHNSTON: I move dissent in your decision to allow the LORD MAYOR to continue discussing the question.

The dissent motion lapsed for want of a seconder.

Chairman: LORD MAYOR, please continue your response.

LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. In the question which related to the business case, obviously one of the key components to any business case is the benefit-cost ratio, the BCR, as it is often referred to, that is a demonstration of the public spend against the public benefit that is derived from any individual project.

Given the amount of criticism that the Labor Party around the benefit-cost ratio associated with Kingsford Smith Drive and their opposition to the Kingsford Smith Drive project—in fact, cancelling that contract was what they were proposing if they had won Office, because of the benefit-cost ratio factor in that project—what position will they take when the Cross River Rail


- 11 -

benefit-cost ratio comes out if it is lower than Kingsford Smith Drive? Will that mean that they will automatically oppose Cross River Rail as a result? It would follow logically that that would be their position.

Councillor CASSIDY: Point of order, Madam Chair.


Councillor CASSIDY.

Councillor CASSIDY: The question was specifically about whether the LORD MAYOR—

Chairman: No, Councillor CASSIDY, when you make a point of order, there is to be no debate on that point of order.

Councillor CASSIDY: Relevance, Madam Chair.

Chairman: That is what you need to say. You need to simply say that you—

Councillor CASSIDY: He was asked whether it will be brought—

Chairman: Yes, I know—

Councillor CASSIDY: —to this Chamber for debate.

Chairman: Councillor CASSIDY, do not speak over me. I know what was asked. You have made your point of order on relevance.

LORD MAYOR, could you please, for clarity’s sake for Councillor CASSIDY, come back to his question, thank you.

LORD MAYOR: Yes, absolutely, Madam Chairman. Councillor CASSIDY in his question to me made reference to Kingsford Smith Drive—


Chairman: Order. Councillor CASSIDY!

LORD MAYOR: No, that is true, but I am making reference to it because it is very, very relevant. The whole question is about: will we make the numbers available around the Metro in the business case—


Chairman: Order!

LORD MAYOR: Yes, the business—


Chairman: Councillor SUTTON. Councillor SUTTON. Councillor SUTTON! For the third time. You have been in this place for 12 years; you know you do not shout out across the Chamber. You were warned last week about shouting out across the Chamber. If you continue to engage in that inappropriate behaviour, you will be formally warned.

LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. I will, providing the Premier is prepared to release all of the business case for debate in the Parliament.


LORD MAYOR: They are not going to. They are not going to.


Chairman: Order!

LORD MAYOR: I think I heard Councillor SUTTON say they are not going to, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: Order!


Chairman: Order!


- 12 -

Warning – Councillor Shayne SUTTONThe Chairman then formally warned Councillor Shayne SUTTON that unless she desisted from disobeying the directions of the Chair and calling out across the Chamber, she would be suspended from the service of the Council for a period of up to eight days. Furthermore, Councillor SUTTON was warned that, if she were suspended from the service of the Council, she would be excluded from the Council Chamber, Antechamber, Public Gallery and other meeting places for the period of suspension.

Chairman: There is a Meetings Local Law that governs the operation of this Council meeting, and I suggest that Councillors go and read the Meetings Local Law because you are not—

Councillor SUTTON: Point of order, Madam Chair.

Chairman: —behaving—Councillor SUTTON, resume your seat until I have finished what I am saying.

Councillor interjecting:

Chairman: Councillor SUTTON!

Order!

I suggest Councillors make themselves aware of the Meetings Local Law because you are openly and defiantly not complying with them.

Councillor SUTTON, you had a point of order.

Councillor SUTTON: Madam Chair, there is also in the Meetings Local Law a ruling that the Chairperson must preside over Council without bias. Can I ask that you familiarise yourself with that part of the local law?

Councillor JOHNSTON: Seconded.

Chairman: Councillor SUTTON—order!

Councillor SUTTON, your last statement was imputing motive. You have been consist—


Chairman: Councillor SUTTON, you have been consistently calling out across the Chamber since you were re-sworn in. That behaviour is inappropriate. I have drawn your attention to it repeatedly. I have given you leeway repeatedly. If you persist, you are on a formal warning; you know what the outcome will be.

LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR: Yes, Madam Chairman. It seems that the Labor Party in this place want one rule here, but they want a completely—



Councillor—

Councillor JOHNSTON: Madam Chairman, my point—


Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, Madam Chairman, and I am rising on a point of order. That point of order relates to the LORD MAYOR’s statement he has just made which is about the Australian Labor Party, which is not the subject of the question before us today, and I ask you to draw him back to the question.

Chairman: Thank you, Councillor JOHNSTON. The LORD MAYOR was providing context. He’d only got half of his sentence out, and it was the Australian Labor Party Councillors who asked the question, so the LORD MAYOR was bringing context into his response.

LORD MAYOR.


- 13 -

LORD MAYOR: Yes, thanks very much, Madam Chairman.


LORD MAYOR: I’ve only said thanks very much; what’s wrong with that?

Councillor JOHNSTON: I draw you—

Chairman: Order. Order. Order!

Councillor JOHNSTON, point of order.

Councillor JOHNSTON: I seek a ruling, Madam Chairman, in relation to the Meetings Local Law 2001 which you have told us to read. Section 33(8) states that in answering a question, the following rules shall apply: neither the LORD MAYOR nor the Chair shall debate the subject of the question. The answer will be relevant and succinct. Madam Chairman, I ask that you follow the Meetings Local Law subsection 33(8) and ensure that there is an answer provided.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, the LORD MAYOR was providing context in response to the question, and I have already made my ruling on that. I remind you that section 53(5) of the Meetings Local Law states that no debate is to occur on a point of order, and 53(6) says that once a point of order is properly disposed of, a further point of order may be raised provided it is not the same or a repetition of a point of order already disposed of. Should you continue to persist in raising points of order inappropriately during Question Time, I will exercise my right under section 53(9) of the Meetings Local Law.

LORD MAYOR.



414/2015-16Councillor Nicole JOHNSTON moved, seconded by Councillor Shayne SUTTON, that the Chairman’s ruling be dissented from. Upon being submitted to the meeting the motion of dissent was declared lost on the voices.

Chairman: LORD MAYOR, back to your response to the question, please.

LORD MAYOR: I’ve almost forgotten where we were up to, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: You have two minutes remaining, LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR: Thank you very, very much. So, in respect to business cases generally, I would just say this: obviously we undertake business cases for major projects. That is important. If we followed Labor’s rules, however, in relation to business cases, some of these projects in this city would not have been built. They castigate the business case around Kingsford Smith Drive on the one hand, yet they supported the open-level crossings at Geebung and at Telegraph Road, Bald Hills, which had a much lower business case around them than that of Kingsford Smith Drive—much, much lower. The number one on their list, Coopers Plains open-level crossing, will be the same business case as Geebung—much lower, much, much lower than Kingsford Smith Drive. So they are not a reliable source.

This is why I view the question with a great deal of scepticism. They are not serious about the project. They are serious about playing politics. This has been the same failed modus operandi that they have adopted for far too long in this place. What they need to do is to get out there and get themselves some decent supportable policies. I have noticed that they have already indicated that they’re not going to really be into the policy game in this place, putting up alternative points of view; they are going to be about keeping us to account. Well, Madam Chairman, opposition is more than keeping people to account; it is about putting up alternative ideas. It is about making sure that they are debated.

So they can talk about business cases all day long, but I am saying to you that they are completely inconsistent in terms of their view as to whether a business


- 14 -

case is good enough to support a project or not. That is the position, and that is why the question is a silly question.

Chairman: Thank you, LORD MAYOR.

That ends Question Time.

CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS:

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE

The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK), Chairman of the Establishment and Coordination Committee, moved, seconded by the DEPUTY MAYOR (Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER), that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 18 April 2016, be adopted.


LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. Just a couple of matters before coming to the report. This city welcomed refugees. Just the other day we had a ceremony. This is the ceremony we hold each year to welcome refugees who have come to our city over the previous 12 months to make them feel welcome in our city. I appreciate the attendance of other Councillors. We have varied numbers of Councillors each year at that event, and it is something that this city will continue to support, to make sure that our refugee population are aware of the services that are available to them to make their stay in our city as productive as it can be, and to help settle them into their new home after what has been some pretty unfortunate lives and draconian circumstances for many of the refugees that are here.

I attended on Saturday evening a couple of events. One was an event put on by a young start-up called Tanda. This was a group of four QUT students that got a bit of an idea around abolishing time sheets and producing a smarter way of employee record keeping. Those four QUT students now have about 24 people employed. So it just shows it is a remarkable success story in our city, There are many more potential success stories like that our there.

So Tanda held what they called a Hackathon on Saturday night, where there were 12 individual small groups of people pitching their ideas to potential employers, again about the opportunity to create smart ideas in this city, to create job opportunities in our city in this wonderful digital and start-up space. So we congratulate them on the initiative.

I also attended an event on Saturday evening for Lions Medical Research. It is a significant fundraiser in the city. This will go to cancer research. As we know, our city certainly punches above its weight in terms of the medical research that is undertaken here. A lot of it is dependent upon funds. A lot of those funds are raised on a voluntary basis by organisations like Lions, so I thank them and salute them for what they do to make sure that we have well-funded researchers in place at the right level to advance not only our city here, but of course mankind throughout the world.

We of course celebrated—not celebrated, that’s the wrong word—but commemorated Anzac Day yesterday. No doubt all Councillors would have been out at various ceremonies around the city, and again well-attended events. The dawn service had an enormous crowd, as did the parade, so I thank all those people who did come out to acknowledge those people who have served our nation in whatever capacity it may have been, either through the ultimate sacrifice or in service in any way, as support services to frontline troops as well.

Today we have two items in our report. The first is a report of the Audit Committee meeting of 10 March. Just a couple of aspects to that, I noted that Mr Patrick Fleming, the Director of Queensland Audit Office, provided a brief summary of key audit matters to that Committee relating to the 2015-16


- 15 -

Annual Financial Statements. Also, the Chief Internal Auditor advised that the 2015-16 Assurance Services Plan was on track for completion.

Item B is an interesting one. This is the Narashino Agreement that we are asking Council to sign today. The Narashino Agreement was originally signed in February 1998. It was signed during the Soorley Administration period. It is an affiliation agreement essentially to allow migratory birds to come to what are a protected wetlands area, the Boondall Wetlands. It also involves the Higata Tidelands in Tokyo, Yatsu Higata Tidelands, in fact. It is an agreement which has a number of responsibilities for Brisbane and Japan. Under one of the said agreements, there is a requirement; it is listed there. It is under the Ramsar Wetlands Convention.

It lists out a number of wetland areas. They include Boondall Wetlands, Moreton Bay and the Yatsu Higata Tidelands as well as obviously many others. It is just an agreement, essentially, to make sure that we keep cooperation there for these various migratory bird species that fly at the appropriate times to presumably breed and do whatever else they might do in relation to those wetlands.

Chairman: Further debate?

Councillor CUMMING.

Councillor CUMMING: Yes, thanks, Madam Chair. I refer to the E&C, Items A and B. Item A, again we saw an Audit Report which is bereft of detail. I would like to know more about paragraph 8 of that as well. The LORD MAYOR referred to the Chief Internal Auditor who advised the 2015-16 Assurance Services Plan was on track for completion. He also provided details on recently issued assurances reports. I would be interested to know more about that. Also, paragraph 10, investigation trends; an update regarding the latest investigation trends was provided by the Ethical Standards Manager. A more complete report to Council would be justified, and would help make sure that things are going in the right direction.

Seriatim - Clauses A and BCouncillor Peter CUMMING requested that Clauses A, REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 10 MARCH 2016, and B, FOURTH NARASHINO AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NARASHINO, JAPAN, REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF THE YATSU HIGATA TIDELANDS LOCATED WITHIN JAPAN AND BRISBANE’S BOONDALL WETLANDS, be taken seriatim for voting purposes.

Councillor CUMMING: Because of the lack of detail we cannot support Item A, but we will be supporting Item B. In relation to Item B, I have some concerns about it. The previous agreement expired on 30 September 2014, which is almost 18 months ago. I hope that that doesn’t indicate any waning in enthusiasm for the agreement and the support by our Council and the Japanese Council for the agreement.

The proposed new agreement has no expiry date, but it does include strategies that the Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre (BWEC) and the Yatsu Higata Nature Observation Centre (YHNOC) must undertake. I refer in particular to the fact that both are required to hold an annual event or a series of smaller events to raise awareness of wetland and shoreland conservation. On the next page, under Administration Arrangements, reports will be exchanged every three years sharing achievements and outlining actions for the following three years.

I guess it seems to be that there are some obligations imposed on the BWEC and YHNOC. I am also concerned that these people are volunteers, and I hope that the Brisbane City Council and the Japanese Council will support those volunteers in satisfying the requirements that have been set out in the agreement. We think it is a very worthy thing, preserving wetlands, mudflats and the like. The distance the small birds fly from Siberia and the like to come and nest and feed in areas in other parts of the world is quite incredible. It’s a longstanding agreement for the Council. I think it is a very worthy agreement, and we will be supporting the continuation of that agreement.


- 16 -


No further debate?

LORD MAYOR, right of reply.

LORD MAYOR: Madam Chairman, I do wish to respond very quickly to Councillor CUMMING in terms of our commitment. One of the commitments we made during the election period, which probably didn’t get a lot of coverage with all the other issues that were going on, was a commitment to a new environment centre at Boondall to replace the existing environment centre. We have committed some $6 million towards that centre.

Of course, we have the Karawatha Environment Centre on the south side. We have a smaller centre at Pooh Corner. The new Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre will provide an educational opportunity into the future as well. It does all fit with that. It is not on the back of this agreement, I can’t say that. We see it more, however, as an important educational facility in Brisbane.

Plus, we are also very conscious that good facilities like Karawatha, like what we are proposing here at Boondall, will also provide a further opportunity, a secondary opportunity for the city, by way of ecotourism, which is a growing sector. Particularly our friends throughout the Asia-Pacific region are looking more and more towards these opportunities to understand and to participate in the wonderful environment and climate that we have here in our city. That is a secondary thing, however, to the important first feature, the educational feature, for local residents. Thanks, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: I will now put Item A.

Clause A put

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of Clause A of the report was declared carried on the voices.

Thereupon, Councillors Peter CUMMING and Jared CASSIDY immediately rose and called for a division, which resulted in the motion being declared carried.

The voting was as follows:

AYES: 21 - The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR, Councillor Graham QUIRK, DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER, and Councillors Krista ADAMS, Adam ALLAN, Matthew BOURKE, Amanda COOPER, Vicki HOWARD, Steven HUANG, Fiona KING, Kim MARX, Peter MATIC, Ian McKENZIE, David McLACHLAN, Ryan MURPHY, Angela OWEN, Kate RICHARDS, Julian SIMMONDS, Steven TOOMEY, Andrew WINES, Norm WYNDHAM and Nicole JOHNSTON.

NOES: 5 - The Leader of the OPPOSITION, Councillor Peter CUMMING, and Councillors Jared CASSIDY, Steve GRIFFITHS, Charles STRUNK, Shayne SUTTON,.

ABSTENTIONS: 1 - Councillor Johnathan SRI.

Chairman: I will now put Item B.

Clause B put

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of Clause B of the report was declared carried on the voices.

The report read as follows

ATTENDANCE:


- 17 -

The Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor (Councillor Graham Quirk) (Chairman); Deputy Mayor (Councillor Adrian Schrinner) (Deputy Chairman); and Councillors Krista Adams, Matthew Bourke, Amanda Cooper, David McLachlan, Julian Simmonds and Steven Toomey.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE:

Councillor Peter Matic.

A REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 10 MARCH 2016109/695/586/6

415/2015-161. The Chief Executive Officer provided the information below.

2. Section 201 of the City of Brisbane Regulation 2012 requires that as soon as practicable after a meeting of the Audit Committee (the Committee), Council must be given a written report about the matters reviewed at the meeting and the Committee’s recommendations about the matters.

3. The Chief Executive Officer is to present the report mentioned in section 201(1)(c) at the next meeting of Council.

4. The Chief Executive Officer provided the following recommendation and the Committee agreed.

5. RECOMMENDATION:

THAT COUNCIL NOTE THE REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 10 MARCH 2016, AS SET OUT IN ATTACHMENT A, submitted on file.

ADOPTED

B FOURTH NARASHINO AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NARASHINO, JAPAN, REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF THE YATSU HIGATA TIDELANDS LOCATED WITHIN JAPAN AND BRISBANE’S BOONDALL WETLANDS131/630/543/2647

416/2015-166. The Divisional Manager, City Planning and Sustainability Division, provided the information below.

7. Since 1998 Brisbane City Council (Council) has been a signatory to the Narashino Agreement (the Agreement) with the City of Narashino, Japan. The Agreement seeks to promote the understanding, protection, and conservation of the Yatsu Higata Tidelands located within Japan and Brisbane’s Boondall Wetlands. The Yatsu Higata Tidelands and Boondall Wetlands provide a critical habitat for migratory bird species crossing the East Asian˗Australian Flyway. The Agreement is a response to a List of Wetlands of International Importance under The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar) listing which supports the protection of wetlands and their resources. Locations listed within Ramsar include the Boondall Wetlands, Moreton Bay and the Yatsu Higata Tidelands.

8. The 2009 to 2014 Narashino Agreement was signed by the former Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman, and the former Mayor of Narashino, Isamu Araki, and concluded on 30 September 2014 (Attachment B, submitted on file).

9. On 23 January 2015, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk welcomed the City of Narashino to progress negotiations for the development of a new agreement. During negotiations, the City of Narashino requested that the agreement include:- a long-term agreement without definition of a final year - updates negotiated between the two cities with the assistance of internet conferencing (i.e.

Skype)


- 18 -

- voluntary exchange visits by citizens rather than scheduled official visits, with the assistance of internet conferencing if citizens are unable to visit.

10. Council is currently liaising with the City of Narashino for the signing of the Agreement. Continuation of the Agreement will support international relations with the City of Narashino and the Ramsar Convention’s mission for the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation.

11. The Divisional Manager provided the following recommendation and the Committee agreed.

12. RECOMMENDATION:

THAT COUNCIL APPROVE ENTERING INTO A FOURTH NARASHINO AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NARASHINO, JAPAN, REGARDING THE PROTECTION OF THE YATSU HIGATA TIDELANDS LOCATED WITHIN JAPAN AND BRISBANE’S BOONDALL WETLANDS, AS SET OUT IN ATTACHMENT A, submitted on file.

ADOPTED

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Special report)

The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK), Chairman of the Establishment and Coordination Committee, moved, seconded by the DEPUTY MAYOR (Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER), that the special report of the meeting of that Committee held on 26 April 2016, be adopted.


LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. This is a temporary local planning instrument (TLPI) that we are bringing to the Chamber today. It involves a number of properties. It involves properties that are believed to be pre-1911 properties, and they have been brought to our attention by residents. During the election campaign, I said that we wanted to hear from people if they believed that a property was a pre-1911 property, understanding that some of these properties are not readily identified as pre-1911 because of changes that have been made, renovations that might have occurred.

I note also, and thank the Deputy Premier, for a letter that she wrote to myself where she said that she encouraged the invitation to Brisbane residents to nominate homes for inclusion in the overlay. So today we have through that process identified a number of properties which are here as a temporary local planning instrument for listing.

They include two of the properties in Jones Street, number 14 and 16; there are also properties at Bald Hills, New Farm, Red Hill and Upper Brookfield that are included for this listing. We trust that this will provide a mechanism for coverage. We will, of course, be continuing to seek advice from local Councillors, as we will from the community at large, around any other homes that may be out there that people believe might be pre-1911 homes.

People will recall that there are over 400 homes that we listed in the 2014 City Plan that had not had previous coverage. There is no magical list around in relation to these homes. We have done our level best to identify those homes. We will continue, in association with the community, to try and identify further homes that might be out there, and we will welcome the feedback, both from local Councillors as they do their rounds, but also from the broader community.

This city belongs to us all, and we all have a part to play. The community helps us in many ways as a Council, whether it is identifying potholes, as simple as that, through to more significant matters like these, and we thank them for that. But it is a call that I again make, and I thank those who have responded to my previous call allowing for the TLPI to be brought through today.

Under normal circumstances, we will continue to do this through the major and minor amendments program. That will be the normal process for adopting these.


- 19 -

But given we had a TLPI plan, we have encompassed those within this report today.


Councillor SUTTON.

Councillor SUTTON: Yes, Madam Chair, I rise to speak on this report. If this wasn’t such a serious issue, you’d have to laugh at the incompetence of the LNP when it comes to protecting pre-1911 homes in this city. I remind the Chamber: this was your one good news story out of your City Plan 2014. This was the one good thing you said you were going to do. You said you were going to go out and protect pre-1911 homes.

When someone goes out, like the LORD MAYOR, and says: we’re going to do this, like we’re going to build a Metro, apparently, you would expect them to actually deliver on that commitment. Well, woe is me! Never, ever, ever expect the LNP in this Council to deliver on a commitment they have made to the residents of Brisbane, because—

Chairman: To the report, Councillor SUTTON.

Councillor SUTTON: —what this report shows is that regardless of all their grandstanding on this issue, there is still a significant number of pre-1911 homes out there that remain unprotected. This Administration and this LORD MAYOR has so far refused to undertake any kind of comprehensive audit throughout Brisbane to identify and safeguard these homes from demolition.

When you put an issue like this on the agenda, you would expect them to be serious about actually delivering on this commitment. But every week in this place, in this new term, we have had a TLPI to protect another set of houses that this mob missed when they originally said they were going to protect these houses. The incompetence is gob-smacking, absolutely gob-smacking. It is further evidence why this LNP should not be left in charge of city planning for this city. They have no idea of what they are doing.

Labor Councillors have a pretty clear position on this: we need to undertake a citywide audit to ensure that every pre-1911 home is identified and protected so that we do not have to continually be bringing forward temporary local planning instruments into this Council to try to catch the horse before it has bolted when the development application is lodged over the site.

The LORD MAYOR has said that all of these houses in the TLPI have been identified by the community. That is great, really wonderful. My question, I guess, is how come the regular mums and dads, interested community members, historical groups and so on and so forth across Brisbane are so qualified to be able to identify these pre-1911 homes? Yet the LORD MAYOR with his 8,000-strong Council bureaucracy, with his entire City Planning division, with the heritage architects it employs, how is it that the Council does not have the technical expertise to be able to identify these homes? How is it that it is left up to the residents of Brisbane, wholly and solely, to actually be bringing these houses forward?

I guess what goes to the heart of this, and the one that I can’t quite believe or understand, is that this week’s report has got two more houses listed in James Street, Highgate Hill, that are right next door to the three houses we protected through the TLPI that came to Council last week. When I’m highlighting this LNP Administration’s incompetence, how come it takes us two goes to actually be able to identify five houses in a row in the same street? How come—


Chairman: Order!

Councillor SUTTON: How come this went through in two batches? Was it that hard? Is it seriously that hard? Apparently so, when you have the LNP in charge of City Planning in this city, this is the type of incompetence that we get when it comes to protecting Brisbane’s heritage. The City Planning Chair will get up and do his


- 20 -

stumps speech, I know, and it will all be about personal attacks on the Leader of the Opposition, because that’s his one shot in the locker on City Planning. That is the only trick he’s got in his cache of lines that his advisers have prepared for him.

Chairman: Councillor SUTTON, to the report.

Councillor SUTTON: Just one shot in the locker from Councillor SIMMONDS.

Chairman: Order!

Councillor SUTTON: My challenge to the Chairperson for City Planning is to get up, to go beyond the personal attacks, to get to the substance of the issue about why this LNP Administration is so terrible at protecting this city’s heritage homes and this city’s pre-1911 houses.


Councillor COOPER.

Councillor COOPER: Thank you very much, Madam Chair; I rise to speak to this Special Report. I note that Councillor SUTTON has been rather derogatory about the work of Council officers. I would actually like to thank the Council officers, because they certainly have delivered something that the Labor Party could never deliver. I also thank the community for coming forward and nominating properties that potentially could be listed as buildings that were constructed pre-1911.

It is interesting because I know that the Labor Party, when they put Demolition Control Precincts in place, put it in a very restricted area, part of our city. They certainly did not encompass all of Brisbane, and we know that Brisbane is about 400,000—so a huge number of properties that are all within the boundaries of our beautiful city. But the Labor Party, when they put DCPs in place, they were in fact quite broad-brush strokes that they painted the DCPs in.

I note in this Chamber we’ve debated how they actually had properties listed in DCPs that had not even a house on them. In fact, one had a car on it which was listed in a DCP. That is how accurate their mapping was; extremely disappointing that the Australian Labor Party forget their own track record which is shameful.

Councillor SUTTON: Point of order, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: Point of order against you, Councillor COOPER.

Councillor SUTTON.

Councillor SUTTON: There are two points. The ex-Planning Chairperson knows the DCPs was also about design of new houses in those zones. But also, the relevance to the report.


Chairman: Order! I don’t up hold your first point of order, Councillor SUTTON. In respect of your second point of order, Councillor COOPER was responding to comments that you had made about the inaccuracies in detailing these types of houses.

Councillor COOPER.

Councillor COOPER: Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This particular item, number 16 Adair Street at Bald Hills, is on the absolute outskirts of Brisbane. So it is the northern most suburb in our city. That is Bald Hills, for those of you who don’t know it, a beautiful part of our city, 17 kilometres from the CBD. This is an old farming community. It was settled about 150-plus years ago. It was on the Cobb & Co route, so there was coach and mail services that came through there. The school there, the Bald Hills State School, is the fourth oldest school in Queensland. So it is a very old part of our city. But is it mapped by the DCPs established by the Australian Labor Party? Oh no, it was not.

However, in this case, we are seeing a proposal put forward to list this particular property at Bald Hills, and I am absolutely thrilled to see, because certainly old


- 21 -

farming communities are often where older houses were established many, many years ago. Those are, I think, absolutely worthy of consideration under the pre-1911 overlay.

I would also just like to make one brief comment with respect to heritage protection in addition to the pertinent comments that have been made by Councillor SIMMONDS. There were two houses at Pier Avenue in Shorncliffe, and I would suggest if former Councillor Newton was still in the Chamber, she would be rather shame-faced about amendments that were made to SPA, the Sustainable Planning Act, by the Australian Labor Party which meant that those properties were demolished. Council-listed heritage properties that were demolished with no application to Council due to amendments that were made by the then Premier, Premier Bligh, to slash red tape. Those heritage homes were lost, and that was shameful—

Councillor SUTTON: Point of order, Madam Chair.

Councillor COOPER: Thank you, Madam Chair.

Chairman: Point of order, Councillor SUTTON.

Councillor SUTTON: She knows that she was an—

Chairman: Councillor SUTTON! We don’t refer to people as ‘she’ in this place.

Councillor SUTTON: My apology.

Chairman: You refer to Councillors as Councillor, please.

Councillor SUTTON: Well, Madam Chair, I was just rising on a point of order to ask you to bring Councillor COOPER back to this report.

Chairman: And Councillor COOPER has concluded her speech, so further debate—

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, Madam Chairman, I rise to speak on the E&C Special Report. Let me say that the second last minute attempt by the LORD MAYOR to protect some, not all, pre-1911 homes in Brisbane is akin to putting a band-aid on an open heart wound. This action today is really about addressing the tip of the iceberg about the problem we are having with City Plan and its intention to protect pre-1911 houses and buildings, and also pre-1946 character houses.

What this problem fundamentally is—and the LORD MAYOR acknowledged it last week, and if you listened to what he said, he took responsibility for the problem. But the issue today is the solution being proposed does not solve the problem. The problem is no thorough investigation of pre-1911 homes and pre 1946 homes was undertaken in City Plan 2014. As a result, significant historic and character homes in this city are unprotected—unprotected.

This temporary local planning instrument before us today does very little to improve that situation. It identifies on the basis of consultation undertaken in one week, one week, seven houses—or six, because we knew about the others last week—that are being added to protection or worthy of protection. I know this will not include all pre-1911 homes. I know it, because I know in Annerley there are huge amounts of them that are not protected. It is not appropriate that the LORD MAYOR after a week says he has consulted, rushes in a planning instrument that will not achieve the purpose of protecting all pre-1911 homes in the city, because that’s what we should be doing here.

When there is acknowledgment that there is a policy problem in this place, which the LORD MAYOR admitted last week, it is incumbent upon us to find an appropriate solution. This is not that solution; it is about putting a band-aid on a bigger problem, and that’s not good enough.

Not all the pre-1911 homes in this city will be protected. No pre-1946 homes in this city, which also deserve protection, are included in this temporary local planning instrument. To make matters worse, the amendments that are being put


- 22 -

forward still allow these historic pre-1911 homes to be knocked down as code assessable, with no notice to our community.

This is what we’ve got. If next week there is a pre-1911 home that is not covered under this temporary local planning instrument, last week’s temporary local planning instrument or City Plan 2014, we will not know if it is going to be knocked down, because it is code assessable. There is no notice to our community. The community will not know unless somebody, as they did in Highgate Hill, recognises the house as being pre-1911 and we fight another rearguard action to try and address the situation.

Last week in this place I moved a motion to ensure all pre-1911 homes were protected, together with pre-1946 homes, and that was voted down by the LORD MAYOR and the LNP Councillors. That was an appalling decision in my view. This Council should be about changing our policy to ensure the long-term future of our historic and character houses. Simply cherry-picking six or seven after one week of consultation will not effectively and substantially get the job done.

We will be back in this boat within weeks because of the inadequate instrument that is before us today. It is critical that we immediately move to protect all pre-1911 homes in this city and all pre-1946 homes in this city. The intent of City Plan is to protect them, but the reality of City Plan and the reality in which the mapping system has been undertaken is that these homes are not protected. They are not protected in many parts of our city.

The LNP blames the ALP. The ALP blames the LNP. Let’s stop playing politics and fix it. The way to fix it is to move motions in this place to protect all pre-1911 homes and all pre-1946 homes. That is not happening. If a motion does not come forward to do this, I flag I will be moving one in the next week or two. I also flag that this LNP Administration is sitting on two urgent petitions to protect character homes in our area; important homes that deserve this Council’s support through temporary local planning instruments, and they have not been brought forward. That is not good enough.

So as I said when I started, this is a band-aid on an open heart wound. If it protected all pre-1911 homes in this city, that would have been a good move. What it does today is protect just six homes based on a week of desperate scrambling around to try and patch up a botched political effort last week without thinking about the broader issues to do with the inadequacies in City Plan 2014. That is, we should be giving effect to a policy position that protects all pre-1911 homes, not just a few.

We should be giving effect to protecting all pre-1946 character homes, not just a few. We should be ensuring that residents are notified via a large black and white sign when any pre-1911 home is being demolished. Today we are basically saying to the community: we are not going to tell you. That is not good enough, LORD MAYOR. That was one of the fundamental flaws in City Plan 2014 when it came through for debate here. We had days of debate about that. What you are doing here is ensuring the situation that happened in Jones Street, Highgate Hill will and can happen again, even next week. That is not good enough.

We need a broader change to the City Plan to ensure these houses are properly protected, and we need to ensure those amendments include the code to make sure that there is public notification when these houses are subject to an application for demolition. Anything less is letting down our community, and exposes the hypocrisy of the LORD MAYOR when he stands up in this place and says he means to protect them but his policy does not. That is what this is about today. This catch-up will not solve the bigger problem.


Councillor SIMMONDS.

Councillor SIMMONDS: Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chairman. I obviously rise to speak in support of Item A on the Special E&C that the Chamber has before it today. As


- 23 -

the LORD MAYOR has ably pointed out, these are a number of nominations that we have received from the community for pre-1911 houses. We have had the opportunity for the officers to conduct some research into them and confirm that they are, in fact, pre-1911 houses.

Not all houses that were nominated did end up being pre-1911 houses, but these certainly did. It is important for the TLPI to come in in order to provide them with protection in the meantime, and in particular the property at 16 Jones Street. I appreciate the nominations that we have had, particularly from local Councillors, and also from local State members as well.

Rather than labour too much the point of what this item is, I wanted to respond to some of the debate that we have heard this afternoon. This bit of hyperbole that we have heard, that no investigation was done as part of City Plan 2014 is rubbish; total and utter rubbish. The claim that a comprehensive audit was not done is rubbish. How do you think—


Councillor SIMMONDS: How do you think we found the 400 properties? Because we comprehensively went through the building cards and the application history, so these are physical cards that record the old DAs. We went through the 1946 aerial photography; we went through the BCC’s detailed sewerage plans. They are all in the archives.

We went through property title searches and mortgage details that we could find—keep in mind, this is for pre-1911 properties, so how good do you think that these archives are, and how easy do you think it is to lay your hands on them—old subdivision plans, historic building registers, electoral records, the old Post Office directories, they were looking through the microfiche of old newspapers. How do you think we found the 400 properties? Through that detailed investigation, we are sure that those 400 properties are pre-1911 properties, and that is why they are included in the overlay.

I was pleased when Councillor SUTTON attacked us for not doing an audit, which we quite clearly did, because as I said, you don’t jump on Google and find 400 pre˗1911 homes on the satellite maps. So clearly we have done the audit, but I was pleased when Councillor SUTTON attacked me for that, because I always like to compare our record with their record. So let’s do a proper comparison of this Administration versus the Labor Administration. How did they go about protecting houses?

Well, let’s pick, for example, the last time they did a city plan, City Plan 2000. They wanted to protect pre-1900 homes, an admirable trait. So, did they do a comprehensive audit, I have to ask myself. How many houses did they pick up in their comprehensive audit. Does anyone want to have a guess? 100, 200, 500? Zippo, none, because they didn’t do a comprehensive audit. In fact, Labor at the time got the advice that Ipswich had just done a similar thing, done an audit like we have done, and they decided, no, it’s too much work, it’s too hard, it’s too expensive, don’t worry about it. All they did, literally—this is what they did: they put a line in the City Plan 2000 that said we would like to protect pre-1900 homes.

Did they know where they were? No. Do you know how they found them? Oh, it depends if the apple can decide to be truthful or not. Depended if the owner decided to come forward. It was a total lottery draw, an absolute lottery draw. That is how Labor run heritage protection in this city, to make no effort to try and find these homes and protect them.

Contrast with us, where we have gone through that, we have found the 400 homes, above and beyond the ones in DCP already protected, and we have individually itemised those in the overlay so that everybody knows that they are protected. What is the other side of the coin? Well, that is what Councillor JOHNSTON is proposing, and it is a total blanket, a total blanket. If we were to do that, the emphasis would fall on every single property owner in this city to prove that they weren’t pre-1911. So forget Councillors doing the work; forget


- 24 -

Council doing the work; it would be up to you. It would be up to every individual property owner.

How do I know that Councillor JOHNSTON is playing games? I know she doesn’t actually support what she is suggesting. I know that this is a political game, and I know that because she made a very insightful comment about the heritage process. Now, keep in mind heritage isn’t pre-1911. Heritage is a step above. So what happens in the heritage process? Well, someone nominates a heritage property, and then we do some research, and then it comes through as an amendment and that is the time at which we do the consultation with the residents, once we are sure that it is a heritage property.

Councillor JOHNSTON took great umbrage at this. She wrote, and I quote: Thank you for your email. However, my concerns about this process remain. I believe consultation with the owner should occur prior to the listing process commencing. That, in my view, is the fair and appropriate way, as this can be a stressful process.

So on one point she is saying you can’t—



Councillor JOHNSTON: Claim to be misrepresented.

Councillor SIMMONDS: On one side she is saying don’t even start researching a heritage property until you’ve spoken to the owner, because that is just unfair to put that burden on them. On the other hand, she is calling me to protect every property in the city on the off chance it might be a pre-1911 before we’ve had any consultation—any consultation with the residents. What an absolute hypocrite, Madam Chairman. She can’t run one political argument when it suits her and another—


Councillor SIMMONDS: Well, while we are on this particular Councillor, Councillor JOHNSTON, what is her record when it comes to forcibly protecting pre-1946 properties for her community? She has had 17 opportunities to provide a Councillor comment on applications to demolish pre-1946 properties, and guess how many of those 17 she provided a Councillor comment on?

Councillor ADAMS: Zero?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Zero. Good guess, Councillor ADAMS, zero, nil, nada, zip, zippo. This is a Councillor who can come in here and grandstand and not even provide her own comments.

So, Madam Chairman, we do welcome the opportunity for residents to be able to provide us with some information and some intel where they see a pre-1911 home. That is exactly what we want. Again, I just say to Councillor SUTTON, the fact that you have elected as the Labor Opposition Leader the biggest heritage vandal in this particular Chamber is important. That is why I use it. That is why I remind the people of Brisbane, that is why I remind this Chamber of the hypocrisy.

I could remind them—because there are other things in my little book—I could remind them how, in response to the LORD MAYOR calling a special debate on City Plan 2014, you put out a tweet to say it was more important to be at the hairdresser that turned up in City Beats. Unfortunately this threw the hair appointment—


Councillor SIMMONDS: I am not saying the hair isn’t important—

Chairman: Order!


Chairman: Order!


- 25 -

Councillor SIMMONDS: —but that is—I imagine very hard, I acknowledge that. But the point remains—

Chairman: Just a moment, please, Councillor SIMMONDS. Councillor SUTTON, I understand that your tweets about hair appointments may be funny to you, but I remind you that you are on a formal warning and ask you to completely cease and desist calling out across the Chamber. Councillor SIMMONDS.

Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. My point simply boils down to this: this Administration is interested in protecting heritage. This Administration has taken the steps when those previously didn’t exist to protect pre-1911 homes. It is this Administration who put the time and the resources and the officers into undertaking a search to find these homes as best we could, and it is the Labor Party who have continuously and previously done the opposite. They did the opposite when they were in Administration; they do the opposite through their colleagues up in the State Parliament as well.

So, we are not going to stand on principle on this. If we find more 1911 homes that have been nominated, we will move to protect them, because that is what we want to achieve. We are not going to stand on principle on this. We’re not going to make apologies for it. We want to make sure we grab as many of those, and we will use every resource. Just as the LORD MAYOR says, we ask residents to nominate potholes, and we use that resource, we will do the same thing here. Thank you.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON, you claim misrepresentation.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, Madam Chairman. The Planning Chairperson quoted a statement I have made in this Chamber with respect to heritage listing. He shows his ignorance because he does not know there is a difference between heritage listings where there should be consultation and the difference between the debate before us today in which I have stated that we should be protecting all pre-1911 homes—

Chairman: Thank you, Councillor JOHNSTON—

Councillor JOHNSTON: —not all homes in Brisbane, as he stated.

Chairman: —you have made your point.

Further debate?

No further debate?

LORD MAYOR, right of reply.

LORD MAYOR: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. I think Councillor SIMMONDS hit the nail on the head. We have seen and heard a fair bit of hypocrisy in this debate today. We have heard all sorts of reasons from Councillor SUTTON as to we’re just absolute shockers over here, really, if you listen to Councillor SUTTON.

I mentioned at the outset in this debate a letter that I’d had from the Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, where she said, and I quote again: I am encouraged by your invitation to Brisbane residents to nominate homes for inclusion in the overlay. I also agree with the intent of your City Plan to retain homes built before 1911, and this supports the community expectation.

Fair enough. We heard from Councillor SIMMONDS that the Labor Party had introduced pre-1900 provisions in the City Plan 2000, provisions for pre-1900 homes. Let me just read on this letter that I have received from the Deputy Premier. She says: “My local community, with my support, would like the following homes to be included in the pre-1911 overlay: 14 Jones Street, Highgate Hill and 16 Jones Street, Highgate Hill”—two that are included in this report today. This is the interesting bit: the above houses have historic data including the Titles Office Certificate and also postal records dated back to 1881 through to 1895. Wouldn’t that put both of those homes as pre-1900 homes, not pre-1911, pre-1900 homes, introduced by the Labor Party in the year 2000?

So, Councillor CUMMING, you were a part of that Administration. Perhaps you as Opposition Leader can outline to us what were the processes taken by the Labor Party in the year 2000 when they introduced the pre-1900 house


- 26 -

provisions, and how were these two missed in the year 2000 when those provisions were introduced?

We are hearing a lot of commentary from those opposite, with the exception of Councillor HOWARD—


LORD MAYOR: I’ve got to remember you are there, Councillor HOWARD; I won’t forget you. Talk is cheap, but what we are saying in a genuine way to the community of Brisbane is if you have a belief that there is a pre-1911 home out there, then we would love to hear about it. We don’t claim to be perfect, Madam Chairman. I have never stood up in this place and claimed that this Administration is perfect, and I never will. We are all only human, both the Councillors and the officers of this Council. We will do our level best—we commit that to you—but we also have to do it understanding that there is a limitation to resources in any of the activities of this Council, but we also do it in a spirit of working with the community with us all having an interest in a better Brisbane.

So, Madam Chairman, I again today extend that invitation to Councillors, if you know of pre-1911 homes in your wards, and indeed to the community of Brisbane, if you do believe that such a house exists, then let us know so we can do the research around those individual properties. We have listed over 400 homes when the 2014 City Plan was introduced. That is 400 more homes than the Labor Party listed when they introduced the 2000 City Plan pre-1900 housing protection. So, we have given it a hell of a better crack than what the Labor Party did in 2000.

Councillor CUMMING, as Leader of the Opposition, might want to explain what were the discussions within the party at that time when they introduced that provision, and why they didn’t have a crack at, at least, as much of a list as they could possibly muster. We are here today with I believe fair dinkum credentials to do our best to work with the community to list any houses above the 400 that we originally identified to make this list as perfect as it can be, and we will continue—and we make that commitment today to work with this community of Brisbane to ensure that list is as accurate as it can be.

Chairman: I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the special report of the Establishment and Coordination committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor (Councillor Graham Quirk) (Chairman), the Deputy Mayor (Councillor Adrian Schrinner) (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Krista Adams, Matthew Bourke, Amanda Cooper, Peter Matic, David McLachlan, and Julian Simmonds.

A TEMPORARY LOCAL PLANNING INSTRUMENT 02/16 – PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED PRIOR TO 1911152/160/1218/28

417/2015-161. The Divisional Manager, City Planning and Sustainability, provided the information below.

2. The Brisbane City Plan 2014 (City Plan 2014) seeks to reinforce the city’s distinctive identity by protecting traditional character housing, including pre-1911 buildings. The Pre-1911 building overlay code and the Pre-1911 building overlay map are the principal tools used to assess the suitability of development of land in the Pre-1911 building overlay under City Plan 2014.


- 27 -

3. Provisions to specifically protect pre-1911 buildings were initially introduced under the Temporary Local Planning Instrument 01/14: Protection of Residential Buildings Constructed Prior to 1911 (TLPI 01/14). This TLPI came into effect on 8 May 2014. TLPI 01/14 was established under Brisbane City Plan 2000 (City Plan 2000) and provided for assessment of the removal or demolition of any residential building constructed prior to 1911 within a Demolition Control Precinct (DCP), and the mapped residential buildings constructed prior to 1911 not within a DCP.

4. In drafting TLPI 01/14 in 2011-12, an extensive survey and detailed research was undertaken to identify, as far as practicable, pre-1911 residential buildings not within a DCP of City Plan 2000.

5. The pre-1911 residential buildings identified in TLPI 01/14 subsequently formed the basis of the Pre-1911 building overlay in City Plan 2014.

6. Since City Plan 2014 came into effect, and since adoption of TLPI 01/16, these additional pre-1911 houses set out at Table 2 of Attachment B, submitted on file, have been identified through nominations and confirmed detailed historical research.

7. The research investigated titles, post office directories and other historical documents to confirm the pre-1911 age for properties listed in Table 2 (Attachment B, submitted on file) of the TLPI.

8. Section 105 of the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 sets out the local government powers to make a TLPI, including that Council can only make a TLPI if the Minister is satisfied with the matters set out in that section. Statutory guideline 04/14 Making and amending local planning instruments (the Guideline) sets out the process for making a TLPI.

9. The proposed TLPI, entitled Temporary Local Planning Instrument 02/16 – Protection of Buildings Constructed Prior to 1911, has been prepared and is set out in Attachment B, submitted on file.

10. In accordance with the requirements of the Guideline, Council’s reasons for the proposed TLPI are outlined in a letter to the Minister as set out in Attachment C, submitted on file. Once approved by Council, the proposed TLPI will then be forwarded to the Minister for approval to adopt. Once adopted by Council, the TLPI will have effect for a period of one year from its adoption.

11. The Divisional Manager provided the following recommendation and the Committee agreed.

Attachment ADraft Resolution

DRAFT RESOLUTION TO PROPOSE THE TEMPORARY LOCAL PLANNING INSTRUMENT 02/16 PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED PRIOR TO 1911

As Council:

(i) pursuant to Step 1.1 of Stage 1 of section 4.2.1 of Statutory guideline 04/14 Making and amending local planning instruments (the Guideline) made under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (SPA), proposes to make a Temporary Local Planning Instrument for the protection of buildings constructed prior to 1911 (the proposed TLPI)

(ii) pursuant to Step 2.1 of Stage 1 of section 4.2.1 of the Guideline, has prepared the proposed TLPI as set out in Attachment B, submitted on file,

then Council:

(i) directs, pursuant to Step 3.1 of Stage 1 of section 4.2.1 of the Guideline, that the Minister be sent the letter in Attachment C, submitted on file, which:(a) requests the Minister’s consideration of the proposed TLPI(b) contains a statement about why Council proposes to make the TLPI(c) contains a statement about how the proposed TLPI complies with section

105 of SPA.ADOPTED


- 28 -

PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE

DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER, Chairman of the Public and Active Transport Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Andrew WINES that the report of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Chairman: DEPUTY MAYOR.

DEPUTY MAYOR: Thank you, Madam Chairman. At last week’s committee meeting we had an introductory or initial presentation on Brisbane Transport operations, going into the nature of the service that we provide as a Council, which is in fact very unique in Australia. We not only have one of the largest bus fleets in the country, but also we have the most modern. It is definitely a service that not too many other councils, or no other councils, deliver. Our investment in public transport as a Council is second to none in terms of local governments around Australia, and is certainly up there on a world scale as well.

Brisbane Transport has seven different depots across the city. There are 468 bus routes with more than 200 of those being school routes, and almost two and a half passengers catch a Brisbane Transport bus every second. So there’s a massive number of trips being conducted across the city each and every day. I am also pleased to say that Brisbane Transport has 2,671 employees who serve our organisation and our community very well. In fact, one in four Council employees actually drives a bus.

Councillor SUTTON I think it was referred to a certain number of Council officers that are on tap for the LORD MAYOR. One in four of those Council officers are actually out there on the street driving a bus as we speak. It is interesting when you take that into account and consider there is well over 2,100 bus drivers out and about serving our community, providing a valuable public transport service.

One of the interesting things, though, that we were able to determine as part of this presentation was how bus patronage has changed in recent times. We saw a very revealing chart which was provided in the presentation which talks about the growth in patronage since around 2004, 2005 when this Council started investing heavily in improving its bus fleet and also investing in new bus services through the BUZ routes. For those of you who aren’t aware, BUZ stands for Bus Upgrade Zone, and it involves the provision of a high-frequency bus services, with buses turning up in the range of every five to 10 minutes, depending on whether it is peak time or off peak.

The combination of the investment in new buses, upgrading the fleet and modernising the fleet, providing air conditioning, providing low-floor buses, plus increasing the frequency of bus services led to an incredible growth in patronage between 2004 and around 2009-10. We saw an average annual growth of almost 5 million trips per year during that time. There are not too many cities around the world that can boast that type of increase in patronage on a sustained basis over many, many years.

It was only when TransLink, who are responsible for setting the fares and collecting the fare revenue, started increasing fares dramatically did that patronage start to level out. It is a very clear picture that fares are absolutely critical when it comes to public transport patronage. While Council has been working heavily to invest in the basics and provide a modern fleet, provide a frequent service wherever possible, and those things were paying dividends, if you increase the fares too much, which the State Government has done, then people will start to hop off the buses and ferries and trains and they will get back into their cars, which is obviously a counterproductive move.

The other thing we were able to determine through this presentation was the fact that Brisbane City Council buses are actually the most efficient form of public transport in South East Queensland. When you compare the amount of money that goes into subsidising our bus services compared to rail services, compared


- 29 -

to ferry services or compared to in fact private bus operators, Brisbane is offering the most efficient service.

Every Queensland Rail passenger is subsidised $17 by TransLink. Every private bus passenger, so bus companies other than us, is subsidised $7.23 by TransLink. TransLink only subsidises our bus passengers by $3.85, and for ferries it is a similar amount as well, or even slightly better at $3.64. So we are providing a very cost effective service to the State Government, and Council is putting our own subsidy in as well to support that service.

It is interesting because we often hear certain transport advocates saying: all of the bus problems, or all of the public transport problems can be solved easily by doing a network review. It is their panacea where they think that Brisbane Transport is some lumbering inefficient organisation, and the reason fares get so expensive is because Brisbane Transport is inefficient. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We are the most efficient provider of transport services in South East Queensland, and that includes the private bus companies as well. So these are companies that are profit-making organisations. We can provide a more efficient service than they can, and that is something that Brisbane Transport can be commended for and something that we will continue to work on in terms of efficiency, but also providing a good service for the people of Brisbane. So yes, there were some very interesting facts and figures that came out of last week’s presentation, and I commend the report to the Chamber.


Councillor CASSIDY.

Councillor CASSIDY: Yes, thanks, Madam Chair. The DEPUTY MAYOR certainly is a one-trick pony on this topic. In the presentation and in the report we have here today, point 6 clearly shows that while affordability is one of the key issues that affects bus patronage, there are a number of others as well. As I said last week, and I will say again this week, we on this side are very eagerly awaiting the outcome of the fare review. We have been advocating for fairer fares as well on this side of the Chamber. We were the only team to have actually taken to the election a suite of practical policies that would have actually addressed this in the meantime, before the fare review comes out.

But other points there as well which this Administration has direct control over include comfort, ease of use, efficiency, reliability. We see in the latest TransLink customer satisfaction monthly snapshot out today actually shows that reliability is down, efficiency is down, ease of use is down and comfort is down. So these are things that the DEPUTY MAYOR can’t pass the buck on.

The LNP needs to come up with some policies to actually address this decline in bus patronage. It is 75 million passengers down from over 80 million just a few years ago, and the DEPUTY MAYOR said today that a five per cent cut to the public transport fares and a fare freeze didn’t have any impact. He said today in committee that cutting fares didn’t have any impact on patronage, and yet we are seeing customer satisfaction in a whole range of key areas, some of the main contributors to bus patronage outlined by Brisbane Transport are declining on his watch. So he’s got a lot of questions to answer, Madam Chair, and a lot of work to do.


Councillor WINES.

Councillor WINES: Thank you, Madam Chairman; I rise to speak to this presentation and speak of the remarkable work of BT (Brisbane Transport) to provide passenger journeys each and every year for over 75 million passengers, and over three million trips, a remarkable logistical exercise by our people. Over the years, this Administration has worked very hard on making this the most modern bus fleet in the country, fully air˗conditioned, fully accessible by wheelchairs and prams and older people with mobility issues, and better and faster dealing with graffiti


- 30 -

and vandalism issues on the buses to make our bus fleet the youngest and most modern and most comfortable in the country.

This Council also subsidises bus transport, but also it is important to remember that, as far as the State Government is concerned, they subsidise for each bus passenger one-sixth of what they subsidise a rail passenger. If we were able to get a level of subsidy for Brisbane Transport to the level that Queensland Rail was receiving, we could actually hand people $15 each time they stepped on a bus, if we were able to get that level of subsidy.

But the real problem is—and I want to focus on the cost, because all of us in this place have heard time and time again that public transport in this city is too expensive. As we all know, public transport rates are set by TransLink. We also heard in the presentation this morning that Brisbane can be up to 60 per cent more expensive than other capital cities that offer far more effective rail transport networks. We know this on this side of the Chamber. That is why we have been fighting for, and continue to fight for, fairer fares in this city.

We also know it is what the Labor Party thinks, because as we all recall, they were in flashy yellow shirts saying: Fare free Friday. At no point did those yellow shirts say: More comfy bus Friday or did they say: Better services Friday. They said: Fare free Friday. So they are calling also on the State Government to subsidise public transport up to a fifth, if you interpret what they are saying, that a fifth of the public transport costs should be subsidised by the State Government.

I encourage the Labor Councillors to continue their campaign for cheaper fares. I also want to see their new suite of outfits that say: ‘Better service Friday’ coming in as that is their new line that they have been attempting to run through committee. But we know and they know that it is fares that sting the people of Brisbane, and it is fares that are affecting the conduct of people’s purchasing and transport behaviour, clearly represented through the decline in usage since the State Government raised their fares 15% year on year for a number of years. Then that was reduced to 7.5 per cent over two years to a punitive point where people got back in their cars.

Here we are once again in this place calling on the State Government to do the right thing, to drop their public transport fares, and to get people back into trains and buses where we can provide a wonderful service for them.


DEPUTY MAYOR.

DEPUTY MAYOR: Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just briefly, thank you to Councillor WINES and Councillor CASSIDY for their comments. If Councillor CASSIDY thinks I’m a one-trick pony, then cheaper fares is the one trick that I’d like to be known for. So we will wait and see what happens with that. But it would be a good trick for the State Government to pull if they decided to introduce cheaper fares.

Councillor CASSIDY tried to verbal me over my comments on the 5 per cent fare reduction and not having a measurable impact on patronage. I did say that, and my point was simply that any fare reduction would have to be significantly more than 5 per cent to make an impact. I certainly hope it is. We know that fares since 2009 have gone up by around 70 per cent—70 per cent, so sorry, but a 5 per cent fare reduction isn’t going to cut it. It would need to be significantly higher than that. That is what I said this morning in committee, and that is exactly what I mean.

It is interesting, though, that Councillor CASSIDY has been to the Labor Party school of verballing and spin. He is fresh out of training. He claimed that all of these factors in the TransLink tracker were declining on my watch. Well, I have been in the job a couple of weeks now, and I might as well resign straight away, because obviously I’m off to a bad start. Apparently all of these decisions that I made are turning people away from public transport. But it just goes to show the type of hyperbole that we will hear from Labor.


- 31 -

The reality is that patronage is declining and it is declining primarily because of fare increases at the State Government level. I call on the State Government again to do the right thing, drop the fares significantly, fix up the anomalies in the fare system and get people back on to public transport.

Chairman: I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Public and Active Transport Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Adrian Schrinner (Chairman), Councillor Andrew Wines (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Jared Cassidy, Peter Cumming, Ian McKenzie and Kate Richards.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – PUBLIC TRANSPORT SNAPSHOT

418/2015-161. Geoffrey Beck, Divisional Manager, Brisbane Transport, attended the meeting to present a public

transport snapshot. He provided the information below.

2. Council has been providing public transport for 90 years. Brisbane Transport has 2,671 employees across seven depots, a workshop, a network coordination centre and head office. This means one in three Council employees work for Brisbane Transport. There are 2,180 Bus Operators in Brisbane Transport. Therefore, one in four Council employees is a Bus Operator. The majority of Brisbane Transport employees have worked for the division for less than 10 years.

3. There are 468 bus routes including 257 school and district services and 20 high-frequency services. In the last financial year, three million trips were made by Council buses. During the same period, 75 million passenger trips were made, which translates to 2.4 passengers catching a bus every second.

4. Brisbane Transport has set the following goals:- go out of our way to be friendly- continue the journey to Zero Harm- Brisbane Transport is a best practice public transport provider- embed a high performance culture and be recognised as a leader and innovator in public

transport.

5. All of Council’s 1,194 buses are air conditioned and low-floor wheelchair accessible. More than 90 per cent of the fleet is fitted with closed circuit television for the safety of staff and passengers. The average age of Council buses is 6.73 years. Brisbane Transport is supporting innovation through the trial of Mercedes Benz Citaro and Volvo hybrid buses. Other initiatives include the introduction of Euro VI low-emission technology and EcoDrive technology which provides feedback to Bus Operators to improve their driving style.

6. A graph was shown to illustrate bus patronage between 1999 and 2015. The graph highlighted specific events which have impacted bus patronage. The main contributors to bus patronage have been identified as:- frequency- affordability- passenger information- reliability- comfort and safety.

7. Council’s annual financial contribution toward the operation of Brisbane’s bus network has increased 74 per cent since the 2004/05 financial year. Other funding commitments include Blue City Glider, Maroon City Glider, City Loop and Spring Hill Loop. Council’s Community Service Obligation investment increased from approximately $45 million to $80 million between 2004 and 2015.


- 32 -

8. TransLink currently provides the following public transport funding:- $17.19 for each Queensland Rail CityTrain passenger- $3.83 for each Brisbane Transport bus passenger

$7.23 for each passenger on non-Brisbane Transport buses- $3.64 for each ferry passenger.

9. Translink’s annual service expenses for 2014-15 were:- $886,646 for Queensland Rail CityTrain- $291,062 for Brisbane Transport buses- $271,453 for non-Brisbane Transport buses- $23,405 for ferries.

10. Public transport fares are set by the TransLink Division of the Department of Transport and Main Roads and fare revenue goes to TransLink. The price of a single paper bus ticket has increased 140 per cent since July 2004. A fare review was promised by the Queensland Government in mid-2014 and the results of review are yet to be announced. A graph was shown to illustrate fare levels between 2004/05 and 2014/15. A subsequent graph was shown to illustrate the relationship between bus patronage and fare amounts during the same period.

11. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr Beck for his informative presentation.

12. RECOMMENDATION:

THAT COUNCIL NOTE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE ABOVE REPORT.ADOPTED

B PETITION – REQUESTING COUNCIL RESTRICT ADVERTISING ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTCA16/21431

419/2015-1613. A petition from residents of Brisbane requesting Council restrict advertising on public transport, was

received during the Elections Recess 2016.

14. The Branch Manager, Transport Planning and Strategy, supplied the following information.

15. Council has received a petition requesting restrictions to advertising on Brisbane’s buses and CityCats, including banning the covering of windows. The petition contains nine signatures. The petitioners are concerned that advertising on public transport restricts visibility for passengers and does not fit with the expectations of the community.

16. Council has installed wraps and advertising across our fleet of buses and CityCats for a number of reasons. While some have been installed for commercial advertising, others such as those on our CityCats and some buses have been installed as part of our Team Brisbane initiative and aim to increase community pride, promote our team spirit and sportsmanship, acknowledge the success stories in our city and commemorate historic events.

17. We now have 12 CityCats decorated with special designs including the Spirit of Brisbane dedicated to the 2011 flood recovery ‘mud army’, Nar-dha acknowledging the successful G20 Leaders’ Summit held in Brisbane, Walan honouring our ANZAC heroes and Gootcha which features an Aboriginal artwork called ‘Shoal’ by renowned artist, Ms Judy Watson. Others celebrate our sporting champions featuring the Brisbane Lions, the Brisbane Broncos and the Queensland Firebirds. There is one more CityCat planned to be revealed before 30 June 2016.

18. Council currently has over 1,100 buses in our bus fleet with a small number of buses wrapped to promote achievements within the community and Council. There are also a number of buses wrapped with external advertising. This advertising is managed under a contract and the revenue received from bus advertising is used to make improvements to bus services Council operates. It helps with the


- 33 -

purchase of new and more comfortable buses, and to improve the frequency and reliability of bus services.

19. Council acknowledges the petitioners concerns about the visibility for passengers. However, Council can assure the petitioners that the material used for these wraps meets all Australian Standards and is safe and legal for use on commercial passenger vehicles. The perforated material is designed to allow passengers to see out of the windows but also assists to provide an extra layer of UV protection, in addition to the tinted windows.

20. While Council has received positive feedback from most residents, Council has responded to visibility concerns raised by residents in response to the material being used on CityCats. To meet the concerns raised by residents the CityCat material has been amended to one with more perforations per square metre and only wrapping half the windows. This provides passengers with improved viewing while travelling on Council’s CityCats. The feedback from bus users is minimal and therefore Council does not support this material being changed at this time.

21. It is recommended that the head petitioner be advised that Council does not support restricting advertising on buses and CityCats. However, Council where possible will ensure future wrapped CityCats use the material with greater perforations per square metre with only half the windows wrapped to provide passengers with improved viewing options, The material used on buses will remain unchanged.

Consultation

22. As this petition relates to a citywide issue, and makes no reference to a specific ward, the Chairman of the Public and Active Transport Committee was consulted and supports the recommendation.

23. Accordingly, the Branch Manager recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.

24. RECOMMENDATION:

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE HEAD PETITIONER BE ADVISED THAT COUNCIL DOES NOT HAVE PLANS TO RESTRICT ADVERTISING ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

ADOPTED

Chairman: Councillor MARX.

ADJOURNMENT:420/2015-16

At that time, 3.55pm, it was resolved on the motion of Councillor Andrew MARX, seconded by Councillor Andrew WINES, that the meeting adjourn for a period of 15 minutes, to commence only when all Councillors had vacated the Chamber and the doors locked.

Council stood adjourned at 3.58pm.

UPON RESUMPTION:

INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE

Councillor Amanda COOPER, Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Fiona KING, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Chairman: Councillor COOPER?

Councillor COOPER: Thank you very much Councillor OWEN. Got it right; I'm very happy with myself for that one.

So we had a committee presentation last week. Those of you who are chuckling know how difficult it is to now say Councillor OWEN and I appreciate your support.


- 34 -

So we had the inaugural Infrastructure Committee last week that was presented by Scott Stewart. I would like to of course welcome the members of the committee, so we've got Councillor SUTTON and Councillor GRIFFITHS, as well as Councillor KING who is my deputy who does a fantastic job out there in Marchant Ward. I've got Councillor MARX and Councillor MURPHY.

So it is a very excited group of Councillors, who are certainly embracing the challenge of the Infrastructure Committee, and I think the hard work and effort of the DEPUTY MAYOR was—certainly we hope to carry on his legacy. That's a bit of a pun too Councillor OWEN.

Okay, Legacy Way everyone. Yes, we got it, okay great, excellent. I'm glad everyone's still awake and excited about their Council meeting. Apparently the pikelets were extremely nice. I'm glad to hear that.

So we have a huge number of areas that are incorporated within the Infrastructure portfolio, so with the transport network, the city assets projects ranging of course from Kingsford Smith Drive project through to the Wynnum Road upgrade, through of course to the Brisbane Metro Subway.

There's a number of partnerships between Council and State Government, for example, the Department of Transport and Main Roads and TransLink where Brisbane infrastructure manages best traffic management practice through the Brisbane Metropolitan Traffic Management Centre, the BMTMC.

Infrastructure also of course implements the recommendations that were handed down through the LORD MAYOR's taskforce on parking, as well as ensuring the efficient operation of parking for our city's needs.

As we talked at committee last week, Brisbane Infrastructure delivers projects such as Anzac Square and the Suburban Centre Improvement Projects, and those are of course the project partnership that is delivered by Brisbane Infrastructure.

The Divisional Manager highlighted the division's passion for delivering for our city and the pride that the officers within that division have in making a very significant contribution to Brisbane that not only delivers improved liveability, but also supports economic growth.

Of course there are over 2,000 members in that division. Councillor MARX is excited to find out those fun facts. We should do a fun facts presentation about the infrastructure portfolio, and it is certainly a very significant body of work that those officers deliver on behalf of all residents of the city.

There are a number of officers that carry specific tasks within that committee's interest. Brett heading up transport, planning and strategy; Alan who heads up city projects; Marie—fantastic to see a woman heading up the CRU and Joe heading up asset management.

We certainly look forward to working on these sorts of issues together. I would particularly like to thank everyone for their support, and I have to say the officers have been incredibly welcoming and we look forward to doing some great projects on behalf of our beautiful city. Thank you.


Councillor KING?

Councillor KING: Thank you, Madam Chair. It gives me great pleasure to rise as the deputy of the Infrastructure Committee and especially under Councillor COOPER who will be an excellent chair, and I look forward to helping her in this committee.

It's even more exciting that the two northside girls are actually running this portfolio. So being neighbours it is great to work together, especially with the exciting projects that are coming to the northside. Not only are we seeing Telegraph Road in Councillor COOPER's area and the Robinson Road overpass in my area, but there is a lot more to come for the northside, with the Lemke Road project and also the Murphy Road project, the Raymont Road project and also Kedron Brook Road project. So I really look forward to getting stuck in and helping you as much as I can Councillor COOPER.


- 35 -

There is so much happening in this portfolio with the ferry terminals, the boardwalk, the Howard Street Wharves; Brisbane Metro is going to be really exciting to help with that, and also in the public transport area; the library upgrades—I'd be interested to learn more about that especially with the new Chermside Library; the work on Anzac Square under this portfolio was absolutely amazing.

I'm looking forward so much. Thank you and I look forward to helping and assisting you as much as I can Councillor COOPER. Thank you.


Councillor COOPER?

I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Infrastructure Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Amanda Cooper (Chairman), Fiona King (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Steve Griffiths, Kim Marx, Ryan Murphy and Shayne Sutton.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – INFRASTRUCTURE – PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW

421/2015-161. Scott Stewart, Divisional Manager, Brisbane Infrastructure, attended the meeting to provide an update

on Infrastructure – Portfolio Overview. He provided the information below.

2. The infrastructure portfolio includes management of the transport network, efficient use of the road transport corridor, project management of significant projects both within and outside the Moving Brisbane program and best value asset management of Council’s assets.

3. Management of the transport network includes:- strategic planning of road corridor needs- delivery of major projects – Kingsford Smith Drive and Wynnum Road- implementation of corridor and intersection upgrades- provision and maintenance of adequate and efficient lighting for a safe network- continuity of the delivery of best value road resurfacing- maintenance of quality amenities in the road corridors- sustainable upgrades and reconstruction of bridges and structures, e.g. road transport or on the

river.

4. Ensuring the efficient use of road transport corridor and monitoring the day-to-day operations covers:- maintenance of best practice traffic management through partnerships with the Department of

Transport and Main Roads, TransLink and Brisbane Transport in the Brisbane Metropolitan Traffic Management Centre (BMTMC)

- implementation of Congestion Reduction Unit initiatives such as arterial road improvements, variable message signs, closed circuit television (CCTV) and the Bluetooth network

- enhancements to suburban amenity and safety- efficient operation of parking services both on and off-street- delivery of the parking taskforce recommendations- enabling access to better technology for parking users- optimising road space utilisation through permits, education and compliance.

5. Project management of significant projects within the Moving Brisbane program includes:- Better Bikeways 4 Brisbane – $100 million over four years- Ferry terminal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) upgrades


- 36 -

- City Reach Boardwalk- Howard Smith Wharves- Brisbane Metro- Inner City Bypass four-laning.

6. Project management of significant projects within other programs includes library upgrades, new pools, stormwater harvesting, managing the Riverside Drive contaminated land, Anzac Square, Brisbane Improvement Projects/Suburban Centre Improvement Projects (SCIPs), Vulnerable Assets program and new parks and upgrades.

7. The vision of Brisbane Infrastructure division, detailed overview of the division’s functions, organisation structure and functions of groups/branches within the division were shared. Brisbane Infrastructure works within the framework of Brisbane Vision 2031, Transport Plan for Brisbane 2008-2026 and Brisbane City Plan 2014. The division has primary responsibility for developing and delivering Council’s infrastructure agenda. Brisbane Infrastructure’s responsibilities range from strategy development and planning to operational delivery of projects and services. The division is also responsible for the execution of a substantial portfolio of capital works as well as recurrent expenditure on ongoing services and maintenance.

8. With over 2,000 employees, Brisbane Infrastructure is responsible for the full lifecycle of infrastructure from planning through to design, delivery, construction, operation and maintenance including:- transport and infrastructure policy and planning- project feasibility and business cases- initiation and development of projects- engineering, architectural and environmental professional services- project delivery across most of Council’s portfolios and programs- project management capability across the organisation- congestion reduction and optimising the capacity of Brisbane’s road network- services including waste management and ferries- businesses such as Council’s quarries and asphalt plants- maintenance of city streets, parks and public spaces- asset management across $22 billion of Council assets including roads, drainage, buildings,

parks, bridges, pools, libraries and community infrastructure.

9. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr Stewart for his informative presentation.

10. RECOMMENDATION:


CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE

Councillor Julian SIMMONDS, Chairman of the City Planning Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Vicki HOWARD, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Chairman: Councillor SIMMONDS?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Councillor HOWARD I was starting to worry about being on that side of the Chamber.

Chairman: Order.

Councillor SIMMONDS: It was bound to happen. It was bound to happen eventually that those on that side of the Chamber would corrupt our wonderful Councillor HOWARD.

Madam Chairman, we had a discussion at the committee last week around all the things that are involved in the City Planning Committee. These included everything from of course development assessment to the suburban construction management taskforce, but also to other elements such as Brisbane digital 3D model, our Vibrant Laneways program, the Canvas program and all the many


- 37 -

things this committee does to add to the vibrancy of our city. So that was a little bit of an introduction for particularly the new members of the committee, myself included.

In terms of Councillor JOHNSTON's question to the LORD MAYOR in question time, today I thought I would take the opportunity to cover that off so that there isn't a requirement for her to wait the extra week to hear her answer.

So in the particular property that is the topic of discussion, 14 Eversley Terrace, Yeronga, so in this case the particular application is in the decision stage. There was public notification—


Councillor SIMMONDS: Sorry?


Warning – Councillor Nicole JOHNSTONThe Chairman then formally warned Councillor Nicole JOHNSTON that unless she desisted from defying the Chairman’s rulings and interjecting she would be suspended from the service of the Council for a period of up to eight days. Furthermore, Councillor JOHNSTON was warned that, if she were suspended from the service of the Council, she would be excluded from the Council Chamber, Antechamber, Public Gallery and other meeting places for the period of suspension.

Chairman: Councillor SIMMONDS?


Chairman: Point of order Councillor JOHNSTON.

Councillor JOHNSTON: I suspect the Councillor may want to revise his answer. A decision was made on 18 April—


Councillor JOHNSTON: —and it's on PD Online.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON I remind you that that is not an appropriate point of order. If a point of order is raised there is to be no debate on that point of order.

Councillor SIMMONDS?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. I shall not be distracted.

In any case, there was public notification about this application. Submissions were received. It is the site that is currently occupied by a pre-1946 dwelling, but it is not within the traditional building character portion or overlay of the City Plan which is the new demolition control precinct. So as we know, we protect pre-1946 dwellings where they relate to a character streetscape.

Within the Traditional Building Character overlays, Madam Chairman, that is the existing policy. This site does not meet the current policy. It is a policy that, as far as I know, has bipartisan support with the Labor Councillors because it is simply an extension of their own policy, and City Plan 2000 we simply turned the demolition control precincts into the Traditional Building Character precincts. In fact, as we go through the neighbourhood plans we have a history of ensuring that these Traditional Building Character overlays are appropriately marked within the neighbourhood planning area that we're currently doing.

We know that when they were originally done in City Plan 2000 it was again also ad hoc and slabs put down that in fact didn't contain 1946 dwellings. So what we do as part of the neighbourhood planning is ensure that they properly represent the 1946 properties that contribute to the streetscape in that area.

I might say that of course as part of City Plan 2014 that this house was not part of that protection City Plan 2000. City Plan 2014 didn't change anything; it simply continued the current areas of protection of which this wasn't included, and there were no submissions at the time to include protections over this house.


- 38 -

I have spoken earlier on in the debate that of course the alternative to this is to protect, to show that every—put some kind of thing across the whole city so that every person has to prove that their house is not 1946. That's what Councillor JOHNSTON seems to be intimating. That is not a good way to do policy. What we're looking for is 1946 houses that contribute to the streetscape as in turn were the Labor Councillors during City Plan 2000.

Councillor JOHNSTON is trying to intimate that she wants the same level of protection that's over heritage properties that should be over every 1946 property. That would not only contradict what she has previously said, but I think that would come as a shock to a lot of property owners in Brisbane that that's what she was advocating.


Councillor HOWARD?

Councillor HOWARD: Well thank you, Madam Chairman. I look forward to the opportunity to speak to Item A, the City Planning overview that was presented by our officers to the committee last week. I'm also very excited to still be the deputy chair, and I have very much enjoyed working with Councillor COOPER and look forward to also working with Councillor SIMMONDS.

So I'll start by thanking the officers once again for their diligence within Councillor SIMMONDS' portfolio. I know that our Administration agrees that we have some of the best people in Council in this division. A team that every day works to make sure that we continue to positively guide development for local areas in collaboration with stakeholders, that we enable activities that directly assist to make the plans a reality, and that we deliver place-making and economic outcomes that stimulate interests and activity.

They are some of the best and brightest in the field of urban planning, and we are very fortunate that they help us deliver the initiatives we need to drive the transformational change we are seeing in urban environments.

Councillors would have heard me say before that in Central Ward, including the inner CBD, we are very conscious of the importance of good urban planning as we work with our vibrant, diverse communities. As point 4 says, Brisbane City Plan 2014 was implemented to guide the future development and infrastructure to support growth and create a more diversified economy, while continuing to protect our city's enviable way of life.

Madam Chairman, we certainly do have an enviable way of life and lifestyle in Central Ward that is a vibrant new world city, a city that is full of interests, activity and diversity. But what will the Brisbane of tomorrow be? For me, I want the Brisbane of the future to be recognised as forward-thinking, desirable, innovative, clean and green, cultural, and most importantly friendly, and that's what City Plan 2014, our City Centre Master Plan and our neighbourhood plans seeks to achieve.

I am proud to be part of a council that has initiated several transformative projects that will continue to enhance Brisbane's global reputation, and deliver the place˗making and economic outcomes that point three refers to.

One of the landmark economic projects of this Council moving forward is the revitalisation of the Howard Smith Wharves underneath our beautiful Story Bridge. For many decades this iconic site has been nothing more than a neglected wasteland. Following years of extensive consultation with local stakeholders I am proud that this area will soon be transformed into a spectacular new public space that will bustle with restaurants, conference and hotel facilities, markets, retail and tourism, exactly the economic benefits that are delivered by proper planning.

But it's not just about the big ticket items like Howard Smith Wharves program. We have the Brisbane Canvas which is outlined in point six, and that continues the very successful Vibrant Laneways Outdoor Gallery program, which has seen little used and often forgotten CBD areas repurposed into exciting new hubs


- 39 -

offering opportunities for local artists, speciality retailers and showing a different side of the city.

Madam Chairman, key infrastructure in Central Ward doesn't have to be beige anymore, and I'm particularly proud to see the programs listed in point 6 and 7, and of our constantly growing public art collection, a collection that adds to the vibrancy of the city, whether it be by providing a new place to meet, a new place to ponder, or a new discussion about its meaning or to stimulate interest.

Brisbane is on the brink of an exciting period of transformation, an unprecedented economic opportunity. We need to continue to renew and revitalise areas of the city so that we remain that vibrant and liveable city that we all love. This is all substantially achieved through our award-winning planning processes, and I commend the report to the Chamber.


Councillor JOHNSTON?

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, Madam Chairman, I rise to speak on the City Planning Committee overview presentation that has been brought forward to Council.

I'll take up the themes by Councillor HOWARD because I think she interprets them in a different way to me, and that is she's referring to point four. The purpose of CityPlan 2014 is to engage in place-making and economic outcomes for our city.

Now these are not the objectives that our community relies on when they see CityPlan and when they see how CityPlan is actually unfolding out in our suburbs. They do expect, as Councillor HOWARD just said, good urban planning, but that is where there is a difference between what the LNP Administration says is happening and what is actually happening out in our suburbs.

I don't, for example, think that CityPlan intended for a six-storey building to be built in Aubigny Street, Annerley, where it is only allowed—it's zoned low to medium density with a maximum of three-storeys.

I don't think that six-storeys should be allowed to be built in Primrose Street, Sherwood, with a two-metre rear setback within a medium density part of Sherwood.

I don't believe a pre-1946 home, the first of its kind of be built in Eversley Terrace, with a World War II bunker on the grounds, should be demolished. I believe that Councillor SIMMONDS, if he is going to be planning Chairman and he thinks that's a good outcome for our city, he is going to be deluged with a barrage of complaints by people around Brisbane who believe that pre-1946 homes are protected in our community, when clearly they are not.

So I don't believe that this Council has got the balance right with respect to planning. I believe, as I did when CityPlan came through a few years ago, that there is a serious problem with the policy that has been implemented. I believe there should be further changes to that policy so that we do get good urban planning outcomes; ones that aren't focused on the economic outcomes for developers, but ones that are focused on making sure that we have urban planning that reflects community expectations, that meets the needs of those communities, and takes into account the capacity constraints around development in many parts of our suburbs.

Aubigny Street in Annerley is a tiny, tiny narrow street. I don't even know how the builders are going to get in there to build this monstrosity of a 100 unit six-storey building in a three-storey area. How it's got approved is absolutely beyond me, given all the complaints and the objections that me and the community put in.

So that's a big issue, and I think that this is where our community finds a problem with the LNP because they do not—their rhetoric is not matched by their actions when it comes to planning.


- 40 -

I'll flag now a couple of issues with respect to paragraph 10 and 11. Over the past couple of months I've been raising with the Graceville Suburban Centre Improvement Plan (SCIP) team some serious problems with the parking arrangements that have been put in place.

I've written over—I'd say now 20 times to the SCIP team providing direct—

Councillor SIMMONDS: Point of order, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: Point of order against you Councillor JOHNSTON. Councillor SIMMONDS?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Just to relevance of the report. I know it was an introduction so I think it's fair to talk about SCIPs, but perhaps if we're delving into the specific issues of an individual SCIP, that would not be relevant to this presentation.

Chairman: Thank you Councillor SIMMONDS. Councillor JOHNSTON the Chairmen do have the capacity to talk about all sections of their portfolio; however, other Councillors are required to confine their remarks to the matter at hand. SCIPs aren't included in this report, so if you could come back to the report please.

Councillor JOHNSTON: Well, Madam Chairman, I refer you to paragraph 10. There have been approximately 46 Brisbane improvement projects in the city since 1996 where current Council works with local businesses and property owners. SCIPs are currently being delivered in Graceville and Alderley.

Now, Madam Chairman, it is specifically referred to in this report before us today, and there are serious problems with what is going on with the Graceville SCIP. I understand that Councillor SIMMONDS doesn't want to know and doesn't want me to speak about it, but it is clearly referenced in this report before us today. I am flagging publicly now that I already have hundreds if not thousands of signatures on a petition simply because this Council has refused to listen to direct feedback from the residents, from the reference group and from me, their local councillor, about what changes needed to be made to improve the Graceville SCIP.

Now again, Madam Chairman, I point you to the purpose of this which is to outline an overview of what is happening with respect to city planning, and the issue here before us today is that this Council has been told now for two months that they need to make some minor amendments to a SCIP project, and they are just refusing to do so.

My residents—I mean the best part of it was Council put out a fact sheet after the first dozen or so complaints I made. My residents didn't believe what was in the fact sheets and they went out and measured the car parks, and wrote to me pointing out that the car parks weren't even as wide as what Council said they were.

I don't think they've got any idea. I think you people just think it's me having a whinge. There are dozens if not hundreds of people who are concerned about what's going on and it can't be ignored. This is why there is a gap between what this Administration is doing and what is happening on the ground.

Finally, I'll just refer to the neighbourhood planning process that's outlined in paragraph 11. Eleven neighbourhood plans involving extensive community engagement. Madam Chairman, you would think that if there was extensive community engagement about neighbourhood planning, they would reflect the will of our communities that are covered by them.

I can tell you we had hundreds of submissions on the Sherwood-Graceville Neighbourhood Plan calling for the removal of five-storeys, yet this Administration and Councillor COOPER personally, extended the five-storey area further south into Corinda at the last change to the plan without consultation with anyone.

Now we had people march in the street. We had hundreds of submissions made by residents, and whilst the LNP—oh, and the four public consultation sessions that they held were in December, January and February 2007-08 before I was even the local councillor. So our community can thank Jane Prentice for that wonderful botch.


- 41 -

I was told to keep away. That is exactly what I was told as the candidate, as was the ALP candidate. But, Madam Chairman, the neighbourhood plans may have had some community consultation, but they are pointless if they do not reflect our communities' views. I am concerned that it is happening again with the Dutton Park-Fairfield Neighbourhood Plan. How the Gap, one tiny suburb, can have its own neighbourhood plan, but the suburbs of South Brisbane, Highgate Hill, Dutton Park, Fairfield, parts of Yeronga, parts of Annerley—please let me know if I've left anything out—have all been dumped into one gigantic plan with nearly 25,000 households, how that is considered to be a neighbourhood plan is beyond me.

These people have botched neighbourhood planning in the eight years that I've been here and it is time for policy change.


Councillor SIMMONDS?

Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you, mate—sorry, thank you, Madam Chairman. Sorry, apologies, I'm still in long weekend mode. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Chairman: I'll take it as a compliment Councillor SIMMONDS.

Councillor SIMMONDS: As it was meant. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Look I won't say too much. That was a pretty transparent and desperate attempt for relevance that doesn't require a lot of response, except to say this: the car parking as part of the SCIP which the councillor was discussing was compliant with Australian standards. That's why they've been done the way they've been done. The neighbourhood planning process is award-winning; provides more consultation than required to under the required provisions of the Sustainable Planning Act put in place by the Labor State Government.

At that time, 4.42pm, the Deputy Chairman, Councillor Vicki HOWARD, assumed the Chair.

Councillor SIMMONDS: That is why we have been able to achieve such positive outcomes that are in line with community expectations, and this Administration wholeheartedly supports the neighbourhood planning process that is in place.

Deputy Chairman: Thank you Councillor SIMMONDS.

I'll now put the motion.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Julian Simmonds (Chairman), Councillor Vicki Howard (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Adam Allan, Angela Owen, Jonathan Sri and Shayne Sutton.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE OVERVIEW

422/2015-161. Kerry Doss, Manager, City Planning and Economic Development, City Planning and Sustainability

division, attended the meeting to provide a City Planning Committee Overview. He provided the information below.

2. A slide was displayed showing the various planning layers. The South East Queensland Regional Plan puts in place sound planning principles and outcomes for the region which cascade through the various layers of planning in Brisbane. This flows down into the Brisbane City Plan and neighbourhood plans.


- 42 -

3. Council plans to guide development for local areas in collaboration with stakeholders. Council enables activities that directly and indirectly assist to make plans a reality and Council delivers place making and economic outcomes that stimulate interest, activity and align with planning intents.

4. The Brisbane City Plan 2014 was implemented to guide the future development and infrastructure to support growth and create a more diversified economy while continuing to protect our city's enviable way of life. There are constant amendments required to deliver to the Brisbane City Plan 2014.

5. The virtual Brisbane Digital 3D model project was initiated to replace a physical model of Brisbane’s CBD. The coverage initially included Brisbane’s CBD and the inner five kilometres and has since expanded to key areas and corridors. It is a spatially accurate three dimensional model created through a combination of images and techniques.

6. The Brisbane Canvas project is an extension of the successful Vibrant Laneways Outdoor Gallery program. Public art has been installed at:- Arch Lane, Brisbane City- Coronation Drive Pillars, Milton- Kelvin Grove Road Inner City Bypass overpass walls- King George Square Car Park entry walls and Turbot Street overpass pillars, Roma Street,

Brisbane City- Milton Road, Milton.

7. As part of the City Artworks project, Council has revealed three new public artworks.

8. An initiative to deliver a new dimension to the Brisbane CBD experience with ‘postcard moments’ was created around the city.

9. To assist in preserving our City’s heritage, Council has provided grants to enable conservation work to be undertaken on heritage places across Brisbane. Heritage trails have also been developed.

10. There have been approximately 46 Brisbane improvement projects across the city since 1996, where Council works with local businesses and property owners. Suburban Centre Improvement Projects (SCIPs) are currently being delivered in Graceville and Alderley. SCIP renewals have been undertaken at Mitchelton, Wynnum and Sunnybank.

11. Council has an award winning neighbourhood planning process, providing locally specific planning outcomes. Council is currently delivering 11 neighbourhood plans involving extensive community engagement. Council has the largest neighbourhood planning program in Australia, with 85 per cent of Brisbane’s urban footprint included in a neighbourhood plan area. More than 55 per cent of the future dwelling supply is delivered through adopted Neighbourhood Plans.

12. Council’s City Planning engages with over 100,000 people annually.

13. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr Doss for his informative presentation.

14. RECOMMENDATION:


ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

Councillor David MCLACHLAN, Chairman of the Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Norm WYNDHAM, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Deputy Chairman: Is there any debate?


- 43 -

Councillor McLACHLAN.

Councillor McLACHLAN: Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. In a similar vein to the previous committees, our committee last week, the Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee, did have a run through on the major objectives of Program 1 – Clean, Green and WaterSmart City. We do have a brand new committee structure. I'd like to acknowledge Councillor WYNDHAM coming onboard with me again as my deputy and Councillors WINES, HUANG and JOHNSTON; and Councillor GRIFFITHS as the shadow chair, who I know has a close and abiding interest in environmental issues.

I think Councillor GRIFFITHS may be the first councillor to have posted via Twitter, a video of the mating ritual of the Australian stingless virgin queen. I will have a look at that video Councillor GRIFFITHS if the Council gateways allow me to look at that video. I'll certainly have a look at it and check on its relevance to Council environmental issues.

This is obviously the program that delivers the clean, green and sustainable outcomes for our city. It's by no accident that for two years running Brisbane has been Queensland's most sustainable city as voted by Keep Queensland Beautiful. In 2014 we were fortunate enough to be named as Australia's most sustainable city. That's as a consequence of direct policy directives and budget allocations that are made within this Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability portfolio. It's by no accident that those plaudits come our way. We're not in the business of going or undertaking these activities to win plaudits, but when they come, when Brisbane is regarded as the benchmark for other cities to follow, that's a great outcome. But it just strengthens our resolve to make sure that we continue to deliver clean, green and sustainable outcomes.

Those programs that deliver that outcome were outlined in the presentation by the Branch Manager of Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability in the presentation that we had in the committee last week, running through those essential outcomes, sustainable leadership, sustainable Brisbane, biodiverse Brisbane, parks, gardens and recreation, sustainable water management, the focus on the river bay and waterways, flood management and a pollution free city.

They're all outcomes that have attached to them a number of strategies and tactics to deliver those outcomes. I think Brisbane remains the envy of the capital cities right around Australia and indeed elsewhere because of the nature of our local government setup. One city with responsibility for over 1,300 square kilometres allows us to undertake a lot of programs which other councils elsewhere in Australia and indeed around the world can only dream of undertaking.

So we do lead the way in delivering clean, green and sustainable policies on behalf of the people of Brisbane, and showing the way to other councils around Australia and indeed around the world about how to deliver these great outcomes.

So, Madam Chairman, I'm very proud to have been named as the chairman of this area of responsibility, this portfolio. I look forward to working with the other committee members on achieving great outcomes, and look forward to any discussion. Thank you.

Deputy Chairman: Further debate?

Councillor GRIFFITHS.

Councillor GRIFFITHS: Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you Councillor McLACHLAN. In relation to the stingless bees, they're a native bee, and they're quite a fascinating subject to follow. I know that I've sponsored a number of them in schools, so boxes, from the liveability funding. So if you want some details on that let me know because the school kids love them.

In relation to this committee, I'm really looking forward to this committee—



- 44 -

Councillor GRIFFITHS: Sorry?


Councillor GRIFFITHS: Yes. In relation to this committee, I think this committee is a very positive committee in the way it deals with residents, and residents really love the deliveries of this particular committee to their communities across Brisbane.

I'm looking forward to it because I think it offers us the potential to show how progressive we are in Brisbane, and I believe it is one of the committees in Council that is moving in a very progressive way.

Of course the subtropical approach or the subtropical environment that we have here is fantastic, and that's why we are so enabled to have such a good environment and have so much wildlife, so much flora and fauna.

Some of the issues that did come up but in committee over time in the past that this committee deals with are issues that I still will be taking onboard, and the Labor Party will certainly be putting forward different ideas, particularly in relation to our waterways and how we manage those waterways, our 12 creek catchments, how we monitor them, how we're working with the community to restore them, and ultimately we want to do this because of their impact on our bay.

Some of the disappointments with regards to the waterway program have been that in my area, Oxley Creek keeps failing, and I know that the LNP has put forward in the lead up to the last election that they are going to spend $100 million on that particular waterway. I look forward to seeing how that's going to be done, because it affects the largest part of Brisbane, the Oxley Creek catchment.

Residents are also concerned that they haven't been consulted in relation to the proposed $100 million project in that area, and so I have spoken to Councillor McLACHLAN about asking for a presentation on that.

Similarly, from the last term, residents are very concerned about their flood risk and the change in status. We had 28,000 people approximately affected when we reviewed the status of their properties last year when it was reviewed. Twenty-two thousand were taken off our list for flood-affected properties which is great. Five thousand were added or had their flood status increased.

So in terms of that, I think one of the issues we had was why weren't those residents informed. If we're genuine about keeping residents informed and about doing the right thing by residents, we have good and bad news to share with them and we should be doing that.

Once again we also believe that there should be a review of the 2011 Flood Action Plan. I know I was instrumental in calling for that because of the impacts of Rocklea and the lower southern suburbs, their impact by flooding.

We believe there are some issues in relation to voluntary buyback that need to be looked at, and there are also issues in relation to mitigation and drainage that need to be looked at—similarly, what is the backflow valve program for the coming four years?

Madam Chair, it's been a relatively dry season so we've had it easy this year, but the rain will return and we are a river city, and what we're doing under that program is very important.

Once again, there are a number of issues that come up in this committee and I look forward to seeing the ways that the Administration proposes to deal with these issues, and look forward to putting up other ideas in relation to the Administration as well, so that hopefully we get a good outcome for all residents. Thank you.

Deputy Chairman: Thank you Councillor GRIFFITHS.

Further debate?

Councillor WYNDHAM?


- 45 -

Councillor WYNDHAM: Thank you, Madam Acting Chairman. I rise to speak on Item A, the presentation, which was given to us by a gentleman, Andrew Chesterman who I respect in the utmost for his candour and honesty about what he does within Council, and that goes for many of our Council officers.

Madam Chair, as a river city and as I guess an emerging global New World City, our economy is greatly improved in many ways by tourism and by the fact that we are that emerging clean, green and sustainable city. If we go back—and I've been in this place a little while now—what we really do well in this particular program is we take the people of the city on a journey with us, and many of the things that we've done across this city are not just things Council have done, but it's things that we've invited our residents to join in with us on.

That goes right back to when we had water problems in the 2005 times when we took the city on a bit of a journey and introduced some water smart initiatives using both grey water and recycled rainwater et cetera. We got worldwide recognition then for being leaders in water conservation, which just shows that as a city if you do take your residents on that journey you can achieve great things, and we're still taking residents on that journey.

We've taken them through the journey of trying to make our city more carbon neutral by the planting of two million trees, something that we all in this Chamber should be very proud of, because it's programs like that that give us I guess the chance to showcase how great this city is.

If we just look at some of those things and we look over the last two years of our awards that we've received for sustainability, they're things that the world is still looking at and seeing. It's not just a phenomenon that's happening in Brisbane; other cities across Australia see what we're doing, and like every good council, we and they look at what's happening across the globe that is I guess that point of difference to make a city different.

Across Australia there are many cities that are emulating some of the things we do. We've noticed that through conversation with members of other cities.

So, Madam Chairman, as a clean, green and sustainable city we should really hold our head up proudly here and say we've done this well, and yes we can do it better and we will do it better. So thank you.

Deputy Chairman: Thank you Councillor WYNDHAM.

Further debate?

Councillor McLACHLAN?

I will now put the motion.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor David McLachlan (Chairman), Councillor Norm Wyndham (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Steve Griffiths, Steven Huang, Nicole Johnston and Andrew Wines.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – PROGRAM 1 – CLEAN, GREEN AND WATERSMART CITY

1. Andrew Chesterman, Branch Manager, Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability, City Planning and Sustainability division, attended the meeting to provide an update on Program 1 – Clean, Green and WaterSmart City. He provided the information below.


- 46 -

2. Council’s goal is for Brisbane to be recognised by residents and visitors as a lifestyle city; a city that protects, supports and provides opportunities to enjoy our subtropical environment by sustainably managing and caring for our natural surroundings and resources. Brisbane will be clean and green and committed to a water smart future; a city that recognises environmental sustainability and liveability are fundamental to being a New World City. We will ensure Brisbane's open spaces and waterways are accessible and valued, now and for future generations, and our built form supports clean, green and water smart outcomes.

3. The Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability branch is responsible for delivering a Clean, Green and WaterSmart City by:- setting policies that help Council and the community become more sustainable- protecting and enhancing Brisbane's natural environment- guiding the community to become a watersmart and well-designed subtropical city.

4. The outcomes for Program 1 include:1.1 Sustainable leadership1.2 Sustainable Brisbane1.3 Biodiverse Brisbane1.4 Parks, gardens and recreation1.5 Sustainable water management1.6 Focus on the river, bay and waterways1.7 Flood management1.8 Pollution free city.

5. Sustainable Leadership includes carbon neutral Council; greenhouse gas reduction; improved environment management practices; and integrated environment management. Some key features of Council’s sustainability agenda include purchasing GreenPower; carbon offsets to neutralise direct emissions from Council's bus, ferry and vehicle fleets; use of natural gas at facilities such as asphalt plants; purchasing carbon offsets for all business related flights and purchasing offsets, which satisfy the integrity requirements under the National Carbon Offset Standard.

6. Sustainable Brisbane includes GreenHeart Community Engagement program; CitySmart Pty Ltd and free native trees. Key features include GreenHeart Homes; GreenHeart events; offering free native plants; GreenHeart Life; and GreenHeart Schools.

7. Biodiverse Brisbane includes growing the conservation reserves network; conservation reserves management; community partnering for conservation; and biodiversity planning. Some key features include the Bushland Acquisition program; the environmental and sustainability related grants programs; Community Conservation Assistance; Habitat Brisbane program; Creek Catchments program; invasive species management; and operation of an animal ambulance service.

8. Parks, gardens and recreation includes managing trees on public land; park development and planning; parks maintenance and enhancement; park reserves compliance; management of the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens; and management of the Roma Street and South Bank Parklands.


- 47 -

9. Sustainable water management includes WaterSmart and integrated water cycle implementation. Some important initiatives under this program include the Norman Creek 2012–2031 Master Plan project; stormwater harvesting; organising an annual international river symposium; WaterSmart activities; and integrated water cycle implementation.

10. Focus on the river, bay and waterways includes regional water quality management; improved ecological health and liveability of waterways; wharves, jetties and pontoons; and sea and river walls. Some important initiatives under this program include the Shorncliffe Pier; waterway enhancement projects; Oxley Creek Improvement program; partnering the International River Foundation; and the River Clean-up program.

11. Flood management includes drainage investigation and design; gathering and providing flood information; flood investigations and planning; local and major drainage; plan for future infrastructure; and maintain and rehabilitate flood management assets. Some key initiatives under this program include installation of backflow devices; flood studies; local and major drainage maintenance and enhancements.

12. Pollution free city includes pollution prevention and management; closed landfill management; and environmental licencing and compliance. Some important initiatives under this program include the Cannon Hill Golf Links project; close landfill remediation and management; and industry guidelines for pollution management.

13. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr Chesterman for his informative presentation.

14. RECOMMENDATION:


FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE

Councillor Peter MATIC, Chairman of the Field Services Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Kim MARX, that the report of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Deputy Chairman: Councillor MATIC?

Councillor MATIC: Thank you, Madam Deputy Chairman. The committee presentation was a high level overview of the Field Services Group, and I'd like to thank the Executive Manager for the presentation and for providing us really a very good outline of the size and scale of what Field Services Group does.

There are a number of different components to it, but effectively it is about service delivery. It is about the operational works of our organisation in so many different areas across Council. There is so much that goes on within the different branches if you like within the Field Services Group that is core Council business that the ratepayers of Brisbane rely on and rightly assume that these are things that Council delivers.

The waste collection, for example, that the Waste and Resource Recovery Services branch undertakes, not only, Madam Deputy Chairman, in just the day to day collection around our residential areas, but also the commercial arrangements that we have in place, and then the work that's undertaken in being able to process and recycle those different aspects of the waste is a complex and large area that this Council undertakes.

The road resurfacing works that Council does, making sure that we're continuing to deliver smoother roads for Brisbane residents. The different operational things; the curbing and channelling; the clearing of the waterways for vegetation; the footpath construction; street landscaping; even the street lighting that's undertaken as well. All of these things are works that Field Services does.


- 48 -

The different component pieces of it when you think about it are between the waste section and also between our—in our own wards, for example, within Asset Services and the work that Asset Services undertakes. Even though there are overlaps with different areas such as Environmental, for example, with Councillor McLACHLAN, with Habitat Brisbane, it is those Asset Services officers that are the conduit to all of those groups.

It's Asset Services that undertakes the maintenance, for example, of Mt Coot-tha, that oversees the guides, for example, that assist people through the gardens. These are the day to day activities that they work in, but there's also the complex series of construction. When we think about work that's undertaken in the open level crossings for example was done, there were aspects of that work that was undertaken by the Field Services Group. There's work within our—the ferry reconstruction works that was undertaken.

So the work that they do generally touches every aspect of this organisation. It was great to really get an insight into the complexity of that work and the breadth of what those different branches do, even right down to—such as Fleet Services, the oversight maintenance and supply of every vehicle within this organisation, whether it be commercial, industrial or just vehicles that officers use in the day to day jobs that they do to go out on site. All of this is undertaken and overseen by the Fleet Services Group which is in the Field Services Group.

But also it was important as part of that presentation to look at that commitment and to look at the principles that apply, and it's all about customer services. It's all about engagement, it's all about delivery, and it’s all of those key aspects of an organisation that are so vital to its success. Field Services does that in spades.

There are around about 1,800 staff that work within the different sections of the group, all of them doing key work, such as Urban Amenities for example; the work that they do in making sure that the city is to the high standard it is as far as cleanliness; making sure that they are also doing the work around the bus stops; the waste bins that are collected across the city in different areas around our SCIPs, around the bus stops and around the residential areas. The breadth of the work is quite amazing.

I really want to acknowledge the work that the Executive Manager, Mica Julien, and with her the branch managers that sit underneath those different branches that make up Field Services Group. They're doing a great job for our city and making sure that we continue to have a clean city, but also that we're making sure that we continue to deliver those key outcomes from something as basic as a footpath, or some curbing and channelling, to something as complex as Riverwalk or these rail crossings, or the ferry network, the work that was undertaken in the last term as well.

So I think the presentation was a good one in providing that, and I look forward to the other presentations specifically from branches to go into the detail of the work that they are delivering across our city and for the benefit of all our residents.

Deputy Chairman: Thank you Councillor MATIC.

Is there any debate?

There being no debate, I'll put the motion.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Field Services Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Peter Matic (Chairman), Councillor Kim Marx (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Nicole Johnston, Ian McKenzie, Charles Strunk and Steven Toomey.


- 49 -

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – FIELD SERVICES GROUP OVERVIEW

423/2015-161. Mica Julien, Executive Manager, Field Services Group, Brisbane Infrastructure division, attended the

meeting to present an overview of Field Services Group. She provided the information below.

2. An organisational structure for Field Services Group was displayed, along with details of the Group Management Team.

3. Workforce data was displayed showing the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate and the number of Full Time Equivalents across each branch within the group.

4. Field Services Group is spread across 30 locations around Brisbane and surrounds.

5. Key priorities for the Field Services Group include Waste Management contracts (collections, transfer stations, landfill, recycling and green waste), $380 million Road Resurfacing program, City lighting upgrades, and optimising SAP including usage, data integrity and quality to realise benefits and the continuous improvement of FSG operations.

6. Another key priority is the Mt Coot-tha $11 million capital program over the next four years which will see a new bus circling the mountain, new picnic facilities and trails, new adventure activities (flying-fox concept), and the opening and the operating of the new visitor information centre at the Gardens. This will also include works at Kangaroo Point Cliffs and in New Farm Park and the City Botanic Gardens.

7. A chart was shown detailing the links to programs, Council’s Vision 2031 and the Corporate Plan and Budget.

8. Links to each of the seven Council Programs were displayed.

9. The Field Services Group draft principles are as follow.- Commitment to Council Values – we live the values, embrace all facets of the values.- Commitment to employees – we develop our people to the top of their game and provide an

environment that they want to remain a part of. - Operational Excellence – we have a clear focus on excellence in contract management and

performance reporting.- Asset Custodianship – the custodian of assets and the interface with asset owners, programs,

customers and delivery, with a one to four year horizon.- Business improvement – embrace and embed the lean principles of value add, one piece flow

and pull systems to enable business and systems efficiency. - Single point of delivery for projects and services with the responsibility to report and keep all

partnerships well informed.- One Council approach – we are aware of and working with stakeholders and partners.- Agile and adaptable – we retain the ability to adjust to organisational requirements as needed.

Balancing future and current needs in a sustainable manner. - Customer awareness – we recognise the need to balance customer and public perception with

delivery outcome.

10. Field Services Group has an advisory board that meets each month. The role of the Field Services Advisory Board is to provide sound commercial advice, strategic direction and high level guidance to Field Services Group management about business decisions and the delivery of Field Services Group services.

11. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Ms Julien for her informative presentation.

12. RECOMMENDATION:



- 50 -

LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE

Councillor Matthew BOURKE, Chairman of the Lifestyle and Community Services Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Steven HUANG, that the report of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Deputy Chairman: Councillor BOURKE?

Councillor BOURKE: Thanks very much, Madam Acting Chairman. I'll follow the theme from my cabinet colleagues. This was the first committee presentation for the new committee, for the Lifestyle and Community Services Committee, as part of this term. We obviously had a few members on the committee. Councillor HUANG and Councillor CASSIDY have been on the committee before, but myself, Councillor KING, Councillor SRI and Councillor RICHARDS have not been on the committee before so obviously there's a great opportunity to learn about the wide and diverse range of activities that the Lifestyle and Community Services Committee provides for the residents of Brisbane.

Over the coming weeks we'll see a number of great presentations to the committee in that theme and in that line. There might even be some road trips to look at some of the great facilities that we have that aren't too far away from City Hall, Madam Chairman. I'm not letting too much out of the bag there, but stay tuned committee members for some of the exciting presentations that we'll be seeing in the coming weeks, because I think, as I said last week; Lifestyle is the hardest working and does the most for the residents of Brisbane.

The opportunity we have to see this committee—the opportunity for this committee to see in action some of the facilities I think is a great opportunity for us as Councillors, so that when we're talking to residents in our wards or when we're out with our community groups, we're better informed and better able to provide information to them.

This week, or last week I should say, we saw a committee presentation on the Clem Jones City Hall Concerts, Madam Chairman, and of course this is delivered by the Connected Communities branch. They're not only responsible for the Clem Jones City Hall Concerts here in City Hall; they're also responsible for the BrisAsia Festival; the Gathering; the CUBE Effect which of course was very popular just two weeks ago as part of Youth Week; the Lord Mayor's Seniors Christmas Carols which we have in City Hall; the Lord Mayor's Seniors Cabaret Showcase. I wonder if we'll see former Councillor KNAPP finally performing in the Seniors Showcase, Madam Chairman, but I'll wait and see.

Of course they're also responsible for the Senior Week concerts, the Laneways program, the Brisbane Twilight Markets, Stylin' Up and Black History Month, but the focus of this particular presentation that we had last week in committee was on the Clem Jones City Hall Concerts. The reason we focused on these concerts was because it's the 75th anniversary of these wonderful free events for the residents of Brisbane.

They've had a rich and diverse history over the last 75 years, Madam Chairman. Of course, when this Administration undertook the restoration of City Hall between 2009 to 2013, we moved them out into the suburbs and we moved them around the city. We then, obviously with the reopening of City Hall, were able to bring those concerts back here to City Hall.

As I said, these started 75 years ago—so August 1941, and the committee got a—what's the way of saying it—a display of the original program from that first concert back in 1941. I didn't recognise too many of the songs on that first program, but if you were in the building today for today's free concert, you would have seen or heard some songs from the 1970s which I can say, even though I wasn't born at the time, I am familiar with.

We had a wonderful 1970s cover band here today as part of the performances, which obviously goes to the diverse range of music that is played as part of the


- 51 -

concert series. So they were belting out Rolling Stones' hits and all sorts of wonderful old—sorts of old music—I'll call it old music—as part of that concert series.

We had 42 concerts last financial year and of course are replicating that this financial year, Madam Chairman. They're held from 12pm until 1pm each Tuesday in the main auditorium, and as I said, it is a wide and diverse range of music. So that very first one 75 years ago had piano concertos as well as the organ being played, and I'll fix that one up in Hansard with the appropriate pronunciation, Madam Chairman.

We also had the organ being played in City Hall. We see now though cabaret, jazz, classical music, rock and music from around the world. Unfortunately, the other two forms of music, country and western, aren't part of this program, but as I said, it is a diverse range. Some 730 or 750 odd people attend each concert on average, so it is well attended by the residents of Brisbane.

The sheer number of actors or the sheer number of performers, Madam Chairman, that are local performers, over 500 of them were used by this concert series over the last 12 months. So not only is it great for the residents of Brisbane who are able to come and enjoy the music and the performance, but exposing the talent and giving emerging artists that opportunity to perform in what is probably one of the premier performance spaces in this city is something I think you can't rival.

So it's a great program that Council runs not only for the residents who are receiving the performance, but indeed supporting and helping the emerging artists that we have here in Brisbane.

I mentioned the organ before. Of course that beautiful organ that is in City Hall, which was restored lovingly by the restoration team when we did this project, is a Henry Willis organ. It's actually older than this building some councillors may be surprised to learn. It was first installed in the old Exhibition Building which is up next to the RNA Showgrounds, the old museum as I knew it when I was younger. It used to be the Museum for Queensland before the museum moved to Southbank.

Of course it was installed in there and as a fundraising drive by the City of Brisbane by the Lady Mayoress at the time. Money was raised to purchase that organ and install it into the newly planned and just under construction City Hall. When that happened the organ was increased in size to the magnificent musical instrument that we have installed in this building.

It is one of only two of its kind in the world that is a remaining Henry Willis organ. The other one I believe is in Westminster Abbey or one of the large cathedrals in southern England, and of course it plays a special part not only in our city's history, but also as a part of the concerts.

I know that at the 75th event coming up in the coming months to celebrate the 75th anniversary of these concerts, we'll be looking for an opportunity to have the organ as part of that performance as it was back in 1941.

So it is a great program that Council runs. It's one that obviously this Administration, as all administrations since 1941, have supported. It's one that obviously we can always look at new opportunities and enhancing and maybe adding country and western music, Madam Chairman, in the future. Just putting it out there Councillor ADAMS—if the budget allows. But it is a great program that supports emerging artists, provides entertainment—for entertainment for the residents of Brisbane, and obviously adds to the lifestyle and leisure opportunities and choices for all the residents.

Deputy Chairman: Thank you Councillor BOURKE.

Further debate?

Councillor HUANG?

Councillor HUANG: Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. I rise to speak briefly on Item A of the committee report on the presentation of Clem Jones City Hall Concerts.


- 52 -

Madam Deputy Chair, Clem Jones City Hall Concerts is part of Brisbane City Council's City Entertainment Program that coordinates and delivers creative and cultural programs, as well as arts and entertainment programs across Brisbane.

Clem Jones City Hall Concerts, along with other events such as BrisAsia, the Lord Mayor's Senior Cabaret Showcase, Brisbane Twilight Markets and many other events and festivals that our chair just mentioned, are part of the Brisbane Vision 2031 and the creative Brisbane strategy, which is aimed to build a sense of identity and enhancing our city's liveability for the Brisbane community.

Clem Jones City Hall Concerts originated from Civic Concerts which started in 1941 and have grown from a program consisting of only organ and classical concerts into a diverse and contemporary program, catering to a wide-range of audiences and musical tastes.

This year in 2016 we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of free music in City Hall, and see 44 Clem Jones City Hall Concerts held with a wide-range of musical genres showcased, ranging from classical music, Samba, Jazz, K-Pop and Flamenco to other world music.

The 75th birthday celebrations will be held on 3 May and 9 August. We will see local performers showcase music that reflects the genre of the 1940s. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all Councillors to actively participate in the celebration of the 75th birthday of free music in City Hall, and enjoy the 1940s theme.

At that time, 5.11pm, the Chairman, Councillor Angela OWEN, resumed the Chair.


Councillor BOURKE, right of reply?

I will now put the report

Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Brisbane Lifestyle Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Matthew Bourke (Chairman), Councillor Steven Huang (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Jared Cassidy, Fiona King and Kate Richards.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – CLEM JONES CITY HALL CONCERTS

424/2015-161. Miriam Kent, Branch Manager, Connected Communities, Brisbane Lifestyle, attended the meeting to

provide an update on Clem Jones City Hall Concerts. She provided the information below.

2. The City Entertainment program coordinates and delivers creative and cultural programs and arts and entertainment programs across Brisbane. In doing so, the program contributes to the Brisbane Vision 2031 and the Creative Brisbane: Creative Economy 2013-22 strategy by achieving a sense of place and identity and enhancing the city’s liveability. This program inspires and engages the community through delivering a program of innovative creative events, developing and maintaining creative partnerships and projects and supporting emerging and established creative workers in their creative productions.

3. Programs that are managed through this service include:- Clem Jones City Hall Concerts- BrisAsia Festival 2016 - Gathering


- 53 -

- The QUBE Effect - IGA Lord Mayor’s Seniors Christmas Carols- Lord Mayor’s Seniors Cabaret Showcase- Seniors Week Concerts - Laneways programs- Brisbane Twilight Markets - StylinUP- Black History Month.

4. Since commencing in 1941, the City Hall concerts have grown and developed from a program consisting of only organ and classical concerts into a diverse and contemporary program, catering to a wide range of audiences and musical tastes. They are dedicated to celebrating Brisbane’s music scene and supporting local emerging and established artists. Held from 12 noon to 1pm every Tuesday from February to November in City Hall, there are 42 free concerts each year. Five hundred and forty local and emerging artists were employed in 2014-15, displaying their talents in a variety of genres including cabaret, jazz, classical, rock and world music. From July 2013 to March 2016, the City Hall concerts have had an average audience of 734 people per concert.

5. A history of civic concerts since August 1941 was shared, depicting how the concerts evolved in their content and nomenclature.

6. Prior to the City Hall concerts being established in 1941, organ recitals were the main music events presented by Council. The City Hall organ is a Henry Willis organ, as Henry Willis and Son of London were commissioned to build the organ on 7 June 1891. In 1892, the organ arrived in Brisbane. The City Hall organ was later restored during the City Hall restoration and unveiled in August 2014. After the restoration, a series of three organ concerts, including a Clem Jones City Hall Concert, had an overwhelming attendance of more than 1,700 music lovers.

7. The City Hall Concerts engage 38,000 to 42,000 people of all ages and backgrounds, including seniors, families, young people and the broader community. The performance highlights for 2015 have included the following.- In Concert with Darren Percival: For over 20 years, Darren has toured Australia sharing his

incredible voice. His appearance on the first season of The Voice Australia brought him to national attention. Darren performed in March 2015 and attracted a captive audience of more than 700.

- Katy Perry Tribute: Something for the kids to enjoy, this amazing live tribute to Californian pop artist Katy Perry was held during the Easter school holidays in 2015 with an enthusiastic audience of 900.

- Australian Army Band: Bringing in a capacity audience of 1,300, the Australian Army Band performed some well-loved tunes from the jazz and swing eras in July 2015.

- Classic Duets: Classic duet performances are always popular and dynamic jazz performers Cherryn Lomas and Greg Aspeling delivered a concert of classic jazz and memorable duets in June 2015 to an audience of 750.

- Celtic Connections: A journey through the heartland of the greatest Celtic tunes with Queensland Police Pipes and Drums, Irish duo Fiddle Faddle, and Welsh harp trio Carisma. This performance was enjoyed by an audience of 1,150 in June 2015.

8. Council collaborates with a range of external partners to broaden the audience reach and range of artists featured through the Clem Jones City Hall Concerts. These collaborations provide an audience experience that is out of the ordinary and typical of ‘festival flavour’. Collaborations this year have included BrisAsia Festival 2016 to deliver three special Asian themed concerts from 9 February to 23 February and the Brisbane Baroque Festival 2016 with two free concerts held on 12 April 2016. Future collaborations include partnering with the Brisbane Festival 2016 to feature artists in three concerts from 6 to 20 September 2016.

9. In 2016, 44 Clem Jones City Hall Concerts will be held with a wide range of music genres showcased; from classical, samba, jazz, K-pop and flamenco to swing, rock ‘n’ roll, world music, opera and folk. A highlight for 2016 will be during Youth Week in July with a concert featuring the Queensland Youth Orchestra. In 2016, we will be celebrating 75 years of free music in City Hall. The 75th birthday celebrations will be on 3 May and 9 August 2016, where local performers will showcase music that


- 54 -

reflects the genre of the 1940s. The festivities in May will include a ‘Cry Off’ competition to select who will become Brisbane's Town Crier.

10. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Ms Kent for her informative presentation.

11. RECOMMENDATION:


FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Councillor Krista ADAMS, Chairman of the Finance and Economic Development Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Ryan MURPHY, that the report of that Committee held on 19 April 2016, be adopted.

Chairman: Councillor ADAMS.

Councillor ADAMS: Thank you, Madam Chair. We did buck the trend last week because we had three different types of reports that came to the Finance Committee and we did our overview today in committee so we'll talk about that next week.

So last week we had three types of reports that came to the Finance Committee; the first was the market update that comes quarterly from Jiri Arnost. Very useful update for the committee on national and global market conditions, as well as our investment position at this point of time.

So what we saw was Council's debt has improved significantly over recent years, mainly due to the Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU) debt restructure that means Council has now exited its unnecessary role as being the banker for QUU. Disappointingly, something that the Labor Councillors voted against for debt reduction for Brisbane residents of course.

The second reports were cash investments and funding reports. These are compiled monthly and brought to the next available committee meeting. So that outlines the petty cash, the bank accounts, the investment and reserves positions each month, and we had a couple of months to catch up on over the caretaker period to bring to committee as well.

So obviously Council's cash position moves around quite a lot due to the timing of receipts and expenses with the collections of our rates and our grants for spending on projects. So this comes through in those monthly reports as well.

So what we actually have seen is that Council has previously had a redraw facility which was replaced last year by that increase to working capital, but it has not worsened Council's deposition. As a matter of fact, in the last two financial years we've seen our debt position has actually improved by over 40 per cent. So that is something great to see from my predecessor, Councillor SIMMONDS.

The final report was a quarterly accounts receivable, rates inventory, accounts payable provisions and malls report through the period ending up to 31 December. Again, something that comes quarterly and it outlines Council's position in all of these areas. I'm happy to leave the debate to the Chamber.


Councillor MURPHY?

Councillor MURPHY: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. I rise to speak on Item A, the Net Borrowings, Cash Investment and Funding report. Can I at the outset congratulate Councillor ADAMS on her ascension to the Chairman of the Finance portfolio, and thank the outgoing chairman, Councillor SIMMONDS, for his service. It's fantastic to continue in this portfolio. It is a great portfolio


- 55 -

and I look forward to working with Councillor ADAMS over the next four years.

Madam Chairman, as I said, we had the presentation about the funding report, which we always get from Jiri Arnost, who is of course very experienced in this area as someone who essentially performs the role of Council's chief economist. And although we don't borrow on global markets, and of course Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) as well, do. So it's important we as a council understand the market conditions in which our banks are borrowing.

Jiri was very illuminating on some of the challenges that the global economy faces. Of course, the US economy is slowing down and we have the sideshow that is the Republican presidential primary that is distracting and, indeed, worrying some markets; economies in Latin America are under stress due to their high debt loads and some of the petro-states, which are under extreme pressure due to the low oil prices. The European economies are also stagnating, Madam Chairman. There are problems there.

We, of course, have the refugee crisis that is sweeping Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the threat of global terrorism with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Syrian Civil War, so there are very worrying, very worrying, global times, so it's important that we are aware of how that can potentially impact Council. So, Madam Chairman, in uncertain times, such as these, it's all the more important that we have a strong and stable administration at the city's tiller, keeping expenditure growth in check and our city's debt load manageable.

As we know, Madam Chairman, that everything Council does, all the roads that we build, all the parks that we upgrade, all the trees that we plant, the libraries that we open, the festivals that we hold are funded by the residents of the City of Brisbane by the ratepayers. We know that every dollar we spend is a dollar the resident potentially can't spend. So we have an important job in the finance portfolio to justify every single dollar of ratepayer's money that we spend. We will certainly look forward to doing that with Councillor ADAMS over the next four years.

So congratulations, Councillor ADAMS, once again. I commend the report to the Chamber.

Chairman: Any further debate, Councillor ADAMS?

I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the Finance, Economic Development and Administration Committee was declared carried on the voices.


ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Krista Adams (Chairman); Councillor Ryan Murphy (Deputy Chairman); and Councillors Peter Cumming, Charles Strunk, Steven Toomey and Norm Wyndham.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION AND REPORT – NET BORROWINGS – CASH INVESTMENTS AND FUNDING FOR THE MARCH 2016 QUARTER

425/2015-161. Jiri Arnost, Corporate Treasurer, Corporate Finance, Organisational Services division attended the

meeting to present a report to the Committee on Council’s net borrowings for the quarter end March 2016. The report details the corporate cash holdings invested and the status of Council’s funding activities.

2. The presentation provided a market and economic review, and a summary of the following issues in relation to Council’s investments:


- 56 -

- cash position- cash activity review- earnings on investments- funding capability- borrowings- facility performance- leasing exposure.

3. The Chairman thanked the Corporate Treasurer for his informative presentation. The report is presented for noting by Council.

4. RECOMMENDATION:

THAT THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE REPORT BE NOTED, as submitted on file.ADOPTED

B COMMITTEE REPORT – FINANCIAL REPORTS (ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE, RATES, INVENTORY, ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, PROVISIONS AND MALLS) FOR THE PERIOD ENDED DECEMBER 2015134/695/317/573

426/2015-165. Greg Evans, Divisional Manager, Organisational Services division, provided a detailed report

(submitted on file) on Council’s position relating to accounts receivable, rates, inventory, accounts payable, provisions and malls for the period ended December 2015.

6. The Chairman and the Committee noted the report. The financial report on Council’s position relating to accounts receivable, rates, inventory, accounts payable, provisions and malls for the period ended December 2015 is now presented for noting by Council.

7. RECOMMENDATION:


C COMMITTEE REPORT – BANK AND INVESTMENT REPORT – 29 JANUARY 2016 134/695/317/3-03

427/2015-168. Paul Oberle, Chief Financial Officer, Organisational Services division, provided a monthly summary of

Council’s petty cash, bank account and cash investment position as at 29 January 2016.

9. During the January period, total Council funds held by banks and investment institutions (per general ledger) decreased by $51 million to $618.2 million excluding trusts (Ref:1.4). The net decrease is due to repayment of QTC working capital borrowings.

10. Council funds as at 29 January 2016 held by banks and investment institutions (per statements) totalled $625.5 million (Ref:2.4+3.1). The variance relates to timing differences between transactions recorded in the general ledger and those reflected in the bank statements.

11. Unreconciled bank receipts and payments relate to reconciliation variances at the end of the period. The majority of these transactions have since been reconciled.

12. Surplus funds are invested daily with approved counterparties.

13. RECOMMENDATION:


- 57 -


D COMMITTEE REPORT – BANK AND INVESTMENT REPORT – 26 FEBRUARY 2016 134/695/317/3-03

428/2015-1614. Paul Oberle, Chief Financial Officer, Organisational Services division, provided a monthly summary of

Council’s petty cash, bank account and cash investment position as at 26 February 2016.

15. During the February period, total Council funds held by banks and investment institutions (per general ledger) increased by $54.9 million to $673.1 million excluding trusts (Ref:1.4). The net increase is due to the effect of receipts during peak rates cycle.

16. Council funds as at 26 February 2016 held by banks and investment institutions (per statements) totalled $674.7 million (Ref:2.4+3.1). The variance relates to timing differences between transactions recorded in the general ledger and those reflected in the bank statements.

17. Unreconciled bank receipts and payments relate to reconciliation variances at the end of the period. The majority of these transactions have since been reconciled.

18. Surplus funds are invested daily with approved counterparties.

19. RECOMMENDATION:


PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:

Chairman: Councillors, are there any petitions?

Councillor HOWARD?

Councillor HOWARD: Yes, Madam Chairman. I have a petition from homeowners at Teneriffe Drive, Teneriffe in regard to some parking and traffic issues.

Councillor HUANG: Madame Chair—

Chairman: Councillor HUANG.

Councillor HUANG: Madam Chair, I have a petition from residents in Robertson regarding a development application.

Chairman: No further petitions?

Can I have a motion for receipt of the petitions, please.

429/2015-16It was resolved on the motion of Councillor Andrew MARX, seconded by Councillor Jared CASSIDY, that the petitions as presented be received and referred to the Committee concerned for consideration and report.

The petitions were summarised as follows:

File No. Councillor TopicCA16/266778 Vicki Howard Traffic and parking issues on Teneriffe Drive, TeneriffeCA16/331854 Steven Huang The proposed development at 2 Estoril Street, Robertson.


- 58 -

GENERAL BUSINESS:

Chairman: Councillors, are there any statements required as a result of a councillor conduct review panel order?

Chairman: There being no Councillors rising to their feet, Councillors, are there any matters of general business?

Councillor WYNDHAM.

Councillor WYNDHAM: Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, I rise briefly to speak on two items, Multicultural Taste of the World Festival also the Beckett Road resurfacing. Madam Chair—

Councillor JOHNSTON: A point of order, Madam Chairman.


Councillor JOHNSTON: Madam Chairman, just to be clear, I thought we were having first speeches by three new Councillors, and I’m just wondering why that's not been brought forward as per the arrangements for tonight. We've got a lot of people in the gallery waiting, so I’m just wondering why they're not speaking.

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON. Councillor JOHNSTON, Councillor WYNDHAM rose to his feet to speak in general business, and I’m certain that there is sufficient time in general business for those new Councillors to make their maiden speeches. Councillor WYNDHAM, please continue.

Councillor WYNDHAM: Thank you, Madam Chairman. A small, probably a little known event for many people in this Chamber is the Multicultural Taste of the World Festival, which is held annually in McDowall Ward at Keong Park. Madam Chair, during the festival this year, I was, I guess, congratulated or the people running the festival were congratulated by a Council officer that said to me that this has to be the best multicultural festival in Brisbane; a genuine multicultural festival.

Madam Chair, the reason for that is, I guess, it is totally focused on giving people a taste of the world, both culturally and with cuisine. Madam Chair, the Malayalee Association of Brisbane run this festival and they run it in such a way that there are performances across the afternoon that only last 10, 20 minutes. So you have a continuous running program for about four hours of performance. This year, we have performers from Indonesia, India, Russia, Scottish, Chinese, Japanese, Bollywood, belly dancing, Thai, those from Nepal and Palestinians. We even had rap dancers or rappers, whichever you want to call it.

On top of that, we had food from across the globe: India, other parts of Asia. We didn’t get any Russian food there. But I think we had Palestinian food.

Councillor interjecting

Councillor WYNDHAM: The Russian food was rushing out the door. Thank you, Councillor WINES. That's why I missed it. But to me, it's, I guess, a vindication that in 2007 we started what was called A Taste of the World Festival, which literally was a washout. We had about 50 people turn up. When I was confronted by the Malayalee Association about trying to start another multicultural festival locally, I was able to at least tell them we have the signage. This is what you can name it. That will save us a little bit of money and this is the process that we went through to try and get this started last time.

They followed that direction and, to me, it is something that all in this Chamber, should at least get a chance to see. Not just go along for half an hour, but stay through the whole show and support these people, because it is truly a great show. Madam Chair, that's all I have to say on that, but it certainly is something that you all should venture along and have a good look at.

The other thing is the resurfacing of Beckett Road. I think when it comes to resurfacing roads, at times, it's worth taking a little bit of time to get it right.


- 59 -

Madam Chair, this was first put up about two years ago where we had problems with moisture from a couple of wet seasons and Beckett Road itself was becoming a bit of a problem for myself with people wanting to know what was happening with all these potholes that were emerging.

Madam Chair, I’m happy to say that I was willing to take that criticism, because through perseverance, I was able to, at the same time—the job was delayed by approximately six months, but because of that perseverance, we now have several more kilometres of on-road cycleway which were added with that resurfacing. Sometimes, it is just worth taking the hit to make sure your local community gets the best that it deserves. So I don’t care if those on the other side criticise me and, in particular, one person that I heard laughing. But perhaps patience is sometimes a virtue.

I would like to thank the Council officers and those that persevered and particularly the DEPUTY MAYOR persevered with me, I guess, pressuring them a little to get this job done, because I know it saved the ratepayers several hundred thousand and we also ended up with a better job in the long run. So thank you, Deputy Chair; thank you, LORD MAYOR and thank you for those for listening.

Chairman: Further general business?

Chairman: Councillor RICHARDS, as I understand, this is your maiden speech and there being no person rising from the other side of the Chamber, I would like to invite you to make your maiden speech and welcome you officially to the Council Chamber. To all Councillors in this place, I remind you of section 55(4) of the Meetings Local Law, in particular, 54(4)(b) that Councillors shall remain seated and silent whilst the first speech of a new Councillor is made. Councillor RICHARDS, you have the floor.

Councillor RICHARDS: Thank you, Madam Chair. It is important and appropriate that I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and of the land that encompasses the ward of Pullenvale, where in the years to come, I will be engaged in many meetings. I do so not as formality, but because I firmly believe that it is our heritage that makes us and the fundamental building blocks of that heritage are our first peoples. Pullenvale is a remarkable ward in Brisbane's west providing, as it does, that interface between rural and suburban Brisbane.

In that interface, we both find the charm and of the challenges that will delight and confront me in the years to come. So close to the heart of the city, yet at the same time, an area that is known for its rural living and subtropical lifestyle; bordered by the Brisbane River and protected by Mount Coot-tha, Pullenvale provides that clean, green, sustainable lifestyle, whilst also situated within short distance to the city.

It reminds us that Brisbane City is not simply a capital city, but effectively a region brought together by the wisdom of legislators long gone to provide, by its sheer size, the capacity to manage the challenges of local government more effectively than any other local government in Australia. Madam Chair, I am honoured to stand here today as the new councillor for Pullenvale. Honoured in so many ways. Honoured by the support given to me by the electors of my ward, the confidence placed in me by the Liberal National Party and by the work of so many volunteers in my campaign.

I am genuinely honoured, because in a democracy, there is no greater privilege than to be elected by your local community as its political representative. I am humbled and want to acknowledge with a heartfelt thanks to the residents of the Pullenvale Ward for entrusting me to be their representative here in this Council Chamber. Madam Chair, the Pullenvale Ward accounts for one quarter of the entire geographical area of Brisbane. That immediately indicates that infrastructure will be an ongoing challenge. In Pullenvale, we are not just one community; we are several.

That is a real strength. So, Madam Chair, what is the community? Yes, it is people, but it's not merely the people. It is also the community groups through which those people work. A community is shaped by the positives of the


- 60 -

community, but also by the challenges. Infrastructure is a more pressing concern for the Pullenvale Ward than an inner city ward and the management of development will impact on our lifestyle that we cherish so much. But will also shape our community.

The Pullenvale community is epitomised by the Brookfield Show Society and the Anzac cricket match, by school P&Cs, by the markets and by the services provided to the people. It is transport and, indeed, for many the lack of it. It is Moggill Road, morning and afternoon; it is the internet and the mobile black spots. Not my role, but I know that Jane Prentice, our federal member, is already working on that. There is so much to be done. It is time to look once again to our river. Is it feasible to run CityCats from Pullenvale? Times are changing. It is something to think about for the future.

I take on this role enthusiastically, knowing I will need to work closely with the Pullenvale Ward community at the grassroots to properly represent them. I will pledge I will do my very best to represent each and every constituent. Ultimately, I must take my community's advice and I pledged to do so. Having taken that advice, I must, of course, make my judgment as to what is in the best interests of the community in the interest of my community. My aim is to enhance and enrich the everyday lives of my constituents. It is important that I not just listen to my constituents, but that I hear and act on their concerns.

In my electorate of Pullenvale, I will work closely with Dr Christian Rowan MP, Member for Moggill and the Honourable Jane Prentice MP, Federal Member for Ryan, as I know that working together we can achieve so much. So how did I get here? Through the advice and counsel of wise and genuine friends and supporters. Time does not allow me to deal with all those people by name, but let me mention a few. To John and Joan Sheldon, who encouraged me at a time of family tragedy to move on, to join the Liberal National Party and consider representative politics.

Thank you both for your faith and your encouragement. To Genevieve and Kylie, thank you for your loyal friendship and encouragement and political insights.

To my campaign manager, Stephen and his supportive family, my campaign team, Margaret, Hank, Greg, Nick, Fraser, Joyce, Leigh, Chris, Matthew and Christian, the Kenmore and Bellbowrie branch members, many members of the LNP, roadsides and letterbox deliverers, booth captains, volunteers on election day, colleagues and acquaintances, all who assisted with the successful campaign in the Pullenvale Ward, not possible without you. Thank you. Importantly, Madam Chair, it is appropriate that I acknowledge the achievements of the Councillors who served before me.

Madam Chair, Margaret de Wit has had an exceptional career, holding almost every senior office a Councillor may hold. Held in the highest regard in the community, I make particular recognition of her contribution. It would be remiss of me not to mention Bob Mills and Sallyanne Atkinson. Sallyanne, my inspiration, and Bob Mills, a former Opposition Leader and a remarkable achiever. My journey to this Chamber started so many years ago, as I have spent many a day travelling with my grandfather, a bricklayer, to building projects across Brisbane's western suburbs.

Out of those wonderful childhood excursions came a determination that I would live and raise my family in the area of Pullenvale. Madam Chair, I'm a Brisbane girl. I attended St Joseph's Catholic School, Bardon and then All Hallows. I chose a path of working in the construction industry, particularly in contract and project management. That afforded me the opportunity to work in many towns and cities around Australia and, of course, some 10 years with Brisbane City Council.

The diversity of projects from high school expansions, shopping centre upgrades, housing developments, zinc refinery, coal handling plants, gas pipelines, Defence Forces HF (high frequency) MOD project, ferry terminal, CityCats, infrastructure works and, of course, managing the Queen and Duke's


- 61 -

visit in 2012 to the City of Brisbane has given me critical experience for my new role as a Councillor. It gave me a knowledge and understanding of the importance of careful planned and managed growth building a city. A growth that must be consistent with maintaining our enviable environmental record.

Madam Chair, none of us could even consider undertaking this role without the support and understanding of their family. For my family, this is a new and challenging course. Certainly, strong LNP supporters, but new to the party and its structure. As committed as the longest serving members, but still a lot to learn. I say that because it's families who often bear the brunt of the rough and tumble of politics. I am here today because of the love and support of my family. Without them, I would not have taken the first step on this road. So let me say words that must be said; words that I am delighted to say.

To my husband, Matthew, I love you and I thank you. You’ve journeyed with me for the last 20 years. There have been many sacrifices we have made. I could have not done this without you and your commitment to our future. This new phase of our lives we are entering into is filled with change. We will have challenges. Yet, I have a knowing we are growing a deeper commitment to each other in this journey, together side by side. None of this would have been possible without the support of you. Happy 14th wedding anniversary.

To my young gentlemen, William, Dominic and master Hamish, I want to thank you for the sacrifices you have made for your mother to stand here today as a Councillor of this great city. These next four years will be an adventure for us. Yet I know how much each of you thrive on life's challenges and love for one another and the way in which you all welcome this opportunity with enthusiasm. It is clear that my duties as a Councillor will take much of my time, but every free moment I have will be for you and Dad. I will never stop encouraging you, loving you, inspiring you to greater things.

I will always stand up for each of you. You make me so proud. Over the past 18 months, our family has faced tragedies. My grandmother, my rock, passed away at 94. Then after three years of battling cancer of the uterus, my mother, who was my wise counsel, passed away just a few months later at the age of 63. These two matriarchs shaped who I am today. It is to them that I am eternally grateful, for they showed me what women can achieve. That a woman can do whatever she chooses. You just have to believe.

To my Dad, Kevin, in so many ways you have made me who I am today. We have been through the toughest of times losing my mum, Madonna, yet through her loss, we have gained an even a greater bond as a father and daughter. Your gifts of support, guidance, love to the boys is the fabric to what makes our family so strong. To my sister, Emily and her family, I thank you for your constant support, encouragement and counsel. Madam Chair, I want to place on record my appreciation and support for the leadership and support of the LORD MAYOR, Graham Quirk.

Notwithstanding the questionable polls, the people of Brisbane clearly demonstrated their support for Graham and the team. Graham and his team here have done a remarkable job for Brisbane and I am honoured to be a beneficiary of their fine work. Madam Chair, I have been granted a great responsibility. I acknowledge that for all the support from friends, family and the electors of Pullenvale, it is me who must deliver. I am absolutely committed to this role.

I am absolutely committed to improving the services and opportunities for the Pullenvale communities. Importantly, I know that words mean little. It is actions that count. Thank you.

Chairman: Congratulations, Councillor RICHARDS. I would just like to acknowledge, while the orderly changes the lectern over for the maiden speech of Councillor SRI, the presence in the gallery of Senator Larissa Waters. Welcome to the Chamber. I’m sure you’re here for Councillor SRI's maiden speech, so we will just wait for the orderly to transfer the lectern. Once again, I do remind all Councillors that under section 55(4)(b) that all Councillors are to remain seated and silent whilst a Councillor makes their first speech.


- 62 -

Councillor SRI, you have the floor.

Councillor SRI: I would like to start by acknowledging that we're meeting here today on stolen land; that the Yuggera and Turrbal peoples remain the rightful owners of Brisbane and that sovereignty was never ceded. I pay my solemn respects to their elders past and present and also in particular at this time to the late Tiger Bales, an amazing leader and activist, who among many significant achievements helped establish the Murri School at Acacia Ridge and the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, which still broadcasts on 98.9 FM from its headquarters in West End.

I am mindful that it's all well and good to acknowledge the traditional owners in a speech, but actions speak louder than words. I note that Brisbane's Murri communities are deeply affected by the continuing removal of Aboriginal children from their families and by disproportionately high incarceration rates and deaths in custody. I acknowledge the long, proud history of Murri activism in Brisbane's inner south side and the good work of the many underfunded community organisations who provided social support services to First Nations people within The Gabba Ward.

I will make particular mention of the Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign embassy in Musgrave Park, with whom I hope this Council will develop a more positive and supporting relationship over the coming years. I’m sure that over the next years, there will be plenty of time for anti-capitalist diatribes and sneaky, cheeky slam poems, but right now, I'd like to thank and acknowledge the many people without whose support I wouldn't be here today. To my mother, Noela Hall and my father, Muttucumaru Sriranganathan, words can't express my gratitude for everything you’ve done for me.

To my little sister, Anna, for always challenging me to question my own preconceptions; to my extended family, my housemates, my friends and particularly the friends who I don’t get to see so much of these days, but who I haven’t forgotten, thank you. I would also like to thank the residents of The Gabba Ward for putting their confidence in me. I look forward to serving them and all Brisbanites to the best of my ability.

My election wouldn’t have been possible without the help of several hundred volunteers, who continue to give their time and energy to a radical social project, which is far more significant than a single seat in City Council. We would be here all night if I thanked everyone by name, but I will make special mention of Nicole Laffoley, Ruby Ludski and Max Chandler-Mather and also Abraham O'Neill and Melissa Dooris who were there right from the beginning.

As well as our hundreds of volunteers, I need to acknowledge the trailblazing work of the courageous senator, Larissa Waters, who's in the public gallery here this evening and thank the many current and former Greens members who worked hard for many years to build a strong and courageous Greens movement around South Brisbane, particularly the esteemed Drew Hutton. Winning our first seat on Brisbane City Council is an exciting and historic moment for all of us. Looking at current trends, I feel sure there are more seats to come.

Most of all though, I would like to thank my partner, Anna Carlson, for her love and support and all round awesomeness. You're an unending source of joy and inspiration, Anna, and I love you deeply. My election to Brisbane City Council represents a number of firsts. I’m Queensland's first elected representative of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. I’m Queensland's first Greens city Councillor and, to the best of my knowledge, I am the first elected representative to live in a five bedroom rental share house with seven other adults. Our campaign in The Gabba Ward didn’t spend a single dollar on advertising.

We picked up a 14 per cent primary vote swing, not because of glossy fliers and vague slogans, but because hundreds of supportive residents came out to campaign for us. People voted for us, because unlike the other parties, the Queensland Greens don't accept donations from property developers or other big companies. We don’t give special access to corporate lobbyists. More


- 63 -

importantly though, we set out a positive vision for what kind of city we would like Brisbane to become.

We recognise that we're not going to fix inner city traffic congestion and parking shortages unless public transport becomes significantly cheaper and cycling becomes significantly safer. We acknowledge that mixed density, high density urban development is more sustainable than outer suburban sprawl, but that it must be accompanied by sufficient investment into local infrastructure, community services and public space. We spoke of a green, leafy city powered by renewable energy, a walkable metropolis, safe enough for kids to make their own way to school without Mum and Dad having to work as taxi drivers.

We envisage a system of local governance where urban planning decisions are driven by residents and design experts, rather than those whose primary motivation is maximising short-term profit. However, the most significant political distinction between us and the other parties was that we presented practical proposals to improve housing affordability based on successful examples from cities around the world. Increasing the supply of affordable housing and public housing is not idealistic or unworkable. It is pragmatic.

The great under acknowledged tragedy of Brisbane's construction boom is that lower income residents and local small businesses are being priced out of the inner city, fragmenting the complex mosaic of personal relationships that make these communities so special; diluting and smothering the vibrant urban cultures that big developers like to boast about in their glossy fliers. Some have argued that if we increase the supply of homogenous high rise apartments, prices will gradually fall. But this doesn’t necessarily hold true in a market where housing is treated as a target for speculative property investment.

The most likely outcome is that prices will continue growing until the house of cards crashes down. Investors are taking on unsustainable levels of debt to acquire properties that they would rather leave unoccupied than rent out cheaply. Housing in Australia doesn’t function like other commodities. Supply will always fall short of the demand, because the demand for profit is insatiable. Homelessness is rife in Brisbane. Hundreds of Gabba Ward residents lack stable accommodation and right now, there are hundreds, if not thousands of apartments sitting empty.

This tells me that our current approach to housing and urban planning is deeply flawed. There are some who seem more concerned about the fact that I don’t wear a tie and suit jacket to Council than they are about the fact that people are sleeping rough on the streets of this City. It's all well and good to say that this construction boom is good for the economy in the short-term, but wages aren't rising to keep pace with the cost of housing. The main beneficiaries of the so-called boom are big banks, land speculators and property developers.

Economic growth that only benefits the upper echelons of our society is nothing to crow about. If the overheated property market does eventually collapse, those on lower incomes will be hardest hit. Even the Reserve Bank of Australia, that feral hotbed of radical anti-neoliberalism, has expressed concerns about this. If the workers who build these apartments can't afford to buy them without taking out a 25 year mortgage, that's a clear sign that our system isn't working as well as it should. In my short time as a Councillor, I’ve been struck by the contagious defeatism within Council.

Common refrains like, that's just how it is and well, that's what the policy says, so there's nothing we can do are used to mask the fact that we as Councillors could change such policies if we really wanted to. I have also been struck by how unnecessarily adversarial the tone of discussion within this Chamber sometimes becomes. Rather than engaging in meaningful, constructive debate about ideas and policies, it seems like some Councillors are more concerned with scoring points off the other side and tearing each other down, as though that will impress voters.

I can't help but be reminded of the proverb, to insult another person is to dig two graves. I will keep a campaign promise and end with a poem. In our obsession


- 64 -

with rules and procedures, with money and power, I think it's important to not lose sight of culture and the value of storytelling.

Roots down

roots down

roots down

roots down

my heart's buried deep under Brisbane town

creek beds, hilltops, riding around

cracking macadamias and putting roots down

I am of this city

its history is my history

my scraped knee and my favourite tree

and swimming lessons in the pool at Craigslea Primary

and Oxley's expedition back in 1823

and our Year 4 excursion to Saint Helena Island

and those weather-worn tennis balls that we were always finding

and the floods of 1974

and the invasion of 1788

and the park on the north side where I rode without training wheels for the first time

and the frog pond of drowning Christmas beetles

and Joh Bjelke-Petersen

and hunting Easter eggs in the backyard

and hunting kangaroos by Breakfast Creek

and the roller coaster at the top of the Myer Centre that looked like a dragon and screamed at the madness beneath

roots down

roots down

this town

roots down

My roots are tendrils, tentacles

reaching down below

splitting concrete and bitumen digging in

The soil is soft after summer storms

and the roots grow quickly, thickly

but Brisbane's burbs are built on clay

so once they're down they're down to stay

Roots down, roots down brushtail growl hear that sound

But now and then in this circus I encounter a clown

who thinks that because he's got his roots in the ground

he somehow gains the right to define this town

and decide who else gets to put roots down


- 65 -

See the surface seems sufficiently serene

but if you peel back the band-aid you'll see the gangrene

And now I see you've forgotten

I see your roots are rotten

but this garden has no gardener

that's how we got to where we've gotten

The question on my mind is where are we going?

This city is growing

sauropod construction cranes on every horizon

jackhammer clattering drowns out the cicadas

the relentless march of apartment towers makes suburbanites nervous

so they build higher fences

and mow their lawns weekly

Roots down, stolen ground

dead trees, river brown

I know something's awry in this city

but I can't quite put my finger on it

It's like we've outgrown the garden bed

roots in a twist

slumbering suburbs

silence those who resist

Vision blurring

but now I hear them stirring

climb Mt Coot-tha at midnight

see them lighting candles and switching off TVs

Flying foxes in the trees

stench of rotten mangoes

gives way to a cool south-easterly

Pumpkin vines wither and die but the passionfruit keeps growing

skyscrapers sprouting up from the bedrock

Wivenhoe overflowing

activists invade city hall and the clocktower falls silent in anticipation

Change is coming to Brisbane town

we feel it in the soil

while we’re cracking macadamias and putting roots down

Chairman: Congratulations, Councillor SRI. Orderly is now taking the lectern over to Councillor ALLAN for his maiden speech. Once again, I remind all Councillors under 55(4)(b) to remain seated and silent during a first speech of a new Councillor.

Councillor ALLAN, congratulations. You have the floor.

Councillor ALLAN: Thank you, Madam Chair.

It is an honour to be standing here delivering my maiden speech in this Council Chamber. It is a significant honour to represent the residents of


- 66 -

Northgate Ward and, indeed, the residents of Brisbane. The Northgate Ward is a great place to live and it is humbling to be chosen as their representative within Council. I thank the residents of Northgate for their support. I would also like to congratulate the LORD MAYOR on his outstanding victory in the recent Council elections.

His re-election and, indeed, the re-election of all the Quirk Administration is testament to the conviction that Brisbane residents have demonstrated for positive politics, innovative and fiscally responsible policies and the delivery of significant and lasting achievements in this city. The people of Brisbane have chosen to keep Brisbane on the right track. This is a great outcome for the City of Brisbane and its long-term future.

The Northgate Ward is an exciting and evolving ward that has a keen eye to its past, it has a long and significant history with strong links back to that history. As I travel across the ward through Banyo, Chermside, Kedron, Northgate, Nudgee, Nudgee Beach, Nundah, Wavell Heights and Virginia, the diversity of the ward is evident. It is a diverse ward in many ways. There is diversity of land use, diversity of cultures, diversity of landscape and diversity of lifestyles. The growing population of Northgate Ward is, however, united by the fact that it is a great place to live, work, relax and raise a family. By way of example, Banyo has recently been recognised as one of Brisbane's key emerging suburbs, given its proximity to transport, infrastructure, jobs, the community feel and value for money housing.

Northgate Ward has deeply connected community groups and sporting clubs that add so much value to the wider community. The full list of community benefits are too numerous to mention, but include supporting the disadvantaged in our community, improving health and wellbeing, supporting inclusion, particularly for the aged, and engaging the community through participation. The vast majority of people who support these organisations and allow them to deliver their services and programs are volunteers; testament to the spirit and soul of the community.

Northgate Ward, like much of Brisbane, is in transition. This is evident across the ward, particularly around those locations close to major transport and commercial infrastructure, such as Nundah and Chermside. With this transition comes change that has to be managed. Key considerations for Northgate Ward will continue to be aligned to the Council's key strategic drivers, which are informed by the South East Queensland Regional Plan. Specifically, population growth, dwelling demand, economic development, sustainability, infrastructure, efficient public transport, protecting our environment and lifestyle and supporting strong and healthy communities.

We have a wide range of commitments that we will deliver in the Northgate Ward over the coming term. These will enhance the amenity of the ward for all residents. These commitments are varied and range from park upgrades through to significant road and traffic infrastructure.

A little bit of background about myself. By way of background, before moving to Council, I worked extensively in the finance sector, both in Australia and overseas. Because of my strong financial and strategic management background, I am keen to work to deliver real benefits across the ward and Brisbane, using our funds wisely after deeply considered thought and consideration of the alternatives. As an ex-banker, I understand the obligation to responsibly use funds for the beneficial outcomes of the majority and with an eye to the future.

Having lived overseas for many years, I have had the opportunity to work with a diverse range of people from many countries. This makes me uniquely well positioned to work with our multicultural community. It has also allowed me to live in and visit a wide range of large cities and observe how they have developed over time.

But Brisbane has always been home and it is home for many reasons. I was born, raised and educated here. Much of my family is here. I live in Northgate Ward with my family and even though I lived overseas for many years, I knew I


- 67 -

would return to Brisbane, my hometown. I wanted my children to appreciate being Australians and I wanted them to understand how special Brisbane is.

We have an enviable lifestyle in this city. We have great community spaces and parks in the city are close to beaches to the north and south and the country to the west. Getting around our city is easy. I challenge you to try and get around Sydney, London or Hong Kong before you complain about this city. We have amazing infrastructure, outstanding parks and a quality of life that makes our city a perfect place to live, work and visit.

I would also like to thank those Councillors and Chairs that provided me with help and advice during the last few months. Their assistance and collective wisdom has been invaluable to me, specifically I would like to thank Councillor WINES, MARX, KING, WYNDHAM and McLACHLAN for their support and friendship. In recent weeks, as we have transitioned to office, I have also had invaluable support from Councillors SCHRINNER, BOURKE and ADAMS. I guess looking around the whole team here, I think it's probably remiss of me not to actually thank all of them. They’ve all helped out in some way over the last six months.

This is why I’m proud to be a member of the Quirk Administration. It is because all Councillors on this side of the Chamber have taken the time to welcome a newcomer to the Chamber and into this Administration.

I would also like to thank the broader LNP campaign team for their support and enthusiastic help. Thank you to the central campaign team. I will not name you all, but you know who you are and I thank you for your hard work and commitment towards the re-election of the Quirk Administration.

Thank you also to my campaign team for those hard, hot days in the Queensland sun. Wayne McCLennan, Gavin, Peter, Richard, both Jans, Melanie, Cris, Cath, Rachel. The list goes on. I am indebted to you all for your commitment, belief and hard work.

I would also like to acknowledge my recently departed mother, June, who I know would have been proud beyond belief. I would like to thank my family for their unwavering encouragement and support. To my children Ben, Zack and Hannah, this campaign taught you many things and it taught me how tight we are as a family. You were part of the roadsides, the street stalls and the community events. I am proud of all of you.

To my wife, Amanda, who encouraged me to pursue this opportunity, you have been a passionate and energetic supporter since day one. You got up and did roadsides and numerous other events when there were so many other things that might have been done. You advised me, encouraged me and gave me a subtle push if I needed it. You were the silent backbone of the campaign, particularly in the final weeks. You made significant sacrifices. I love you and cherish your counsel.

In conclusion, being a Councillor is not an easy task. Certainly, it has been the hardest job interview I have ever done. There are tough decisions to be made at times, which will not please all constituents. However, the responsibility of a Councillor is to have not only an eye on the issue, but also the wider considerations of a growing city. The importance of local government to residents and their quality of life cannot be overestimated. The residents of Northgate Ward have entrusted me with this responsibility and I will do everything I can within my power to serve them responsibility and energetically. Thank you.

Chairman: Congratulations, Councillor ALLAN. I will just wait for the orderly to return the lectern to the LORD MAYOR's desk and then we'll commence with further general business.

Further general business?

Councillor SUTTON.


- 68 -

Councillor SUTTON: Thank you, Madam Chair. Look, I rise tonight predominately to give a thank you to some people who are involved in a local street art project we undertook in Morningside Ward in the last few weeks. So just to give a little bit of a context to the particular project that we undertook, probably about five weeks out from the Brisbane City Council election, the arborist, local arborist that looks after the beautiful heritage listed figs in Bulimba Memorial Park came to me and said, Councillor SUTTON, we've done some assessment on these fig trees and we need to establish some aerial root stations as a matter of priority.

I said, okay, no problem. What does that involve? He said, we need to get as many aerial root stations down as possible. I said, what are they? He said, they're big white poles that we need to put down to help train the roots from the limb to the ground. I said, okay. No problem. I said, how many do you think we'll need? He said—keep in mind, this is five weeks out from the election—and he said, 44. I went, okay. 44. Big white poles straight along premiere Oxford Street, Bulimba in our beautiful green park. I said, when are these poles going in? He said, two weeks before the election.

I went, okay. I said, so they're going to make a significant visual impact on our beautiful park. He said, oh, yes. Pretty much. Okay. So then I said, can we paint them and make them look pretty? To his credit, he hadn't thought about it before, but to his credit he said, yes, we might be able to do that; which was about the point where I then immediately picked up the phone to Deb Hood, Deborah Hood. People in the Chamber might recognise that name.

She is the artist, the Brisbane artist that recently won the CityCat wrap competition and she's a local Balmoral artist who I have known for and worked with for many, many years on a variety of community projects. I said to Deb, anyway, you can find me some artists to paint these poles. She did. She did an incredible job in helping me transition these poles into an outdoor art gallery.

What I want to do tonight is firstly thank the Council officers for having an open mind about how we might transition this very, very important aerial roots station project into something that the entire community could embrace and embracing it not only understand the significance and importance of the aerial roots station project, but also take community ownership of it through this street art program. So I want to place on record a very public thank you to Ben Inman who is the lead arborist in Asset Services East and David Angell, the Manager of Asset Services East, because of course we're in caretaker mode and of course I couldn’t sign off on any type of community funding under the Ward's Parks Trust Fund or under the Suburban Initiative Fund, so the Council officers found the money within the project, but I also want to say a big thank you to Bunnings at Cannon Hill who also provided pretty much all of the paint and the undercoat for the poles for free.

So I want to thank them as well. I also want to give a big, huge thank you to all of the artists that participated in this project. First and foremost, I want to thank Owen from Bench Espresso Gallery in West End. He was the key facilitator who helped find me the other nine street artists who participated in the program. So there was 44 root stations in all. 30 of them were painted by the street artists and 10 were painted by local community groups. So the street artists that were involved was Owen and I only have their Twitter handles or their Instagram handles. So I'm also going to public acknowledge each of these Instagram handles.

They are @boo_francis, @phi1b, @luckylucks, @drunkhorror, @s_e_v_e_n_s, @steisl_ and @jamesnyeyo. The community poles were painted by a local year eight student, Amber the Artist, who is a distinguished artist in her own right, Emma Bibby, Vanessa Wilkins, the students of Bulimba State School, particularly their teacher, Bridget Cannon and Jade and Charlotte and Abigail, who came down on a Friday afternoon in school time to paint their pole. The St Peter's and Paul's Outside School Hours Care, led by the lovely Lauren, one of the outside school hours care teachers and a number of their children.

Deborah Hood. Of course, she painted two poles for us. One with her signature colonial houses and the magpie lark, for which Bulimba is famous for and the


- 69 -

lovely Bulimba Festival yellow, which she was also the creator behind. Also, one that had—recognised the war effort of women, the women's war effort as well. Leigh Lynam, the owner of Road 2 Art. Sophie, Amy and a couple of the other students from Cannon Hill Anglican College. The Bulimba Golf Club and also Liz Saltwell from Saltiecraft.

Now, Bulimba Memorial Park is, of course, a memorial park. It is where our community gathers for Anzac Day and a number of these root stations were located directly very close to the memorial, so what I asked the artists to do is for the four poles that are closest to the memorial to paint them in a way that respected the memorial and in a way that highlighted the service of our soldiers. So we have those four poles. There's one that's painted in army fatigue colours with a great big giant red poppy on it.

Deb Hood did another one, which of course was recognising women's war service and the service of the indigenous servicemen and women who served in our armed forces. Emma Bibby did the third one, which is a traditional rising sun in acknowledgement of our ANZACs. Then, of course, the Bulimba State School students wove through their pole artwork. Some of the local history of veterans in our local area and a commitment from the school children that they will never forget the contribution of our local servicemen and women to our war effort. It was a fabulous project. I have been inundated with so many positive comments about it.

I think it has really made people more aware of the importance of those figs and the work that Council is undertaking to protect the future of those figs. So I really did want to rise and draw it to people's attention. There are plenty of pictures on Facebook about these poles on my site, on Deborah Hood's site, on the Bulimba Business site, so jump on there and have a look. Or, even better, come and visit Oxford Street.

Come and grab a coffee or a lunch over at—or something or take a stroll in front of our memorial park and just see some of the beautiful—and come and have a look, a close look, at the beautiful outdoor gallery that we've established through working together on this project. It really has certainly been wonderful to be involved in.


Chairman: Councillor SRI.

Councillor SRI: I will keep it really short. I don’t want to keep people too late. But I would just like to speak on the topic of homelessness. I feel a sense of urgency given that it's getting colder lately. I note there a lot of people sleeping rough tonight around Brissie and that it's generally a lot safer to be sleeping indoors, even, for example, it would be safer to sleep in the foyer of Brisbane City Hall than it would be to sleep out on the street. So I would just like to move that we—I will just quickly make the case really quickly. It would be possible to lock, secure that bottom foyer and make sure that people wouldn’t be able to get further into City Hall.

Chairman: Councillor SRI.

Councillor SRI: Yes.

Chairman: I think you might be confusing two things. If you’re moving a motion, you have to move an urgency motion.

Councillor SRI: Cool.

Chairman: Or if you’re making a speech in general business, it is a speech in general business on a topic that you haven't spoken on previously in that same session.

Councillor SRI: That's cool; I won't move the motion. I would just make the point that I think it would be really, really cool if we started a system where people could stay overnight in that bottom foyer of City Hall. There's nothing to steal there. It's pretty secure. It's much safer than those people being outside and I think that's something that we should look into for the future. That's not a crazy hair brained


- 70 -

scheme. It's quite practical. Other councils around the world have done it. They say, look, we have this big open public hall. We'll let people stay here overnight. It's not going to hurt anyone. It doesn’t cost anything and it's much better than them sleeping on the street.

So I just leave that on the notes for anyone to consider. Thank you.


I declare the meeting closed.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:(Answers to questions of which due notice has been given are printed as supplied and are not edited)

Submitted by Councillor Nicole Johnston (from meeting on 19 April 2016)

Q1. Please provide a list of Brisbane streets identified by Council for future Local Area Traffic Management Plans (LATM) by name, suburb and priority in the following table?

Street Name, Suburb Priority (eg high, medium, low)1.

A1. Priority projects for capital funding are considered as part of the budget process each year in June. Unlike the previous Labor Administration, Council now publishes a schedule outlining the projects to be funded in a financial year as part of the budget book which is publicly available. The 2016/17 Council budget will be handed down on June 15.

Submitted by Councillor Nicole Johnston (from meeting on 19 April 2016)

Q1. What is the total distance of Council’s stormwater drain pipe network?

A1. This information is contained in the Council’s Annual Report, which is publicly available.

Q2. How often are Council’s stormwater drains inspected?

A2. Council is continually surveying the stormwater network across the City with pipe cameras as part of the proactive maintenance program. Council also responds to customer requests about blocked drains. Inspection schedules vary depending on the prevailing conditions in individual locations.

Q3. When was the last time Council’s stormwater drains in Annerley were inspected?

A3. Council has an extensive stormwater drainage network in the suburb of Annerley which is included in the City-wide proactive maintenance program. Council has inspected some drains in Annerley this financial year (to date). If a resident has a concern with regard to a stormwater drain needing inspection they can report it to Council’s 24 Hour contact centre on 3403 8888.

RISING OF COUNCIL: 6.08pm.

PRESENTED: and CONFIRMED

CHAIRMAN


- 71 -

Council officers in attendance:

Colin Jensen (Chief Executive Officer)James Withers (Senior Council and Committee Officer)Robert Southwood (Acting Council and Committee Officer)Billy Peers (Personal Support Officer to the Lord Mayor and Council Orderly)


- 72 -

· Web viewWe of course celebrated—not celebrated, that’s the wrong word—but commemorated Anzac Day yesterday. No doubt all Councillors would have been out at various ceremonies

Documents