Speech by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, to full Brisbane City Council Council Meeting, Thurs 25th Jun 2026

It honestly pains me to give a very similar debate speech on Sustainable City as last year.

The Lord Mayor and Schrinner Council Administration are set on turning Brisbane into a sweltering, flooded and unliveable city. 

One where big developers make massive profits off the housing crisis. By pushing through unsustainable developments with the support of a Council that neglects its environmental obligations.

Program 3: Sustainable City, should be about protecting what makes Brisbane liveable and enjoyable - our parks, our waterways, our trees and our climate. 

Instead, the LNP has again purged sustainability budgets like they’re an optional afterthought.

I note once again the Council Administration budgeting tricks they’ve used to dodge accountability.

In 2024, they scrapped ALL detailed budget figures. 

In 2025, they shuffled items around.

Now, in 2026, we’re told that this budget couldn’t be compared to previous ones due to an accounting change.

It’s shameful the lengths that Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and the LNP go to, to avoid accountability and transparency. 

Through the information session, we gathered enough figures to draw alarming comparisons with the last time we got detailed figures.

That is, the 2023-24 budget.

Let’s start with Strategy 3.3.3 Grow, Improve and Maintain Brisbane’s Network of Urban Parks. 

Accounting for inflation and noting that operating costs are excluded, here are the cuts this Council has dealt to parks since their 2023-24 Budget:

• $18.5 million cut from Delivering Iconic Parks for Brisbane - a huge 68% cut

• $27 million cut from Delivering Sports Parks for Brisbane

• $17 million cut from Maintaining Suburban Parks - that’s a 73% reduction

• An increase to Metropolitan and District parks of $6 million. I’m happy to be transparent about that, unlike this Administration.

• $5.7m cut from Upgrading Neighbourhood Parks

This is not just reckless. 

It’s a calculated erosion of Brisbane’s liveability and resilience. 

Parks and sporting facilities are not just a nice-to-have. 

They’re absolutely vital for a healthy neighbourhood.

They combat the urban heat island effect, they mitigate climate events like flooding and heatwaves, reduce climate emissions and have strong links to individual wellbeing. 

These cuts follow the LNP’s amendment to the City Plan in November 2024, which saw our citywide greenspace target reduced by 290 hectares.

This Administration’s anti-environment agenda doesn’t stop at parks and greenspace. 

In Strategy 3.6.1, Council will cut $48 million, or 42% of the operating budget for Trees and Parks Maintenance. 

What a devastating blow to our city.

Despite the PR, Brisbane’s tree canopy is on the decline. 

A leaked internal review, obtained by the ABC, revealed that shade cover in Brisbane had declined from 35% to 32% in the 10 years up to 2019.

This is nowhere near Council’s own target that they set in 2017, for 50% shade cover by 2031.

At that time, this Council itself stated, “trees have a significant role in mitigating the urban heat island effect by reducing temperatures through shade and minimising stored heat”.

It pointed the finger at the high number of tree removals throughout the city. Why? 

Because this Council keeps approving tree clearing and keeps failing to enforce environmental requirements in new developments.

Council is completely failing to enforce its 10% deep-planting requirements in the City Plan 2014. 

In March this year, a 27 storey tower was approved in Milton with no deep planting at all. Is this a cruel joke?

In my Ward, we’ve just recently seen Council approve the loss of 116 mature trees at Old Bishopsbourne - some of the very last urban habitat in Milton. 

The Lord Mayor has also gleefully handed over the green lungs of our city - Victoria Park Barrambin.

Handed it over to an “independent” Olympics body, GIICA, stacked with property developers and corporate lobbyists - the same kind that donate to the Liberal National Party. 

That same body sent police to raid the Goori Camp Embassy under the cover of dark this morning. Violating the Human Rights Act to shut down protected cultural ceremony.

4000 mature trees are on that site! Many predating colonisation. 

The shameful loss of this culturally significant, biodiverse, public greenspace will be the Schrinner Council’s legacy.

I was also shocked to learn in Strategy 3.3.4, Council is still paying the bills at Barrambin! 

$709,000 is being spent by Council to maintain a privately-owned park that’s completely locked up from the public!

Did Council not sink enough of ratepayer’s money into the 3 years of consultation for their abandoned Master Plan?  Or the millions spent on the driving range, the bistro, function centre, park BBQs, picnic areas, maintenance, and the pump track, only to throw it all away for free?

Back on Tree Maintenance, in Strategy 3.6.1. It was also revealed by the ABC that Council is failing to keep hundreds of thousands of its trees in good condition, which is raising the risk of damage to property or infrastructure.

Council’s own review said “any further reduction in funding will likely translate to an increase in risk”.

Now the LNP has cut that budget by 42%!

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner is putting my community at risk. He’s putting Brisbane at risk. 

Now to flooding.

In Strategy 3.5.1 Delivering Drainage Networks, I’m glad to see some funding returned after the reckless slashing of $19.5 million from this budget last year.

But that’s not enough!

Strategy 3.5.2 Stormwater Management, Maintenance and Rehabilitation has seen a $6.9 million cut this year.

If we compare again to Council’s 2023-24 budget - there’s been a $34 million cut from Stormwater Drainage Rehabilitation, and a 44% cut to expenses on Drainage Design. 

This is happening while the LNP actively promotes new highrise developments in our worst flood zones. 

It’s happening after Council added 10,000 properties to it’s Flood Planning Areas, last year.

It’s happening after the federal government’s National Climate Risk Assessment forecast a $500 billion hit to Queensland property values within 25 years, due to climate change. 

After it found that whole suburbs would become uninsurable!

And in case that wasn’t enough…

This Administration cut Strategy 3.2.1, Low Carbon Council, by another $800,000. 

Council apparently has a target of Net Zero by 2050. Instead, emissions were up 3% in 2025.

That’s what you get from an LNP that’s become a fringe party of climate deniers who serve big business and big developers, at the expense of any ambition, target or promise to the people of Brisbane.

This Administration is actively eroding Brisbane’s liveability and sustainability. They’re putting our neighbourhoods at risk.

We need to do better. And we can, if we make developers pay their fair share to fund the infrastructure we need. 

To protect our children. 

To protect future generations.

And to keep Brisbane as a place people want to live.