Speech by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, to full Brisbane City Council Council Meeting, Tues 4th Feb 2025
Speaking to the Council's “Inner-city affordability initiative”.
I rise to speak on Clause A - the Tailored Amendment to Brisbane City Plan 2014, and so called “Inner-city affordability initiative”. This is a good step towards reducing car-centric urban planning in Brisbane. In fact, it’s the closest thing to ‘congestion busting’ that we’ve seen from this administration in many years. If we step back in time for just a moment to 2019, we’ll recall that both the LNP and Labor supported an amendment to the City Plan that increased minimum parking ratios in new developments.
The Greens knew then, as we know now, that the solution to congested streets isn’t mandating private vehicle ownership. It’s investing in public and active transport. Congratulations Lord Mayor for adopting the essence of a Greens policy. It’s unfortunate that it took Brisbane ranking 10th worst in the world on congestion, and a housing crisis, for you to come around.
The reduction in private vehicle use in our higher-density areas, such as Milton, is welcome. But we have serious concerns about the transparency and honesty of this Council administration.
In Attachment C, Council responds to concerns about Public Transport accessibility. They claim that the Council is committed to more buses for suburbs, expansion of the CityCat and free services like city bus loops. How could this Council administration possibly say this with a straight face, when just two months ago, they cut forty percent of ferry services to Milton? Can someone explain to my community how cutting one of three public transport modes in Milton, supports Council’s commitment to expanding public transport? I’m very much looking forward to Cr Murphy’s attempt to explain this in his response to my letter, which he has so far taken 56 days to write. How strong is the Council’s so-called commitment to more buses and free bus loops when they cut the free 86 Kurilpa South Brisbane bus loop just last week? It’s also worth noting that resident’s concerns about Active Transport are not addressed in Council’s response to the consultation.
Within the City Frame and City Core there are spots like Cribb Street in Milton, and Lang Parade in Auchenflower, that are too dangerous for pedestrians to cross. This Council has denied all requests for safer crossings at these sites. And for cyclists, as soon as they leave the Bicentennial Bikeway, there’s a serious lack of separated bike lanes. To not even acknowledge these issues is disgraceful, but unsurprising. After all, this is the same Lord Mayor that calls vital pedestrian safety infrastructure, like pedestrian crossings, a 'downgrade'.
The most concerning part of this proposed amendment is the utterly misleading title “housing affordability initiative”. This is an affordability initiative for rich developers. Sure it’s cheaper to build, but just like the LNP’s costly and ineffective infrastructure charges discounts, how will Council ensure these savings are passed on to desperate buyers? What stops developers continuing to trickle supply, keep prices soaring and pocket the cost savings??
If the Lord Mayor was serious about housing affordability, he’d work with the State Government to establish mandatory inclusionary zoning for more public and community housing. If he was serious, he’d introduce a vacancy levy to stop developers land-banking, and make them get on with actually selling homes. Big developers have artificially restricted housing supply.
Until this administration shows true leadership and takes them on, housing will remain unaffordable for Brisbane residents.