Speech by Councillor Seal Chong Wah

Council Chambers: Debate on Minor Amendment to Brisbane City Plan 2014 – Minor Amendment Package G

Flood Overlay changes - Breakfast Creek Study 

12th August 2025

I rise to speak on the Minor Amendment to Brisbane City Plan 2014 – Package G, which involves flood studies for Lota Creek, Jindalee Creek, and the Breakfast Creek catchment. The Breakfast Creek catchment flood study, completed in September 2024, has resulted in the largest number of properties ever added to the flood overlay maps from one catchment study.  Over 10,000 new properties along Ithaca, Enoggera and Breakfast Creek, will now be added to the flood overlay maps. 10,000 new properties in Flood Planning Area 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Another 2,746 properties will have their flood risk category increased.

Following the study, released in September last year, the first stage was adding properties to the ‘Flood Awareness Maps’, before the council votes today which adds the properties more formally to the City Plan’s ‘Flood Overlay Maps’. I proactively requested a briefing on flood issues in my ward, in February this year, but somehow no mention was made of the 10,000 properties being added to the Flood Awareness Map, along my ward boundary.   

It is unreasonable to believe that residents will proactively check the flood awareness maps for properties they have owned for many years.

A briefing on this was provided to me this morning, at my request, 11 months after the release of the study.Council staff claimed a media release was sent out in September last year. Surprisingly, we found no mention in the media of this unprecedented Breakfast Creek study. 

Adding properties to flood maps will cause massive increases in insurance premiums, some will be refused flood insurance completely, and many others will not be able to afford it. House values may also decline. Residents deserve the chance to discuss these studies before it is voted on by Council - not after.

More than 12,700 property owners around Ithaca/Enoggera & Breakfast creek will be surprised and many will be in shock. Why would this LNP administration not want to be transparent and notify residents in October last year? That's right, State elections!

Perhaps this LNP administration wouldn’t want over 12,000 property owners knowing that they were suddenly in high risk flood zones, especially when climate change is a key factor. Not a good look for Party of climate change deniers.

If this LNP administration has pressured senior staff to keep this hidden, then they have compromised professional council staff for political gain. These 12,000 property owners affect multiple Wards including The Gap, Enoggera and Central. 

Through the chair, I wonder if Councillors Steve Toomey, Andrew Wines and Vicki Howard have notified their residents about being added to the Flood Awareness Maps back in October last year. I suspect not! Many property owners are affected in Bardon, Red Hill, Kelvin Grove, Herston, Albion, Windsor, Wilston, Ashgrove, New Market, the Gap, Newstead, Bowen Hills and Fortitude Valley - yes even large chunks of Fortitude Valley are now expected to experience major flooding.

This is a wake up call for an LNP council who continues to devote their whole housing development strategy to flood prone inner city suburbs.

One of the major reasons so many properties are being added to the flood maps is climate change modelling, with the IPCC RCP4.5 climate change scenario forecasting a 2-3 degrees global average temperature increase by the year 2100. What we are seeing here in Enoggera Creek and Ithaca Creek will expand throughout Brisbane city in future studies. Climate change is real and devastating.

This LNP administration, in power for 20 years, and their colleagues in the State and federal government, have been blocking action on climate change that is now impacting the people of Brisbane. The LNP has had 20 years to make this city more resilient and less flood prone. Instead they are driving Brisbane backwards. Cutting stormwater budgets, cutting new parks budget, reducing greenspace, massive destruction of our tree canopy and paving over the lungs of our City, Victoria Park-Barrambin with mega Olympic stadiums.

Their shortsighted urban development strategy has coerced even more people into high risk flood zones. Areas the Australian Insurance council say we shouldn’t be building on.

This is an administration lacking any vision or integrity to cope with the new dangerous climate change era we are now in.