Clause E Meetings amending local law 2026

Speech to Council Chambers - Councillor Seal Chong Wah – Paddington Ward

Chambers Meeting -15th September 2026

I rise to speak on Clause E, regarding the Meetings Amending Local Law 2026.

This is a dark moment in the history of the Brisbane City Council Chambers. Today we will witness LNP Councillors, representatives of our community, vote against democracy. 

This LNP dominated council will turn their backs on the community. This rule change has not been the first anti-democratic change, but another slap in the face to our community, silencing the people of Brisbane. This is a slide towards autocracy, where fewer people hold greater, unrestrained power over our city. 

The LNP has NO conscience. They’re part of the right wing fossil fuel machine. The machine that props up multi billion dollar corporations, big time developers and oligarchs that only care about money. 

Greedy people that exploit and extract from the people, Aboriginal people, children, and our environment. Your choices perpetuate the deliberate destruction of this earth that causes global crises. Your policies prioritising private profits shatters ecosystems and communities, leaving people homeless, and children hungry, putting them in de-facto physical and psychological torture. That torture is inherent to  the global spread of this radical anti-democratic free-market capitalism. 

Let that sink in!

You are operating unethically to the natural world.

This Council is meant to be a democracy. A system where power belongs to the people. The word comes from ancient Greece: demos means "the people", and kratos means "to rule”. This meeting's local law is supposed to reflect a healthy, transparent democracy! 

LNP are on the wrong side of History!

It doesn’t take much critical thinking to work out our world is designed to be very cruel utilising legislation. Legislation or rules designed by all levels of government. This LNP council turns a blind eye to the people living below the poverty line, people struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, stretched to the max with the cost of living and fuel crisis. You all sit on your hands and do the absolute bare minimum. LOOK outside these walls we have people sleeping rough at the doorstep of City Hall. 

This LNP council and state government is destroying our very delicate ecosystem, destroying iconic inner city sacred Aboriginal land, the peoples park, and killing Koalo habitat! You turn your backs on the longest living culture in the world! 80,000 years of sacred Lore, Aboriginal culture. I grieve alongside our Elders and Aboriginal people for the injustice they face in this racist system.

I want our kids to grow up in a safe world, where communities can be heard and have a voice. 

Where governments ACTUALLY genuinely support our community. These new amendments of the meeting local laws fundamentally undermine the voice of the people. 

These rule changes silence the community, shrink debating time, and include mechanisms that allow the LNP to dominate the Chambers meeting time so opposition councillors have less time to speak on important agenda items and petitions that impact our community. 

Rule changes that hide important information from the community. Limiting the information that Councillors are given, along with the changes to Council’s Inspection of Records policy. Even the meeting time is a major concern! A period of 3 hours shall be allowed for debate on all committee reports, unless council resolves otherwise. 

This allows the LNP to close committee report debates early. This is under the distraction or guise of “family friendly hours”. Talk about family friendly! This LNP Council is not family friendly, when you are quite literally harming families out in the community! When you are not addressing the housing crisis. This is critical debate on multi-billion-dollar committee reports arbitrarily capped at three hours or less, which stops debate on most of the agenda items. Pushing through unpopular changes to our city, and these new amendments block out scrutiny and accountability. 

Every single one of us relies on local government to manage our suburbs, our parks, our infrastructure, and our city’s future. 

When debate is silenced, it's the residents of Brisbane who lose their right to be heard.

A 4 billion dollar city budget demands rigorous scrutiny, not a rubber stamp. 

Our community deserves a council to operate with decency, transparency, accountability to create a vibrant, sustainable and affordable city for our community.