Speech to Council Chambers

Speech delivered by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, to full Council Chambers, during debate on the Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report – June 2026

I rise to speak on the E&C Committee report Clause A, regarding the proposed Quarterly Financial Report for June 2026.

This report shows you that developers can get away with anything in this city.

In the 2025-26 budget, the Lord Mayor expected developers to contribute 164 million dollars in infrastructure charges.1 Just 5 percent of the Council’s income.

In the first quarter of the 2025-26 budget, developers had paid 17 million.2

By the second, they had paid 49 million.3

By the third quarter, they had paid just 52 million.4

And now, we find out that they paid just 84 million dollars for the whole financial year.5

That’s 80 million dollars less, or 49 percent less than projected.

It accounts for 80% of the 100 million dollars in cut capital works last financial year.

And this began well before the capital gains tax discount or negative gearing changes were even being debated.

This means that Brisbane’s residents miss out.

This is 80 million dollars of basic public infrastructure that developers didn’t fund. 

That’s dozens of stormwater upgrades, or hectares of new parkland or restored forest. 

That’s almost 10 kilometres of protected bikeway, or dozens of traffic lights, or over a hundred kilometres of new or upgraded footpaths. 

That’s fifty to a hundred flood-prone homes that could be bought-back.

80 million dollars in a single year.

But as this financial report shows, this LNP administration refuses to make developers pay their fair share in infrastructure charges. They even gave developers 50 to 100 percent discounts, which accounted for $19 million in lost revenue last financial year. 14

These discounts didn’t make homes any more affordable. Brisbane homes became more expensive than Melbourne and Canberra while the LNP gave handouts to developers.

This LNP administration’s state colleagues legalised developer donations to political parties. That same LNP told developers to cut affordable housing, and take bigger profits.

The LNP keeps putting developers over residents. They put profits over people. And this report proves it.

This is unsustainable. We need this basic infrastructure, and we need it now.

There are straightforward solutions. Every time this Council upzones land in this city, the landowners gain millions in property value for nothing. And right now, this LNP administration doesn’t capture any of that value for the public.

For years, the Greens have been calling for the State government to remove the cap on infrastructure charges, so that Queensland’s Council’s can actually charge enough for our infrastructure. We wouldn’t see the kind of horrendous shortfalls that this financial report shows.

But further than this, the Greens have called for value uplift charges. When land values double or triple because the height limit changed, this Council should take part of that increase to pay for this city’s infrastructure.

And finally, to make this city affordable, we need mandatory inclusionary zoning. In every new apartment building, we need to require 25% of new dwellings be dedicated to public or community housing. We need to make sure that every person can live in every neighbourhood of this city.

We shouldn’t be giving developers handouts in a housing crisis. We should be taxing their super-profits. 

And we should use that money to build a city for people.

[1] Brisbane City Council. (2025). 2025-26 Annual Plan and Budget. Web link. Page 9.

[2] Brisbane City Council. (2025). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report September 2025. Web link. Page 9.

[3] Brisbane City Council. (2025). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report December 2025. Web link. Page 9.

[4] Brisbane City Council. (2026). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report March 2026. Web link. Page 9.

[5] Brisbane City Council. (2026). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report June 2026. Web link. Page 9.

[6] Brisbane City Council. (2024). 2024-25 Annual Plan and Budget. Web link. Page 12.

[7] Brisbane City Council. (2025). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report June 2025. Web link. Page 9.

[8] Brisbane City Council. (2023). 2023-24 Annual Plan and Budget. Web link. Page 12.

[9] Brisbane City Council. (2024). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report June 2024. Web link. Page 9.

[10] Brisbane City Council. (2022). 2022-23 Annual Plan and Budget. Web link. Page 12.

[11] Brisbane City Council. (2023). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report June 2023. Web link. Page 8.

[12] Brisbane City Council. (2021). 2021-22 Annual Plan and Budget. Web link. Page 10.

[13] Brisbane City Council. (2022). Annual Operational Plan Progress and Quarterly Financial Report June 2022. Web link. ‘Statement of Comprehensive Income’.

[14] Brisbane City Council (2026). Minutes of Proceedings: The 4799 meeting of the Brisbane City Council, held at City Hall, Brisbane on Tuesday 4 August 2026 at 1pm. Web link. Page 80-82.