Question to the Lord Mayor PLUS Speech to Full Council Meeting

28th February 2025

Question to Council Chambers 25th February 2025:

My question is to the Lord Mayor. I was recently contacted by the Body Corporate of a new award-winning apartment in McDougall St Milton, which had been settled in late 2022. 

This building of 181 units, with an estimated 300 residents, experienced flooding at ground level, late last year. I requested that the Council immediately investigate if there were blocked drains or inadequate infrastructure. 

Council’s response was “the drainage was clean and clear” and that there are no drainage issues that require further work.” Lord Mayor, you said on December 16th, that the only real solution for flooding in some areas would be for “EVERYONE TO MOVE OUT. There’s no drain that can fix it.” Lord Mayor, as an advocate for new high-rises apartments in our worst flood zones, what will you say to these 300 residents that will no doubt be experiencing even worse flooding into the future?

General Business Speech, to full Council Meeting, 25th February, 2025

I rise to speak about the river, Maiwar, and the building of our city around it.

Brisbane was founded as a penal colony in 1824. In the name of prosperity for the colonialist Crown, these lands were stolen through massacres, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation of the Traditional owners - the Yuggera and Turrball people - from whom this land has never been ceded. 

When settlers arrived, the flora surrounding the River was dense sub-tropical rainforest lined with Moreton Bay figs, bunya pines, and paperbarks. The soil was rich, soft and fertile. The prospect of colonising and capitalising on these rich ecological resources compelled the colonial invaders to completely disregard the well-documented evidence of extreme flooding. And so our history shows, this city has been devastated by severe floods in 1841, 1893, 1974, and most recently in 2011 and 2022. The floods in 1841 were nearly double the height of the 2011 floods. And now, global warming is causing this river to rise and storms are worsening. 

Governments tried to tame our natural environment and thus engineers applied their flawed treatments of dredging and straightening the river. This false sense of security ensured that Governments and investors could continue to bulldoze vital habitat, subdivide land and profit at the expense of our environment and future residents. Well, it seems that Brisbane is indeed still cursed by short-sighted greed.This Council, led by Mayor Schrinner, still refuses to take the action required to protect future residents.

Chair, I’m submitting this document to the chambers. Here, we will see Council’s Flood Awareness Map - Council’s tool to limit its own liability - alongside their Inner City Growth Precincts strategy. At just a glance, it is obvious that the LNP’s genius plan to tackle housing is to create the highest density areas on our MOST disaster-prone land. Now this was no surprise to me. As this Chamber would know very well, The Greens have long been the SOLE voice for sensible, sustainable development that puts long-term planning for liveable neighbourhoods ahead of short-term revenue raising exercises.  But what does this Council’s ‘Highrises on Floodplains’ strategy look like in practice? 

Well, as I mentioned in my earlier Question, the body corporate manager of a new award-winning high-rise building in Milton contacted my office in December, distressed that their ground level had flooded. This building was settled just over two years ago. When the Council investigated, their report said  “the drainage was clean and clear” and “there are no drainage issues that require further work.”

Well we now have over 300 new residents that have discovered Council has led them to buy brand new units in an area that will likely flood repeatedly into the future. Sure, the FloodWise Property Report shows there were historic floods of 6 meters in 2011 and 4.7 meters in 2022. But is that buyer, desperate for new housing in a crisis manufactured by the two major parties, going to take the gamble? 

We know that they will. We know they have no other choice thanks to the LNP’s unsustainable planning. Here’s a quote from Mayor Schrinner, discussing floodplains “The only real solution for some of those areas would be for everyone to move out. There’s no drain that can fix it.”  So why, Lord Mayor, are you actively incentivising high-rise developments on our most high risk flood prone land?

We have a systemic problem. Our major parties are putting residents in the path of destruction. All for the appearance of resolving a housing crisis. And we know - the people benefiting most from upzoning on floodplains are this Council’s wealthy developer mates!