Speech by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, to full Brisbane City Council Council Meeting, Tues 18th Mar 2025

I rise to speak on Ex-Cyclone Alfred, Flooding and Council Stormwater systems.

This LNP council, for the last 20 years, has not been honest with its residents about the true cost of building, buying and living in high risk flood zones. 

This is no surprise as the Liberal National Party, has for decades, actively undermined climate change awareness and action. 

At the same time we have been hit with 3 major floods in less than 15 years. Many residents struggle to afford flood insurance premiums or can’t even get flood insurance.

As the Chief Executive of the Insurance Council of Australia said, "If we keep repeating the mistakes of the past, building homes in areas well known to be flood prone, those homes are going to be the hardest to insure."  

“Repeating the mistakes of the past” - it’s like a theme song for the LNP. Climate crisis - nothing to see here.  Let's keep building and flooding.  

So the money keeps rolling in for our Developer mates. Even better, let's give them 75% discounts on infrastructure levies if they keep building in flood-prone areas. 

Let me be clear! Infrastructure levy discounts to developers are undermining investment in stormwater upgrades.

The lack of action and investment by this LNP council over the last 20 years, to make this city more resilient to the climate crisis, is verging on criminal neglect. 

I have a message for our Mayor and this LNP administration. We are in a ‘climate crisis’. In 2019, the ‘Australian Government National Emergency Management Agency’ predicted an increased risk of tropical cyclones for Brisbane due to climate change. 

That is exactly what we saw with ex-cyclone Alfred. 

The LNP administration must stop giving infrastructure levy discounts to developers and urgently spend those millions of dollars on stormwater infrastructure and advanced bioretention systems.

Our city urgently needs to become more resilient. Brisbane’s 2011 flood had about a 1% probability of happening in any given year. Brisbane’s Feb 2022 floods had less than 2% probability of occurring. And now in 2025, Brisbane had the wettest day in 50 years, higher than the previous two floods. With the heaviest March rainfall for 117 years.

A recent Insurance Council of Australia’s report on climate change, states that even the old approach of not building in areas with a 1% probability, that’s flood zone 1, is no longer sufficient. Yet this LNP council still encourages development even on flood zone One!  

The Australian Insurance Council’s recommendations unsurprisingly align with The Greens policy of not building on flood zone 1 and 2.

As the Insurance Council says, “our current planning systems are not protecting our residents from flood risk.”

The 2019 Brisbane River Strategic Floodplain Management Plan, reports that the Brisbane River floodplain has the largest number of buildings on any floodplain in Australia. ‘Geoscience Australia Agency’ states that “The Brisbane River floodplain is the most flood impacted area in Australia, with almost $300 million in annualised damages.” A figure expected to grow.

What is this LNP council doing to make Brisbane more resilient? They encourage building on our highest risk flood zones, so surely they are investing in our stormwater infrastructure? 

Well actually they are not! Each year, our budget barely covers basic maintenance, with little investment in upgrading our stormwater system. This LNP council has even created loopholes so their developer friends don’t have to pay for stormwater upgrades to meet contemporary standards. When a development is approved on land with pre-existing buildings, it only needs to meet an outdated 1-in-2 year stormwater standard. 

Meaning the stormwater system is likely to be exceeded once every 2 years. 

The new standard is a 1-in-10-year standard, but it is only applied to new developments on outlying greenfield sites.

In their 20 years in power, this LNP council has overseen most major development in our highest-risk flood zones without upgrading stormwater systems or requiring private developers to meet contemporary standards. They have taken a huge gamble, because the LNP have been controlled by ‘climate skeptics’ for decades. 

And now our residents face the tragic failure of that gamble.