Speech to Chambers
Delivered by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, to the Debate on E Petition, Requesting Council Fulfill the Proposed Actions Outlines in the Victoria Park / Barrambin Draft Master Plan 8, 3rd February 2026
Thank you to the petitioners for their advocacy in submitting this petition in saving Victoria Park Barrambin from a mega stadium, a warm up track and Olympic Aquatic Centre.
The community stands behind First Nations People and the Elders in protecting this living sacred country!
The community is angry and does not accept this decision. More people are becoming aware and mobilising!
Just this weekend there was another creative peaceful protest with many community members participating.
To be clear, the community is not opposed to Olympic stadiums just not on Victoria Park Barrambin.
So this LNP council and State government still have a fight on their hands!
Yagarabul Elder Gaja Kerry Charleton has said, "Care of Country ensures a cultural legacy for our grandchildren’s grandchildren ... connection to ancestors, ancient trees, healthy waters and lands."
This entire chamber is fully aware that Victoria Park Barrambin holds deep cultural and spiritual significance to the First Nations Yuggera and Turrbal peoples.
It is the LNP who are driving the destruction of 64 hectares of precious inner city heritage listed parkland.
The site has over 4000 trees and some of the trees are precolonial. These trees are set to be cleared within months and GICA will not say how many are to be removed.
It is this LNP administration who is asleep at the wheel and who is taking Brisbane backwards in sustainability!
Honesty, I don’t know how you all sleep at night. The science is clear!
We are in a climate crisis!
You are leaving a corrupted and hostile ecosystem for our kids!
If the LNP administration were behaving rationally and listening to climate science you would be doing everything in your power to reduce emissions, protecting and expanding all greenspaces and biodiversity and investing in our waterways.
NOT destroying it!
I am here in this chamber fighting to save our planet because I understand the seriousness of positive feedback loops and tipping points.
Science reports have indicated we have reached the first tipping points.
Tipping points are critical thresholds in a complex climate or ecosystem where a small, additional change triggers a self-perpetuating, often irreversible shift to a new state.
An example of a tipping point is that over 80% of coral reefs have experienced bleaching in recent years, marking a 1.2°C threshold failure.
Therefore, we need trees to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere.
On another note, and what all the decision-makers want to pretend doesn’t exist.
Is that the Olympics Host Contract 2032, that Brisbane City Council is a party to, clearly states that no new Olympic venues are to be built on a “statutory nature (or) cultural protected area”.
The entire park is state heritage listed.
If the LNP State and this administration go ahead with this plan they are breaching this host agreement with the International Olympic Committee.
The Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) and Aunty Sandra King have lodged an application with the Federal government for permanent legal protection over Victoria Park Barrambin under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.
The outcome to this legal application is still being considered.
So our community will keep ramping up and fighting to save the second most highly significant Aboriginal land in Mangajin. Because we all understand that it’s totally worth fighting for! Because once lost, it’s lost forever!