Amendments to Brisbane City Plan 2014 — Wynnum Centre Suburban Renewal Precinct

 E&C Committee Clause B

Speech to Council Chambers, delivered by Councillor Seal Chong Wah on 12th May 2026

I rise to speak on the E&C Committee report clause B, regarding proposed amendments to the Wynnum Centre Precinct.

Our City Plan is meant to be democratic. The Wynnum Centre precinct planning process has felt like anything but democracy. This plan came from big businesses, not residents. Residents were denied transparency by this Council, and their voices have not been heard in this process.

Once again, density can be great. Dense, affordable neighbourhoods that are co-planned with residents, around major public transport nodes, with tree canopy, parks, public pools and libraries, are much more sustainable than clearing forests for suburban sprawl. This precinct already allows 5-8 storey buildings, and some apartments have already popped up. But trains through the precinct only run half-hourly during the day, and bus service is shocking. It contains just one park. Residents have flagged all of the different infrastructure that will need to handle more people.

This money should come from the developers who are making massive profits from the housing crisis. The Council’s infrastructure charges aren’t enough, which is why the Greens have called for value-uplift charges or higher infrastructure charges.

Much of the precinct is also being landbanked. Speculators bought land, built nothing, and lobbied the Council to increase height limits for years. Raising height limits hands those speculators millions in property value for nothing. Apartments that are built don’t have to be affordable. At this rate, none of them will be.

Over 11,000 people are on the public housing waitlist in the Brisbane City Council area. Thousands more pay over a third of their income for sky-high rent. Only 6% of housing in Wynnum is public or community housing, and this amendment won’t help. We can’t just ‘hope’ that some new homes are affordable. We can’t just ‘hope’ that raising height limits will magically make developers flood the housing market and drop prices at lower profits.

That’s failed. Brisbane’s house prices are the proof. We need to mandate it, through levying vacant properties, and through requiring 25% of dwellings in each new development be given to public and community housing providers. We need vacancy levies, and we need mandatory inclusionary zoning. 

Residents have clearly called for more tree canopy, and green space and parkland in this precinct. They were excited for each lot to contribute 10% of the site to new public open space. But this Council has decided against this. Developers will only be required to contribute 10% of the site to deep planting, and none to new public space. And through loopholes, developers will whittle that down to almost nothing, just like in Milton. Continuing the massive loss of Brisbane’s tree cover.

We know what science tells us. More concrete traps heat in our cities through the urban heat island effect. Trees cool our cities through transpiration, and tree canopy interrupts part of the urban heat island process. We need more green space and deep planting to be resilient to heat waves and climate change.

Brisbane can’t sustain the kind of development being voted on here today. Residents knew all of this, and told this Council administration. Over 500 people poured time into submissions for the Wynnum Central Suburban Renewal Precinct Plan. They proposed sustainable ways to reshape the precinct; to keep the neighbourhood cool, to make space for the public, and to put people over big business. That’s who this Council should listen to.