MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
The 4465 meeting of the Brisbane City Council,
held at City Hall, Brisbane
on Tuesday 5 May 2015
at 2pm
Prepared by:
Council and Committee Liaison Office
Chief Executive’s Office
Office of the Lord Mayor and the Chief Executive Officer
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4465 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 5 MAY 2015
AT 2PM
[4465 (post Recess) meeting – 5 May 2015]
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4465 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 5 MAY 2015
AT 2PM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESENT: 1
OPENING OF MEETING: 1
MINUTES: 1
QUESTION TIME: 1
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF THE COUNCIL: 12
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Information report) 12
A GREEN ARMY PROGRAM ROUND TWO PROJECT AGREEMENTS 23
B QUEENSLAND URBAN UTILITIES LOAN REFINANCING 24
C STORES BOARD SUBMISSION – PROVISION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION SERVICES 25
CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE DURING RECESS: 30
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Adoption report) 30
A REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 12 MARCH 2015 46
B CONTRACTS AND TENDERING – REPORT TO COUNCIL OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR FEBRUARY 2015 46
C CONTRACTS AND TENDERING – REPORT TO COUNCIL OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR MARCH 2015 57
D TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEASES WITH QUEENSLAND RAIL LIMITED OVER AN EXISTING COMMUNICATIONS FACILITY AT CONSTITUTION HILL, SIR SAMUEL GRIFFITH DRIVE, MTCOOT-THA 64
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF THE COUNCIL: 66
FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE 66
A PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL INVESTIGATE THE FLOODING OF PROPERTIES IN DOUGLAS ROAD AND NESS ROAD, SALISBURY, DUE TO INADEQUATE ROAD SURFACE DRAINAGE IN NESS ROAD 67
BRISBANE LIFESTYLE COMMITTEE 68
A PETITION – OBJECTING TO COUNCIL’S REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REGARDING THE INTERFERENCE WITH PROTECTED VEGETATION ADJACENT TO 7 KEYATTA STREET, ZILLMERE 72
B PETITION – REQUESTING THE REMOVAL OF HAZARDS ON THE PROPERTY AT 2724 BEAUDESERT ROAD, CALAMVALE 73
C PETITION – REQUESTING COUNCIL BUILD A NEW SKATE, SCOOTER AND BIKE FACILITY IN WYNNUM MANLY WARD 75
CONSIDERATION OF NOTIFIED MOTION – KEN FLETCHER SUBSISTENCE MOTION: 76
PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS: 80
GENERAL BUSINESS: 81
QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN: 92
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN: 94
[4465 (post Recess) meeting – 5 May 2015]
- 76 -
PRESENT:
The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK) – LNP
The Chairman of Council, MargaretdeWIT (Pullenvale Ward) – LNP
LNP Councillors (and Wards) / ALP Councillors (and Wards)Krista ADAMS (Wishart)
Matthew BOURKE (Jamboree)
Amanda COOPER (Bracken Ridge)
Vicki HOWARD (Central)
Steven HUANG (Macgregor)
Fiona KING (Marchant)
GeraldineKNAPP (The Gap)
Kim MARX (Karawatha)
PeterMATIC (Toowong)
Ian McKENZIE (Holland Park)
David McLACHLAN (Hamilton)
Ryan MURPHY (Doboy)
Angela OWEN-TAYLOR (Parkinson) (Deputy Chairman of Council)
Adrian SCHRINNER (Chandler) (Deputy Mayor)
Julian SIMMONDS (Walter Taylor)
NormWYNDHAM (McDowall)
Andrew WINES (Enoggera) / Milton DICK (Richlands) (The Leader of the Opposition)
Helen ABRAHAMS (The Gabba) (Deputy Leader of the Opposition)
PeterCUMMING (Wynnum Manly)
KimFLESSER (Northgate)
SteveGRIFFITHS (Moorooka)
VictoriaNEWTON (Deagon)
ShayneSUTTON (Morningside)
Independent Councillor (and Ward)
Nicole JOHNSTON (Tennyson)
OPENING OF MEETING:
The Chairman, Councillor Margaret de WIT, opened the meeting with prayer, and then proceeded with the business set out in the Agenda.
MINUTES:
533/2014-15
The Minutes of the 4464(ordinary) meeting held on 24 March 2015, copies of which had been forwarded to each councillor, were presented, taken as read and confirmed on the motion of Councillor Ryan MURPHY, seconded by Councillor Kim MARX.
QUESTION TIME:
Chairman: Are there any questions of the LORD MAYOR or a Chairman of any of the Standing Committees?
Chairman: Councillor MURPHY.
Councillor MURPHY: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman; my question is to the LORD MAYOR. When Council was last in session, we heard from Councillor DICK about his and Labor Councillors' opposition to congestion taxes, otherwise known as cordon charges. Are you aware of anything that suggests there is a cloud over this position, and do you think we are likely to see a policy shift?
LORD MAYOR: Thank you very much, indeed, Madam Chairman, and I thank Councillor MURPHY for his question. It was, I believe, in the last meeting of Council in the last session whereby the Opposition Leader, responding to the DEPUTY MAYOR, made certain comments. I would like to quote from those comments. It was on page 42 of the said Hansard. It says, When the DEPUTY MAYOR challenged me—and this is Councillor DICK's direct quote—when the DEPUTY MAYOR challenged me to say where is Labor's position, he directly asked me that on the congestion tax. Well, I'll answer like this, DEPUTY MAYOR, “I have never supported a congestion tax. I never will support a congestion tax. Labor Councillors sitting in this Chamber do not support a congestion tax. There it is—black and white—you know that”.
Well, Madam Chairman, you can only imagine then my surprise in the recess after that statement when I picked up a book called Congestion which has recently been published. It's called Decongestion, this book; Decongestion.
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman: Order!
LORD MAYOR: I note that on one page of this particular book, on page 33, there is comment from myself and Councillor DICK. When we turn the page to page 34, there is some comment there from Councillor Helen ABRAHAMS.
Councillors interjecting.
Chairman: Order!
LORD MAYOR: Talk about being on different pages—let's have a listen to this. To introduce a cordon tax is the way to go—
Councillors interjecting.
LORD MAYOR: —is the way to go.
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR: Helen ABRAHAMS.
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR: Is there any wonder—
Chairman: Order! Councillor ABRAHAMS!
LORD MAYOR: Is there any wonder that Councillor DICK would want to leave this place? I have been saying for month after month after month that the problem that Councillor DICK has experienced—and I feel sorry for him, a little bit, a little bit, but I do feel sorry for him in the sense that he has never been given the history, the circumstances, to provide him with the material that he needs as a relatively newcomer to this Council to be able to arm him with the things that he ought to say as Leader of the Opposition.
Again, in the last meeting before we broke and went into recess, he made a very, very clear statement that all of the Labor Councillors had that position. Then, only to read this recently published book with—
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman: Councillor ABRAHAMS!
LORD MAYOR: —Councillor ABRAHAMS having a completely opposite position. Not just Councillor ABRAHAMS, but his Deputy in this place—his Deputy in this place.
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman: Councillor ABRAHAMS, if you continue—
LORD MAYOR: Well—
Chairman: Just a minute, LORD MAYOR. Councillor ABRAHAMS, if you continue to interject you will be warned.
LORD MAYOR: I've taken it out of context, have I? To introduce a cordon toll is the way to go. I'll tell you why I know I haven’t taken it out of context, Councillor ABRAHAMS—because the very last thing that several Councillors over here on Labor's side did before they lost office in 2004 was to introduce this little book. It was called an Action Plan. It was the 2002-2016 Transport Plan for Brisbane.
In that document, on page 14, it says this: investigate the imposition of peak cordon tolling or network wide electronic road pricing in the city beyond 2011, aimed at balancing demand and supply for the road network and encouraging use of the public transport system with revenue to be provided to improvements to the public transport system.
So, Madam Chairman, they have history in this regard. Councillor ABRAHAMS was a part, at that time—well, you were a councillor in fact when this was approved in the Chamber, and prior to that you worked as a Council officer, as I recall, Councillor ABRAHAMS, in the area that covers—no?
Councillor ABRAHAMS: Point of order, Madam Chair.
Chairman: Yes, point of order, Councillor ABRAHAMS.
Councillor ABRAHAMS: I do believe the LORD MAYOR has not got his dates right. I was not in the Council Chamber—
Chairman: No—
Councillor ABRAHAMS: He is misleading the Chamber. I was not in the Council Chamber in 2002.
Chairman: Councillor—
LORD MAYOR: No, Madam Chairman, it was—
Chairman: No, Councillor ABRAHAMS, I do not agree that—I was here; I know when you were a Councillor. LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR: Let me help the Councillor out. The document is called the Transport Plan for Brisbane 2002-2016. It was approved by this Council when Councillor ABRAHAMS was a member of the Civic Cabinet of this place after Jim Soorley left in May 2003 prior to the March 2004 Council election. You were here—
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman: Order!
LORD MAYOR: You look back at the records, you will find your name as having supported it. It's probably in both documents—Cabinet and here. Because the reason it's called 2002-2016 is because the process started in 2002, there was then a public consultation finally approved—
Chairman: Thank you, LORD MAYOR.
Chairman: Further questions?
Chairman: Councillor DICK.
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman: Order! Councillor JOHNSTON!
Councillor DICK: Thank you, Madam Chair; something a little more recent than 15 years ago. My question is to the LORD MAYOR. During the Council recess, in a recent media article regarding Council struggling to clean up after last year's storm, even though Council has a $3 billion annual budget, you admitted you had no funds set aside for natural disasters. I table the article, Rates Pain for Pay for Storm. You correctly tell residents to prepare for storms and natural disasters, so why don't you ensure Council has sufficient finances to repair our assets within a reasonable timeframe?
LORD MAYOR: Well, Madam Chairman, I thank Councillor DICK for the question. It's a reasonable question. We do—we do set about the business of repairing this city as a priority after storm events. The point that I was making is that, if you want to create a reserve, there's a couple of ways you can do it. You could do perhaps what Labor might be thinking about, I don't know; you could have a levy on ratepayers of Brisbane to create a reserve. We're not going to do that. Or you could take funds away from proposed projects to create a reserve to do that. Or you can simply make it a priority and make an adjustment to the budget if an event happens.
We have always, always made it a priority to undertake clean-up, and this Council I believe does more than any other local authority, not only in South-East Queensland and Queensland, but around this nation in terms of a clean-up, in terms of the way in which we have had kerbside collections, the way in which we have serviced our residents far exceeds what many other local authorities do around this nation.
It will always be a priority of this Administration to undertake the clean-up as quickly as we can, as efficiently as we can. But I just say to you, Councillor DICK, we can easily create a reserve, but that might mean that I've got to take money out of your ward and other wards around the city to create that reserve, simply to have that pool sitting there, when we might not use that pool. I would rather quite frankly undertake a review of our budget at the time of when an event happens and deal with it in that way, rather than draw funds unnecessarily perhaps from other parts of the city.
One of the things we don't know, and none of us can play God in this respect, is knowing when a natural disaster might occur and what form that might take. What we do know is that, as a local authority, we have had to bear the cost very significantly around the last few years. Since the January 2011 flood, this city has copped it over and over again. We had had years of drought before that, where we had no costs, where the reserve could have sat there when perhaps it might have been better used doing other things—building playground equipment, doing all the other things we want to do out in the suburbs of our city.
So, Madam Chairman, it's as simple as that. The money has to come from somewhere, so my view has been that we do it when an event occurs. We make an adjustment to our budget at that time. Again, I come back to where I started: recovery will always be a priority for this Administration.
Chairman: Further questions?
Chairman: Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR.
Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR: Thank you, Madam Chairman; my question this afternoon is to the Chairman of Finance, Economic Development and Administration Committee, Councillor SIMMONDS. I saw online that Brisbane Marketing, Price Waterhouse Coopers and QUT recently announced the creation of a Chair in Digital Economy. Can you please inform the Chamber where this initiative came from, and provide some context for this great announcement for digital innovation in our city?
Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman, and thank you to Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR for the question. I know full well her interest in this digital space, and I thank her very much for it. The Chamber will know that, as a result of the Windows of Unique Opportunity Report several years ago, Council embarked on its digital strategy for the city. The report found that only 30 per cent of our SMEs are currently using online channels for the sale of goods, and when you consider the digital economy is worth some $20 trillion, we want to make sure that our city businesses get a share of that incredibly large pie.
So, to that end, we have undertaken a number of initiatives to make Brisbane a more digital city. We are only the second city in the world to appoint a Chief Digital Officer, and they have set about working through a program of initiatives. We are, of course, also the first city in Australia to run the successful CoderDojo program, and to date some 676 kids, run through 181 volunteer mentors across eight locations in Brisbane, have participated in that program. In fact, when we last opened it, it was sold out—well, it was free, but it was booked out in about 20 seconds.