MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
The 4426 meeting of the Brisbane City Council,
held at City Hall, Brisbane
on Tuesday 11 February 2014
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 4426 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2014
AT 2PM
[4426 (Post Recess) Meeting – 11 February 2014]
/MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4426 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2014
AT 2PM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESENT: 1
OPENING OF MEETING: 1
MINUTES: 1
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: 1
QUESTION TIME: 20
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF THE COUNCIL: 30
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Information report) 30
A OVERSEAS TRAVEL – KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN 34
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Adoption report) 36
A CONTRACTS AND TENDERING - REPORT TO COUNCIL OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR OCTOBER 2013 43
B CONTRACTS AND TENDERING - REPORT TO COUNCIL OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR NOVEMBER 2013 47
CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE: 52
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Report of 3 February 2014) 52
A EXTEND THE WORKING CAPITAL FACILITY 71
B TEMPORARY LOCAL PLANNING INSTRUMENT 01/14 PROTECTION OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED PRIOR TO 1911 73
C CONTRACTS AND TENDERING — REPORT TO COUNCIL OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR DECEMBER 2013 76
D 2013-14 BUDGET – SECOND REVIEW 84
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF THE COUNCIL: 85
INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE 85
A PETITIONS – CALLING ON THE LORD MAYOR TO REVERSE THE DECISION TO INTRODUCE A SERVICE CHARGE FOR RESIDENTIAL PARKING PERMITS 92
PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE 94
A PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REVIEW THE 195 AND 196BUS ROUTES AND RELOCATE THE OXLADE DRIVE STOP 1 TERMINUS 99
B PETITION – REQUESTING THAT GO CARDS BE SOLD ON COUNCIL BUSES, RATHER THAN PAPER TICKETS 101
C PETITIONS – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL MAKES A RECOMMENDATION TO TRANSLINK TO MODIFY THE ROUTE 234 SERVICE 103
D PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL MAKES A RECOMMENDATION TO TRANSLINK TO MODIFY THE ROUTE 234 SERVICE 105
E PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL MAKES A RECOMMENDATION TO TRANSLINK TO MODIFY THE ROUTE 234 SERVICE 106
F PETITION – CALLING ON COUNCIL TO STOP ITS CUTTING OF BRISBANE’S CITYCAT AND CITYFERRY SERVICES 108
G PETITION – CALLING ON COUNCIL TO STOP ITS CUTTING OF BRISBANE’S CITYCAT AND CITYFERRY SERVICES 110
H PETITION – CALLING ON COUNCIL TO STOP ITS CUTTING OF BRISBANE’S CITYCAT AND CITYFERRY SERVICES 111
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF THE COUNCIL: 113
FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE 113
A PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL CONSIDER THE REMOVAL OF ONE FICUS TREE AT 11 CRAMER STREET, TARRAGINDI 114
BRISBANE LIFESTYLE COMMITTEE 115
A PETITION – REQUEST TO EXTEND THE DEAGON SKATE PARK 118
B PETITION – REQUEST FOR COUNCIL SUPPORT TO HOST THE EXPRESSIONS ART SHOW AT SANDGATE TOWN HALL 119
PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS: 120
GENERAL BUSINESS: 121
QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN: 121
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN: 122
[4426 (Post Recess) Meeting – 11 February 2014]
- 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:
445/2013-14
The Minutes of the 4424 (ordinary) meeting held on 3 December 2013, 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.
Chairman: Councillors, I would just like to remind you that a Council officer is on hand in the antechamber to collect any of the iPads used during the City Plan that have not yet been handed in. So please make sure ideally if you get them handed in quickly so that he can get back to his work. Thank you.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
Ms Courtney Mulder - Concerns regarding alcohol related violence and the proposed 1am lock-out and 3am curfew
Chairman: I would like to call on Ms Courtney Mulder who will address the Chamber about concerns regarding alcohol-related violence and the proposed 1am lockout and 3am curfew. Orderly, would you please show Ms Mulder in?
Ms Mulder, you can stand or sit, whichever suits you, and you have five minutes.
Ms Mulder: Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, LORD MAYOR and Councillors. My name is Courtney Mulder and I'm a 23-year-old QUT student in the final year of my law and business double degree. I'm also the President of the Queensland University of Technology Student Guild, and most importantly, I'm in the overwhelming majority of law-abiding fun-loving revellers who are in the city or the Valley on any average weekend.
As a uni student who enjoys going out on the weekends, the thought of potentially having a 1am. lockout and a 3am curfew really doesn't sit well with me. There has only ever been one time in my life that I've felt unsafe when I've been out having a drink with friends, and that was the Thursday night before Good Friday last year.
As you are all aware, trading ceases at midnight on Good Friday morning because of the public holiday. Because of this, every single person in the city and the Valley was booted out of their venues at midnight and into the streets where taxi ranks were overwhelmed with people, and public transport came to a halt soon after. I ended up walking to Central Station where probably about 20 drunk young men were yelling and hassling the McDonalds staff to the point where I didn't feel safe and left the station. I still couldn’t find a taxi anywhere, so I ended up walking part of the way home until luckily I found a taxi fuelling up around Bowen Hills.
The proposed 1am. lockout and 3am curfew would see the situation become a regular occurrence in both the city and the Valley, as public transport is scarce at 1am and completely non-existent at 3am At least with the current 5am. curfew, the trains start running again, although there is no evidence that this curfew is even effective at stopping alcohol-fuelled violence.
Everyone knows that uni students are generally quite poor because we only have time for part-time jobs while we study full time. The money from these part-time jobs has to pay for rent, food, clothes and some sort of social life. Many of the 45,000 students at QUT and, I imagine, other universities as well work as bar staff and DJs in the city and the Valley. The curfew will cut at least two hours off each of their shifts, which is something that uni students simply can't afford, especially with the hike in public transport fares and the inefficient student's services and amenities fee which taxes us just for being students.
Between 50,000 and 80,000 people enjoy Fortitude Valley's nightlife on any given weekend. The data from the drink-safe precinct shows that 99.93 per cent of people, myself included, are just out to have fun and not cause any trouble. A curfew will punish the people who have done nothing wrong, which makes no sense at all. The violence, the ‘glassings’, and the deaths that occur are absolute tragedies. I don't want my friends or my little sister in any danger when they go out, but the results of drink-safe precinct trial show that the vast majority of these violent incidents occur before 3am anyway, so a curfew would do nothing to stop them.
Instead, individual offenders need to be personally responsible for their actions and face tougher penalties. If you are old enough to drink, then you are old enough to make your own choices and deal with the consequences of those choices.
Through consultation with QUT students and my colleagues in the guild, we have come up with alternative solutions to the problem. Firstly, public transport options through the city and the Valley need to improve. If Brisbane wants to become a new world city, then there needs to be more public transport options between midnight and 5am. Secondly, there needs to be increased police presence to remind people of the consequences of breaking the law and not restricting the freedom of law-abiding drinkers.
Thirdly, we need to relax restrictions on venues. Australia, in particular Queensland, regulates the drinking industry more than almost any other nation in the world; hence the nickname, 'the nanny state'. The government could even extend the trading hours of licensed venues to spread crowds out and ease the burden on public transport. I wholeheartedly disagree with the approach that Barry O'Farrell in New South Wales and the Queensland Labor Opposition are proposing, and I urge the State Government to choose an approach that favours personal freedom and individual responsibility. Thank you for your time.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms Mulder; if you would like to just wait there and Councillor SIMMONDS, would you like to respond?
Response by Councillor Julian SIMMONDS, Chairman of the Finance, Economic Development and Administration Committee
Councillor SIMMONDS: Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chairman, and thank you to you, Ms Mulder, for taking the time to come and address Council on this important issue, for both your comments and your suggestions. Thank you very much. Let me say at the outset that I am certain within this place there is bipartisan condemnation of alcohol-fuelled violence. That would go for both sides of the Chamber. Recent cases of king-hit violence are particular abhorrent and, speaking for myself now, I think that such actions truly represent the worst of human behaviour, and that any perpetrators of such violence should feel the full brunt of the law, regardless of influencing factors like drugs and alcohol.
Brisbane City Council therefore supports efforts to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence and improve community safety, and we have supported a number of initiatives in this regard. Firstly, this year alone, we have injected an extra $1 million in to the City Safe camera network. This has involved the roll out of additional cameras, as well as a software upgrade which will eventually enable field officers to view the footage in real time on mobile devices.
Council is also an important stakeholder in the Drink Safe Precinct which you very kindly mentioned. In that capacity, we work closely with the Valley Liquor Accord and other stakeholders. Finally, we also have Council officers walking the beat, so to speak, with QPS (Queensland Police Service) to ensure that behaviour in public precincts like the Valley is appropriate.
Within this context, then, I thank you for providing the Council Chamber with your views on the proposal for the implementation of a lockout. In responding, can I say the LNP Administration has always maintained a strong commitment to night time precincts and events, and the important role that the night time economy plays in the overall economic prosperity of our city. That is why we have upgraded the Chinatown Mall and why we are in the process of upgrading right now the Brunswick Street Mall.
Council also supports major events like RiverFire and New Year's Eve, which attract tens of thousands of people to our CBD. We have also introduced new neighbourhood plans that responsibly encourage a development mix of residential and entertainment uses which gives people the opportunity to live and play in these vital precincts, and helps address late night transport issues.
As well as these overall economic considerations, I know that the National Local Government Alcohol and Drug Information Network conducted some research, and found that the total number of workers in the core night time economy in Brisbane in 2011 was some 52,200 workers. These are local residents whose employment prospects would be adversely affected by any proposal for a lockout.
Finally, it has been Council's experience as a stakeholder in the Drink Safe precinct that the current arrangement, as opposed to a lockout, provides the transport options, especially taxis, the ability to best meet the demand for people returning home at night—and you mentioned this specifically as well.
Ms Mulder, can I say that I share your views. The terrible actions of a small minority should not be allowed to curtail the freedoms of the many people who enjoy themselves in a responsible manner. I share your view that a lockout is only one of a vast suite of options and mechanisms that can be looked at to address what is a very real problem that is currently occurring in our community.
Finally, I can assure you that, in considering its response to any proposal for a lockout, Council acknowledges the potential economic, employment and transport disruptions that such a proposal would cause. Thank you again for taking the time to address us today.
Chairman: Thank you. Orderly, would you please show Ms Mulder out.
446/2013-14
At that juncture, Councillor Vicki HOWARD moved, seconded by Councillor Ryan MURPHY, that the Standing Rules be suspended to allow the moving of the following motion¾
That this Council opposes the misguided State Labor policy of a 1am lock-out and a 3am alcohol cut off for entertainment venues which will adversely impact on Brisbane’s night-time economy. Further, this Council places on record its support for the significant $4 million investment in the rejuvenation of the Brunswick Street Mall which will enhance the growth of our economy.