MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
The 4511 meeting of the Brisbane City Council,
held at City Hall, Brisbane
on Tuesday 15 November 2016
at 2pm
Prepared by:
Council and Committee Liaison Office
Chief Executive’s Office
Office of the Lord Mayor and Chief Executive Officer
[4511 (Ordinary) Meeting – 15 November 2016]
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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4511 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2016
AT 2PM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESENT:
OPENING OF MEETING:
MINUTES:
QUESTION TIME:
CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS:
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE
AKANGAROO POINT PENINSULA NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
BBANYO-NORTHGATE NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL
INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION – TRANSFORMING BRISBANE’S PUBLIC LIGHTING INFRASTRUCTURE
BPETITION – REQUESTING IMPROVED PARKING CAPACITY IN AND AROUND SAMSON CRESCENT, HEMMANT AND THE UPGRADE OF PINNIBAR STREET PARK
CPETITION REQUESTING LOCAL RESIDENTS BE EXCEPTED FROM PARKING RESTRICTIONS APPLYING TO FOUR METERED PARKING BAYS IN BRISBANE STREET, ANNERLEY
DPETITION – REQUESTING TO IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY ON ABBOTSFORD ROAD, BOWEN HILLS
CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE
ADEVELOPMENT APPLICATION UNDER SUSTAINABLE PLANNING ACT 2009 (SPA): DEVELOPMENT PERMIT - MATERIAL CHANGE OF USE FOR MEDIUM IMPACT INDUSTRY, OFFICE AND SHOWROOM ON LAND AT 3076 IPSWICH ROAD, WACOL - CIDNEO PTY LTD & GPT DEVELOPMENT PTY LTD
ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION – BOONDALL WETLANDS ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
BPARK NAMING – FORMAL NAMING OF PARKLAND AT 248 EAGLE FARM ROAD, PINKENBA, CURRENTLY KNOWN AS ‘EAGLE FARM ROAD PARK’, TO ‘THOMAS MCBRIDE PARK’
FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION – FSG LOGGING JOBS IN THE FIELD
LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION – SUNNYBANK PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE: SUNPAC
BPETITION – CALLING ON COUNCIL TO ALLOW THE GAP LOCAL ORGANIC COOPERATIVE TO CONTINUE OPERATING FROM THE FORMER PONY CLUB BUILDING AT 98 YOORALA STREET, THE GAP
FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
ACOMMITTEE PRESENTATION AND TOUR – THE CAPITAL
CONSIDERATION OF NOTIFIED MOTION – DRAFT SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND REGIONAL PLAN 2011-2041
PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:
GENERAL BUSINESS:
QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:
[4511 (Ordinary) Meeting – 15 November 2016]
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PRESENT:
The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK) – LNP
The Chairman of Council, Councillor Angela OWEN (Calamvale Ward) – LNP
LNP Councillors (and Wards) / ALP Councillors (and Wards)Krista ADAMS (Holland Park)
Adam ALLAN (Northgate)
Matthew BOURKE (Jamboree)
Amanda COOPER (Bracken Ridge)
Vicki HOWARD (Central) (Deputy Chairman of Council)
Steven HUANG (Macgregor)
Fiona KING (Marchant)
Kim MARX (Runcorn)
PeterMATIC (Paddington)
Ian McKENZIE (Coorparoo)
David McLACHLAN (Hamilton)
Ryan MURPHY (Doboy)
Kate RICHARDS (Pullenvale)
Adrian SCHRINNER (Chandler) (Deputy Mayor)
Julian SIMMONDS (Walter Taylor)
Steven TOOMEY (The Gap)
Andrew WINES (Enoggera)
NormWYNDHAM (McDowall) / PeterCUMMING (Wynnum Manly) (The Leader of the Opposition)
Jared CASSIDY (Deagon) (Deputy Leader of the Opposition)
SteveGRIFFITHS (Moorooka)
Charles STRUNK (Forest Lake)
ShayneSUTTON (Morningside)
Queensland Greens Councillor (and Ward)
Jonathan SRI (The Gabba)
Independent Councillor (and Ward)
Nicole JOHNSTON (Tennyson)
OPENING OF MEETING:
The Chairman, Councillor Angela OWEN, opened the meeting with prayer, and then proceeded with the business set out in the Agenda.
MINUTES:
216/2016-17
The Minutes of the 4510 meeting of Council held on 8 November 2016, copies of which had been forwarded to each Councillor, were presented, taken as read and confirmed on the motion of Councillor Kim MARX, seconded by Councillor Andrew WINES.
QUESTION TIME:
Chairman:Are there any questions of the LORD MAYOR or a chairman of any of the Standing Committees?
Councillor ALLAN.
Question 1
Councillor ALLAN:Thank you, Madam Chairman; my question is to the LORD MAYOR. In the State Government’s draft release of the SouthEast Queensland Regional Plan, you would have noted that the targets within the plan require an almost 50% increase in new homes for Brisbane.
To achieve this target set by the State Government, nearly all of these new homes can only be delivered through redevelopment of existing properties. Could you please set the scene for the Chamber and the residents of Brisbane on your views about the draft plan, the targets, and why the liveability of our city is critical?
LORD MAYOR:Thanks very much, Madam Chairman, and I thank Councillor ALLAN for the question. The Regional Plan is one which has been discussed now for some time. There has been a series of meetings that have been held with mayors and with the Deputy Premier and with other State Government agencies and some private consultants that have been brought in in terms of the development of that plan.
But throughout the discussions, my concern always has been, one, as to whether or not we genuinely have State ministers signed up to that plan, whether they would be a part of that plan, back that plan or not. Because I am recalling history, where the premier of the day, the State minister of the day, the Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe, Minister for Infrastructure and Planning and the then LORD MAYOR and in his role as Chairman of the Council of Mayors, all signed up with a pick in the front of the book. All was good, and went forward in good faith.
One by one, State ministers, city-based, decided: blow the plan; we’re going to run our own political agendas, whenever it got hot in the kitchen. The debate around development has been going on in this city for a long time. The Opposition have had some pretty strong views about development in this city. They have objected to a lot of it. I don’t cast any blame at all on the Opposition, because Oppositions will do what they do.
But what I say is this: if a government and the ministers within that government sign up to a plan, then they have an obligation to back the plan. There has been no clearer example in this city than that around—
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:—than that around—I didn’t quite hear that interjection, but I’m sure she’d love to explain it a little later in the debate.
The reality is that there is no greater example within this Regional Plan than where the State Government had set a target of 30,000 dwellings for Upper Kedron, for Lower Oxley Creek and for Rochedale. What did we do? We set I think around 12,000 dwellings, we got up to, in terms of the Rochedale and Lower Oxley Creek, and when we approved 950 dwellings for Kedron, all hell broke loose and the State Government called it in. So, they say one thing in a regional plan and then do a completely different thing by way of action.
I am not expecting the State Ministers to do out there and to be cock-a-hoop in terms of supporting individual applications, but I do object very strongly when they set population targets and dwelling targets as they have in that past regional plan—it was 156,000 dwellings—and now under this new plan where they set 223,000 dwellings for this next phase of development, that is a 50% increase, I do have little trust or faith that, when the going gets tough out there in the community, that they will back their plan. So it is easy for someone to set councils a target; the truth of the matter is how much they are supportive of their own signed Regional Plan, only time will tell.
But it is already told, Madam Chairman. Not only were we one week after Cabinet had signed off on that document, and one minister already, in the form of one member for Stafford, Minister Lynham, is out there condemning a component of the Regional Plan in his electorate. So not even a week after he signed it in Cabinet and he is out criticising it. This is the very problem. How can I as LORD MAYOR of this city depend on ministers to back their own plan, when we have seen that evidence already? There is example after example. Minister Jones, Minister Miles, Minister Lynham and others where they have failed to back the plan.
I am just simply saying this: I had a letter from the Deputy Premier this morning, completely floored. She talks about that we are already achieving approvals in line with the population targets she set. Approvals are a nonsense. Only about one in two approvals ever get constructed in this city, and that is the reality.
Chairman:Further questions?
Councillor CUMMING.
Question 2
Councillor CUMMING:Thank you, Madam Chair; my question is to the LORD MAYOR. As you are aware, the draft SouthEast Queensland Regional Plan proposes a 94% in-fill target for new dwellings in Brisbane. Are you aware that, for the last seven years, the average in-fill approval rate by the Brisbane City Council is actually 97%, three per cent above the draft—
Councillors interjecting.
Councillor CUMMING:—three per cent above the draft SEQ Regional Plan.
Councillor SRI:Point of order, Madam Chair.
Chairman:Order! Order! Point of order against you—
Councillor CUMMING:Three per cent—
Chairman:Councillor CUMMING!
Point of order; Councillor SRI.
Councillor SRI:Madam Chair, you have previously been quite strict in reining control of disorderly conduct in the Chamber, and I draw to your attention the fact that many members of the Chamber were then calling out inappropriately, and that that was contrary to the good order of the meeting.
Chairman:Councillor SRI, both sides were making noise at that point in time. I will allow Councillor CUMMING to repeat his question.
Councillor CUMMING.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Point of order, Madam Chairman.
Chairman:Point of order; Councillor JOHNSTON.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Madam Chairman, you are misleading the Chamber. All of the noise came from the LNP Councillors, including Councillor SIMMONDS shouting at the top of his voice, and everybody present saw and heard that.
Chairman:Councillor JOHNSTON, there were other members of this Chamber that were also making noise. You cannot see everything from where you sit. I have made my ruling.
Councillor CUMMING, you may repeat your question.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Point of order, Madam Chairman.
Chairman:Councillor—
Councillor JOHNSTON:On a new point of order, Madam—
Chairman:Councillor JOHNSTON, wait till I call you.
Councillor JOHNSTON.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Point of order, Madam Chairman. Again you are misleading the Chamber. I can see everybody in the Chamber from my position.
Chairman:Councillor JOHNSTON, I don’t uphold your point of order, and you are wasting this Chamber’s time with inane and vexatious points of order.
Councillor CUMMING, please repeat your question.
Councillor CUMMING:Thank you, Madam Chair. LORD MAYOR, as you are aware, the draftSouthEast Queensland Regional Plan proposes a 94%in-fill target for new dwellings in Brisbane. Are you aware that, for the last seven years, the average in-fill approval rate by Brisbane City Council is actually 97%, three per cent above the draft SEQ Regional Plan target? LORD MAYOR, are you a supporter of the latest Regional Plan or not?
LORD MAYOR:Thanks very much, Councillor CUMMING, for the question, and yes, I am aware of those figures, because they were in the letter that Deputy Premier Trad sent to me this morning.
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:There are a whole lot of CCs here, and I didn’t see your name among them, but clearly, although you weren’t on the A-list, you’ve apparently got a copy from somewhere, and that’s good. I would have gladly given you a copy.
The point of the matter here is, in-fill, everyone agrees. I think I said it in this Chamber last week, that the overwhelming amount of development in this city will be not green field development but in-fill development. We’ve got very, very limited amounts of green field site left for subdivisional housing. So redevelopment will be the way forward. I don’t think anyone is going to disagree or argue with that.
We also put in place last year a city plan which was widely criticised by the Labor Opposition which did account for the growth that we will need into the future. But what I am saying here today, Councillor CUMMING, in direct answer to your question, is no one is arguing about the level of in-fill development. That is a fact of life. But the point is that people need to be aware that what the State Government has set by way of a dwelling increase in targets is 50% more development than what we have seen in the last few years.
You have been widely critical of the amount of development that we have had in this city. So my question to you is: do you support a plan that accounts for 50% more development in your wards than what you have had in the past few years? That is the question that is here before us today with the Regional Plan.
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:Do you support, Councillor SUTTON—thank you for interjecting, because you’ve got your local community development committee out there, and I wonder whether you have asked them the question: are they supporting 50% more growth in the ward of Morningside than what they’ve had over recent years?
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:That is the question. You can interject all you like. That is the fundamental question.
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON!
LORD MAYOR:That is the question here today.
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON!
LORD MAYOR:Of course, she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it because—
Councillor interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:—she’s an anti-development—
Chairman:Just a moment, just a moment please, LORD MAYOR.
Councillor CUMMING:Point of order.
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON! This is the third time I have called you and the third time you have not ceased interjecting. I remind you of the Meetings Local Law and the City of Brisbane Act 2010. Do not continue interjecting in that manner.
Councillor CUMMING, you had a point of order?
Councillor CUMMING:Point of order, Madam Chair. The LORD MAYOR was asked whether he supports the Regional Plan, not attacking Councillor SUTTON for her alleged non-support for her ward.
Chairman:Councillor CUMMING, the LORD MAYOR has five minutes to answer the question, and I am sure he will give you his perspective.
LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR:So, Madam Chairman, it is just important for everybody to realise that this Regional Plan calls for 50% more growth than what we’ve seen. We had a massive debate in the lead-up to the March election this year. There were a lot of people, a lot of groups out there were saying that this city is seeing too much development.
All I am saying today is that the figures before us suggest that, whatever you are seeing, whatever number of cranes you are counting in the sky out there, add 50%. That is the reality. Forget about approvals. Forget about the approvals. I notice that the Deputy Premier in her letter here talks about the number of approvals. Here it is. ‘Evidence suggests that Council is already well on track to achieve the in-fill targets anticipated. The current rate of approval is more than adequate to meet forecasts.’ Of course it is. The trouble is, only half of the approvals get built. It is not about approvals. It is not about the number of approvals.
The target is the number of dwellings, the actual houses built. That is what it is about. So it is not about the number of approvals you put through a system. It is what actually gets constructed. So, Madam Chairman, that is the reality of what we are facing. The reality is that we have always said, as an Administration, that we will work with the people of Brisbane. We understand that there is going to be growth. But the point is that we are either all in this together, because I am not going to be left hanging out to dry. I will not have this Administration hanging out to dry by State Ministers who decide they will sign up for a plan and then they will walk as soon as it gets hot in the kitchen.
I don’t care; the Opposition can oppose anything they like—that is what Oppositions do. But elected governments have a responsibility to do a bit better than that, a little bit better. The Regional Plan is out for public consultation. What I am saying to you today, in answer to your question, CouncillorCUMMING, is it is now over to the public. It is up to them to have their say. I have written to the residents of Brisbane, told them what is in the plan, suggested they get involved, suggesting they have their say at this time.