MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
The 4532 meeting of the Brisbane City Council,
held at City Hall, Brisbane
on Tuesday 1 August 2017
at 2pm
Prepared by:
Council and Committee Liaison Office
City Administration and Governance
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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4532 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 1 AUGUST 2017
AT 2PM
[4532 (Post Recess) Meeting – 1 August 2017]
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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
THE 4532 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,
ON TUESDAY 1 AUGUST 2017
AT 2PM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESENT:
OPENING OF MEETING:
MINUTES:
QUESTION TIME:
CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE DURING RECESS:
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Adoption report)
ACONTRACTS AND TENDERING – REPORT OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR MAY 2017
BREPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE MEETING ON 8 JUNE 2017
CCORPORATE PLAN 2016-17 TO 2020-21 – 2017 UPDATE
DCONTRACTS AND TENDERING – REPORT OF CONTRACTS ACCEPTED BY DELEGATES FOR JUNE 2017
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF COUNCIL:
ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE (Information report)
AQUEENSLAND URBAN UTILITIES 2017-22 CORPORATE PLAN
NOTATION OF DECISIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE AS DELEGATE OF COUNCIL:
PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE
APETITION – TO LEAVE BUS STOP 1145 IN ITS CURRENT LOCATION AT 116 DORNOCH TERRACE, HIGHGATE HILL
CITY PLANNING COMMITTEE
APETITIONS – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REJECT CHANGES PROVIDED BY THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT TO THE PROPOSED FERNY GROVE-UPPER KEDRON NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
BPETITION – OBJECTING TO THE PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT COURT APPROVED DEVELOPMENT OF A MOSQUE AT 161AND 161AUNDERWOOD ROAD, EIGHT MILE PLAINS (APPLICATION REFERENCE A003247857)
CPETITION – OBJECTING TO THE PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT COURT APPROVED DEVELOPMENT OF A MOSQUE AT 161 AND 161AUNDERWOOD ROAD, EIGHT MILE PLAINS (APPLICATION REFERENCE A003247857)
DPETITION – OBJECTING TO A DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION FOR 31FERRY STREET, KANGAROO POINT (APPLICATION REFERENCE A004595391)
EPETITION – OBJECTING TO A DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION FOR 162LAMBERT STREET, KANGAROO POINT (APPLICATION REFERENCE A004506820)
FPETITION – OBJECTING TO A DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION FOR 26CAIRNS STREET, AND PART OF 35 FERRY STREET, KANGAROOPOINT (APPLICATION REFERENCE A004060583)
ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
APETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL RENAME LAWSON STREET PARK, OXLEY, TO ‘ED KUEPPER PARK’
BPARK NAMING – FORMAL NAMING OF THE PLAYGROUND IN BRADY BUSHLAND PARK, RUNCORN, TO ‘THE BUCHANAN FAMILY PLAYGROUND’
CPARK NAMING – FORMAL NAMING OF PARK CURRENTLY KNOWN AS KENNA STREET PARK, CHERMSIDE WEST, TO ‘JOHN GOSS RESERVE’
DPETITIONS – REQUESTING ADDITIONAL GRASSED AREA TO BE MADE PARKLANDS AT THE FORMER WYNNUM CENTRAL STATE SCHOOL SITE
EPETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL RENAME PEPPERCORN STREET PARK, SUNNYBANK HILLS, TO ‘TRANQUIL PARK’
FPETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL INSTALL A SHADE CLOTH ACROSS A SECTION OF THE WYNNUM WADING POOL
GPETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL SAVE BULIMBA CREEK AT 161 AND 161A UNDERWOOD ROAD, EIGHT MILE PLAINS
FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE
APETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REPLACE NINE SEEDPOD BEARING NON-NATIVE TREES IN HARTREE COURT, BRACKEN RIDGE
PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:
GENERAL BUSINESS:
QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:
[4532 (Post Recess) Meeting – 1 August 2017]
- 1 -
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 acknowledged the traditional custodians, and then proceeded with the business set out in the Agenda.
MINUTES:
1/2017-18
The Minutes of the 4529 (ordinary) meeting held on 13 June 2017, the 4530 (budget) meeting held on 14June2017 and the 4531 (special) meeting held on 22 June 2017, copies of which had been forwarded to each Councillor, were presented, taken as read and confirmed on the motion of Councillor Andrew WINES, seconded by Councillor Steven TOOMEY.
QUESTION TIME:
Chairman:Are there any questions of the LORD MAYOR or a Chairman of any of the Standing Committees?
Councillor RICHARDS.
Question 1
Councillor RICHARDS:My question is to the LORD MAYOR. After much discussion and negotiation, you last week announced that Brisbane City Council would terminate its contract with the vendor responsible for the roll out of Local Government Systems (LGS). Can you please update the Chamber on this decision, and why it was necessary to take this course of action?
Chairman:LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR:Well, thanks very much, Madam Chairman—
Councillor JOHNSTON:Point of order, Madam Chairman.
Chairman:Point of order, Councillor JOHNSTON.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Madam Chairman, as this matter is going to be before the courts, as the LORDMAYOR has indicated and also the provider, I would be concerned that any statements that are made now may prejudice that court case, and I would ask for your ruling on whether this is a matter of concern for this Council.
Chairman:Councillor JOHNSTON, I’m sure the LORD MAYOR is abundantly aware of his requirements in relation to any matters on any subjects that are before the courts, and I will allow him the courtesy of providing an answer.
LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR:I thank you very much, Madam Chairman. If the Councillor listens to what I have to say, she’ll understand that nothing is in jeopardy whatsoever. MadamChairman, Brisbane City Council, as Councillor RICHARDS has pointed out, has terminated its contract with the vendor for the Local Government Systems project after it failed to deliver an IT systems replacement program.
In January, Madam Chairman, I gave a six-month deadline for the company to provide an acceptable IT system to Council. That deadline ran out on Friday. After initially promising the product would be operational by March 2017, the vendor has requested several extensions for the go-live date, but the most recent advice was that it would not occur until January of 2019. This continual slippage is unacceptable and Council lacks confidence that even the most recent deadline will be met.
Council advised the company last Friday that the termination was due to: (1) the vendor’s persistent and ongoing breaches of the contract; (2) significant and unacceptable delays in progressing the contract; and (3) a complete loss of faith in the company’s ability to deliver a replacement system for Council’s IT systems. I will give this information, Madam Chairman, and much more as I committed I would do, to give the Council updates since I first made that announcement in January.
Madam Chairman, Council will be seeking damages and, in accordance with the contract, has advised TechnologyOne that the matter will now be referred to arbitration for determination. This decision is about the effective use of ratepayers’ money and ensuring that Council’s core services are not compromised. Council awarded a contract to replace 13 IT systems that support Council’s core business functions in June 2015, but TechnologyOne has not delivered.
Ultimately, they have failed to replace the 13 IT systems as per their contract. Some of those breaches include the following: (1) failing to complete critical project milestones by the end of December 2016 which, seven months on, still have not been completed; (2) failing to deliver a base product by the date required under the contract; and (3) failing to make available a working prototype as required under the contract.
One of Council’s major concerns relates to managing rates notices. Council issues almost half a million rates notices quarterly, and this cycle requires Council to have high levels of automation, validation and control so that it can issue rate notices for the right amount, for the right customer, at the right time. From what we have seen, the TechnologyOne system cannot meet this fundamental requirement.
For example, TechnologyOne has not satisfied Council that its system will apply Council’s rate capping framework which requires caps to be applied quarterly. Failure to apply Council’s rate capping framework could result in residents being overcharged. Ultimately, the TechnologyOne system doesn’t give Council confidence that the right person will be billed the right amount at the right time without significant manual intervention.
In the past six months, Council offered TechnologyOne the opportunity to reform the contract, and met with their representatives on multiple occasions in a bid to assist the company to get the project back on track. After initially promising the product would be operational by March 2017, TechnologyOne has requested several extensions to the go-live date, and as I’ve mentioned, the most recent being 2019. This continual slippage is unacceptable to Council, and as a result, Madam Chairman, we wish to take this contract no further.
When I notified the public of the implementation delays with the Local Government Systems in January this year, I directed Council to negotiate or, in fact, renegotiate the contract with a six month deadline. At the end of last week, that six month deadline as I mentioned came down to the wire. Council gave TechnologyOne every opportunity to come to an acceptable commercial settlement, but to no avail.
Councillor JOHNSTON:Point of order, Madam Chairman. If the time has expired, I would ask you to withdraw—
Chairman:Councillor JOHNSTON, the LORD MAYOR still had five seconds left of his time.
LORD MAYOR:Oh well, that’s it.
Chairman:I have got the time clock up here. I do not need you to sit down there and think you know what is going on.
Further questions?
Councillor CUMMING.
Question 2
Councillor CUMMING:Thank you, Madam Chair; my question is to the LORD MAYOR. You’ve deputised others to conduct EBA (Enterprise Bargaining Agreement) negotiations for nine months. As a result, our Council staff who are members of, among others, the Transport Workers Union, the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), the Australian Workers Union, the Services Union, and the Electrical Trades Union, are taking protected industrial action as they fight your Administration for a fair EBA outcome. It is clear your Council is in the middle of an industrial relations crisis. You often claim to be a union man, so why don’t you step in and support the hard-working staff who make you look good and bring this conflict to an end?
Chairman:LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR:Well, I agree totally with one thing you’ve just said, Councillor CUMMING, and that is that we have a hard-working staff that make me look good. I respect, Madam Chairman, what the officers and workers of this Council organisation do. They absolutely live up to the values of being dedicated to a better Brisbane.
Madam Chairman, what we believe, and what I believe fervently, is that what we have on the table is a good and reasonable deal. An amount of 2.5% each year for the next three years, with a $400 sign-on opportunity, MadamChairman, is good by community standards. In terms of the most significant industrial action that we’ve seen through our bus drivers, I say this: I have great respect for what our bus drivers do. That is why they are among the best paid bus drivers in this country, because we do respect what they do. We respect they have a difficult job.
The Brisbane City Council bus drivers are the best paid bus drivers in Queensland. They are the second best paid in this country. We believe that 2.5% is a figure that ought to apply to all Council staff. We do not want to see—you know, and at the moment, as we stand here right at this second, MadamChairman, we’ve got the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) wanting a one percentage increase, the RTBU wanting a different percentage increase, other unions—we don’t have a clue what increase they want; they’re all over the shop.
Madam Chairman, the reality is that we have put an offer on the table. More than that, you’re right, Councillor CUMMING, this has gone on for a while, and that’s why we took the step of saying to our staff, ‘we’re not going to let this drag on any longer, we’re going to give you two per cent as an interim payment, that is backdated back to the time’, and we’ve done that, and people—
Councillors interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:—and people have received—it’s all about the union leadership, isn’t it? That’s the problem with the Labor Party. They are, Madam Chairman, masters of, or rather they are culprits, if you like, and handcuffed by the union leadership. Councillor CUMMING has done nothing all year than to represent the union leadership in this place. So, Councillor CUMMING, you need to say to the ratepayers of this city—
Councillor SUTTON:Point of order, Madam Chair.
Chairman:Point of order, Councillor SUTTON.
Councillor SUTTON:With the LORD MAYOR disrespecting the unions like he is, he is also disrespecting the staff’s choice to join those unions—
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON!
Councillor SUTTON:—in collective action, Madam Chair. I ask the LORD MAYOR to respect our staff—
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON!
Councillor SUTTON:—and answer the question.
Chairman:Councillor SUTTON! Councillor SUTTON, I called out to you four times. This is the first meeting in this session, and I remind you of section 51 of the Meetings Local Law, that when I speak, you cease. Now, Councillor SUTTON, that was not an appropriate point of order. I don’t uphold it.
LORD MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR:So, Madam Chairman, I am, as LORD MAYOR of this city, duty-bound to do two things. The first thing is to put on the table what I believe is a fair and reasonable offer. The second thing I am duty-bound to do is to act in the best interests of the ratepayers of the city. Madam Chairman, I believe that what I have on the table is fair to both. It’s fair to the staff; an offer that meets community standards in terms of an increase, but also one that doesn’t overburden the ratepayers of this city.
We need to understand that every $10 million in expenditure is reflective of oneper cent of rate increase in our city, and the movement of 2.5% versus 3.5% is a significant impost upon the ratepayers of Brisbane. Now, CouncillorCUMMING, you might want to tell the ratepayers of Brisbane what you think is a fair impost on them, because you’ve done nothing but stand up for the union leadership all year, and I just want to know what you think is a fair outcome for the ratepayers.
Councillor interjecting.
Chairman:Councillor CASSIDY, stop interjecting.
LORD MAYOR:Madam Chairman, I would just remind the Chamber also that, when this started, the first set of industrial action was supposedly about safety. The DEPUTYMAYOR, within a wink, met with the union leadership. As soon as the union leadership walked into that meeting, the conversation turned away from safety and turned to controlling rostering which they will never get—will never get in this city under my control, Madam Chairman—and that of 3.5% as opposed to 2.5%.
So we put at that meeting, however, additional safety opportunities on the table. It was interesting to see, Madam Chairman, what the response was to that, because we, as you know—in the budget we had a certain safety package. We had additional packages—yes, I’m looking for something else—we had additional packages, Madam Chairman, which the DEPUTY MAYOR put on the table at that meeting, but at the end of the day it wasn’t good enough, because—and this is the comment from Mr Tom Brown; he said, in relation to it, that they needed to be authorised officers that came on board those buses at any time, or even a police squad that can board the buses. Now, I agree with him.
Chairman:LORD MAYOR, your time has expired.
Further questions?
Councillor WINES.
Question 3
Councillor WINES:Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor SCHRINNER. Last year two different reviews were commissioned into the important issue of bus safety, one by Council and one by the Queensland Government. Can you please update the Chamber on the outcome of these reviews, and what progress has been made in improving safety on our buses?
Chairman:DEPUTY MAYOR.
DEPUTY MAYOR:Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you, Councillor WINES, for the question on a very important and pertinent issue. As the LORD MAYOR just said, when we saw the start of strike action a couple of weeks ago, the union very clearly said that this was all about bus driver safety. That was the message that they had decided would win them some public support.
We went in straight away to talk to them about safety. It’s something we’ve always been willing to talk to them about, something that we have been focused on consistently, and we put additional safety measures on the table. Not good enough.
It was very disappointing, Madam Chairman, because as Councillor WINES has pointed out, there were two safety reviews commissioned last year. One of them was a Council review which we commissioned independently, and I have that review here, the AusSafe expert report. So this was an independent health and safety consultant who came in to deal specifically with the tragedy at Moorooka, and to provide us with some recommendations.