Released on 1:00 pm Thursday 25 June 2026
Response to Lendlease Visy Site Redevelopment Announcement
The Deputy Premier’s announcement today confirms what many in the community have long feared: a backroom deal with developers that effectively hands 7.1 hectares of publicly funded riverfront land into private control.
For years, residents have consistently called for parkland, new schools, sporting fields, affordable housing, and genuine community facilities on this site. Instead, just six days after what can only be described as a token consultation process, it is now clear the outcome was effectively predetermined behind closed doors.
This is a once-in-a-generation public asset, and it is being squandered by the LNP State Government and the Deputy Premier.
West End and South Brisbane are already under extreme pressure with overcrowded schools, packed public transport, limited green space, and a shortfall in community infrastructure. This proposal locks in those pressures for decades to come, with no solutions.
What is being delivered is a high-density luxury apartment precinct with no enforceable affordable housing requirements pricing out most residents, and with no certainty of delivery before 2032.
Dismissing legitimate community concerns and calls for proper democratic input is not planning. It is governance in backrooms and absolutely not for public interest.
Comments attributable to Cr Trina Massey, The Gabba Ward, BCC:
"Today's announcement is proof of the backroom deals the LNP and Deputy Premier are doing with developers. This land was bought with public money and the public deserves to know what's happened to it."
"This is what a backroom government looks like. Public land, bought with public money, traded away in deals the public never gets to see, let alone consent to."
"4,000 homes and not a single enforceable affordable housing requirement. That is not housing policy. It is a developer windfall on public land."
"This is about who benefits from public decisions on land in our neighbourhoods. Right now, the answer is not the public and the Deputy Premier doesn't think that matters."
For media enquiries: contact The Gabba Ward office on 07 3403 2165