Dear Neighbour,
It's been one week since I've been in chambers for the 2023/2024 Brisbane City Council Budget. During this time, I've thought deeply about our home and the people, places, and community that make the Gabba Ward special. I asked myself what would make our neighbourhoods and this City truly sustainable, connected and thriving.
The answer is that we need places to connect, like greenspaces, community hubs and community events. We need to have a say and understanding of development in our neighbourhoods. We need access to frequent, affordable and reliable public transport. We need to be able to connect with our neighbours and beyond through a safe active transport network, and, most importantly, we need to be able to pay our rent or mortgage without financial stress, enabling residents to remain in the community they love.
While the 2023/24 Brisbane City Council Budget doesn't deliver any of these for the community across Brisbane, this is exactly the vision that I will continue to fight for.
Brisbane City Council Budget Overview
Development and Planning: Development has been high on the agenda for the community and Council. After budgets, it's become clear that the LNP-run Council is throwing out neighbourhood plans and removing any community engagement or consultation. The Chair of Planning, Cr Adams, stated that 'changing neighbourhood plans was too slow and that council would be looking at using temporary planning instruments and other tools'. The LNP council do not plan to act on the housing and rental crisis, focusing only on delivering privatised housing supply and promoting build-to-rent (without any rental caps). This city-wide strategy is entirely undemocratic and will not ease many households' rental stress.
Brisbane Metro: Work on the Metro continues; for South Brisbane, it is now moving to stage 2. This stage will deliver a protected bidirectional bikeway along most of Melbourne St and a new South Brisbane Bus terminal platform. However, significant delays have occurred and the budget has blown out $800 million – $1 billion already
Community Festivals: It was great to see local community festivals like Kurilpa Derby and Beggars Banquet, West End Film Festival and Brisbane Serbian Festival be funded in this year's budget. The Gabba Office will also continue to provide additional support for these fantastic community events.I've also called for an increase in the community festival budget across the City in future budgets.
Montague Road Project: State Government has delivered funding to Brisbane City Council to start the investigation and design of the Montague Road corridor. This project will have significant community engagement, so please watch out and be ready to engage.
If you want to check out work started on this project by local community members, please check out the Montague Road Project community Engagement report.
Green Bridges: Work continues on the Kangaroo Point / Botanical Gardens Green Bridge; the completion of this will be a welcomed and needed addition to the active transportation network across the Gabba Ward.
Unfortunately, the West End / Toowong Bridge and other green bridge projects have stalled. During questioning, it was confirmed there is no budget allocation in 2023/24, 2024/25 or 2025/26. After announcing five green bridges in 2019 and stating that BCC would pay 75% of any costs, the Lord Mayor has now backed away from this commitment with only two green bridges in the pipeline for delivery.
Other key projects missing from the budget: Some items I put back on Councils agenda about during budget debates include: Victoria Street CityCat Terminal, Kangaroo Point Riverwalk missing links, urgently needed traffic calming and intersection design across many suburbs, cycle lanes for Vulture Street, West End community center and Library Extension and 1.8 hectares of greenspace for delivery within the Local Government Infrastructure Plan between 2021 – 2026.
Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI): Kurilpa Precinct
LNP lead Brisbane City Council has submitted a TLPI to bypass community consultation and the process to change the City Plan. This plan would deliver 50 – 90 story developments across the Kurilpa Peninsula.
Local community groups Kurilpa Futures and West End Community Association (WECA) have been active in trying to stop decision makers in the State Government from approving the TLPI. You can sign their petition which has over 1000 signatures only and connect with them to learn more about the TLPI and the challenges of using this instrument.
If approved the TLPI will be the go-to tool that Council uses to bypass democratic and consultative processes connected to development not just across the Ward but the whole city.
HERE is a link to my debate in Council Chambers for those interested to find out why this TLPI must be rejected.
Three new community gardens!
Reclaiming greenspace and building community gardens greatly contributes to making connections across our community. They also recognise that food scarcity is a growing issue for many community members. I'm stoked to share the news of three new community gardens across the Gabba:
Gloucester St Garden, Woolloongabba (Crn Gloucester St & Stephens Rd):
Join their facebook group to get involved.
Beaconsfield St Reserve, Highgate Hill
Coordinated by locals and members of Kurilpa Futures, please reach out via facebook if you’d like to help!
West End Community Garden (In front of The Burrow on Russell St):
This recently converted car park is soon to be planted and managed by Jane Street Community Garden, please sign up here if you want to be involved.
Rise Up Festival and Council Chambers action!
On June 3, 1500 people gathered to enjoy a community festival in Raymond Park. Residents also connected and discussed the challenges facing East Brisbane State School and Raymond Park considering the Gabba 2032 rebuild plan by the state government.
From here we organised a Council Chambers action to ask Cr Krista Adams, Deputy Mayor and Chair of Council’s Olympics Committee to publicly commit to protect these parks. Unfortunately, the Deputy Mayor unequivocally stated that she has no desire to deliver a better deal which would minimise the Olympics’ impacts on the local community.
If you’d like to learn more about this issue please check out: Defend Public Spaces From Olympics Maldevelopment!
EOI: Heritage Preservation Working Group
Brisbane City Council has never completed a comprehensive audit of pre-1911 houses in the city. Within the Gabba Ward, over the past few years we’ve seen several houses demolished which were very likely pre-1911. In order to better protect our heritage, I’m seeking expressions of interest to join a small heritage preservation working group. This would be a discrete project which involves looking through the digitised ledger archives to identify houses built prior to 1911 which are not identified as such on the City Plan. Please respond to this email if you would be interested in joining up.
See you around the neighbourhood!
My best to you,
Trina Massey