The 4445 meeting of the Brisbane City Council, held at City Hall, Brisbane on Tuesday 19 August 2014 at 2pm

GENERAL BUSINESS:

Chairman: Councillors are there any statements required as a result of a Councillor Conduct Review Panel order? Are there any matters of general business? Councillor MARX?

Councillor MARX: Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise to speak about the Eidfest celebration which, as the LORD MAYOR mentioned earlier in his report, was on Saturday.

Unfortunately as he also mentioned, there was lots of rain so that did diminish the event somewhat, but nevertheless we had a fairly large turnout, particularly of dignitaries. The LORD MAYOR was there and Councillor HUANG was there as well as myself. There were quite a number of ministers there as well which is always good for them to be supporting this particular festival.

I do want to mention that this particular festival did win the LORD MAYOR's Australia Day event for the best event in 2007. They were initially at the Mt Gravatt Showgrounds and now they've moved to Rocklea. Like I said, unfortunately the rain did put a real dampener on the event. I know it was good for Councillor SIMMONDS and Councillor BOURKE who took part in a Tough Mudder project on the Saturday and they certainly enjoyed the rain but not so much Eidfest.

As a result of the rain though Yasmin Khan who's the president of Eidfest decided they would reopen again on the Sunday in order to support the stallholders so that they could get rid of some of their foodstuffs. So that was very successful, the day was beautiful and they were able to have the fireworks as well that night. So in the end it was a success. Let's hope next year's a bit drier though. Thank you.

Chairman: Further general business? Councillor JOHNSTON?

Councillor JOHNSTON: Yes, Madam Chairman, I rise to speak on—well I'm going to be as broad as possible, but rail station car parks, the Newman State Government, the Sherwood Indooroopilly RSL (Returned and Services League) Memorial and croquet in Queensland and what is offensive in the Council Chamber.

Firstly, Madam Chairman, can I start with given it's Transport Week and that seems to be the issue for the—I think we all know how Mr Newman—oh well I know how Mr Newman used to operate here at Council and he'd always want to have a practise of an election campaign. So—

Councillor interjecting.

Councillor JOHNSTON: —yes—so there's no question that the last couple of weeks and this week are all about having a little trial run about staying on message and talking about—not working no—staying on message and having a little trial run for the election campaign. Now that's how he used to do it when he was here at Council and no doubt he's taken that same method up to George Street.

Madam Chairman, as it is Transport Week I thought I might tell you some of the things that are happening that they don't want to talk about this week with respect to rail station car parks.

Now it's very interesting. A few weeks ago I was approached by a developer who presented me with plans for a six storey high-rise building in a five storey area of course which is pretty standard now, and I looked at where the building was located and I thought goodness me this looks like it's on the Queensland Rail (QR) car park at Corinda.

I wrote back to the developer. I said, is this your land? This looks like it's the QR car park and they said, yes, yes, we're in discussions with the Department of Transport and Main Roads to purchase the car park. I'm like what, that can't be right. I think okay well clearly there's been no announcement about that. There's nothing in the public-sphere about the fact the State Government's selling off commuter car parking which is desperately needed around the city and I thought surely that's just got to be some ambit claim by a developer.

A week later I get approached by the Yeronga-Dutton Park RSL and they said Nicole we've had an approach from a developer. They want to use the club's car park to do all the staging work for their building project which is going to be across the road in the Yeronga Rail Station car park. I said: what are you talking about?

Yes, yes, they produced a letter from the developer which happens to be the Brisbane Housing Company saying that they are in discussions with the Department of Transport and Main Roads to purchase the Yeronga commuter rail car park.

So I will put on the record today, I am aware in my ward alone that the State Government is selling off two commuter rail stations without announcing it publicly, without consultation with the community and, as every councillor in this place knows, absolutely tearing out critically needed commuter car parking in rail stations from our local community.

Now the most interesting part of this, so I write off—my state member happens to be Scott Emerson, the Transport Minister, so I asked him at an event. I said, gee Scott I've heard this and he goes no, no, that can't be true but I didn't take him at his word and I wrote a letter. Yep, sure enough it comes back, yes we are in negotiations to sell-off these stations; however, we will be requiring commuter car parking to be put back into the site.

I'm like: mmm how's the State Government going to do that after they've sold the land to a private developer who will then apply to Council not the State Government to build a giant building on the rail station land, and then of course, Madam Chairman, the relevant development approvals for that will be City Plan. We all know that this new City Plan allows for less parking closer to train stations than more.

So all of Brisbane should be on alert to the fact that the State Government is planning a sell-off of public transport assets, namely commuter car parking. I am opposed to this decision. The commuter car parks that we have got are absolutely over capacity, we are desperately in need of more of them not less to encourage public transport use, and the fact that the Newman Government is doing this on the quiet without being upfront with the community is disgraceful.

This is why, Madam Chairman, in my view the Newman Government will not be able to address the concerns that exist around its current performance because I am sure it would be described by the Premier as a strong decision and an important decision, and it's something that we need to do.

Well I don't think so and this is where the Newman Government is getting it wrong. They are not making the right decisions, they are not making decisions in the public interest, they are making decisions that are going to hurt our community in the longer term, and they don't even have the courtesy to be upfront and say what they are going to do. So be warned every single councillor in this place, the State Government is selling off your car parks.

Madam Chairman, on Saturday the Sherwood-Indooroopilly RSL held a very special event which was the dedication of a new memorial for Afghanistan war veterans. As we know, some 40 Australians were killed during the Afghanistan operations which happened to be our longest overseas deployment in Australian history, some 12 years.

It's very sad that those young men have lost their lives, and where they were based at Tarin Kowt there was a memorial wall with the names of all of the soldiers who lost their lives including those from the other allied countries. That wall had to be knocked down when the Australians left Afghanistan and I'm delighted to say that the Sherwood-Indooroopilly RSL has replicated the memorial wall and has installed a large plaque with the names of all the 100 including the 40 Australian soldiers who died while on active service in Afghanistan.

It was a really moving ceremony, we had eight of the families who had lost their husband and their fathers, their brothers and so forth, so it was a really wonderful service. I would like to pay credit to Kevin Alcock, the president of the Sherwood-Indooroopilly RSL. This was completely his brainchild. It was wonderful to see so many of the serving soldiers from 2RAR in attendance where a lot of these young men had served. It was an extremely special event and that memorial will now forever be there for the young veterans who've lost their lives in the Afghanistan conflict.

Also on the weekend, Madam Chairman, the annual Patron's Cup between Graceville Croquet Club and the Stephens Croquet Club occurred. It rotates between the two organisations and this year I'm delighted to say it was won by the Stephens Croquet Club. It's a highly contested local event which I support, and it is wonderful, even in the pouring rain on Saturday, to see 50 people out playing croquet for the honour of winning the Patron's Cup. So I just want to say thank you to both the Stephens and the Graceville Croquet Clubs. They are wonderful sporting clubs, very community based and it is great to see their dedication to their chosen sport.

Finally, what seems to be offensive in this Chamber and what doesn't. In recent weeks there've been a number of things that have happened in the Chamber that have not been deemed offensive, and those include Councillor McLACHLAN accusing Councillor GRIFFITHS and myself of some sort of impropriety with respect to footpath funding.

Now those allegations were outrageously offensive and they were also untrue, and it is very interesting to see the way in which the word offensive is being interpreted.

A few weeks before that the LORD MAYOR stood up in this place and accused me of being un-Australian. I pointed out that that was offensive, but no not the case. Now in both of those two issues when offensive remarks were made by Councillor McLACHLAN and the LORD MAYOR, the person who asked for them to be withdrawn, that would be me, was ejected from this place.

Now let's contrast that with what was offensive today. It's very interesting to see that nothing that is said by LNP councillors rises to the definition of offensive, but even minor statements of fact—of fact—made by the ALP councillors apparently are offensive. Certainly saying grow up apparently in this Chamber is also offensive.

So it is really interesting in my view to see that there is this permeable definition of offensive and it seems to be related to the membership—

Chairman: Councillor JOHNSTON your time has expired.

Councillor JOHNSTON: — of your political party.

Chairman: Further general business? Councillor KNAPP?

Councillor KNAPP: Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to speak on three things, the Local Government Women's Conference in Warwick, Brisbane Sings and the Gap being nominated as the most spotless suburb in Brisbane and the people involved in that.

Madam Chair, the Local Government Women's Association, as you know, has been operating for about 50 years and it was championed by some very brave women in the late '80s that kept the organisation going when it was probably harder for women to get elected into local government. Councillor June O'Connell was actively involved and there have been a lot of women that have worked enormously hard to keep the Local Government Women's Association Queensland operational.

I remember my first conference was in Rockhampton with you, Madam Chair, which was a very large conference in fact. We also went with a couple of Labor councillors, one made really derogatory remarks about some of the programs that were offered by Rockhampton Council at the time.

The conference was Full, Frank and Fearless and I suppose what surprised me, Madam Chair, was that the number of women that weren't there this time. Something happened somewhere along the line with the amalgamation of councils, the forced amalgamation by the previous State Government. I remember the last conference I went to was at Charters Towers where the then Treasurer, Andrew Fraser, came to address the conference and there were an amazing amount of women at that conference who were part of small councils. Now they didn't do it for the money; they did it because council, except for us, is a non-political council and it's a community development job for a lot of those women.

In the interim from 2008 to now the number of women who aren't standing as councillors has surprised me, Madam Chair. I suppose there is always these elements of ‘well you compete in a man's world’ and indeed we do. It is who is the best for the job, but the reality is that I think that in some cases, particularly in country towns, it's harder for women in the country to get their profile up than us that live in the city.

The conference was terrific. I really enjoyed listening to Jude Munro who talked about public servants and her role as a CEO. Public servants need to be frank, to politicians telling it like it is, and fearless on the basis of not being sacked and the environment in which you give trusted advice.

It was interesting that she talked about some of the programs that are embedded in Brisbane City Council. The Gold Program actually came out of a women's health program in Bairnsdale in Victoria where a group of women over 50 started this mutual support group which grew into Growing Old Living Dangerously and it came up and was introduced into our Council.

The same with the BUZ (bus upgrade zone); she spoke about how they'd been down looking at how Melbourne trams operate and the consistency of Melbourne trams and from that grew the BUZ services that we have.

The keynote speaker was Robyn Moore and I really liked listening to Robyn because I think it's really great to go to conferences and hear somebody talk up positive things in relation to how your life operates to be perfectly honest. She's involved, as Councillor MARX said, with Make a Wish but she talks about change and transformation and how words can empower you.

She talked about her relationship with her mother who had Alzheimer's. I had a mother with Alzheimer's the infuriating thing of dealing with someone with Alzheimer's is that they don't remember what they've said to you. So each moment that you have with them becomes almost an enriching moment. She talked about her mother being at her granddaughter's wedding and kept repeating: “where am I? You're at your granddaughter's wedding”. To which she replied: “Oh, how lovely that is”. Now that went on for probably four hours, but she transcended the annoyance of it by understanding that it was a great joy for her mother.

Madam Chair, there was an interesting debate about gender called Are Women Treated Differently to Men in the Workforce? Well, it was an open debate, I mean all the women voted for the affirmative side, but there was a famous female mayor from St George who was on the negative side and said: “no, you've got to make your way in a man's world”. In some ways probably that is quite true.

On the second morning I thought that the really interesting address was from the Warwick Council themselves on the ‘Jumpers and Jazz Festival’ by the curator of Warwick Art Gallery. There was the most amazing exhibition at the gallery this year where they knitted a whole kitchen. The whole kitchen was knitted by knitters in Warwick.

It's a great community development this festival where the whole of Warwick is involved. So thank you to the Council for that. There are great problems for all of these councils, they struggle all of them. We're lucky that we're in Brisbane and have this large rate base, but you, Madam Chair, are well aware of the problems that are occurring in Queensland with local governments all across Queensland of how they remain sustainable.

Brisbane Sings, Madam Chair, Brisbane Sings was fabulous. We give some support to Brisbane Sings and I was lucky enough to be asked to go and represent the Council, along with Councillor HOWARD.

Madam Chair, you had a choir represented. There was a combination of choirs across Brisbane. The Queensland Show Choir which consists of Stella Voce, Vox Populus and Vivace are More Than Words. There was a QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) choir. There was the Multitudinal Community Choir which was from Redcliffe, All Saints Chamber Choir, Music a la Viva Community Choir, Madam Chair, which I believe resides in your ward and they were terrific. Here were all these older people singing terrific songs of Appalachian dancers. The Mt Alvernia Choir, the Queensland Academy all came together and all performed.

Now, Madam Chair, as you know that I am a musician and I think that singing is the great art because we can all sing. Some people think that they can't, but in actual fact we can all sing. It is really a commonality from the original traditional owners of this land who communicated through song and dance and art, so do we. It's the greatest of all the abstracts. It's the first of our senses and it's the last sense to go. We pick up a baby and we sing to it and we sing people to death. It is the most fabulous way of making people come together and my congratulations really to all of the choristers, all of their directors, the people who support them and all of the singers that came together, 500 voices.

It was fantastic that the songs were amazing. There were three Michael Jackson songs. Thriller was absolutely wonderful and Heal the World. To hear anything of that, to be able to go to a concert like that was truly amazing and I'm glad we fund it.

Lastly, hooray for The Gap. The Gap, not the ward but The Gap suburb. We think it's something special and indeed it is, Madam Chair, because it's one of the largest suburbs of Brisbane. It's got 16,000 people living in it which is larger than the town of Warwick, and they think they live in a country town. It's pulled together by Enoggera Creek.

So not only did we win this award but we also won for SOWN (Save Our Waterways Now) the catchment champion. Also what I'd like to say is well done to my schools. All of the four schools in The Gap back onto either Enoggera Creek or Fish Creek, and Hilder Road State School won for a very, very innovative website called Fish Creek 4061 which they set up as an information site, a learning tool.

Chairman: Councillor KNAPP your time has expired.

Councillor KNAPP: Thank you, Madam Chair.

Chairman: Thank you. Further general business? Councillor WINES?

Councillor WINES: Thank you, Madam Chairman. I just rise to speak to general business for a couple of items. They will be the Alderley Skip, the Brisbane Paralympic Football Program, Vietnam Veterans Day, Seniors Week events and if I have time I have some further comments on the artwork in Brunswick Street Mall.

Firstly, two weeks ago we had the launch of the Alderley Skip which was the first of the community consultations of the Community Reference Group talking about what will be a fantastic upgrade to north-west Brisbane. Once completed, it will provide a new focal point for the district, and it was great to be in a room with people who are as proud and as optimistic about the future of Alderley as I am. They were people varying in experience of life in Alderley from four years up to 75 years, sat in that committee talking about how they want to see their suburb move forward, how they want to see their suburb and neighbourhood prosper, and it was really a fantastic first step. I remain optimistic about this project as I do the future of the whole suburb.

I also want to talk about the Brisbane Olympic Football Program which is a program run out of the Westside Soccer Club which is in Keperra, and they run a program for people who have physical inhibitants and it's run by a man whose son himself was told that he would not walk. Well not only does his son walk his son plays for the Pararoos, the Australian Paralympic Soccer team.

He takes this group with support from the Brisbane Roar and other European football entities and teaches kids with special needs how to play soccer. They get kids who have never been able to walk walking and kicking soccer balls, and it really is very special and this weekend marks a special event for them, that people from not only all over Brisbane come to participate in the program, but people came from Townsville to participate in the program this weekend just gone at a special festival of football event held.

It was meant to be held in Keperra but for the rain and was held instead at Newmarket and the indoor facilities, but both in Enoggera Ward and both celebrations of creating an accessible and inclusive city built on the shoulders of volunteers, building things to make our city an even better place to be.

I want to talk about Vietnam Veterans Day which was yesterday, sometimes known as Long Tan Day and there were two events I had the pleasure of representing the LORD MAYOR and the Council at the city event here at Anzac Square which was attended by more than 500 viewers including a great number of retired veterans and their families.

I then had the pleasure to the Gaythorne RSL event which is at the traditional time of 5:15 in the afternoon for what is one more fantastic local event run by the Gaythorne RSL who are the preeminent club in north-west Brisbane. They do an excellent job with recognising the contributions and the service and the sacrifice of our serving of both current and former servicemen and women.

I also had the pleasure of being invited to view their concert last night that they put on every year. This year we had Little Pattie and she sang He's My Blonde Headed Stompie Wonky Real Gone Surfer Boy for everybody and then we had Denise Drysdale for an hour and a half where truly she sang four songs in an hour and a half and then told jokes that made me blush, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. It was fantastic; it was a really good night.

I also wanted to recognise the efforts of the Oxford Park Retirement Village at their Seniors Week Cocktail Party which was held on Friday which is a great way of getting people active. They were showing their artworks, a number of which were prize winners at the Samford Show and they had a special art and cocktail party in celebration of Seniors Week.

Also I just wanted to make comment about the Seniors Cabaret. That's the second time I've been to it and it was a fantastic event and there was one band that Councillor ADAMS left out, and of course many of us would be aware of a program called The Simpsons and The Simpsons taught us that when naming a musical band the name first has to be very funny and then become less funny each time you say it, which is as Councillor BOURKE recognises, in that program was the B Sharps.

Well on Saturday we had a band called the Four-tunes, F-O-U-R-T-U-N-E-S, and there were four men up on the stage, and I can assure you it was funny at the start. By the end it wasn't so much, but those four gentlemen were very talented and it was an excellent song that they song. But it was a great show and more councillors should take the opportunity to go along and see programs such as the Seniors Cabaret which was just so much fun.

Finally, I just wanted to make comment it was pointed out to me after I sat down that there were bands of my time in the Brunswick Street Mall artwork. One of them was of course Regurgitator which is a famous Gap band from Quan Yeomans, the famous Gap resident who sings what, in my opinion, is the anthem of Brisbane which is The Song Formerly Known As, and of course the anthem of my earlier years by a band called Custard, which is of course Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us).

So I just wanted to once again talk about what a fantastic city it is we live in, and thank you for the opportunity.

Chairman: Further general business? Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR?

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR: Thank you, Madam Chairman. I rise to speak on a Sister School Memorandum of Understanding, activities in Parkinson Ward and also the Forest Lake Community Hall.

Madam Chairman, last week I was extremely pleased to have attended Calamvale Community College for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Kaohsiung Girls Senior High School. This is a very important Memorandum of Understanding because it also sits under the whole Sister Cities Program and reflects Brisbane's Sister City relationship with Kaohsiung.

It is interesting, Madam Chairman, that out of the speeches on the day, the Executive Principal of Calamvale Community College, Ms Kath Kayrooz, actually reflected on how students these days are not just local that they're global and we have been saying that about our businesses here in Brisbane; that businesses are no longer local that they are global.

It is interesting that the connections are being made between these two schools, and the strength of the Memorandum of Understanding is certainly apparent because over Christmas one of the Principals at the school, Mr Glen Beaumont, actually went to Kaohsiung and last week we actually had a number of Kaohsiung students from the Girls Senior High School and the Principal there for the signing of the MOU. The girls did a wonderful job with a couple of their performances and can I say that these performances have hit the airwaves, and they've been circulated through Taiwan and even over to New York. So Brisbane is certainly getting a large amount of exposure not only through the work that we do here as the City Council, but also that this school is doing—and they are certainly leading at the forefront in many of the aspects that they are introducing in the school.

So congratulations to Kath Kayrooz and all the staff at Calamvale College and particularly all the students from both Calamvale Community College and Kaohsiung Girls Senior High School. They have made this partnership work and they are putting in a lot of effort to really have these connections which is very important, and particularly for the younger members of our community to have these opportunities it certainly opens a lot of doors for them in the future.

Madam Chairman, Friday night I also had the great opportunity as Patron of the Calamvale Leopards to attend their presentation evening for their juniors. It's fantastic to see so many young people engaging in an active and healthy lifestyle on the Calamvale District Sports-Fields, and this is a great Council asset contributing to our local community.

Unfortunately on Saturday morning the rain came down and put off the Forest Lake Junior Rugby Union Wasps presentation day, of which I'm also the Patron. I am looking forward to seeing all those young people as well because there are hundreds upon hundreds of young people who spend their time going to training and playing in these games and actively being involved, and I think it's really important that we do recognise their efforts to be active and healthy in our city.

Madam Chairman, I would also like to acknowledge a number of students from St John's College who are also members of the Leo's Club which sits underneath the Forest Lake Lions. One of the important projects that they have undertaken as part of their charter is that they have adopted a road, they've adopted Forest Lake Boulevard. Certainly as part of that program they are working and they are a great example of Team Brisbane because they are taking a lot of pride in their local community and trying to make our local area better. Although it's a great local area, they are trying to take it one step better and really show that they have pride in their community and they are not backward in coming forward when it comes to picking up some rubbish to make sure that everything looks spick and span and they can show the rest of the city that they have pride in where we live.

I think these young people working in combination with the Forest Lake Lions really epitomise what Team Brisbane is all about. Given that Forest Lake Boulevard is a significant stretch of road and the Forest Lake Lions also span over different areas as well, I do acknowledge that Councillor DICK was there as well. I think it's important that where we have a service organisation that support is given in a very bipartisan way, because the strength of our community relies in many ways on the strength of our community organisations.

Madam Chairman, I would also just like to touch on the Forest Lake Community Hall and can I say to this Chamber that there has been significant positive community feedback as a result of the announcement that this community hall will be going ahead and being built in College Avenue.

I know that there have been difficulties with the former location in respect of this, but now that the word is out there in the community there has been a lot of excitement. I'm receiving a lot of emails and letters through my ward office indicating interest from many different community groups, sporting groups and just general organisations from Girl Guides to Rotary to RSL and many other smaller organisations that don't at the present moment have a permanent home.

This will be a magnificent community asset and particularly where we are servicing those community organisations it really does form a base for them, and this is what we need. It's this type of infrastructure in the community that will serve the community, not just now but for many, many decades to come.

It is going to be a very well used asset and I thank Councillor ADAMS for all her support in getting this to this stage, and particularly all of the Council officers that have been working behind the scenes, because I do know that they put a lot of effort in. There are often times a lot of technical aspects that they have to consider and I do value their efforts getting to this stage.

Obviously as this project proceeds there will be more opportunity to liaise with the community about the status of the project as it goes from one stage to the next, and certainly I'm looking forward to having this very valuable asset in my local area. I do extend my thanks to the LORD MAYOR for ensuring that that is in the budget this year for us to proceed with it, and on behalf of all the residents of Parkinson Ward I do extend a very big thank you.

Chairman: Further general business? I declare the meeting closed.