TABLE OF CONTENTS

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

The 4476 meeting of the Brisbane City Council, held at City Hall, Brisbane on Tuesday 18 August 2015 at 2pm

Prepared by:

Council and Committee Liaison Office

Chief Executive’s Office

Office of the Lord Mayor and the Chief Executive Officer

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

THE 4476 MEETING OF THE BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL,

HELD AT CITY HALL, BRISBANE,

ON TUESDAY 18 AUGUST 2015

Dedicated to a better Brisbane AT 2PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________________________________________ i

PRESENT: ______________________________________________________________________ 1

OPENING OF MEETING: __________________________________________________________ 1

MINUTES: _____________________________________________________________________ 1

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: __________________________________________________________ 1

QUESTION TIME: ________________________________________________________________ 6

CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS: _________________________________________ 18

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE __________________________________________ 18

A LEASE TO WAREHOUSE CRICKET ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC. FOR 7TH BRIGADE PARK, 88

DELAWARE STREET, CHERMSIDE ________________________________________________________ 23

B LEASE TO WAREHOUSE CRICKET ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC. FOR MARCHANT PARK, GYMPIE

AND MURPHY ROADS, ASPLEY __________________________________________________________ 24

C APPOINTMENT OF JARED RYAN CASSIDY AS COUNCILLOR FOR DEAGON WARD ______________ 26

D ALTERATION TO THE MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL’S STANDING COMMITTEES _________________ 27

INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE ___________________________________________________________ 28

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ARTERIAL ROAD PROGRAM UPDATE _______________________ 34

B PETITION – EGMONT STREET, SHERWOOD ____________________________________________ 36

C PETITION – LIMIT COMPRESSION BRAKING SIGNAGE ____________________________________ 37

PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE _______________________________________________ 38

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – SAFE NIGHT OUT STRATEGY AND NIGHTLINK SERVICES ________ 43

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE _____________________ 46

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – HERITAGE TRAILS _______________________________________ 49

B PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL KEEP HOUSING HEIGHTS AT 8.5 METRES AND REDUCE

FIVE-STOREY DEVELOPMENTS TO A MAXIMUM OF THREE STOREYS IN WYNNUM, MANLY AND LOTA 50

ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE _____________________________________ 53

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – OVERVIEW OF STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK

54

B PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REMOVE THE FLYING-FOX ROOST FROM PERRIN PARK,

TOOWONG _________________________________________________________________________ 55

FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE _____________________________________________________________ 57

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ASPHALT AND AGGREGATES BRANCH KEY HIGHLIGHTS 2014-15 _ 60

B PETITION – PETITION CALLING ON COUNCIL TO HALVE THE HEIGHT OF THREE PAPERBARK TREES

IN NORMAN STREET, WOOLOOWIN _____________________________________________________ 62

C PETITION – PETITION BY RESIDENTS CALLING ON COUNCIL TO REMOVE ONE PINE TREE IN LUCAN

AVENUE, ASPLEY _____________________________________________________________________ 63

D PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REDUCE BY 50 PER CENT THE HEIGHT OF NINE MATURE

LEOPARD TREES IN ANDES STREET, MANLY WEST __________________________________________ 63

BRISBANE LIFESTYLE COMMITTEE _________________________________________________________ 65

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – DIGITAL LIBRARY NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND MUSIC ______ 67

FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE ________________________ 69

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ASIA PACIFIC CITIES SUMMIT 2015 _________________________ 71

[4476 (Ordinary) Meeting – 18 August 2015]






PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS: ____________________________________________________ 71

GENERAL BUSINESS: ____________________________________________________________ 72

QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN: ________________________________ 77







PRESENT:

The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK)

–

LNP

The Chairman of Council, Councillor Angela OWEN-TAYLOR (Parkinson Ward) – LNP

LNP Councillors (and Wards)

Krista ADAMS (Wishart)

Matthew BOURKE (Jamboree)

Amanda COOPER (Bracken Ridge)

Margaret de WIT (Pullenvale)

Vicki HOWARD (Central) (Deputy Chairman of

Council)

Steven HUANG (Macgregor)

Fiona KING (Marchant)

Kim MARX (Karawatha)

Peter MATIC (Toowong)

Ian McKENZIE (Holland Park)

David McLACHLAN (Hamilton)

Ryan MURPHY (Doboy)

Adrian SCHRINNER (Chandler) (Deputy Mayor)

Julian SIMMONDS (Walter Taylor)

Steven TOOMEY (The Gap)

Andrew WINES (Enoggera)

Norm WYNDHAM (McDowall)

OPENING OF MEETING:

ALP Councillors (and Wards)

Milton DICK (Richlands) (The Leader of the

Opposition)

Helen ABRAHAMS (The Gabba) (Deputy Leader of the Opposition)

Peter CUMMING (Wynnum Manly)

Kim FLESSER (Northgate)

Steve GRIFFITHS (Moorooka)

VACANT (Deagon)

Shayne SUTTON (Morningside)

Independent Councillor (and Ward)

Nicole JOHNSTON (Tennyson)

The Chairman, Councillor Angela OWEN-TAYLOR, opened the meeting with prayer, and then proceeded with the business set out in the Agenda.

MINUTES:

49/2015-16

The Minutes of the 4475 meeting of Council held on 11 August 2015, 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 Kim MARX.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

Mr Ron Baker–The work of Kyabra Community Gardens along with the assistance from Brisbane City

Council and Councillor Kim Marx

File number: 137/220/701/243

Chairman: I would now like to call on Mr Ron Baker who will address the Chamber on the work of Kyabra Community Gardens, along with assistance from Brisbane City

Council and Councillor Kim MARX.

Orderly, please show Mr Baker in.


Mr Ron Baker:

- 2 -

Please proceed, Mr Baker, you have five minutes.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, LORD MAYOR and

Councillors. I would like to give you a snapshot profile of the Kyabra Street

Community Gardens and provide some examples about how this Council's been very supportive and benefitted not only our own group but the local community.

We were founded in 2003. We're an independent group. We act as a not-forprofit cooperative. Basically we share the work and share the rewards.

Our motto is simply cultivating crops, skills and friendships. We operate on the site of the Kyabra Community Association at Runcorn. Our activities include growing food crops, herbs, pot plants, native trees and shrubs, including those donated by the BCC. We practice composting, worm farming and seed saving.

Everything we do is organic, including the soils, the fertilizers and the pestcontrol treatments which we make ourselves-the treatments, not the pests.

Our water source is two 5000 litre water tanks which seem to have been adequate so far. We're committed to recycling everything we possibly can and we're pretty creative with the curb side collections materials, I can tell you. But it's not all watering, weeding and wishing. We do make time for socialising amongst ourselves and also we invite other community garden groups and different organisations to come and join us for a master chef sausage burning and some salad from the garden.

We don't have any fees, there are no forms, we're an informal group. We don't have any titles or even a committee, which might interest you guys. The decisions are made by group discussions and they usually come out with consensus, so we must be doing something right. We have around 16 regular members and then other people from the community come and go on a casual basis depending on the circumstances.

We have a working bee on the first and third Saturday of each month and particular members come in during the week, depending on what's to be done. since 2012, every week, we've hosted groups of eight to 10 special school students and their teachers as part of their self-development program and their preparation for the workforce. They're very, very good and maintenance jobs that we maybe don't have the time for, so they're very much appreciated.

We also accommodate disadvantaged individuals that are referred by Kyabra's social services department. We're an unincorporated group, so basically we're not covered with insurance for public liability or personal injury. That puts limitations on our activities. We have no recurring source of funds. We rely on small grants to fund tools and equipment and materials. The routine running costs are met by our own fundraising efforts, which are fairly modest due to the liability factor.

I've been in the gardens for seven years now and we've benefited from six grants from this Council, including the Cultivating Community Gardens grants and the

LORD MAYOR's Suburban Initiatives fund. That's made a huge difference, in fact it's critical to what we've done. Those funds have enabled us to do things like purchase all the tools and materials we needed to more than double our growing space, now at two hectares. We've extended our shade house, constructed a large walk-in greenhouse and a gazebo.

We conducted workshops, including a couple for the Council. We have various social activities including we've hosted music jam sessions for local players.

Which was very good. I had a vested interest in that because I'm a guitar player.

Councillor MARX also provided us with a marquee which we used for public information and fundraising stalls and various on and off-site activities.

So I'd like to conclude please by thanking the Brisbane City Council,

Councillor MARX, her PA Laurel and her staff and Councillor Steven HUANG for your strong support. Not just to our particular group but for your commitment to community gardens in general. It's a proven fact that gardening does improve health, wellbeing and promotes community involvement. Which is a fairly worth social list, I think. So thank you very much again for this opportunity.


Chairman:

- 3 -

Thank you, Mr Baker.

Councillor BOURKE would you care to respond to Mr Baker, please.

Response by Councillor Matthew BOURKE, Chairman of the Environment, Parks and Sustainability

Committee

Councillor BOURKE: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman, and thanks very much Mr Baker for coming in this afternoon and talking to us about Kyabra Community Gardens and your community association. Your community garden is one of 30 that we have across the city on Council land, and of course there's countless others on private and on school land as well. Each one of those community gardens plays an important part in making Brisbane a more sustainable city.

You might not know but just recently Brisbane was actually named Australia's most sustainable city. A lot of the projects that you talk about and the work-the good work that you and your fellow volunteers down there at

Kyabra Community Gardens do plays an important role in making Brisbane that sustainable city that we all love and enjoy, but also in winning that award and outdoing all the other cities right across Australia.

Your insight today, your talk about the collaboration you have with the community, the philosophy and the focus and how you've engaged with not only the members of the farm but also other residents is something I think that's quite inspiring. It's something that indeed this Council seeks to promote and encourage right across the city.

Chairman:

We just also, in the last 18 months, launched our community garden guide which is online. It's a tool for people who are looking to set up new community gardens or for people who are operating existing community gardens. It has a lot of handy information, it has a checklist and a lot of advice about how they can do the ongoing management. But you seem, from your collective consensus approach to have a lot of that down pat.

It's great that you've been able to also seek and source a lot of funding from not just Council but outside through your own fundraising. I particularly want to commend you on that and commend you on the number of grants that you've been able to receive. I just encourage you, there is $60,000 available in this year's LORD MAYOR's Sustainability grants for the cultivating community gardens section. I'd encourage you when those grants come out very shortly to be putting in an application and making sure that the good work down at Kyabra that you've been doing can continue into the future.

Because honestly, so you sew, so you shall reap and I think you are reaping the benefits of the hard work not only of yourself, but so many members of the community down there. A big congratulation for everything that you're doing for your local community down in Karawatha.

Thank you, Councillor BOURKE, and thank you Mr Baker for coming in and addressing Council today.

Could I also acknowledge the presence in our public gallery today of former

Councillors Carol Cashman and John Goss. It's wonderful to have you here in the public gallery today.

Mr Nick Braban–The upcoming legislative agenda of the State Government with regard to trading hours and lock-outs in licensed premises

File number: 137/220/661/225

Chairman: I would now like to call on our second public speaker today, Mr Nick Braban, who will address the Chamber on the upcoming impacts of the trading hours and lockouts in licensed premises.

Orderly, please show Mr Braban in.

Please proceed, Mr Braban, you have five minutes.


Nick Braban:

- 4 -

Thank you, Madam Chair, LORD MAYOR and Councillors. I thank you for the opportunity to address Council today. I'm here to discuss the future of an industry I have made a career out of for the last 15 years. It is an industry I'm proud of and I have seen it develop greatly in my time being involved in it. I represent an organisation called Our Nightlife Queensland. This is an association we have developed over the past year to give a voice to licensed venues that have often been misrepresented in policy discussions regarding their future.

We represent nightclubs, live music venues, small bars, cocktail bars and pubs that operate in the night-time economy. We also seek to represent those that work and place in our businesses. We are caterers, we are cleaners, bar staff, musicians, security guards and most importantly small business owners. Our industry has worked with successive governments, both state and local, to implement policies that allow patrons to have a safe and enjoyable experience.

We believe we are getting it right and that existing settings can be retained and fine-tuned for better outcomes.

Our industry is critical to Queensland's popularity as a tourist destination and to

Brisbane's credibility as a modern progressive new-world city. Above all else, our industry is critical to the vibrancy of Queensland's economy, particularly for many young people. All of the great cosmopolitan cities of the world are underpinned by safe and vibrant nightlife and Brisbane should be no different.

We have seen a renaissance in hospitality offerings in the Brisbane area over the past decade. With formerly dead precincts being reinvigorated by largely astute night time offerings from entrepreneurs from our industry.

This reinvigorating has gone hand in hand with intelligent, evidence-based policy making with regard to liquor licensing, noise regulation and precinct management. Brisbane City Council has led the way not only in Australia but in the world with ground-breaking policy measures such as the allowance of latenight licenses when Expo 88 was here, the creation of the Valley Music

Harmony Plan in 2004, which culminated in the creation of the Fortitude Valley

Special Entertainment Precinct, and the implementation of the 17-point

Brisbane City Safety Action Plan in 2006.

These policy measures required a large amount of collaborative work with State

Government and across party lines to change the Liquor Act and is a great example of the role Council can play in this area. It should be noted that these plans are now used as templates across the country and the world as roadmaps for regulating and fostering night time economies.

In Brisbane alone, we estimate over 95,000 people responsibly enjoy a night out each week. Studies into the night time economy in Australia estimate Brisbane's is worth over $1 billion. Over 16,000 people are directly employed in the businesses we represent across the city, numbering over 2000 small to medium businesses. In Brisbane alone, we estimate over-the Palaszczuk

State Government has plans to introduce some of the most draconian legislation seen in Australia since the '80s.

The major measures in the proposed policy include a ban on certain types of drinks after 12am, a 1am lockout and a 3am cessation of alcohol sales. It is stated that these measures are in response to the problem of alcohol-related violence on our streets, but this fails to take into account any of the available data from Brisbane and the rest of the state with regard to crime levels in our entertainment precincts and how alcohol is consumed in our society.

The policies I made mention of earlier have gifted Brisbane with one of the lowest violent crime rates in this country late at night, whilst also fostering innovation and entrepreneurialism from our hospitality industry. They have fostered live music, they have fostered youth culture and a burgeoning laneway culture and small bar scene to rival our southern neighbours. We want to see these policies play out, be properly evaluated and decisions be made on evidence.


- 5 -

What the State Government is proposing takes self-determination and local response to real issues away from local areas, instituting a blanket approach to legislation that fails to address how local economies and communities operate.

No one is more committed to safety than those who operate in these areas. It is disingenuous to suggest business somehow thrives of lawlessness and violence.

The worry is that the changes which are being proposed kill the small businesses we have seen spring up. All we will be left with is large, quantity-driven venues, and interesting small bars, live music venues and underground nightclubs will be a thing of the past. At risk here are over 1700 local jobs, 100 local businesses, more importantly the vibrancy of Brisbane as a whole. Can I remind you it's because of the hard work of Council, we now have world-class entertainment precincts that we can be proud of.

We both have the toughest regulations and the lowest rate of antisocial behaviour in the nation. We are not Newcastle, we certainly are not

Kings Cross, we are Brisbane, let's keep our city open for business, thank you.

Chairman: Thank you, Mr Braban.

Councillor SIMMONDS, would you like to respond, please?

Response by Councillor Julian SIMMONDS, Chairman of the Finance, Economic Development and

Administration Committee

Councillor SIMMONDS: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman, and thank you Mr Braban for coming to Council to address Council today. Thank you very much for your kind words about Council's efforts to date as well. We certainly appreciate, the Councillors here, your passionate support of the venues, traders and the members of

Nightlife Queensland that you've represented this afternoon.

Chairman:

As you are aware and you pointed out, this Council is very committed to positioning Brisbane as Australia's new-world city. One of the ways that we can of course achieve this is by responding to the expectations of both our residents and our international visitors, by having a vibrant entertainment—

Sorry, just a moment please, Councillor SIMMONDS. Could the opposition

Councillor that are having a conversation in the Chamber please show our public speaker the due respect the public speakers deserve by sitting down and remaining silent while the response is being provided.

Councillors interjecting.

Councillor SIMMONDS:

Chairman:


Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.

Thank you.

One of the ways, as I said, to achieve this is of course by responding to the expectation of residents and the international visitors by having a vibrant entertainment and retail economy, particularly in the CBD and the Valley. In line with this, Council has a very clear and consistent view not to support the lockout policy proposed by the State Government. We enshrined this in a motion that this Chamber debated and passed on 11 February 2014.

We agree with your assessment that the State Government proposal would significantly impact on businesses, particularly in the CBD and the Valley. You used quite a few statistics, I have another one that I like to throw out there and that is that the valley has the largest percentage of companies employing between 20 and 200 people outside of the CBD itself, and a lot of that is in that entertainment precinct. The precinct itself can host anywhere up to

30,000 people every weekend.

We've also observed from the Sydney experience a 30 per cent decrease in business in the CBD following the introduction of similar lockouts, with a steady of stream of venues closing following the introduction of that policy.

These are not just impassive statistics, these are people's livelihoods, their jobs and it would mean that the Queensland Government proposal would be taking


- 6 - that kind of opportunity and prosperity away from these hardworking families and that's something that we don't support.

Of course, as I know you do, this Administration deplores alcohol-fuelled violence and considers one incident to be one incident too many. I personally have expressed the view in the media previously that anyone who commits or perpetrates alcohol-fuelled violence should feel the full and unbridled extent of our law and order system. But we believe that organisations like yours, the

Council, hoteliers and venues have demonstrated that we can work together and be responsible partners in alcohol management and community safety without the need for a lockout.

I note that venues have been very proactive in introducing new mechanisms to record ID information from patrons, enabling precinct-wide bans of unruly individuals and better security and police enforcement and the Council welcomes this. Council too has proactively invested in enhancing inner-city safety through measures including the drink safe precinct, the expansion of the

City Safe camera network, the introduction of the maroon and blue CityGliders which run 24 hours a day on Friday and Saturday nights, and of course planning changes through Councillor COOPER's area which have facilitated more of these small and boutique bars that you spoke about.

Chairman:

QUESTION TIME:

Chairman:

Through this cooperation, we have demonstrated that alcohol-fuelled violence can be curtailed without punishing the literally tens of thousands of patrons every weekend who are enjoying themselves in a very safe manner. So Council's view, that I've articulated today, has been articulated previously to both the media and the State Government and will continue to support those efforts and articulate that view.

So thank you very much again, Nick, for coming and taking the time to address the Chamber this afternoon. We appreciate you providing us with that extra information. We wish your organisation all the best of luck. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Braban, for coming and addressing Council today.

Councillors, are there any question of the LORD MAYOR or a Chairman of any of the Standing Committees?

Councillor WINES:

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

Councillor WINES.

Question 1

Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is to the LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR, Brisbane is renowned for its beautiful subtropical climate, however this Chamber is also aware that this climate means that on occasion our city will experience severe weather events. With the storm event of

November 2014 and the heavy rain events of February and May of this year still fresh in the minds of residents, can you please update this Chamber on how

Council is preparing for the upcoming summer storm season?

LORD MAYOR.

Well thanks very much, Madam Chairman. I thank Councillor WINES for the question. Well, Madam Chairman, it is that time of year again. Whilst it is true that we have been inflicted by storms most recently, this city is also one which can be prone to that of bushfires. Madam Chairman, the warning is now out, because as far as the summer storm season goes, yes, it will commence pretty soon, but also, Madam Chairman, we have to be forever vigilant in terms of the potential bushfires. We've had some dry weather, we know that bushfires can commence from as early as August. To that extent, we have been out there,

Madam Chairman, over the last couple of weeks doing extensive burns, places like McDowall and Burbank, Mount Coot-tha, Chandler, Kuraby and

Seven Hills, just to mention a few.


Chairman:

Councillor DICK:

- 7 -

They've been done at an unusual time. Generally during this period, we can't undertake that back-burning, Madam Chairman, but we have been able to because the weather conditions have been somewhat unusual. The westerly winds that we often experience with the Ekka have not been here. So the conditions have been right and we've been able to get out there and do more. We invest $4 million every year, Madam Chairman, in terms of back burning in this city.

But storms are also very, very critical and we all know what we've experienced over the last couple of years in particular around storm events. So today,

Madam Chairman, I invited people again to sign up to the Early Warning Alert

Service. I was able to join with you out at Forest Lake this morning to heed that warning, together with the SES, Madam Chairman, to say to people, it's a free service, there's 109,000 people signed up to that service now. That's up from about 60,000 two years ago, but there are obviously tens of thousands of people in this city who could sign up and ought to sign up to get those early warning alerts.

All Councillors might like to note that we are going to be having some free green waste weekends coming over the coming period of time. They will be on the weekends of 26 and 27 September, 10 and 11 October and 24 and

25 October. This will be an opportunity for residents to clean up their green waste around their properties, to prepare for the summer storm season, trim back those trees, Madam Chairman. The waste sites at the four transfer stations around our city will provide a free green waste opportunity over those weekends. So I would just encourage all Councillors to get out there and promote that with your residents.

Madam Chairman, the other thing I wanted to highlight is that Council now has three instructional videos available on our website. These instructional videos cover things like sand-bagging, preparing an emergency kit and what you should have in that kit, and also just generally preparing your home; securing loose items, cleaning gutters, doing those things that you need to do, trimming of trees that I mentioned earlier.

Those videos are also now subtitled in Korean, Arabic, Chinese and Vietnamese to ensure that as broad a population base as possible can get that message and can understand that messages that we are putting out. It's all about safety of person and safety of property. Madam Chairman, this Council every year spends around $30 million on cleaning and upgrading the stormwater drainage system.

We spend about $14 million on tree trimming. As far as fire preparedness goes, as I mentioned earlier, we spend around $4 million a year.

Importantly next month we'll see the opening of the Richlands SES depot, a new depot, Madam Chairman, which will again enhance the capability of the SES. I today want to again congratulate them and thank the volunteers of SES for all that they do. They are always there in times of our need, no matter what the weather conditions, they're out there helping to get our residents recovered, at least sustained if they have roof damage and the like, making sure that they undertake those things that are necessary.

Madam Chairman, last year alone-I talked about tree trimming and our part in that. Last year alone, we trimmed some 53,900 trees, both in terms of our streets and in our parklands. We will continue to remain committed to doing what is necessary with a proactive program, Madam Chairman, quarterly around this city.

Further questions?

Councillor DICK.

Question 2

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is to the LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR, as you are aware, Brisbane residents are forming the view that this Council is locking them out of having a say on property development matters.



Councillor DICK:


Councillor DICK:

- 8 -

That the Council is increasingly ignoring its own city plan.

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR, can you give an assurance that your Administration is not giving advice to property developers on how to sneakily get around public notification requirements for development applications and then telling them that once their application is approved, to undertake a self-assessment approval to get exactly what they wanted in the first place without having to notify local residents.

LORD MAYOR.

Well, Madam Chairman, I do refute that. I do refute that. Can I just say also that there is no application, no application that officers of this Council approve unless it complies with City Plan. Madam Chairman—

Order.

Well they laugh, they laugh. If they laugh, Madam Chairman, it just shows that they do not understand City Plan, number 1, and it also identifies the fact that they ignore that City Plan is also based on the Sustainable Planning Act, which is the prime act which covers all local authorities in this state. So,

Madam Chairman, the simple fact is that the law is the law and the development assessment officers undertake the assessment, Madam Chairman, in all cases in this city.

So in terms of advice, Councillor DICK, I just say to you this; only advice that I give is to follow the law. As you know, applicants can put in anything they like in this city and they are—

Well don't go, mm. Don't go, mm, because the law requires us to take every application that is put in in this city. The State Government Act requires us to accept every application in this city, no matter what it contains—

No matter what it-I don't know why they're interjecting. This is not a question of debate, this is a question of absolute fact under the law. So they can go, mm, mm, aah, and all of this, Madam Chairman, they know it, they're just trying to create something out of it. Because they've got nothing else to say about

Brisbane. That's why they're going down this track.

So, Madam Chairman, the fact remains that every application, regardless of what form it takes, has to be accepted by this Council and then it has to be assessed under the City Plan and under the Sustainable Planning Act. Within that framework, there's the other overarching document which is the

South East Queensland Regional Plan, Madam Chairman, which sets out the parameters. I've read sections of that plan previously in this place about-which outlines its strength in terms of the whole planning assessment process.

So, Councillor DICK, that's the reality. That is the answer to your question. It is not up to me or anybody else to determine what people put in. People can put in what they like, it's a free country. But once it's in, we then through the officers of this Council, have to undertake the assessment in terms of the law. No application-I'll say that again, no application gets approved unless it complies with the City Plan. That's the reality.

Not true. Not true says the interjector. Well I'd like you to give me an instance where it doesn't comply with the City Plan.


LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

Chairman:

Councillor McKENZIE:

Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

- 9 -

Well you go for your life, because, Madam Chairman, I'm going to repeat that again. Nothing, no application, is approved by officers of this Council unless it complies with the City Plan. The provisions of the City Plan have to comply with the provisions of the Sustainable Planning Act. The provisions of the

Sustainable Planning Act say very clearly that the City Plan has to provide for a performance-based criteria within its plan. State government law, not ours.

State government law, not ours.

Order.

I don't care how much you interject, those statements I have made will not change because, Madam Chairman, that is the fact of the matter. That is the fact of the matter. It's not only Brisbane, it's every local authority in this state that has to comply with that act, the SPA, the Sustainable Planning Act.

So Councillor—

Councillor ABRAHAMS, stop interjecting.

Keep interjecting if you will, but you tell me anything in that statement that is wrong. None of it is, it's all absolutely fact.

Further questions?

Councillor McKENZIE.

Question 3

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, my question is to the

DEPUTY MAYOR and Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee

Councillor SCHRINNER. Councillor SCHRINNER, I understand Council is currently undertaking a major consultation program on the Wynnum Road stage

1 upgrade. Can you please update the Chamber on this project?

DEPUTY MAYOR.

Thank you, Councillor McKENZIE. I know that you, like many Councillors in this Chamber, are interested in this important project for the city. I was disappointed to hear one particular Councillor sniggering when this question was asked, sniggering.


DEPUTY MAYOR: That particular Councillor has said for many years that she's a big supporter of this particular project. In the early days when we were talking about it and it became clear that, for example, difficult decisions needed to be made about things like property resumptions, that Councillor, who was

Councillor SUTTON, stood up in this place and said, we support this project, I support this project, I back you Councillor SCHRINNER 100 per cent on this project, let's get on with it.


DEPUTY MAYOR:


Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

She said it numerous times in this Chamber.

Councillor SUTTON, stop interjecting.

Acting in good faith, we've been progressing on this project. The project has always been a project to add extra lanes to Lytton Road and those extra lanes were going to be for general traffic. That was always the project, right from the beginning. We saw, though, this year, mid-year, in fact on 2 June,

Councillor SUTTON got up in this place and asked a question to the

LORD MAYOR. She said, buses travelling from Bulimba to the city are taking far too long and she said, LORD MAYOR, doesn't this demonstrate why it's important to install bus priority lanes in peak hour as part of the Lytton Road,

Wynnum Road upgrade? Isn't it time you committed to doing just that?



DEPUTY MAYOR:

- 10 -

She said, put dedicated bus lanes on the Wynnum Road upgrade. This is her quote in this Chamber.

Then she had a go at me as well, in the same meeting. She said, the only solution-and I repeat-the only solution, is for Councillor SCHRINNER to take his newfound love of public transport and apply it to the Wynnum Road upgrade. Put your money where your mouth is and actually invest in public transport infrastructure on the Wynnum Road corridor.

So this is obviously a big change in Councillor SUTTON's position. Bearing that in mind, we decided we'd do the right thing by the community and ask residents what they thought. There's obviously debates that we can have in this place but in the end, this is an upgrade for the residents of the Wynnum Road corridor and the eastern suburbs and we thought it was appropriate to ask them.

So we've sent out a survey and a letter from the LORD MAYOR to around

40,000 households along that corridor to ask them what they think. Should the upgrade be for all traffic, to general traffic lanes, or should it be bus-only lanes in peak times? That's a fair and reasonable question given why

Councillor SUTTON has asked. Much to my surprise, I read in the

South-East Advertiser , dated 12 August, about this issue.

Councillor SUTTON said the following thing. The final design needs to ensure there are travel time savings for all road users, general traffic and buses. Council has one chance to get this right and needs to deliver for all modes of transport.


Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:


DEPUTY MAYOR:


Chairman:

Councillor DICK:

Order.

So we've had one backflip for bus lanes and now another backflip against bus lanes. She's saying all modes of transport, that includes cars and buses.

Order. Just a moment please, DEPUTY MAYOR. Councillor SUTTON, and

Councillor JOHNSTON, if you continue to interject and create disorder in this

Chamber, you will be warned. DEPUTY MAYOR.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. There's a technical term for this type of behaviour, it's called weaselling. It is called weaselling. To weasel out of something is to back out of a situation in a sneaky or cowardly manner. Does that remind you of anyone? The reality is, Councillor SUTTON is chopping and changing on this, she's playing the residents of her area for fools, says one thing in this place, says another thing to the media, says another thing to residents.

The fact is, we have now gone out in good faith to residents to consult them on this issue and lo and behold, straight away she backflips. We're doing it because of you. We're asking the question because of you. Now, are you saying that we have wasted ratepayers' money on consultation because you've now changed your mind? Shame on you, Councillor SUTTON, shame on you.

The reality is, we want residents to have their say. It's quite clear we can't trust anything Councillor SUTTON says, so the residents need to have their say. I can guarantee to the residents that whatever they want on this upgrade, we will listen and we will implement.

Further questions—Councillor ABRAHAMS, please remain silent.

Councillor DICK.

Question 4

Well done, Shayne. Madam Chair, my question is to the LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR, a development application file shows that your officers consented to a property developer who wanted to put a cafe in a residential building. They advised how to do it without the normal impact assessable


- 11 - development application process which would have required public notification and appeal rights for neighbours. In particular, your Council advised the developer of a strategy to avoid public advertising through, and I quote, remove all reference to a cafe and identify the space as part of the residential premises, ensure every level is identified as a residential floor, after Council approves the development, convert the space to a cafe through their own self-assessment process.


Councillor DICK:

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:

LORD MAYOR, isn't this process that your administration is sneakily locking out residents out of development assessment processes and taking away their appeal rights?

LORD MAYOR.

Madam Chairman, I thank Councillor DICK for the question. I listened very carefully to his question. He made reference to council officers in this question, we need to be very clear here. His reference was directly in relation to Council officers. I'd just say this, Councillor DICK. If you have concerns about the actions of officers, this is a matter—

No, Councillor SUTTON, I listened very carefully to the question, I suggest you also listen to the answer. If Councillor DICK or any Councillor has any concerns at any time about the actions of officers, they need to take those matters up directly, either with the divisional manager or indeed-or indeed with the Chairman or myself.


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


LORD MAYOR:

Order.

Yes, in a grandstanding way in question time.


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


That's fine, that's fine. I'm not denying that you have an opportunity to do it here. But isn't it politically sinister to know, Madam Chairman, that this is the only issue they're interested in and it's one of negative nature, not one that was going to make a positive difference to the people of this city. I'd just say to them, if you've got an issue—

Just a moment, please, LORD MAYOR. Councillor JOHNSTON, you have already been cautioned. I hereby warn you that if you continue to interject and cause disorder in this Chamber, you may be suspended from the services of the

Council for a period of up to eight days. If you are suspended from the services of Chamber, that will include the Chamber, the ante-Chamber and all meeting places. LORD MAYOR, please continue.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, I will also say this, that if any

Councillor, if any residents believes that there is inappropriate action by a council officer at any time then there is an appropriate means by which that must be dealt. If they believe that the action is outside of the legal framework, if they believe that it has been inappropriate then there are two means by which it needs to be dealt.

It needs to be dealt with either though the CCC, Madam Chairman, which is why it is there, or it needs to be dealt with and raised with the CEO so that it can be actioned either through the ethical unit or indeed through the CCC. It's very simple. There's no half-way house with this. So, Madam Chairman, that is what

I would say to Councillor DICK and to all Councillors in this place if you believe inappropriate actions are occurring.

But I would also say this. I would also say this; do it straight away and don't wait till question time.


Chairman:

Councillor HUANG:

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

- 12 -

Further questions?

Councillor HUANG.

Question 5

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is to the Chairman of Public and Active

Transport Committee, Councillor MATIC. Councillor MATIC, I understand that last week stage 4 of the Bicentennial bikeway upgrade was formally opened to the public. Can you please detail for the Chamber what this upgrade entailed and explain how this improvement will benefit cyclists and pedestrians in Brisbane?

Councillor MATIC.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I thank Councillor HUANG for the question and the opportunity to brief the Chamber on this significant milestone in the construction process that is the Bicentennial bikeway, Madam Chairman.

Madam Chairman, the bikeway itself is a clear indication of this Council's strong commitment to public transport throughout our city. It's an example of our strong commitment to cycling across our city. Providing those opportunities for Brisbane residents to be able to get out there, to be active, to help reduce traffic congestion, to make a cleaner and greener city.

Our bikeway, Madam Chairman, the work that we've done in that bikeway, represents this Council and this city proudly across our entire country. Because it is without a doubt one of the most significant and impressive pieces of public infrastructure and bikeway network anywhere to be seen within Australia and I would say also the world.

Madam Chairman, as the LORD MAYOR and I were there last week to launch this project, we were approached by a number of cyclists and pedestrians so impressed by the project themselves, they came up and thanked us for the work that Council has done in this last stage improvement. This stage 4 improvement,

Madam Chairman, from Lance Street to the Regatta terminal provides that final connectivity for all of those uses. It provides the final stage of that separation between cyclists and pedestrians along the bikeway. It has been embraced wholeheartedly by the community as a whole within the western suburbs.

We can see through those 6,500 users that as when you make and improve and upgrade cycling infrastructure and pedestrian infrastructure, Madam Chairman, people will continue to use it more and more. We've seen the growth, the steady growth of the bikeway patronage year after year as we continue to upgrade and upgrade and upgrade.

Now the Bicentennial bikeway has a proud history, Madam Chairman, in its growth. Starting in 2009, we've seen the stages from 1 through 4 continue to evolve from 2009 till last week. We've seen those sections from Cribb Street to

Park Road, from Land Parade to Lance Street, from Park Road to Lang Parade and from Lance Street up to the Regatta. We've seen in previous stages too,

Madam Chairman, the work that was undertaken through North Quay, right up to QUT.

So by being able to provide that 2.7 kilometres of separated bikeway, we now have a very clear connection that will take cyclists and pedestrians from

Toowong all the way through to New Farm, along River Walk as well. That's a significant achievement and investment by Council, but also, Madam Chairman, by the State Government. I really want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the State Government and their contribution to the project.

We have been partners in this process all the way through, working together on this significant project. Now, Madam Chairman, as part of these improvements, we will see several amenity improvements as well along the bikeway. We've seen there are stopping points for people to be able to stop and take a break as they're walking, there are drinking fountains along the way, but importantly also in this stretch of the bikeway it has a significant historical value. The old

Toowong Rowing Club used to be located there up until the 1974 flood when it was literally washed away and had to be relocated.


Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Chairman:

Councillor DICK:


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

LORD MAYOR.

Well, Madam Chairman, I thank Councillor DICK for his question and I thank him for at least clarifying the site that he was talking about in relation to discussions that officers have had with this particular applicant.

Madam Chairman, what I would say to you, Councillor DICK, is that we, as an organisation, should not be proactive telling people how they might go about lodging their applications.


LORD MAYOR:

- 13 -

We've seen the traditional baths that used to be there at the turn of century and afterwards. We've seen significant history around the Regatta Hotel. I'm pleased to say that as the officers have undertaken this work of improvement, they've also been able to reflect the local history through this. So that as people are cycling or walking, they can take the opportunity to really read and embrace the history of this important precinct.

I want to also acknowledge and thank the Toowong and District Historical

Society for working with officers and providing that vital information and being able to provide the important photos also along that particular section.

So, Madam Chairman, as you see quite clearly through this record investment in this project, the LORD MAYOR's $120 million which is a record investment of money within bikeway and pedestrian infrastructure in this Council,

Madam Chairman, you can see real change and real difference. You can see,

Madam Chairman, that by making sure that we're investing that record amount of money, we've seen cycling patronage increase year upon year. We've seen the number of cyclists, both male and importantly also, Madam Chairman, the number of female cyclists also increase year upon year through the investment in this.

Because as we provide improvements to amenity, but also importantly improvements to safety, we get more and more cyclists out there. We get more and more people wanting to take the opportunity to cycle. Because Brisbane is undergoing, Madam Chairman, through this investment, an ever-increasing number of people who are taking the opportunity to cycle not only socially, not only for their health, but in their day-to-day activities, in making sure that they are using this in their daily commute.

That's an important part of the benefit that we're seeing through this process. So,

Madam Chairman, this Council—

Councillor MATIC, your time has expired.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Further questions?

Councillor DICK.

Question 6

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is to the LORD MAYOR.

LORD MAYOR, I refer you to the Town Planning Report for 25 Hope Street,

South Brisbane, development application number A004176220, for the benefit of the divisional manager and the CEO who's listening to this, it contains details of a meeting held between your administration and the developer where it was agreed on how to get around the need for the application to be impact assessable, and therefore not needing to be advertised.

LORD MAYOR, will you today give a direction to your administration that this practice of advising developers on how to bend the rules for property development applications must immediately stop?

But that said, can I also say that as an organisation, we can't prevent-and I would say none of us in this Chamber can prevent, obviously, people asking us



LORD MAYOR:


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

Chairman:

Councillor HOWARD:

Chairman:

Councillor COOPER:

- 14 - questions either. People are entitled to ask us questions no matter how hard those questions might be.

Well no, not in question time and not when I go out to shopping centres every two weeks right across this city where people can come up and ask me anything they want at any time. So, Madam Chairman, I just say to you,

Councillor DICK, that if an officer or a Councillor of this place receives a question from people, we are duty bound to give an answer and an honest answer in relation to those questions.

Just a moment please, LORD MAYOR. Councillor SUTTON, I hereby warn you that if you continue to interject and create disorder in this Chamber, you may be suspended from the service of Council for a period of up to eight days. If you are suspended from the service of the Council for a period of eight days, that will include the Chamber, the ante-Chamber and all meeting places.

LORD MAYOR.

Madam Chairman, just while Councillor SUTTON thinks it's okay for her to wander around on whether she supports bus lanes or not in Wynnum Road,

Madam Chairman, it doesn't change the fact that we are duty bound when we sign the pledge as Councillors of this place, Madam Chairman, we are duty bound to provide to our ratepayers, to our constituents and indeed to anybody that has a participation in this city, be it through business or any other form, to provide an honest answer to the best of our ability and knowledge,

Madam Chairman, in response to those questions.

So again, Councillor DICK is asking me a question here relating to a discussion between officers of this Council and an applicant. I was not privy to that meeting, not privy to those discussions and therefore, Madam Chairman, I do not here, today have all of the details surrounding that. I would just simply say that it would not be in our discourse to proactively suggest how people might get around certain things, Madam Chairman.

The law is the law in relation to what people can and can't do. But we can never prevent people asking questions in relation to things. No matter what they are and no matter how hard they are. So, Madam Chairman, I've been around here long enough to have heard all sorts of strange questions, all sorts of uncomfortable questions sometimes, and that's fine. We live in a vibrant democracy and long may it be.

But, so Councillor DICK, I thank you for advising of the address in this particular case and I will undertake my own enquiries in relation to that.

Because I do not believe-I say it again-I do not believe it is appropriate for us to be offering proactively suggestions around those things. If that is the case, I will ask that it cease forthwith.

Further questions?

Councillor HOWARD.

Question 7

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, my question is to the

Chairman of the Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment

Committee, Councillor COOPER. Councillor, a year on from the adoption of the

Brisbane City Plan, which was the result of the single largest planning review undertaken in over a decade, can you please update this Chamber on the program of consultation activities that council is undertaking to ensure that residents have an opportunity to be informed about planning in our city?

Councillor COOPER.

Thank you very much, Madam Chairman and I thank Councillor HOWARD for the question. Certainly I think that there has been a huge amount of work that

Council has undertaken as part of the single largest planning review undertaken


Chairman:

- 15 - in this city in over a decade. So during that process of the review, Council went through extensive consultation with the community. We held over 40 forums,

86 information kiosks, we conducted 34 talk to a planner sessions.

So we had a huge range of opportunities for people to be involved to talk to

Council about how we might go forward to accommodate the growth that we have been set, that target that we have been given by the State Government to accommodate 156,000 new homes over the next 20 years. We also went out bearing in mind that some people wanted to see actual hard copies of information rather than have that online presence, which we have certainly taken advantage of on our consultation process.

We had hard copy consultation fact sheets distributed to each and every ward office. I would hope that all Councillors provided information to their residents as a consequence of all of that information. So the draft plan was viewed more than 50,000 times and over 20,000 factsheets were downloaded. So you could not, in any way, shape or form say that people weren't aware of what was proposed and they had every opportunity to engage with us as part of that process.

In fact, all of those factsheets are still available online. Anyone can view those and I would suggest that there are some people on the other side of the Chamber that perhaps should view them, should review them certainly because they do not seem to be at all aware of how planning operates. I think that that is very, very evident in this Chamber on a regular basis.

We've had over 3000 community members who attended the information events.

We received over 2700 submissions. Of course, we wanted to make sure that we went absolutely above and beyond the consultation required under the

State Government Sustainable Planning Act and the LORD MAYOR doubled the consultation period that we undertook as part of his commitment to the people of Brisbane.

So of course, we have now got City Plan in place. But we want to ensure that we continue to work with the community and we want to ensure that they have continued access to information in regard to City Plan. That is why last year we held a further 12 talk to a planner sessions and we had excellent attendance to those sessions. We certainly this year will be continuing to undertake talk to a planner sessions.

We had one at Mount Gravatt, so at the Mount Gravatt Bowls Club, we had sessions; we normally have one in the afternoon and one in the evening to accommodate people's busy schedules. We had over 50 RSVPs for the afternoon session and 36 for the evening session, however, we had over 140 people who attended the day, including the local Councillors.

We had a talk to a planner session on 23 July right here in City Hall in the

Sherwood Room, again in the afternoon and in the evening. Between these two sessions, we had over 850 people come along to find out more about planning for our city's future. So just as Councillor ABRAHAMS said, these sessions are excellent-and I'm quoting from Councillor ABRAHAMS-these sessions are excellent if you have a specific question to be answered.

So it's great to see-it is great to see how many members of our community are interested and want to find out more. They come along and they can get their specific question answered. We also send out e-bursts, so electronically we communicate with residents, over 3000 residents are on our database, community groups and industry professionals. We also provide information through the Business in Brisbane newsletter and we advertise in local newspapers and of course in rates notices.

So in fact, what we do as part of our particular process now, every single ratepayer in this city gets invited to a talk to the planner session. We think this is a great outcome and people have absolutely embraced the opportunity. Thank you.

Further questions?


Councillor JOHNSTON:

- 16 -

Councillor JOHNSTON.

Question 8

Yes, my question is to the LORD MAYOR. For two years, Council has been considering a proposal for a 13 storey, now eight storey, residential high rise building at 167 Hyde Road, Yeronga. This site is zoned industrial, floods and is located immediately adjacent to a low-density residential area. Hundreds of residents and I have objected and the proposal does not meet the relevant

City Plan codes. Yet Council has failed to refuse this non-compliant proposal.



Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:


Chairman:


Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

Chairman:

Will you commit to bringing the proposal to full Council for decision, and in my view refusal, or do you and this LNP team support this clearly non-compliant

DA?

LORD MAYOR.

Well, Madam Chairman, it's interesting to hear again the question from

Councillor JOHNSTON. If you remember what she said right at the start of the question, she said, that this application which was 13 storeys and now eight storeys, Madam Chairman, and she went on then to give a description of some of the issues as she saw it.

Now, can I just say, Madam Chairman, without knowing again all of the details of 167 Hyde Road, but what I'm hearing from the Councillor is that it's still under assessment. It's still under assessment. It sounds like it's been under assessment for a fair period of time, for two years. Two years, okay? So one can hardly accuse us of rushing things through. Two years it's been in this place.

So clearly, if something's been in this place for two years, there are issues. So,

Madam Chairman, the officers of this Council, if they have had this application in the system for that period of time, clearly there are issues that have to be addressed. There are issues that are current in relation to that application. So,

Madam Chairman, I'm not going to have determinations made through question time as to whether things come to this Chamber or not. There is a process in relation to determining how applications are assessed and determined.

But I would just say to you, to give you some assurance,

Councillor JOHNSTON, that if it's been around for two years, there are clearly issues associated with it that are absorbing a fair bit of officers' time in relation to those issues. So again, it's questions without notice, I don't have the details around that application to be able to give an absolute—

Point of order, Madam Chairman.

Point of order against you, LORD MAYOR. Councillor JOHNSTON.

Madam Chairman, I'm seeking an answer to the question of whether the

LORD MAYOR will commit to bringing the proposal to full Council for decision or does he support the application? And I would like to know if the

LORD MAYOR will bring it up for debate in this Chamber as we do with other city-wide significant development applications.

Councillor JOHNSTON, you have asked your question, the LORD MAYOR has five minutes to provide a full answer. I believe he has already addressed that part of your question. LORD MAYOR, please continue.

Yeah, thanks very much, Madam Chairman. Well, Madam Chairman, that is the case, I have certainly addressed that aspect of it and we're not going to be making decisions on the run in question time around those sorts of issues. So I have addressed the Councillor's question.

Further questions?

Councillor MURPHY.


Councillor MURPHY:

Chairman:


- 17 -

Question 9

Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, my question is to the Chairman of the Finance, Economic Development and Administration

Committee, Councillor SIMMONDS. Councillor SIMMONDS, IT firm Cisco released a report last week titled South East Queensland, a smart region. The report outlines the potential of our region to become a world leader in digital technology. Can you please advise the Chamber of the detail of this report and how it will benefit Brisbane residents?

Councillor SIMMONDS.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chairman, and thank you to

Councillor MURPHY for the question. Because as he's aware, two of the key priorities that came out of the Vision 2022 document that was recently conducted by the LORD MAYOR's Economic Development Steering

Committee was that Brisbane aimed to be a smart digital city and also that we promote the South East Queensland region as a whole through a collaborative effort.

So this report speaks to both of those very important action items. We're of course part of a region, as Councillors know, that covers some 35,000 square kilometres and includes the local government areas of Brisbane, Gold Coast,

Ipswich, Logan, Lockyer Valley, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Scenic Rim,

Somerset, Sunshine Coast, Noosa and Toowoomba. More importantly, the region is home to one in seven Australians who contribute more than

$182 billion to the Australian economy every year. So we have a significant amount of collective power.

The international IT consulting firm then, so Cisco, it's no surprise that they've come along and had a look at our region and identified our region and specifically Brisbane as a city and a candidate to be part of the world's first smart region. This isn't just a highlight for the tech savvy of those amongst us, but it actually demonstrates, this report, that if we work together as a region with local governments, we could attract some 30,000 new jobs and $10 billion in new funding to our local economy through building digital infrastructure.

The report surveyed more than 1000 people in South East Queensland and importantly demonstrated a thirst among local residents of our local government areas to participate in this smart city kind of outcome. Particularly to use it to look at ways that we can improve the lifestyle, improve the service that we offer to residents and also reduce the cost so that we can then put those cost savings back into front-of-house projects like our parks and other activities.

So indeed, this hasn't come as much of a surprise to this Administration because we are already a couple of steps down the path to embracing these smart city initiatives and the smart city agenda. In fact, this was recognised by the

Cisco Director, Gordon Feller when he spoke about the report just yesterday, when he said that Brisbane is already-and I quote, Brisbane is already thinking ahead of the game.

Brisbane isn't just a vibrant city with an engaged population, it is a city that is really trying to be innovative. A fantastic quote there from somebody whose job it is to travel around internationally to cities and look at those that are achieving good results. We are, we're already achieving things through our open data portal, for example, where Council's making available datasets containing a range of information from bikeway locations, CityCat timetables, popular books, to planning submissions and approved tenders, all being made available via open data.

All the data is released in a format that allows anybody, whoever they are, to use it free of charge, to distribute it, to remix it, to build upon it, to—for whatever purpose they would like. One of our more successful data streams, I have to say, of the last few months is the release of the SCATS traffic data in real time, which updates three gigabytes worth of data every 30 seconds. That really is a tech heads' dream that particular one.


- 18 -

We're also supporting of course, through that open data initiative, our GovHack awards as well and giving away to Brisbane residents prizes for the best use of those particular open data resources. In addition, through this most recent budget, the 2015-16 budget, the LORD MAYOR recently handed down, we are expanding our Wi-Fi network to the totality of the CBD peninsula, following the success of our rollout within the Queens Street Mall and South Bank which is now our most popular Wi-Fi spot amongst, of course, our 22 parks and libraries which also have free Wi-Fi.

Brisbane Marketing, in addition, is providing funding, grant funding,

$50,000 every year to budding entrepreneurs through the LORD MAYOR's

Budding Entrepreneurs program. This is providing funding to up and coming digital entrepreneurs to help them take up they start up technology, to take their professional skills in particular to the next level and get the training and support that they need to bring their ideas to fruition and of course create economic growth in our city and to continue to employ more Brisbane residents.

In addition to this, we also have our new innovative proposals policy. Where we're looking at innovative proposals, anyone can pitch and innovative proposal to Council now, and it allows them to come in and sit down with the officers and talk through how those innovative proposals and that unique IP might be of benefit to Brisbane residents and to ratepayers either through improving the customer—

Councillor SIMMONDS, your time has expired.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Chairman:


Chairman: That also ends question time.

CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS:

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE

The Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR (Councillor Graham QUIRK), Chairman of the Establishment and

Coordination Committee, moved, seconded by the DEPUTY MAYOR (Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER), that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 10 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman:

LORD MAYOR:

LORD MAYOR.

Yes, thanks very much, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, just before coming to the items on the report, I wanted to comment on a number of matters.

Firstly, I noted last week, Madam Chairman, there was an exercise on

ABC Radio which was involving Councillor ADAMS, on the breakfast program, where it was a case of people's choice in terms of LED lights on the

Story Bridge. It was amazing just to see the response that drew.

There's no doubt that the 450 LED lights on our Story Bridge have given new interest in that wonderful piece of infrastructure that has served our city so well for so long. Madam Chairman, of course, whilst purple became the colour on that occasion in line with the colours of the Ekka, there are many, many different colours that are provided in terms of that Story Bridge light up. Many wonderful organisations in this city make good use of that, be it Red Cross, be it

Brisbane Festival, be it Daniel Morcombe Foundation and a whole range of others, Madam Chairman, where the bridge becomes a focal point for themes and messages, important messages in this city.

Madam Chairman, I wanted to also advise the Chamber that last Thursday I went to Canberra as part of a round table on international education. There is a draft national strategy that has been established around international education.

That draft strategy, Madam Chairman, proposes to see a doubling of international education in this nation over the next 10 years. The reason for that quite simply is because of the economic spin-offs that it presents.



LORD MAYOR:

Councillor interjecting.

LORD MAYOR:

- 19 -

I've often talked in this place about the 20,000 full-time jobs that part of economic activity provides to our city. Importantly, there's a lot of discussion around the importance of the experience in Australia for those international students, particularly around interactions with culture. Not just about education but the importance of appropriate accommodation, the whole experience.

So, Madam Chairman, we will continue to do the things that we need to do at this city level of engagement and to make sure that we have a good experience for our international students. I might say also that the incentive that I created earlier this year in February has seen around 16 new applications received. We are seeing some transitioning from existing commercial buildings to student accommodation. Boeing House being one example of that. So,

Madam Chairman, that's something we'll continue to foster.

One of the big investments in this city right now, an $800 million investment, is from the father of an international student in our city. That's the

Supreme District Court site building where there will be a W hotel, 30-storey commercial building and 90-storey residential tower.

Madam Chairman, the other issues I wanted to raise; the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Pacific, something which we, well, I think, stand as one in this

Chamber and commemorate an important day in history. A sad day in the sense that so many were killed and maimed in that particular conflict,

Madam Chairman. There are never any winners in war. But nonetheless, it is important that we do acknowledge and commemorate that victory.

I had the opportunity this morning, Madam Chairman, as part of the

Queensland Seniors' Week, to join residents at the Sherwood RSL. This was one of what is about 10 concerts that we're holding this week to celebrate and to acknowledge the great contribution that our seniors have made in our city,

Madam Chairman. We also, last Sunday, saw the LORD MAYOR's

Seniors Cabaret Showcase undertaken at the auditorium downstairs here in

City Hall.

A packed house and people like Rhonda Burchmore were there together with other acts, other well-known acts and many of our seniors on stage presenting,

Madam Chairman, during the course of that. So a great celebration. Today also, of course, is Vietnam Veterans' Day. Also known, perhaps as coinciding at least, with Long Tan Day. Again, I noticed in the streets of our city, lunchtime today, some of those veterans marching. We again acknowledge them and we thank them.

We remember that it wasn't easy for our Vietnam veterans when they returned.

It is, I think, gratifying today that people, whether you agree or disagree with the decisions of government around the Vietnam War, it is important that we acknowledge those service people that served our nation. It's important that we, as a Chamber, again acknowledge them today.

Madam Chairman, Councillor MATIC mentioned the Bicentennial Bikeway earlier, I'm sure he did, but I just acknowledge again that that was a joint project with the State Government. In the end, I think we put $21 million into the State's

$17 million, thereabouts. But it's a great project and it’s again—well it's one where 6,500 utilise that corridor every day. So it's good to have that Stage 4 part of the project completed now and, as we know, we've got that bikeway link now all the way from St Lucia right through to Nudgee.

You missed your turn; you're just a flighty cyclist, Councillor ABRAHAMS. If you're going that fast now, how fast will you go in retirement? There'll be no stopping you. You won't see her for dust.

So, Madam Chairman, I think that was probably—that's it. The Ekka, I'll just mention the Ekka. Madam Chairman, a very important event on the calendar in

Brisbane. It was good to see they had a five per cent increase in their attendances this year. They had great weather for it certainly. So it's the second


Chairman:

Councillor DICK:

Councillors interjecting.

Councillor DICK:

- 20 - biggest festival we have in this State, second only to the Brisbane Festival. It's great that that institution continues to grow in strength.

Madam Chairman, the items before us today. Firstly, Item A relates to that of the Warehouse Cricket Association of Queensland. This item,

Madam Chairman, you will see there that they have tried to get a third oval established on that land at Seventh Brigade Park. Council, after significant consideration, made the determination that we would not support the establishment of that third oval. The loss of vegetation and also the additional parking provisions and the chewing up of green space that would have taken,

Madam Chairman, led to the determination not to support an additional oval there.

We acknowledge that that association has 5,000 members, coordinates

360 teams, but we also are aware that, of course, there are other grounds,

Gympie and Murphy Roads, at Marchant Park, Madam Chairman, provides some 10 turf wickets. So they provide for some 48 teams.

I'm moving onto Item B now. So, really combined around the same association.

So that being the case, Madam Chairman, we are very keen obviously to support the extension of their leases to provide another 10 years to the lease of what is a sizeable organisation and representing a lot of members in the great game of cricket.

Madam Chairman, Item C is the appointment of Jared Ryan Cassidy as a new

Councillor to this place. He, of course, replaces by way of appointment from the

Labor Party, that of Councillor Victoria Newton. We said goodbye to Victoria— no longer a Councillor—said goodbye to Mrs Newton last week. Sounds strange saying that, but in any event.

Item D, of course, provides for the membership of Committees for the incoming

Councillor. I note from that that Councillor CASSIDY will be a member of the

Lifestyle Committee. I think that's the only one, as I recall. No, he's also on the

Infrastructure Committee, so there we go. So we welcome the incoming

Councillor CASSIDY once this is approved to those particular Committees.

Further debate?

Councillor DICK.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise to speak briefly on all Items, A, B, C and D.

Labor Councillors will be supporting Items A and B which is the lease to

Warehouse Cricket Association at Seventh Brigade Park at 88 Delaware Street,

Chermside and also for Marchant Park, Gympie and Murphy Roads, Aspley.

Madam Chairman, I do want to also place on record my congratulations on

Items C and D to Councillor-elect Jared Ryan Cassidy as Councillor for

Deagon Ward.

As the LORD MAYOR indicated, Ms Victoria Newton, as she is now styled, as of 5pm yesterday, has resigned from this Council as close of business on

17 August and obviously under the provisions that we work under, Mr Cassidy will be sworn in tomorrow morning. I also want to thank the CEO and his office for the way that the appointment has been handled with a great deal of support and assistance to Ms Newton and also to Mr Cassidy.

Item D is the membership of Council's Standing Committees and the

LORD MAYOR is correct with Councillor-elect Cassidy going onto the

Brisbane Lifestyle Committee and the Infrastructure Committee. Which by my looking at it, probably may need some affirmative action issues there,

Councillor ABRAHAMS, because it is now an all-male review or set up for the

Infrastructure Committee. But we need to acknowledge that as a new Councillor coming in, they are important Committees to serve on. I know Mr Cassidy, being a long-term local of the Deagon Ward, growing up there, having strong community connections will play an important role in our team as the shadow spokesperson for Brisbane Lifestyle.


Chairman:

Councillor KING:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

Chairman:

Councillor KING:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

Chairman:

Councillor KING:

- 21 -

I certainly know I speak on behalf of all Labour Councillors, we really are looking forward to a young and energetic, dynamic person coming into this

Chamber to follow on from the big shoes of former Councillor Victoria Newton.

Further debate?

Councillor KING.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise to speak on Items A and B. I'm delighted that the previous Councillors for the area—previous Councillor Cashman and Goss are sitting up in the Chamber this afternoon. Because I know they supported both Seventh Brigade and Marchant Park and Warehouse Cricket through their lengthy careers in this place.

Madam Chair, Warehouse Cricket, as the LORD MAYOR said, was established in 1928 at Marchant Park. It has 10 cricket fields at Marchant Park and of course two at Seventh Brigade Park. The LORD MAYOR did mention about the proposal of a third field at Seventh Brigade and it is quite correct that we would have lost a significant amount of trees and vegetation and important animal habitat in that particular park and in that area.

Madam Chairman, I think Warehouse Cricket is the only association that plays both summer and winter cricket. I must say, I think winter cricket is the smarter option in the heat of our city in summer. But they do play a majority of the year with 360 teams that play on those fields. It would be remiss of me not to mention the hard work and dedication of Laurence Christie who has been with the association for many, many years.

He is now semi-retired, I think, from his full-time job and has dedicated himself to Marchant Park and Warehouse Cricket almost on a full-time basis. So I'd like to thank Laurence Christie and Damien Sharry for their dedication in this place.


Point of order against you, Councillor KING.

Will Councillor KING take a question?

Councillor KING, would you take a question?

Yes, DEPUTY MAYOR.

Is Councillor KING aware of any alternatives to leasing this site to Warehouse

Cricket?

Councillor KING.

Thank you, DEPUTY MAYOR for the question. I was absolutely horrified,

Madam Chairman, to find out—to be told about the announcement of the ALP's plan for Marchant Park at a business breakfast. Madam Chairman, they want to turn this beautiful open green space that was gifted to our city by

George Marchant into a park-and-ride car park. They want to take away those

10 beautiful fields of Marchant Park and turn them into a car park,

Madam Chairman. That was announced at a business breakfast by—

Order.

—the ALP candidate for Marchant Ward just prior to the last election. Which would have been a great shame to lose all that beautiful, vast, green, open space.

Chairman:

Councillor KING:


Councillor KING:

Chairman:


Madam Chairman, I again would like to thank this Council for extending the lease for another 10 years to Warehouse Cricket. They look after the fields beautifully and thank you very much.

Further debate?


Yes, Madam Chairman. Just briefly on Item D. I think it's quite timely that we have the membership of Council's Standing Committees in our papers today. I feel that perhaps Councillor de WIT did not get the opportunity to review them


Chairman:

Councillor ADAMS:

- 22 - before attending the Public and Active Transport Committee this morning. So I just thought I'd note them for the public record.

Councillor Peter MATIC, Chairman, Councillor Steven HUANG,

Deputy Chairman, Councillor Margaret de WIT, Councillor Andrew WINES,

Councillor Steve GRIFFITHS, Shadow Chairman; and

Councillor Nicole JOHNSTON. Now the last four people, that's

Councillor Margaret de WIT, Councillor WINES, Councillor GRIFFITHS and myself are all members of that Committee, Madam Chairman. Being members of that Committee, we all have equal rights to ask questions, Madam Chairman, in that Committee.

Madam Chairman, the person who actually answers the questions is

Councillor Peter MATIC. He is still the Chairman unless Councillor de WIT decided not to retire and has decided to throw her hat in the ring again to be

Chairman. But, Madam Chairman, I'm delighted that the minutes and the

Standing Committee before us today simply reflect the fact that

Councillor de WIT and I are both now members of a Committee with equal rights, which is a bit different to how Councillor de WIT saw it this morning.

Further debate?

Councillor ADAMS.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise also to speak on Item A and B today and about our community assets and our leasing that we are doing with

Warehouse Cricket. So we are working very hard in the Brisbane Lifestyle portfolio, we're committed to working with our communities through the leasing of our assets to make sure that we are catering for a range of sporting clubs, arts, cultural and not-for-profit organisations. This is a prime example of where we're working with some Council—and land that's been gifted to Council to use for sporting reasons and we have got a not-for-profit group here that are volunteers that are working hard to make sure that they can deliver a healthy and active lifestyle for those who choose to play cricket. As we mentioned in this place, we hope it's more and more; on the way that the Australian cricket team is going at the moment.

The thing to note with the Warehouse Cricket is that they did have the 10 year tenure before this and we are continuing with the 10 year tenure with the

Warehouse Cricket. As Councillor KING said, they are a very good local community sporting club that support the local community. It has taken us some time to work through a lot of issues that were brought up here today as well.

They do have over 5,000 members and they do organise up to 360 teams over a calendar year.

So Marchant Park and Delaware as well are very, very vital to

Warehouse Cricket to make sure that they can cater for those competitions. That reason they are also very well utilised as well. So we've been working very closely with them since their lease expired to make sure that they had the right configurations. We went through new surveys, we looked at opportunities that we could work through to make sure that they could maximise the space that they had on those two sites.

So I'm glad to see that we are working with these community groups. As the

LORD MAYOR mentioned, they did have a proposal where they submitted a development of a third field on Seventh Brigade Park which was in Item B as well, through the demands that are on these organisations which is why it took us some time to work through the lease negotiations with them. But after looking at it overall, it's a bit like our Jubilee Park last week; we need to look at what the impacts are on the amenity right around the area. It did require removing a few very important vegetation, Natural Assets Local Law trees, around that area as well and, of course, additional parking provision which also can be quite difficult if it takes away from our sporting fields, which we don't like to see as well.

So obviously it shows the utilisation of the fields by Warehouse Cricket but we got the balance with them on this new lease. They have worked very hard to


- 23 - develop two synthetic pitches between the two turf pitches. So they have actually looked at their configuration to make sure that they can enable their junior games to be played on the field without over-extending the other pitches that they've got as well. I think that is a very good example that a lot of clubs need to start thinking about; over-use and over-utilisation of their fields and how they can cater for that as well.

So we were very happy to be able to work with Warehouse Cricket to enable this 10 year lease on both of these sites. Considering that the resourcing and the property boundaries and everything that we worked through, it's a great outcome to see it getting signed today. I thank the leasing team for the work they've done, to the Warehouse Cricket for the work they've done with us and

Councillor KING for her support as local Councillor. Thank you.

Further debate?

LORD MAYOR?

Chairman:

Chairman: I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Establishment and

Coordination Committee was declared carried on the voices.

The report read as follows



ATTENDANCE:

The Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor (Councillor Graham Quirk) (Chairman); Deputy Mayor

(Councillor Adrian Schrinner) (Deputy Chairman); and Councillors Krista Adams, Matthew Bourke,

Amanda Cooper, Peter Matic, David McLachlan, and Julian Simmonds.

A LEASE TO WAREHOUSE CRICKET ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC.

FOR 7TH BRIGADE PARK, 88 DELAWARE STREET, CHERMSIDE

112/445/444/980

50/2015-16

The Divisional Manager, Brisbane Lifestyle Division, provided the information below. 1.

2. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has held a lease at 7th Brigade Park,

88 Delaware Street, Chermside, since Monday 1 July 2002. The organisation’s current lease over this site expired on Saturday 30 June 2012.

3. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. currently has over 5,000 members and coordinates up to 360 teams over a calendar year. The organisation is a direct affiliate of

Queensland Cricket Association Inc. and operates all competitions within the structure of that

State body.

4. The two cricket fields at 7th Brigade Park are essential to the operations of the

Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc.’s competitions, with other nearby venues leased by the organisation at capacity. The organisation has maximised utilisation of the fields through the development of two synthetic pitches between the two turf pitches, enabling junior games to be played on the field without over extending use of the turf pitches.

5. In 2014, Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. submitted a proposal for the development of a third field at 7th Brigade Park to meet the demands on the organisation.

Though the proposal was not supported on grounds of vegetation loss and need for additional parking provision, it highlights the high utilisation of the fields and growth of the organisation.


- 24 -

6. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has requested a new 10-year lease to enable it to undertake long-term planning for the ongoing development of the organisation.

7. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. meets Council’s criteria for letting community land and facilities and has demonstrated community benefit and capacity to manage the community facility for the term.

8. A copy of the proposed lease terms is available in Attachment B (submitted on file) and the lease plan at Attachment C (submitted on file).

9. The Divisional Manager recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.

10. RECOMMENDATION:

THAT COUNCIL RESOLVE AS PER THE DRAFT RESOLUTION AS SET OUT IN

ATTACHMENT A, hereunder.

Attachment A

Draft Resolution

DRAFT RESOLUTION TO ENTER INTO LEASE WITH WAREHOUSE CRICKET

ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC. FOR 7TH BRIGADE PARK, 88 DELAWARE

STREET, CHERMSIDE.

As:

(i) Council is the registered proprietor of land described as Lot 2 on SP270507,

Parish of Kedron, 7th Brigade Park, 88 Delaware Street, Chermside

(ii) Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has requested to be granted a lease over part of Lot 2 on SP270507 described as Lease X on SP259923,

Parish of Kedron, 7th Brigade Park, 88 Delaware Street, Chermside, then Council:

(i) Approves entry into a lease for 10 years with Warehouse Cricket Association

Queensland Inc. for part of Lot 2 on SP270507 described as Lease X

(Attachment C, submitted on file) on SP259923, Parish of Kedron,

7th Brigade Park, 88 Delaware Street, Chermside

(a) in accordance with the lease terms as set out in Attachment B, submitted on file

(b) otherwise on terms and conditions satisfactory to the Branch

Manager, Asset Management and the Chief Legal Counsel, Brisbane

City Legal Practice.

ADOPTED

B LEASE TO WAREHOUSE CRICKET ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC.

FOR MARCHANT PARK, GYMPIE AND MURPHY ROADS, ASPLEY

112/445/444/979

51/2015-16

11. The Divisional Manager, Brisbane Lifestyle Division, provided the information below.


- 25 -

12. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has been established at Marchant Park,

Gympie and Murphy Roads, Aspley since 1928. Incorporating a mix of established multiple-team and single-team cricket clubs, Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. administers competitions that provide opportunities for players of all ages and skill levels.

13. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. fixtures are played on the 10 turf wickets at

Marchant Park, 48 weekends of the year. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. currently has more than 5,000 members and organises up to 360 teams over a calendar year.

The Marchant Park grounds are integral to the operation of Warehouse Cricket Association

Queensland Inc.’s competitions and are well utilised. Warehouse Cricket Association

Queensland Inc.’s current lease expired on 30 June 2012.

14. As part of the lease negotiations, a new survey of the lease area was undertaken to better delineate the area used by Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. This survey was completed in October 2014.

15. Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has requested a new 10-year lease to enable the organisation to undertake long-term planning for the ongoing development of the organisation.

16.

Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. meets Council’s criteria for letting community land and facilities and has demonstrated community benefit and capacity to manage the community facility for the term.

17. A copy of the proposed lease terms is available in Attachment B (submitted on file) and the lease plan at Attachment C (submitted on file).





Attachment A


DRAFT RESOLUTION TO ENTER INTO LEASE WITH WAREHOUSE CRICKET

ASSOCIATION QUEENSLAND INC. FOR MARCHANT PARK, GYMPIE AND

MURPHY ROADS, ASPLEY

As:

(i) Council is the registered proprietor of land described as Lot 1 on RP165973,

Parish of Kedron, Marchant Park, Gympie and Murphy Roads, Aspley

(ii) Warehouse Cricket Association Queensland Inc. has requested to be granted a lease over part of Lot 1 on RP165973 described as Leases B and C on

SP259853, Parish of Kedron, Marchant Park, Gympie Road and

Murphy Roads, Aspley, then Council:

(i) Approves entry into a lease for 10 years with Warehouse Cricket Association

Queensland Inc. for part of Lot 1 on RP165973 described as Leases B and C


- 26 -

(Attachment C, submitted on file) on SP259853, Parish of Kedron,

Marchant Park, Gympie and Murphy Roads, Aspley:

(a) in accordance with the lease terms as set out in Attachment B, submitted on file

(b) otherwise on terms and conditions satisfactory to the Branch

Manager, Asset Management and the Chief Legal Counsel, Brisbane

City Legal Practice.

ADOPTED

C APPOINTMENT OF JARED RYAN CASSIDY AS COUNCILLOR FOR

DEAGON WARD

137/225/37/4

52/2015-16

20. The Chief Executive Officer provided the information below.

21. Councillor Victoria Newton, Councillor for Deagon Ward, has tendered her resignation to the

Chief Executive Officer with effect from close of business on 17 August 2015.

22. As:

(a) this resignation takes effect during the final part of Council’s term (more than

36 months after the last quadrennial elections were held); and;

(b) Councillor Victoria Newton was elected as a nominee of the Australian Labor Party, then section 166(3) of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 requires Council to seek the nomination of a qualified nominee from the Australian Labor Party, and upon receipt of that nomination, formally appoint that nominee by way of Council Resolution.

23. Under section 166(4) of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 , the Chief Executive Officer wrote to the registered officer of the Australian Labor Party on 7 August 2015 requesting advice of the name and address of a qualified nominee to fill the vacant councillor position for

Deagon Ward.

24. By letter dated 7 August 2015 set out in Attachment B (submitted on file), the

Australian Labor Party advised of the nomination of Jared Ryan Cassidy to fill that vacancy.

25. Jared Ryan Cassidy has provided the Chief Executive Officer with a completed

Statutory Declaration (Attachment C, submitted on file) confirming that he is qualified for appointment to the position of councillor in accordance with section 152 of the City of

Brisbane Act 2010 .

26. The Chief Executive Officer recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.




Attachment A


DRAFT RESOLUTION TO APPOINT A COUNCILLOR TO FILL THE VACANT

POSITION OF COUNCILLOR FOR DEAGON WARD


- 27 -

As:

(i) Councillor Victoria Newton, Councillor for Deagon Ward, resigned as a

Councillor by signed notice of resignation given to the Chief Executive

Officer with effect from close of business on 17 August 2015;

(ii) This resignation takes effect during the final part of Council’s term (more than 36 months after the last quadrennial elections were held);

(iii) Councillor Victoria Newton was elected as Councillor for Deagon Ward as a nominee of the Australian Labor Party;

(iv) Section 163(2) of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 requires that vacancy be filled within two months of that vacancy occurring;

(v) Section 166(3) of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 requires that vacancy to be filled by a nominee of the Australian Labor Party;

(vi) Upon receipt of that nomination (Attachment B, submitted on file), Council is to formally appoint that nominee by way of Council Resolution;

(vii) Under section 166(4) of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 , the Chief Executive

Officer wrote to the registered officer of the Australian Labor Party on

7 August 2015 requesting advice of the name and address of a qualified nominee to fill the vacant councillor position for Deagon Ward;

(viii) By letter dated 7 August 2015, the Australian Labor Party advised of the nomination of Jared Ryan Cassidy to fill that vacancy as set out in

Attachment B;

(ix) Jared Ryan Cassidy has provided the Chief Executive Officer with a completed Statutory Declaration (Attachment C, submitted on file) confirming that he is qualified for appointment to the position of councillor in accordance with section 152 of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 , then:

(i) Council resolves to appoint Jared Ryan Cassidy of 99 Silvan Road, Deagon, as Councillor for Deagon Ward with immediate effect.

ADOPTED

D ALTERATION TO THE MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL’S STANDING

COMMITTEES

109/800/286/125

53/2015-16

28. The Chief Executive Officer provided the information below.

29. Councillor Victoria Newton, Councillor for Deagon Ward, has tendered her resignation with effect from the close of business on 17 August 2015. This will result in the office of

Councillor for Deagon Ward becoming vacant.

30. In accordance with the provisions of section 166 of the City of Brisbane Act 2010 the

Australian Labor Party has nominated Jared Cassidy to fill this vacancy.


- 28 -

31. Jared Cassidy will be appointed to this vacancy by Council Resolution on 18 August 2015 and will make his Declaration of Office as required by section 169 of the City of Brisbane Act

2010 before Council’s Chief Executive Officer on 19 August 2015.

32. The resignation of Councillor Victoria Newton will result in vacancies on both the Brisbane

Lifestyle Committee and the Infrastructure Committee.

33. As a result, consideration has been given to a review of the Membership of all Council’s

Standing Committees (Attachment B, submitted on file) to address those vacancies and other changed circumstances where appropriate.




Attachment A


DRAFT RESOLUTION TO ALTER THE MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL’S

STANDING COMMITTEES

Council approves:

(i) as from the day after the approval of this resolution, that the Membership of each Standing Committee be as set out in Attachment B, submitted on file.

ADOPTED

INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE

DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER, Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Ian McKENZIE, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on

11 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman: DEPUTY MAYOR.

DEPUTY MAYOR: Thank you, Madam Chairman. We had a presentation last week on the

Arterial Road Upgrade Program. Councillors will be well aware of this program and there are regular updates coming through. Lots of small but important projects across the city that we're doing. The interesting thing though that is relatively new, is that we've started to actually measure the travel time savings that these projects deliver.

We can do this through the Bluetooth data that we're collecting around the city each day on the road network. So Councillors would know that we're collecting around a million Bluetooth detections per day in this city as people move around the city. Anyone with a smartphone, anyone with a Bluetooth-enabled car is obviously helping to contribute to data on how people move around the city.

It was interesting Councillor SIMMONDS, to hear the representative from Cisco talking about South East Queensland being a smart region and Brisbane being a smart city. This is one way where Brisbane is really leading the pack in terms of measuring congestion and travel times across the city. Certainty they don't have this capacity in cities like Sydney and Melbourne. But in Brisbane, we're using technology to not only measure congestion on the network but respond to congestion on the network. Then when we respond, we're using the technology to measure the benefits of our projects and response.


- 29 -

So we're seeing some great outcomes from these projects that we're doing across the city. Now you measure often these travel time savings in seconds but when you start looking at those travel time savings in terms of percentages, you start to see some significant figures. Congestion is all about a few seconds here and a few seconds there adding to your trip. So we're actively working to ensure that traffic flows as well as it can around the city.

It's one of the reasons that Brisbane has low traffic congestion compared to other major cities. We're actually fighting, we're working every day to try and reduce congestion. There are many cities that have just given up. They—in fact some cities have embraced congestion because they have the philosophical view that if you let the traffic congestion get really, really bad, then people will catch public transport.

We don't take that view. We believe in freedom of choice and that means that we certainly support and encourage people to catch public transport or walk or cycle, but we don't want to punish people who have to drive their car. It's a matter of choice and everyone has different circumstances and their choices are different. So we want to support all the modes of transport and not punish people by sitting on our hands and allowing congestion to get worse and worse and worse like many other cities are doing.

So this, as I said, is a small but important part of Council's overall agenda when it comes to dealing with traffic congestion and responding and, as I said what we're doing now and what you'll find—I think you'll find no other city in

Australia is doing this. We're measuring the travel time benefits of the projects that we deliver. Whether it's a big project like Legacy Way or whether it's a small intersection upgrade or a turning lane extension.

So I thank the officers in the Congestion Reduction Unit (CRU) for their continued work in delivering this program and look forward to continuing to work with them over the coming financial year to deliver even more important congestion-busting projects.

Further debate? Chairman:

Seriatim - Clause B


Councillor Nicole JOHNSTON requested that Clause B, PETITION – EGMONT STREET, SHERWOOD, be taken seriatim for voting purposes.

Councillor JOHNSTON: I note Item B is a petition by residents of Sherwood calling for traffic calming to be installed—sorry, traffic calming and a pedestrian refuge to be installed on

Egmont Street and on the corner of Johnston and Plumer Streets in Sherwood.

These items have been on the list for Council to deliver in our community for three years now. We undertook surveys, traffic counts and the road was identified as one that would be suitable for traffic calming.

For those who don't know Egmont and Johnston Streets, they are minor roads in

Sherwood that lead to Sherwood State School as well as our local parkland, cemetery, businesses and also connect through to Sherwood Road. They are quite busy as you can see from the traffic surveys before us here today. This is several years ago now, they were carrying 1,300 vehicles a day and that has no doubt gone up significantly since then.

We also have about 600 children who go to school at Sherwood, many of whom use these local streets to walk to school and they need safe crossing points to be able to do that effectively. The reason the pedestrian refuge is sought was largely to provide a safe crossing point at this busy intersection so that those children could cross the road and get to school safely.

Now the petition, I met with the residents in this area earlier in the year and they said to me, look, all this work was done a few years ago, why hasn't Council funded the project? I explained to them that every year the LORD MAYOR picked a number of projects off the list and he decided that they would be


- 30 - funded in the Council budget. Each year, the LORD MAYOR did not pick this project for funding.

I also pointed out, and I took the budget book out to them, and showed them the

LORD MAYOR, who's publicly on the record as not being real supportive of traffic calming, only did about 10 or 12 of these projects around the city a year.

So there's not a lot of traffic calming that actually happens under this

Administration generally. The residents said to me, what should we do? I said, perhaps the way Council will listen to you is if we do a petition reminding them of why you think that the refuge and the traffic calming in your street is important.

They duly did that. They circulated a petition, they walked door to door and they got residents to sign the petition. Now I have to take issue with paragraph 12, it says there's a petition with 63 signatures. There are actually 75 signatures on the petition and I don't know why it's incorrectly recorded in the material before us today. Secondly, I sat in the Infrastructure Committee to which I am an observer, I don't have the right to speak in that Committee, and I listened to the

DEPUTY MAYOR completely mislead that Committee last week.

He was asked where did the majority of signatures come from and he said, ‘oh from the units at number 20’. Now that is absolutely not the case as the written records which are in this Chamber right now clearly demonstrate. There are

23 signatories from the large townhouse units which are at 20 Egmont Street and there are 52 signatories from the surrounding streets. So Johnston, Egmont,

Palm—which runs off Egmont—and it is completely mischievous to try and paint this as the objective of the townhouse units at this location, which is what he did in the Chamber last week.

So number one; we've got the wrong information in the paper before us today.

Number two; the information that was presented to the committee last week was wrong. So that troubles me because what I want to see is a good outcome for the community before us and there's certainly no chance of that happening when the basic information being put to the committee is wrong.

It was clear, I think, that the DEPUTY MAYOR did not know where the petitioners resided when he answered the question and I think it is incumbent upon him to answer those sorts of questions as honestly as possible. That did not happen last week. So I'm concerned, Madam Chairman, that the response that is being proposed here before us today does nothing to address the petitioners' concerns.

I believe that this should be priority for a number of reasons—the high volume of traffic. There's not even a recommendation here to do another survey to see how much worse the problem is-and it would definitely be worse. There is just a note that they'll put it on the never-never list to be considered against a bunch of other projects that'll never be done by this LORD MAYOR because he doesn't support traffic calming. That is massively problematic because residents want safer local streets, they want their children to walk to school safely, and we encourage that through our Council program of Active School Travel.

So to me, to simply tell residents that their request for traffic calming, which was a request to prioritise it for funding, is ranked as a low priority and will be considered in future budgets, is literally doing nothing. That is simply unacceptable to me. For too long this Administration has done nothing in the suburbs. It is showing, Madam Chairman, particularly out my way.

It's worse though, because at the time several years ago, we were told that we'd also have the refuge listed for consideration in a future budget. Now Council's not even agreeing to do that with respect to the refuge for

Sherwood State School children. I'm appalled that this Council is not prepared to actively consider what are minor projects. A refuge might cost $20,000 or

$30,000. We can't get them around Graceville State School, we can't get them around Corinda State School and we've got thousands of children that this

Council actively encourages to walk to school through our Active School program but we're not providing safer ways for them to do this.


Chairman:

Councillor MARX:

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

- 31 -

Well I think it is—I've built footpaths right through this area, Madam Chairman,

I don't have any money to build the refuges that are needed to support and supplement safe crossing at intersections and to reduce the high volumes of traffic that are travelling down Johnston and Egmont Street to get to—or to rat-run around the intersection of Sherwood Road and Oxley Road, which carries 36,000 vehicles a day.

It is a systemic problem and it is one that is being failed to address in this recommendation before us. So I have to say, I will not be supporting it, this do-nothing response I think is clearly a reflection of the LNP Team Quirk

Administration. Their whole mantra is, do nothing. I don't think that's good enough, I won't be supporting this recommendation and I will be again lobbying to ensure that this important safety project for Sherwood residents and

Sherwood State School students is actually funded in the budget and that it is considered a priority by this Administration that are neglecting critical safety projects in our suburbs.

Further debate?

Councillor MARX.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chairman. I rise to speak on Item A to clearly outline exactly how much this Administration is delivering and particularly with the

Arterial Road program update. I've got up and spoken in the Chamber before a couple of times about different CRU projects. There's two more that I want to talk about today. One being the Gowan Road at Beenleigh Road intersection.

This is a set of traffic lights that a lot of commuters have to stop at before they head onto Beenleigh Road before they want to head down to the railway line.

Then oftentimes they're held up at the railway intersection because of the trains obviously. So by increasing the left turning lane on Gowan Road to

Beenleigh Road, this allows a lot more through cars wanting to go left to travel through without being caught up with the cars wanting to go right.

The other initiative that's part of this program was a large directional signage that was installed on Calam Road. Calam Road is a really major road through my ward; it actually starts right through in Councillor HUANG's and continues through and it actually has three name changes along the way. So it's a two-lane road on both sides so four lanes I would guess you'd say. It becomes multi-lane as it gets to the head of the intersection so you'll have a lane that needs to go left into Compton Road. You'll have a lane going straight ahead into the shops and then you'll also have lanes heading right which is Compton Road also but then ultimately leads to Beaudesert Road.

So this large directional signage is very handy for people who need to know exactly what lane they need to be in before they want to go wherever they want to go to. So look on that point I want to say, Madam Chair, that I need to thank the DEPUTY MAYOR and his officers in the CRU team for their initiative in reducing the time travelling and the road congestion, and that this

Administration is working very hard on both of those things and continues to deliver as always. Thank you

Further debate?

Councillor MATIC.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I rise to speak in respect of Item C which is a petition limiting compression braking and a request for signage on Hale Street. I want to thank the DEPUTY MAYOR for his speed of responsiveness to these residents, Madam Chairman, who live within the Petrie Terrace precinct. A petition signed by 21 residents who are, although it is not a constant issue for them is on occasions, Madam Chairman, and on those occasions is significant.

Certainly, Hale Street is a very busy stretch of road as a key connector,

Madam Chairman, between Coronation Drive and, of course, the

Inner City Bypass and beyond.

So certainly this is something that should be acknowledged and I'd like to acknowledge the residents and thank them for their kind words in respect of the


Chairman:

Councillor MURPHY:

Chairman:

DEPUTY MAYOR:

- 32 -

Council's responsiveness to this in such a quick fashion. This signage,

Madam Chairman, will be installed on the pedestrian overpass linking Charlotte and Regent Streets. I hope that by having it placed there that the large vehicles utilising the Inner City Bypass will pay heed to the signage and even with a percentage of them doing so we will see benefits for local residents within the precinct. Thank you.

Further debate?

Councillor MURPHY.

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chairman, I rise to speak on Item A, in particular the Arterial Roads program road projects for quarter 4, 2014-15, particularly Stanley Road at Carina, Madam Chairman. This was a

$108,000 project to improve the lane configuration turning onto Creek Road from Stanley Road. That intersection was previously configured where it had one through lane, one left turn lane and then one right turn lane. The through lane though went straight into the Carina bus depot so as you can imagine there wasn't a massive preponderance of users for that particular lane outside the peak hours when the buses were going in and out of the depot.

But it caused the car traffic to back up at that intersection quite significantly outside peak hours because the vast majority of them were turning right. This is an issue at this intersection that is shared between the DEPUTY MAYOR and myself and has been a bugbear of residents in that area for some time. So it was very pleasing to see the CRU had come up with a solution that was very cost effective.

As I said, only $108,000 but with that $108,000 they were able to put in an extra right turn lane, so effectively doubling the capacity of the right turns of that intersection, a special little bus lane so that a bus can get up there and go straight through to the depot—it's only used by buses—and a cycle lane so that the intersection is safe for cyclists as well, Madam Chairman.

Again,, I want to reiterate you get a lot of bang for buck for $108,000 because the traffic modelling has shown that we've been able to increase the throughput at that intersection or the congestion factor, if you will, from a grade F congestion intersection to a grade B, which is obviously just one down from grade A which is the best that you can get. So, Madam Chairman, it goes to show that you don't always need a great deal of money to fix a highly congested intersection.

The CRU projects, I've said before in this place, I'll say it again, are some of the best in this city and that they provide bigtime savings for residents en masse . It might not be more than a minute at any one location where a CRU project is installed but if you're installing hundreds of CRU projects across the city then you can see that aggregate increase, or I should say decrease, in the time that it's taking for residents to get around our great city when you add all those CRU projects up.

So I want to thank the officers that did all the work on getting this project through. Certainly they probably could have come up with a design that was far more expensive and it would have taken less time. But they did put in the hard yards, they put in the effort, they came up with the design that was both cost effective and incredibly efficient. I know my residents and indeed the bus drivers at Carina depot are very pleased. That is reflected in the high volume of correspondence that my office has received since we installed this project thanking us for what we have done. So again, thanks to the DEPUTY MAYOR and the CRU project team.

Further debate?

DEPUTY MAYOR.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just briefly, thank you to Councillors MATIC,

MARX and MURPHY for their positive comments about the work that's being done right across the suburbs of Brisbane. Thanks also to

Councillor JOHNSTON for being true to form and for making this some big


- 33 - conspiracy theory apparently. The reality is, this petition was assessed just like every other petition. It was assessed by the officers in the Transport Planning and Strategy (TPS) unit. Their assessment ranked this issue as a low priority for traffic calming. Now that's not my assessment; that's the officers' assessment.

These are the officers that look at all traffic calming requests across the city.

Now Councillor JOHNSTON can say whatever she likes and say that this is a big political conspiracy and that we don't want to fund her traffic calming project but the reality is, with traffic calming projects, we get many requests.

Many of those requests don't meet the relevant criteria for traffic calming. Even those that do meet the criteria obviously have to be assessed on a priority basis across the city. This Council is primarily focused on getting traffic moving, not slowing it down. Now that doesn't mean we don't do traffic calming projects, we do, but obviously there's a competitive process to receive funding for this and that's what's happened in this case.

The officers have given their opinion on the matter and that opinion is not a political opinion; it's a technical assessment. In relation to

Councillor JOHNSTON's comments about me supposedly misrepresenting where the signatories came from, I was asked the question in Committee, I had a look at the petition and simply gave a view based on what I saw in front of me. I didn't go and count the signatures from each property. This was a question in the

Committee on the spot which I did my best to answer.

So ultimately where the petition has come from had no bearing on the officers' recommendation. They assess these things impartially, in an independent manner and not taking into account how many people in each property have signed a petition, but rather having a look at the issue on a holistic basis. That's what's happened here.

Chairman: I will now put Items A and C.

Clauses A and C put

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of Clauses A and C of the report of the

Infrastructure Committee was declared carried on the voices.

Chairman:

Clause B put

I will now put Item B.

Upon being submitted to the meeting, the motion for the adoption of Clause B of the report of the Infrastructure

Committee was declared carried on the voices.

Thereupon, Councillors Nicole HOHNSTON and Helen ABRAHAMS immediately rose and called for a division, which resulted in the motion being declared carried .

The voting was as follows:

AYES: 18 - DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER, and Councillors

Krista ADAMS, Matthew BOURKE, Amanda COOPER, Margaret de WIT,

Vicki HOWARD, Steven HUANG, Fiona KING, Kim MARX, Peter MATIC,

Ian McKENZIE, David McLACHLAN, Ryan MURPHY, Angela OWEN-TAYLOR,

Julian SIMMONDS, Steven TOOMEY, Andrew WINES and Norm WYNDHAM.

NOES: 6 - The Leader of the OPPOSITION, Councillor Milton DICK, and Councillors

Helen ABRAHAMS, Kim FLESSER, Steve GRIFFITHS, Shayne SUTTON and

Nicole JOHNSTON.





- 34 -

ATTENDANCE:

Deputy Mayor, Councillor Adrian Schrinner (Chairman), Councillor Ian McKenzie

(Deputy Chairman), and Councillors Milton Dick, Victoria Newton, Steven Toomey and

Norm Wyndham.

1.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ARTERIAL ROAD PROGRAM UPDATE

54/2015-16

Stephen McGrath, Planned Incident Management Manager, Congestion Reduction Unit,

Brisbane Infrastructure Division, attended the meeting to provide an update on the

Arterial Road Program. He provided the information below.

2. The objectives of the Arterial Road Program include:

- improve network performance:

-

-

-

-

- reduce travel time improve trip reliability enhance safety overall, improve road user experience identify low cost/high impact solutions – get the best out of the existing network.

3. Evaluation of completed projects for Quarter 3, 2014-15:

- Gowan Road at Beenleigh Road, Sunnybank:

-

-

- issue - left turning vehicles blocking through traffic solution - extension of left turn lane outcome - the average travel time measured from

Compton Road/Gowan Road to Beenleigh Road/Mains Road (a distance of

-

2,840 metres) is reduced by 5 seconds (1.7 per cent savings) during AM peak inbound

Calam Road at Honeywood Street, Sunnybank Hills:

- issue - poor advance direction guidance on Calam Road approaching the

-

-

-

-

-

Compton Road intersection solution - install advance direction sign outcome - the average travel time measured from Calam Road/Helawell Road to Compton Road/Gowan Road (a distance of 2,140 metres) is reduced by nine seconds (4.7 per cent savings) during AM peak outbound and by two seconds (0.9 per cent savings) during PM peak outbound

Ashgrove Avenue at Enoggera Road, Newmarket:

- issue - insufficient right turn capacity on Ashgrove Avenue approach solution - extend right-turn lane outcome - average travel time measured from Ashgrove Avenue/

Waterworks Road to Enoggera Road/Davidson Street (a distance of 2,070 metres) for right-turning vehicles only is reduced by 99 seconds (26.8 per cent savings) during AM peak inbound and by 12 seconds (4.5 per cent savings) during PM peak inbound.

4.

-

-

Completed projects for Quarter 4, 2014-15 include:

- Creek Road and Tristania Way, Mt Gravatt East - right turn lane extension on

Creek Road

Compton Road and Persse Road, Stretton - left turn lane extension on Compton Road

-

Logan Road and Logan Street, Greenslopes - right turn lane extension Logan Road

McCullough Street at Chadford and Marelda Streets, Macgregor - right turn lane installation and parking changes on McCullough Street at Marelda Street; left-in left-out at Chadford Street


8.

9.

5.

6.

7.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

- 35 -

-

-

Stanley Road at Creek Road, Carina - lane configuration changes:

- improved lane configuration with dual right turns left turn lane modification provision of dedicated through lane

- provision of cycle lane

Compton Road at Calam Road, Sunnybank Hills - left turn lane extension

Boundary Road at Samuel Street, Coorparoo/Camp Hill - right turn lane extension

Meadowlands Road at Belmont Road, Belmont - No Stop Line/Clearway

High Street westbound, Toowong - extension of Clearway from 4 to 7pm to 3 to 7pm

Monday to Saturday

Newmarket Road westbound and Green Terrace, Windsor - installation of Clearway from 7 to 9am and 3 to 7pm, Monday to Friday

Green Terrace northbound, Windsor - installation of No Standing from 3 to 7pm

Monday to Friday.

Some carry-over projects to the financial year 2015-16 include:

- parking restrictions during school peak hours of 7 to 9am and 2 to 4pm on

-

Vulture Street, Gladstone to Edmonstone Roads, South Brisbane right lane arrangement on Vulture Street at Stanley and Dock Streets, South Brisbane

- with improved delineation for through and right turn movement on Vulture Street at

Graham Street intersection by adding a physical island lane conversion on Creek, Newnham and Wecker Roads, Mt Gravatt East by adding a lane by shifting the median and modifying the left turn slip lane.

Upcoming projects for the financial year 2015-16 include:

- formalise departure lanes on Sherwood Road at Jephson Street, Toowong:

- issue - two approach lanes but only one departure lane on Sherwood Road

-

-

-

-

- treatment - provide two departure lanes which merge into one just before

Holland Street and remove on-street parking between Jephson Street and

-

-

Holland Street project cost - $54,000 project subject to consultation right turn lane extension on Orange Grove Road at Boundary Road, Coopers Plains:

- issues - poor lane arrangement and inadequate right turn lane on

Boundary Road west approach

-

- treatment - realign traffic lanes and extend right turn lane project cost - $290,000 right turn lane extension on Beenleigh Road at Saint Andrew Street, Kuraby:

- issue - inadequate right turn lane on Beenleigh Road west approach treatment – extend right turn lane project cost - $60,000.

-

-

Future direction and projects include:

- develop designs for the 2015-16 program deliver projects in the 2015-16 program continue to seek feedback and suggestions.

Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr McGrath for his informative presentation.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT COUNCIL NOTE THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE ABOVE

REPORT.

ADOPTED


- 36 -

B PETITION – EGMONT STREET, SHERWOOD

CA15/414009

55/2015-16

10. A petition from residents requesting Council for the installation of traffic calming measures on Egmont Street, Sherwood and a new pedestrian refuge at Johnstone Street and

Plumer Street, Sherwood to improve safety, access and amenity for local residents, was presented to the meeting of Council held on 2 June 2015, by Councillor Nicole Johnston, and received.

11. The Branch Manager, Transport Planning and Strategy, Brisbane Infrastructure Division, supplied the following information.

12. Council has received a petition with 63 signatures from residents of Sherwood. The petitioners have requested Council install traffic calming device in Egmont Street, Sherwood and consider installing a pedestrian refuge at the Johnstone Street and Plumer Street intersection, Sherwood.

13. Egmont Street is approximately nine metres wide and is classified as a Neighbourhood

Access Road within the Brisbane Road Hierarchy Plan. These roads primarily provide access to residential buildings and local streets, carry up to 3,000 vehicles per day and may be used to carry public transport. The speed limit on Egmont Street is 50 kilometres per hour and connects local streets to Sherwood Road.

14. Currently “no standing” yellow line restrictions are in place for a distance of approximately

30 metres from the intersection with Sherwood Road adjacent to St Matthews Cemetery.

Additionally, there is a roundabout at the intersection with Hall Street and the access to the

Parklands estate. Attachments A and B, submitted on file, set out the location of the area.

15. A search of the available crash history over a five year period revealed there have been no recorded crashes along Egmont Street.

16. Council undertook a traffic count on Egmont Street in October 2013. A summary of the results from the traffic count are as follows:

- the average weekday traffic volume was 1,373 vehicles per day

- the mean traffic speeds were 39km per hour (northbound) and 37km per hour

(southbound)

- the 85th percentile speeds (speed below which 85 per cent of vehicles travel) was

46 km per hour (northbound) and 44 km per hour (southbound).

17. Based on the data recorded in the survey, Egmont Street was identified as suitable for traffic calming and was listed to be considered in a future budget in line with other citywide projects.

All local area traffic management projects are prioritised to ensure that available resources are directed to those streets in most need of such works. This ensures that those projects that offer the greatest benefit to the community, with respect to safety and amenity, are constructed first.

18. Egmont Street is currently ranked as a low priority and as such, Egmont Street will be continued to be considered in future budgets and in line with other Citywide priorities.

19. With respect to improvements at the Johnstone Street and Plumer Street intersection, a search of the available crash history over a five year period revealed there have been no recorded crashes at this intersection. Additionally, there are realigned kerb ramps at the intersection which allows for cyclists and those in wheelchairs, pushing prams or riding smaller wheeled devices, to transition between the different heights of road and path.


- 37 -

20. An intersection count was also conducted in October 2013 to determine if a pedestrian crossing facility is warranted at the Johnstone Street and Plumer Street intersection. The intersection count indicated there is relatively low pedestrian activity. Therefore, construction of a pedestrian crossing facility is considered to be a low priority compared to other citywide projects and it is not proposed at this time.

21. Poor driver behaviour is best addressed through the enforcement of the Queensland Road

Rules. If the petitioners observe motorists failing to adhere to the Road Rules, they may wish to consider reporting the incidents to the Queensland Police Service via PoliceLink on

131 444. When phoning, the petitioners are requested to provide details such as the make, model, colour and registration number of the offending vehicle; this will assist the

Queensland Police Service with their investigations.

Consultation

22. The Councillor for Tennyson Ward, Councillor Nicole Johnston, has been consulted and does not support the recommendation.

Customer impact

23.

The petition response will not address the petitioners’ concerns.

Preferred option

24. It is the preferred option that Council advise the petitioners that:

- traffic calming measures for Egmont Street are currently ranked as a low priority and will be continued to be considered in future budgets and in line with other citywide

- priorities; and construction of a pedestrian crossing facility at the Johnstone Street and Plumer Street intersection is considered to be a low priority compared to other citywide projects and it is not proposed at this time.

25. Accordingly, the Branch Manager therefore recommended as follows and the Committee agreed, with Councillors Milton Dick and Victoria Newton dissenting.


THAT THE PETITIONERS BE ADVISED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE

PREFERRED OPTION ABOVE AND OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN

THE ABOVE REPORT.

ADOPTED

C PETITION – LIMIT COMPRESSION BRAKING SIGNAGE

CA15/578535

56/2015-16

27.

A petition from residents requesting Council install “please limit compression braking” signage in Hale Street, Paddington, was received during the Winter Recess 2015.

28. The Branch Manager, Transport Planning and Strategy, Brisbane Infrastructure Division, supplied the following information.

29. Council has received a petition containing 21 signatures requesting Council install “please limit compression braking” signage in Hale Street, Paddington.


- 38 -

30. Currently, there are no specific regulatory controls over the use of compression braking.

Consequently, Council and the Queensland Government have adopted the approach of encouraging drivers of heavy vehicles to be considerate when driving in residential areas and to voluntarily reduce the use of their air brakes.

31. Currently, there is no “please limit compression braking” signage inbound along the

Inner City Bypass (which subsequently transitions into Hale Street). However, there is

“please limit compression braking” signage outbound along the Inner City Bypass, just prior to the Victoria Park Road exit. As such, it is proposed to install “please limit compression braking” signage inbound on Hale Street, Paddington, inbound on the Charlotte Street/Regent

Street pedestrian overpass.

32. Attachment A, submitted on file, sets out the location of the existing sign and the proposed location of the new sign. Attachment B, also submitted on file, sets out the “please limit compression braking” sign.

Funding

33. Funding is available in Program 2 – Moving Brisbane under Schedule 209 – Suburban

Amenity Improvement.

Consultation

34. The Councillor for Toowong Ward, Councillor Peter Matic, has been consulted and supports the recommendation.

Customer impact

35. The petition response will address the petitioners’ concerns.

Preferred option

36. It is the preferred option that Council advise the petitioners that Council will install “please limit compression braking” signage inbound on Hale Street, Paddington on the

Charlotte Street/Regent Street pedestrian overpass.

37. Accordingly, the Branch Manager therefore recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.


THAT THE PETITIONERS BE ADVISED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE

PREFERRED OPTION ABOVE AND OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN

THE ABOVE REPORT.

ADOPTED

PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE

Councillor Peter MATIC, Chairman of the Public and Active Transport Committee, moved, seconded by

Councillor Steven HUANG, that the report of that Committee held on 11 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Councillor MATIC.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just briefly, there's one item and that is the

Committee presentation on Safe Night Out Strategy and the NightLink services,

Madam Chairman. I'd like to thank the officers for the presentation, a very informative presentation about the NightLink services, Madam Chairman, which started in December 2005, and of course the Safe Night Out Strategy,


Chairman:

Councillor GRIFFITHS:

- 39 -

Madam Chairman, that was incorporated within that which extended the services even further. There are, of course, 15 Safe Night precincts,

Madam Chairman, of which the NightLink services were linked to.

Of course the Safe Night Out Strategy, Madam Chairman, obviously doesn't exist anymore but the NightLink services continue on. They continue to provide an important service, Madam Chairman, across our city providing that level of safety to users but also, Madam Chairman, they're an integral part of making sure that they facilitate those key precincts within our city. They continue to be a vital part of the service that Council provides and of course in conjunction with

TransLink, Madam Chairman, and making sure that we continue to partner to provide those safe outcomes for all of our patrons who use the service.

Further debate?

Councillor GRIFFITHS.

Yes, Madam Chair, and we know that this Administration doesn't have a strong record on public transport with their $20 million cut to the public transport budget. It's out there, it's resonating.


Chairman:


Chairman:


Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

To the report please, Councillor GRIFFITHS.

What is disappointing about this particular—

Order.

—what is particularly disappointing about this report and what

Councillor MATIC actually failed to say was that Brisbane City Council is only doing this because the State Government is paying for it, not because they have any belief in the delivery of safe services. Madam Chair, it's unfortunate that

Council is actually contributing no money to this service. It's actually being delivered by TransLink and we are just taking the contract on.

It's also disappointing that today in Committee the Chairperson couldn't actually answer how many of our drivers have been impacted in their delivery of duties in terms of this service, that we don't keep records of whether any drivers may have been attacked or affected when they have been delivering this particular service. Of course, it is about ensuring residents have a safe way home and that is great but we've also got to ensure that our drivers are safe and they are able to do their duty as Council officers in a safe manner.

It was disappointing that Councillor MATIC actually was not able to deliver any information in relation to that and that he couldn't see any need that he should keep a record, or his department should keep a record, of how our drivers are affected in that particular way, in the delivery of their duties.

It was also disappointing, Madam Chair, that only 76 per cent of our buses have

CCTV, and that we continue to have a very low rate of CCTV on our buses but we intend to deliver this particular service. Madam Chairman, overall the

Administration I think is not taking this service seriously and not taking the safety of our drivers seriously or indeed the number of passengers that are carried on this particular service.

Further debate?

Councillor MATIC.

Thanks, Madam Chairman. I'll have to respond because it's sad and disappointing, Madam Chairman, that Councillor GRIFFITHS doesn't understand anything about the public transport network and happens to be the

Shadow for the ALP in regards to this, Madam Chairman. It's sad and disappointing that Councillor GRIFFITHS has to mislead this Chamber in his comments that he made, Madam Chairman, just before. It's sad and disappointing, Madam Chairman, that Councillor GRIFFITHS doesn't have the capacity to understand the network as a whole.


- 40 -

So for the benefit of Councillor GRIFFITHS, Madam Chairman, because I know other Councillors in this team that do understand how the public transport network works in this city as far as its funding, Madam Chairman, but for the benefit of Councillor GRIFFITHS I'll try to explain it again as slowly as I can and in as big letters and pictures that I can possibly try and bring together— crayon drawings, Madam Chairman, if that's what it takes to get

Councillor GRIFFITHS over the—


Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Councillor ABRAHAMS:

Chairman:


Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Chairman:

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Order.

—so, Madam Chairman, in respect to the NightLink services, TransLink provides the funding for this service. Yes, it does, Madam Chairman. But in case

Councillor GRIFFITHS isn't aware, the State Government TransLink,

Madam Chairman, actually provides the funding for the network as a whole,

Madam Chairman, to run the buses. I don't know if he's seen a budget book,

Madam Chairman, in this Chamber. I don't know if he's participated in any of the budget debate, Madam Chairman. I don't know if he's listened to anything—

Point of order, Madam Chair.

Point of order against you Councillor MATIC.

Councillor ABRAHAMS?

Madam Chair, I think—thank you—I think there is a rule saying that we have to treat Councillors with respect. Irrespective of whom Councillor MATIC is referring to, it is not respectful and I ask you to bring him into line.

Order.

Madam Chairman, all I'm trying to do is help the poor Councillor—

Just a moment please Councillor, just a moment please Councillor MATIC. All

Councillors in this place are reminded that you are to treat all other Councillors with the appropriate level of respect when speaking please. That includes giving them the right to speak and be heard without excessive interjections.

Councillor MATIC.

Madam Chairman, I'm simply trying to help the ALP's representative Shadow in public transport that, after almost four years in the role as the Shadow, to understand how the public transport network works, Madam Chairman. It may be too late but there's always the opportunity to learn. Absolutely, better late than never, Madam Chairman. So yes, Madam Chairman, TransLink funds it but yes, they also provide the funding for all our bus services as well,

Madam Chairman, as far as running the service. Yes, we are the contractor. Yes, this Council provides all of the support facilities in order to run the service.

So the TransLink service for the NightLink service, Madam Chairman, is no different to any other service that Council provides in this place. Now in respect of, Madam Chairman, the other comments that the confused or misguided

Councillor GRIFFITHS has stated in respect of this Administration and CCTV, he said that only 76 per cent of buses, Madam Chairman, in this Council fleet have CCTV. Madam Chairman, what Councillor GRIFFITHS obviously doesn't understand is under previous ALP Administrations, there were no buses with

CCTV whatsoever, Madam Chairman.

It actually took the Newman Administration and the QUIRK Administration and the record investment, Madam Chairman, that they have made within CCTV to bring it to 76 per cent. We're continuing to invest, Madam Chairman, in that area and making sure that, through that record investment, we're going to get to

100 per cent, Madam Chairman. So 76 per cent under this Administration who has a strong commitment to public transport, zero under the ALP,

Madam Chairman. So Councillor GRIFFITHS, I'm happy to help to educate you in regards to that.

Now, Madam Chairman, Councillor GRIFFITHS also unfortunately was either confused, didn't hear or has misled this Chamber and said that I was not able to



Chairman:

Chairman:


Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:


Chairman:

Chairman:


Chairman:

Chairman:


Chairman:


- 41 - provide the information to committee this morning on a question on notice as to the number of drivers in the last year, Madam Chairman, in the last calendar year from August now to August last year, that were somehow assaulted or affected by this service in the NightLink service. I did actually provide that answer, Madam Chairman, to committee—thank you Councillor WINES—

Councillor WINES quite clearly heard the answer, Madam Chairman. The answer was one.

One driver had been assaulted, Madam Chairman. He was unfortunately spat upon and Councillor GRIFFITHS is misleading this Chamber entirely by saying that I did not provide the information I did. Madam Chairman, in respect of this

Council keeping records of incidences that occur on this bus, once again

Councillor GRIFFITHS is confused, did not listen or is again misleading this

Chamber, Madam Chairman.

This question has been asked before, it was answered then, it was answered today in the Chamber as well. This Council does keep records,

Madam Chairman, of every single incident that occurs on a Council bus. It could be any type of incident, Madam Chairman, it is recorded. Those records—



Councillor JOHNSTON?

I believe that Councillor MATIC is misrepresenting the facts of this matter. This

Council does not keep any records of police callouts to incidents at buses—

Councillor JOHNSTON I remind you, I remind you—Councillor JOHNSTON, do not speak over me. I remind you of the Meetings Local Law that says you do not debate a point of order. Councillor MATIC, would you care to clarify for

Councillor JOHNSTON the facts in relation to the incidents against bus drivers please.

Madam Chairman, Councillor JOHNSTON either understands or is once again confused. I think that's something they share in common with

Councillor GRIFFITHS. The question they asked specifically in the committee was about police incidents as a separate line item, Madam Chairman. I've explained it to them before; I'll explain it to them again. We do keep records of police incidences, Madam Chairman, but what they have asked is whether there's an individual record specifically for Councillors to be advised of police incidences, Madam Chairman.



Councillor JOHNSTON?

Yes, Councillor MATIC is again misleading the Chamber. I have consistently asked him to—

Councillor JOHNSTON, Councillor JOHNSTON, do not speak over me.

Councillor JOHNSTON you are already on a warning. Councillor JOHNSTON,

I will remind you that you do not repeatedly raise the same point of order.

Councillor MATIC was clarifying the matter in relation to incidents against bus drivers on those Night Safe links and he was clearly indicating the background for you.

Councillor MATIC.


Point of order Councillor JOHNSTON.

I seek again—this is the third week in a row now—and I seek your advice on being able to raise a point of order about misleading this Chamber which is an established process. My understanding is to establish that someone is misleading the Chamber we would have to put to you the facts and the matter surrounding why we believe it is misleading.


Chairman:


Chairman:

Chairman:


Chairman:


Chairman:

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

- 42 -

Councillor JOHNSTON—

Madam Chairman—

Councillor JOHNSTON I have called you, do not speak over me. I will remind you to read the Meetings Local Law in particular 53 (6). Once a point of order is properly disposed of a further point of order may be raised provided it is not the same or a repetition of a point of order already disposed of earlier in the meeting. Councillor MATIC had responded to your request and clarified the situation. You are now attempting to debate a point of order. If you continue to raise spurious points of order or repetitive points of order, the extension of your warning will result in a suspension from this Chamber.

Councillor MATIC would you care to continue?


Point of order Councillor JOHNSTON.

Madam Chairman, I did not get to complete my point of order which is a procedural matter. It is not related to the buses and the police matter. I seek your advice about the following issue. If we are legitimately to raise an issue about misrepresentation or misleading this Chamber, are we entitled to put on the record what we believe the misleading information, facts and circumstances are so that you can make a judgement about whether the matter is upheld or refused as a legitimate point of order? If you do not want this process to be followed any longer as your predecessor did, can you please clarify how you want us to address this issue?

Councillor JOHNSTON I will refer you to the rules 53 (8). It is not a valid point of order for a Councillor to object to an answer merely because that answer is not to the Councillor's satisfaction, which is what you have been doing. A point of order in relation to a Councillor potentially misleading the Chamber can be made succinctly. As I have referred to the points of order you have made improperly, you have attempted to breach section 53 (5) because you have been debating on a point of order.

Councillor MATIC.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, obviously you understand what I said. Obviously Councillor GRIFFITHS and Councillor JOHNSTON choose not to. I'm not going to waste anymore of this Chamber 's time on just the pathetic nonsense that we see in this Chamber, Madam Chairman—

Order.

—as an extension of what those two get up to in committee, Madam Chairman.

Because, I mean, if they want to be childish, or sadly I think in

Councillor GRIFFITHS, it might be—I won't—anyway. Anyway,

Madam Chairman, no further, thank you.


Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Public and Active

Transport Committee was declared carried on the voices.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Peter Matic (Chairman), Councillor Steven Huang (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors

Steve Griffiths, Nicole Johnston and Andrew Wines.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE:

Councillor Margaret de Wit


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

- 43 -

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – SAFE NIGHT OUT STRATEGY AND

NIGHTLINK SERVICES

57/2015-16

Dr Greg Spelman, Manager, Strategy and Network Services, Brisbane Transport, attended the meeting to provide an update on the Safe Night Out Strategy and NightLink Services. He provided the information below.

Council’s NightLink services commenced in December 2005. They operate hourly between midnight and 5am, every Friday and Saturday night between Fortitude Valley/City and various suburban locations.

NightLink services provide public transport coverage options at times of limited transport alternatives, offering pick up from all designated bus stops along the route and drop off anywhere requested, if safe to do so.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

NightLink services that operate currently include:

- N100 – Forest Lake

-

-

N111 – Eight Mile Plains

N130 – Parkinson

N154 – Browns Plains

N184 – Garden City

N199 – West End/Teneriffe

N200 – Carindale

N226 – Wynnum

N339 – Bracken Ridge

N345 – Aspley

N385 – The Gap

N392 – Ferny Grove

N413 – St Lucia

N449 – Riverhills.

Council’s complementary night services include:

- BCG (60) – West End/Teneriffe

- MCG (61) – Ashgrove/Stones Corner.

-

-

Other night services include:

- N250 – Victoria Point

N310 – Sandgate

N555 – Loganholme.

-

-

-

-

Security measures on NightLink services include:

- the Network Coordination Centre (NCC) remains in contact there is a radio emergency switch for the operator personal attack alarms are provided

-

- closed circuit television (CCTV) within buses security guards present: on-board all services at depots

-

-

-

-

-

- at NCC

Eagle Street (stop 153)

George Street (stop 116)

Brunswick Street (stop 211)

Brunswick Street (stop 212)

Chermside Interchange.


- 44 -

8. Safe Night Out Strategy:

- developed by the Queensland Government in June 2014 in partnership with key

- stakeholders including Council has the objective to restore responsible behaviour and respect; stamp out alcohol and

- drug-related violence; and ensure Queensland’s nightlife is safe for all covers 15 Safe Night precincts across the State including three in Brisbane – CBD,

Caxton Street and Fortitude Valley.

9.

-

-

Expected transport related outcomes include:

- Safe Night Out survey undertaken as part of strategy development showed that

91 per cent of respondents agreed that better transport services are required for entertainment precincts

- the strategy identified transport related actions

TransLink executed a communication campaign from late 2014 which promoted the

NightLink services as a safe option the trial of new NightLink services was undertaken in conjunction with a review of existing NightLink services.

10. The features of phase one of the strategy included:

-

- implementation from 18 October 2014 a three year trial of two new NightLink services including:

-

-

-

N345 (Fortitude Valley to Aspley)

N154 (City to Browns Plains via Fortitude Valley, Garden City and

Griffith University) designed to enhance the coverage of the network in conjunction with some realignment of existing services.

11. A route map of the N345 Aspley NightLink service was displayed, indicating:

- all the bus stops en route

- the inbound N345 service offers pick up as required at:

- Aspley Hypermarket

-

-

-

-

Newmarket

Kelvin Grove

Normanby Hotel

Cultural Centre Bus Station

-

-

Adelaide Street Stop 20

Brunswick Street Stop 212.

12. A route map of the N154 Browns Plains via Kangaroo Point, Griffith University and

Garden City service was displayed, indicating all the bus stops en route .

13. The features of phase two of the strategy included:

-

- implementation from 6 December 2014 the primary objectives included:

-

-

- to improve the reliability of existing NightLink services to make minor amendments to some routes to improve coverage for passengers to respond to the emergence of new entertainment hubs and improve demand

-

-

-

-

- responsiveness by allowing outbound services to pick up passengers outside the inner city there were no changes proposed to:

- N130 (Fortitude Valley to Parkinson)

N154 (City to Browns Plains)

N199 (New Farm to City to West End)

N339 (Fortitude Valley to Bracken Ridge)

N345 (Fortitude Valley to Aspley)


- 45 -

-

-

- timetable changes were made to improve accuracy of running times:

- N111 (Fortitude Valley to Eight Mile Plains)

N184 (Fortitude Valley via Cavendish Road to Garden City)

N200 (Fortitude Valley to Carindale).

14. A route map of the N100 Fortitude Valley to Forest Lake service was displayed, indicating:

-

-

- all the bus stops en route the amended running times extension of the terminus to the Richlands Station.

15. A route map of the N226 Fortitude Valley to Wynnum service was displayed, indicating:

-

- all the bus stops en route amended running times

-

- extension of the terminus to Wynnum Plaza bus stop added at Morningside Rail Station.

16. A route map of the N385 Fortitude Valley to The Gap service was displayed, indicating:

-

-

- all the bus stops en route amended timetable for departure and running times commencement of inbound trips from The Gap rather than Paddington.

17. A route map of the N392 Fortitude Valley to Mitchelton service was displayed, indicating:

-

-

- all the bus stops en route this service was renumbered from N390 to N392 the route path was shifted from Kelvin Grove Road corridor to Waterworks Road

- corridor it complements new N345 service, operating along Kelvin Grove Road.

18. A route map of the N413 Fortitude Valley to St Lucia service was displayed, indicating:

-

-

- all the bus stops en route extension of route to operate as a loop along Hawken Drive, Swann Road and

Gailey Road. this service was renumbered from N412 to N413

19. A route map of the N449 Fortitude Valley to Sumner Park service was displayed, indicating:

-

- all the bus stops en route this service replaced the N464 service to Forest Lake

- this now services Jindalee, Mount Ommaney and River Hills (not previously serviced)

- service. the bus stops from Forest Lake to Richlands Station are now services by the N100

20. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Dr Spelman for his informative presentation.



REPORT.

ADOPTED

Chairman: Councillor WINES, motion for afternoon tea please.


ADJOURNMENT:

- 46 -

58/2015-16

At that time, 4.02pm, it was resolved on the motion of Councillor Andrew WINES, seconded by Councillor

Kim MARX, that the meeting adjourn for a period of 15 minutes, to commence only when all Councillors had vacated the Chamber and the doors locked.

Council stood adjourned at 4.05pm.

UPON RESUMPTION:

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT

COMMITTEE

Councillor Amanda COOPER, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment

Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Vicki HOWARD, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 11 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman:

Councillor COOPER:

Councillor COOPER.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, at committee last week we had a presentation about Council's heritage trails. So we've been since 2013 preparing suburban heritage trails and we've prepared approximately 11 of those. So these are self-guided trails that allow residents and visitors to really see the wonderful heritage places or locations of historical significance that feature in our city's suburbs. So they showcase heritage places and they really tell interesting historical tales about locations that are very significant to our beautiful city.

So the trails usually feature heritage properties like Spring Hill Reservoirs,

St Stephen's Cathedral, Waterloo Bay Hotel. They also provide information about significant events and locations such as the Great Fire of Brisbane in 1844 which destroyed 50 buildings, the Rosalie Floods in 1893 or the former site of the Hospital for Sick Children, which was turned into the Presbyterian Church in the late 1800s. The first heritage trails released were the Explore the Secrets of

South Brisbane, the Explore the Vibrant Valley and the Explore the Classic City

Centre.

Other locations include Rosalie, Milton, Albion, Ascot, Hamilton,

Indooroopilly, Bulimba, Spring Hill and Wynnum. So each one has an individual title. Some of them are quite fun, Saunter through Spring Hill or

Meander through Milton. They are an initiative of neighbourhood planning and certainly they are researched and identified as part of the neighbourhood planning process in conjunction with the local community. Each trail is about four kilometres long and includes about 20 different sites making it fun and easy for people to learn more about their local history.

So there are a number of factors we take into consideration when preparing the trails such as the concentration of heritage places, the walkability and availability of historic source material relating to those sites. Disappointingly for

Councillor MURPHY, this meant that Hemmant Lytton was not an ideal one for a choice of a heritage trail because of the walkability issue. I note that that was a grave disappointment to Councillor MURPHY. I did say to him we certainly will look and see if there are other ways we might be able to get that result in a different format.

So all of these heritage trails have a pocket-friendly postcard which is a map of the site. There's a brochure that's available to be downloaded off Council's website and it's got all the information about the sites. For example also there was discussion about the Bulimba heritage trail which was a precursor to this particular project but was also delivered as part of the Bulimba District

Neighbourhood Plan , one of the neighbourhood enhancement programs. It was raised by Councillor SUTTON as to why there was no longer postcards for that site.


- 47 -

I've actually had a look at it for Councillor SUTTON and I'm pleased to inform her, despite the fact that she's not here, hopefully somebody mentions to her, we'll actually be updating and printing more postcards for the Bulimba heritage trail so it will form part of the suite of products we have with respect to this. So certainly I would like to encourage everybody to make the community aware of it.

We also have an Aboriginal cultural trail promoting our cultural history and the

Kangaroo Point natural history project along the Kangaroo Point Cliffs with information about the pioneers of the area. We also had a petition relating to building heights asking for them to be kept at 8.5 metres and reduce five-storey developments to a maximum of three storeys in Wynnum, Manly and Lota. This is a follow-up to another petition that has come through to Council. Council went through an extensive process with the community. We wrote to each individual property owner.

We extended the period of consultation. In fact the local Councillor was directly written to as he was in the area that was surveyed and there was no majority support for this proposal. So that process has been undertaken by Council and has failed to gain majority support. The local Councillor was briefed and was also provided with a hard copy of the submission summary report. Of course he is very well aware of this process. I understand that he does not support the recommendation of the committee but he certainly has had every bit of information as part of that process. Thank you.

Further debate? Chairman:

Chairman: Councillor ABRAHAMS.

Seriatim - Clause B

Councillor Helen ABRAHAMS requested that Clause B, PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL

KEEP HOUSING HEIGHTS AT 8.5 METRES AND REDUCE FIVE-STOREY DEVELOPMENTS TO A

MAXIMUM OF THREE STOREYS IN WYNNUM, MANLY AND LOTA, be taken seriatim for voting purposes.


Chairman:

Chairman:

Councillor HOWARD:

I wish to discuss Item B, which is a petition that is requesting that Council keep building housing heights at 8.5 metres and to reduce the five-storey development to a maximum of three storeys in Wynnum, Manly and Lota. It was presented by Councillor CUMMING and this particular petition had

247 signatories but it is not the first petition on this matter. A previous one has been dealt by Council.

Madam Chair, if you read through the report it gives detail on what has happened but the most important thing is that Councillor CUMMING does not agree with the recommendation and, therefore, Labor Councillors will not be supporting it.

Further debate?

Councillor HOWARD.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, I'm pleased to rise to speak to

Item A, and the presentation by our historian was very interesting. I'm a big fan of our heritage trails. Certainly, some of the very first ones as Councillor was saying before, Explore the Vibrant Valley, Explore the Classic City Centre, were two of the first heritage trails launched in July 2013. So as one of our newer trails, Saunter through Spring Hill, is certainly something that I'm very pleased to see and to support.

Madam Chairman, beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder and now, because of our commitment and the budget allocations, more and more people will be able to appreciate the beauty of our older buildings in Spring Hill through the new heritage trail. For me and for the Spring Hill community the heritage trail is an opportunity to protect the area's significance while showcasing the interesting features of its heritage with locals and visitors. It


- 48 - highlights 21 different sites panning over 3.2 kilometres. I know that the residents are already experiencing the trail at their own pace with their family and friends by downloading the free heritage trail guide through Council's website.

Madam Chairman, we are committed to ensuring as much of our vibrant and colourful past is preserved for our children and our grandchildren to appreciate.

I'm very pleased that this eleventh heritage trail is being so greatly embraced by everyone. So in closing, Madam Chairman, I'd like to thank

Councillor COOPER's launch of the new heritage trail in Spring Hill and for the hard work of our Brisbane City Council officers who prepared the detailed guide. Thank you.

Chairman:

Chairman:

Further debate?

Councillor McLACHLAN.

Councillor McLACHLAN: Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise briefly to speak to Item A and to support what has been said about these heritage trail maps. So, they're proving to be extremely popular in my area. As a Councillor representing one of the older areas of

Brisbane, I'm pleased to say there are three separate trails for Ascot, for Albion and Hamilton. I know that the postcards are popular, that people are coming into the library next door then coming into the ward office to pick up copies of the postcards. Everybody has the opportunity to learn something new about the area that they may not have known as they embark on a walking trail.

So they have a great sense of purpose to identify particular points of interest that people can have, or may have an interest in and learn something new as they embark on the trails which are reasonably easy to negotiate in terms of the distance that's been put together for those particular trails, and the opportunity to embrace the area and the history of the area. Hamilton in particular, of course, has a great history with the racecourse that became Camp Ascot during the

Second World War, and other items of interest that particularly relate to our

World War II heritage with MacArthur being headquartered in the area for his residential address, and also for where a lot of the military intelligence was undertaken.

So I would just like to say thank you to the officers for their diligence and hard work in putting these materials together. I encourage others to encourage the officers to look at where else the heritage trails can be put together because they're certainly proving very popular with our residents.

Chairman:

Councillor COOPER:

Further debate?

Councillor COOPER?

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, as I noted earlier, the local Councillor does not support the petition but with respect to the petition it has gone through extensive consultation with the local community. If there is not a majority support for something that could significantly detrimentally impact on property owners, Council absolutely would not be supporting a proposal that has only got a majority of support from local residents. That would be utterly inappropriate.

I'm disappointed that the ALP, the Australian Labor Party, thinks that would be the right outcome.

I'll also quickly note that there was a query in relation to an application raised in

Question Time. This was something that was again part of the ALP's campaign of sinister foreboding, queue the music to sound sombre and dramatic. They have got absolutely nothing; there is nothing that they can actually put on the table except for innuendo and fabrication. It's quite disappointing. So the application Councillor DICK referred to is currently being assessed. There has been no decision made.

Indeed I would suggest to him he should suggest to his local Councillor perhaps she should make a comment with respect to that application because I note that the Council officers have sought from her as to what her view is in relation to this proposal and she has not commented on the application. She seems to be certainly much more active running around out to Karawatha Ward trying to


- 49 -

Chairman: encourage people to basically pepper Council officers with submissions against development, rather than spending the time doing her job in her own ward.

Perhaps she should actually review development applications in her own ward.

She should do her job that she's paid extremely well to do. Thank you.

I will now—order, order, order. We will continue when there is silence in the

Chamber.

I will now put Item A.

Clause A put

Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of Clause A of the report of the Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment Committee was declared carried on the voices.

Chairman: I will now put Item B.

Clause B put

Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of Clause B of the report of the

Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment Committee was declared carried on the voices.

Thereupon, Councillors Milton DICK and Steve GRIFFITHS immediately rose and called for a division, which resulted in the motion being declared carried .

The voting was as follows:

AYES: 17 - DEPUTY MAYOR, Councillor Adrian SCHRINNER, and Councillors

Krista ADAMS, Matthew BOURKE, Amanda COOPER, Vicki HOWARD,

Steven HUANG, Fiona KING, Kim MARX, Peter MATIC, Ian McKENZIE,

David McLACHLAN, Ryan MURPHY, Angela OWEN-TAYLOR,

Julian SIMMONDS, Steven TOOMEY, Andrew WINES and Norm WYNDHAM.

NOES: 6 - The Leader of the OPPOSITION, Councillor Milton DICK, and Councillors

Helen ABRAHAMS, Kim FLESSER, Steve GRIFFITHS, Shayne SUTTON and

Nicole JOHNSTON.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Amanda Cooper (Chairman), Councillor Vicki Howard (Deputy Chairman), and

Councillors Helen Abrahams, Ryan Murphy, Shayne Sutton and Andrew Wines.

1.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – HERITAGE TRAILS

59/2015-16

Rosemary Shields, Historian, City Architecture and Heritage Team, City Planning and

Economic Development, City Planning and Sustainability Division, attended the meeting to provide an update on Heritage Trails. She provided the information below.

2. Brisbane Heritage Trails is a Neighbourhood Planning initiative. The first three trails were launched in July 2013, and since then eight more have been delivered.

3. The first three trails were Explore the Secrets of South Brisbane, Explore the Vibrant Valley and Explore the Classic City Centre.


- 50 -

4. Other trails include: Reminisce in Rosalie, Meander through Milton, Amble about Albion,

Gallivant Through Ascot and Hamilton, Eye on Indooroopilly, Bulimba Heritage Trail,

Wander through Wynnum and Saunter through Spring Hill.

5.

6.

All of the trails are within the Neighbourhood Planning and Urban Renewal areas.

Several factors were considered when suitable areas were selected for the Heritage Trails including concentration of heritage places and historic sites, walk-ability and availability of historic source material relating to the local area.

7.

8.

A map was displayed which is used as part of the heritage trails.

Each trail is slightly different yet recognisably part of a group with the use of individual themes with a consistent format.

9. It is not only heritage places on the trails. Sites which have an interesting history are also included.

10. All the trails are digital and can be downloaded from the website. Customers are able to download using their iphones, tablets or they can print out from home.

11. The Rosalie and Milton trails are part funded by the State Government. The Local Area

Improvements are delivered by Urban Design. There are both metal plaques and a digital brochure.

12. An image was displayed of the widely distributed postcards which have been printed for each trail with a map and link to the webpage.

13. The promotion of the trails is done through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr,

Media releases, Living in Brisbane, Brisbane Marketing, Brisbane Greeters, the corporate website and Council’s e-message board, e-newsletter, Experience , and the intranet carousel.

14. Images were displayed of recent media about Brisbane Heritage Trails.

15. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Ms Shields for her informative presentation.



REPORT.

ADOPTED

B PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL KEEP HOUSING HEIGHTS

AT 8.5 METRES AND REDUCE FIVE-STOREY DEVELOPMENTS TO A

MAXIMUM OF THREE STOREYS IN WYNNUM, MANLY AND LOTA

CA15/402133 and CA15/405413

60/2015-16

17. Two petitions requesting that Council reinstate the 8.5 metre maximum building height for houses and reduce the five-storey maximum building height to three storeys in Wynnum,

Manly and Lota, was presented to the meeting of Council held on 2 June 2015, by

Councillor Peter Cumming, and received.


- 51 -

18. The Divisional Manager, City Planning and Sustainability Division, supplied the following information.

19. Two petitions contain a total of 247 signatures.

20. The concerns raised in the petitions relate to impacts on property values, loss of views, loss of privacy and bay breezes.

21. On 30 June 2014, Brisbane City Plan 2014 (the City Plan) commenced and increased the self-assessable maximum building height for houses from 8.5 metres to 9.5 metres. This was a citywide amendment intended to improve flood immunity, encourage more flexible building design, allow for varied house design to reflect sloping land, encourage modern sub-tropical design and simplify the approval process.

22. During the public notification of the draft new City Plan in 2013, Council received a number of submissions regarding the maximum building height in the Wynnum Manly area. In response to these concerns, Council committed to undertake further engagement with the local community once the Brisbane City Plan 2014 had commenced.

23. From 1 October to 19 December 2014, Council conducted a survey of over 1,500 property owners in parts of Wynnum and Manly. The boundary of the survey area included those areas where the greatest number of submitters had raised concern about the proposed citywide maximum building height of 9.5 metres during the public notification of the draft new

City Plan. On this basis, the survey area did not include Lota.

24. The survey sought to understand the degree of support for reducing the maximum building height for houses from 9.5 metres to 8.5 metres within the Character residential (Character) and Low density residential zones.

25. Following two separate mail outs, sent via registered mail, and an extension of the consultation period by an additional five weeks, the survey closed on 19 December 2014.

26. The results showed that the majority of property owners did not support a reduction in the maximum building height for houses. For this reason, Council will not be further investigating a house building height reduction in Wynnum, Manly or Lota.

27. The suburbs of Manly and Lota do not contain any sites that are zoned for five-storey residential or centre development. Areas where taller buildings are envisaged are limited to the Wynnum Central Precinct of the Wynnum-Manly Neighbourhood Plan . This precinct includes land in the Medium density and High density residential zones and the Major centre zone. These zones and building heights are consistent with the location being identified as a major regional centre in the South East Queensland Regional Plan 2009 - 2031 .

28. The zoning of the Wynnum Central Precinct was introduced following extensive community consultation when the Wynnum Manly Neighbourhood Plan was prepared from 2008 to 2009 under Brisbane City Plan 2000 (City Plan 2000).

29. There was also extensive citywide consultation as part of the draft new City Plan preparation, during which concerns about five-storey building heights in Wynnum were not raised by the community. Consequently it is not intended to undertake a review of the zoning or building heights in this area.

30. The City Plan includes codes to manage the impacts on amenity from new development.

These include the Dwelling house code, Dwelling house (small lot) code and

Multiple dwelling code. These codes include minimum standards in relation to building heights, site cover, and setbacks which are designed to protect residential amenity.


- 52 -

31. Individual property views are not protected under City Plan. This was also the case under the previous planning scheme, Brisbane City Plan 2000 . It is also noted that applications for houses in excess of 8.5 metres in height were considered and approved under Brisbane City

Plan 2000 .

32. Property values are influenced by a wide variety of factors outside the control of City Plan, including location, house size and design, as well as property condition. These types of factors vary for each individual property.

33. Three previous petitions, containing a total of 559 signatures, raising the same issues were considered by the Council at its meeting on 2 June 2015. At that meeting, it was decided to respond to the petitioners’ request and concerns stating that the City Plan would not be amended to reduce building heights in Wynnum, Manly or Lota.

34. It is considered that the current provisions in City Plan are appropriate for this area and therefore no changes are recommended.

Consultation

35. Councillor Peter Cumming, Councillor for Wynnum Manly Ward, was consulted on

13 July 2015 and does not support the recommendation.

36. The Divisional Manager recommended as follows and the Committee agreed, with

Councillors Helen Abrahams and Shayne Sutton dissenting.

37.

DECISION:

THAT THE PETITIONERS BE ADVISED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DRAFT

RESPONSE BELOW.

ATTACHMENT A

DRAFT RESPONSE

Petition Reference: CA15/402133 and CA15/405413

Thank you for your petitions, presented to Council at the meeting of 2 June 2015, requesting that

Council keep housing heights at 8.5 metres and reduce five-storey developments to a maximum of three storeys in Wynnum, Manly and Lota, to stop residents of Wynnum, Manly and Lota from losing bay breezes, views, privacy and property value.

Your petition was considered by Council at the meeting of 18 August 2015 and Council can respond to you as follows.

Brisbane City Plan 2014 (the City Plan) increased the maximum building height for houses from

8.5 metres to 9.5 metres. During the consultation period for the draft new City Plan in 2013, some residents in the Wynnum Manly area raised concerns about the proposed height increase. While

Council proceeded with the change, a commitment was made to further consider the issue.

Council recently conducted a survey of over 1,500 property owners within the ‘Wynnum Manly house building height review area’, seeking their views on a potential reduction of the maximum house building height from 9.5 metres to 8.5 metres within the Character residential (Character) and

Low density residential zones. The boundary of the survey was designed to respond to

Wynnum Manly areas where the greatest number of residents and property owners had originally raised concerns about the proposed citywide maximum building height of 9.5 metres during the notification of the draft new City Plan. On this basis, the survey area did not include Lota.


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The survey closed on 19 December 2014. The results showed that the majority of owners did not support a reduction in the maximum building height for houses. For this reason, Council will not be further investigating a house building height reduction in Wynnum, Manly or Lota.

Areas where taller buildings are envisaged are limited to the Wynnum Central Precinct of the

Wynnum-Manly Neighbourhood Plan . This precinct includes land in the Medium density and

High density residential zones and the Major centre zone. These zones and building heights are consistent with the location being identified as a major regional centre in the South East Queensland

Regional Plan 2009-2031 . A reduction in building height in this location is not supported.

Council understands petitioners’ concerns about the potential impact of an increase in self-assessable house building heights on existing residents. The City Plan includes codes that manage the impacts of new development on amenity. While the codes set out standards for building height, design and setbacks, views of the bay from individual properties are not protected.

As you may appreciate, property values may be influenced by a wide variety of factors outside the control of the City Plan, including location, house size and design, as well as property condition.

These types of factors vary for each individual property.

I also note that three previous petitions, containing a total of 559 signatures, about the same issues were considered by the Council at its meeting on 2 June 2015. At that meeting, it was decided that the

City Plan would not be amended to reduce building heights in Wynnum, Manly or Lota.

I trust this information is of assistance. If you have any further questions, please contact the

Neighbourhood Planning Brisbane Team, in Council’s City Planning and Sustainability, on

3403 8888.

ADOPTED

ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

Councillor Matthew BOURKE, Chairman of the Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Fiona KING, that the report of the meeting of that Committee held on 11 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman: Councillor BOURKE.

Councillor BOURKE: Thanks very much, Madam Chairman. There was a presentation and a petition that we dealt with last week in the committee meeting. The presentation was on our Student Environmental Leadership Network, or SELN as it's known. The officers gave an update about the program that ran for the 2014-15 financial year. 54 representatives, 33 different schools, Madam Chairman, they delivered

32 projects in conjunction with the Council officer support that they received.

Obviously they also tied into some of our existing programs at some of our environmental centres, as well as supporting and helping at Homeless Connect as well as National Young Leaders Day. They also worked with our Council officers through our Waste and Resource Recovery Services area, our Transport

Planning and Strategy area, and my own area in the Natural Environment, Water and Sustainability area to tie into some of our existing programs and projects that we deliver through those. So Rethink your Rubbish, our Free Native Plants,

Active School Travel, just to name a few, Madam Chairman.

It is a great program that is encouraging young people in our community to get involved in environmental initiatives and to think about future opportunities on how we can be more sustainable. As I said earlier, Brisbane is Australia's most sustainable city. It is this next generation of young leaders who are coming through that are going to continue to deliver on those goals that we have as a

Council to be carbon neutral and sustainable.

The next item, Madam Chairman, was the petition. Before I start, and

Councillor CUMMING is not with us, but there's this reoccurring theme,


3.

4.

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Chairman:

Madam Chairman, from those opposite where they're happy to sit in committee meetings or in this place and make statements and comments around some of the stuff that's coming through. So whether it's E&Cs or whether it's the petitions that we have, Madam Chairman, are blissfully unaware of documents that this

Council has put out. This is a glaring example.

Councillor CUMMING asked a range of questions around flying-fox management, Madam Chairman, including what a statement of management intent was and what ours contained as a Council. I've spoken in this place about our statement of management intent when it comes to dealing with flying-foxes.

We've dealt with petitions previously, Madam Chairman, in this place dealing with flying-foxes, and I've spoken at that point about our Statement of

Management Intent.

Councillor CUMMING last week in the committee meeting tried to cause some scuttle bug I think is the best way of putting it, around the management of flying-foxes by Council, not just at this roost in Perrin Park but in general.

Madam Chairman, dealing with the roost in Perrin Park is a challenging one.

There is a number of competing uses in that park. We have a playground, we have walking tracks. We obviously have the flying-fox roost, Madam Chairman, that we need to as our obligation is under the State legislation, protect, but obviously we need to look at ways to mitigate and manage the impacts that that roost might have on other users in the park.

So the petition clearly outlines the actions that this Council has already undertaken, as well as the actions that this Council plans to undertake going forward. I can only stress; I can only stress these actions are being undertaken in line with our Statement of Management Intent and in line with the legislation that is in place from the State government.

Further debate?

Councillor BOURKE, anything further?

I will now put the report.

Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of the report of the

Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee was declared carried on the voices.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Matthew Bourke (Chairman), Councillor Fiona King (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors

Peter Cumming, Kim Flesser, Kim Marx and Steven Toomey.

1.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – OVERVIEW OF STUDENT

ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK

61/2015-16

Shonel Messer, Senior Program Officer - Community Initiatives, Natural Environment Water and Sustainability Branch, City Planning and Sustainability Division, attended the meeting to provide an overview of the Student Environmental Leadership Network (SELN). She provided the information below.

2. SELN is delivering: Council’s 2031 Vision targets for a Clean, Green City ; Youth Strategy

2014-2019 : Delivering a youth-friendly city; and Brisbane Active Transport Strategy

2012-2026 .

A video of the participants was shown to explain what SELN is.

SELN has 54 representatives with 33 schools involved across the 32 projects.


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5. The achievements for 2014 included 16 waste projects, three gardens projects, one active travel project, four water minimisation projects, 24 environmental clubs initiated/re-energised and five energy saving projects.

6. SELN integrates plans for leadership experiences, some of opportunities to help this include:

Homeless Connect in May 2015, the Lord Mayor’s 100 plus afternoon tea in July 2015,

Real-life learning with a full day excursion to Downfall Creek Environment Centre and the

National Young Leaders Day.

7. Workshops were facilitated by Council officers from Natural Environment, Water and

Sustainability, Waste and Resource Recovery Services, and Transport Planning and Strategy, to provide students with expertise knowledge and support for projects.

8. Guest speakers attended from Healthy Waterways and the Australian Youth Climate

Coalition.

9. SELN helps with the initiation of relationships between SELN schools and Council services including the Rethink Your Rubbish program, Free Native Plants, and Active School Travel.

10. Feedback from schools and parents was displayed.

11. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Ms Messer for her informative presentation.



REPORT.

ADOPTED

B PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REMOVE THE FLYING-FOX

ROOST FROM PERRIN PARK, TOOWONG

CA15/414394

62/2015-16

13. A petition from residents requesting that Council remove the flying-fox roost from

Perrin Park, Toowong, was presented to the meeting of Council held on 2 June 2015, by

Councillor Julian Simmonds, and received.

14. The Divisional Manager, City Planning and Sustainability Division, supplied the following information.

15. The petition contains a total of 71 signatures.

16. The petitioners are concerned about the safety of park-users, the location of the roost directly above the children’s playground, the increase in noise and excrement and the potential for disease.

17. The roost to which the petition refers is located on Council-owned parkland bordered by

Josling Street, Burns Road, Indooroopilly Road, Heroes Avenue and Gaily Road. The roost includes vegetation along Toowong Creek and planted vegetation separated by a bikeway and is adjacent to the Council’s works depot. Residential housing is located nearby and at variable proximity to the roost location.


- 56 -

18. The roost has been active since 2011, with a median population that ranges between 500 and

3,000 flying-foxes according to data from the National Flying-Fox Monitoring Program managed by the Australian Government Department of Environment. The size of the population is known to fluctuate during summer and autumn in line with flying-fox migration and reproductive patterns.

19. Council recognises the ecological importance of flying-foxes and their valuable contribution to sustaining Brisbane’s unique biodiversity. A Flying-fox Statement of Management Intent

(SOMI) was developed to balance the protection of these native animals and habitat with community needs and expectations. The SOMI summarises the level of intervention

(Minimal, Medium, Major or Dispersal) for flying-foxes on Council owned or controlled land in order to minimise adverse impacts of flying-fox roosts on residents and the community.

20. This particular roost has been of interest and debate within the community for many years. In

October 2013, Council removed vegetation between the playground and the flying-foxes roost to preclude further encroachment to the children’s playground. This work resulted in the flying-fox moving into nearby street trees in closer proximity to residential properties. In

June 2015, Council commenced work on a new bikeway to provide an alternative route for users to avoid passing beneath the roost. This bikeway will be completed by the end of 2015.

21. The possibility of flying-foxes transferring diseases to park-users is very low. The Australian

Bat Lyssavirus (ABL) can only be transmitted through a bite or scratch from an infected flying-fox. Biosecurity Queensland’s research has shown that less than one per cent of flying-foxes carry ABL. To ensure the safety of the public and to the animal, Council strongly advises that people do not handle flying-foxes, rather contact Council’s Animal Ambulance

Service delivered by the RSPCA to handle a sick or injured flying-fox.

22. Council has monitored the success of the other local government authorities attempts to disperse or relocate flying-fox camps. It was shown that the relocation and dispersals did not reduce the number of flying-foxes in the local area, and that local residents and businesses in close proximity to the roosts were impacted by dispersal activities. While there may be short-term reprieve, it has been found that any benefit is only temporary, and the flying-foxes usually return to the camp or nearby area quickly.

Consultation

23. Councillor Julian Simmonds, Councillor for Walter Taylor Ward, was consulted on

23 July 2015 and supports the recommendation.


25.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT THE PRINCIPAL PETITIONER BE ADVISED OF THE FOLLOWING: a) Council has undertaken Minimal and Medium intervention works at

Perrin Park in line with Council’s Flying-fox Statement of Management Intent including the removal of vegetation in 2013 to preclude further encroachment of the flying-fox roost to the children’s playground and the ongoing work in 2015 on the new bikeway installation to provide an alternative route for users. b) Additional Minimal or Medium intervention strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of the flying-fox roosts on residents at Perrin Park will continue to be investigated. c) To ensure the safety of the public and to flying-foxes, Council strongly advises that people do not handle flying-foxes, rather, they should contact Council’s


- 57 -

Animal Ambulance Service, delivered by the RSPCA, to handle a sick or injured flying-fox.

ADOPTED

FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE

Councillor David McLACHLAN, Chairman of the Field Services Committee, moved, seconded by

Councillor Norm WYNDHAM, that the report of that Committee held on 11 August 2015, be adopted.

Chairman: Councillor McLACHLAN.

Councillor McLACHLAN: Thank you, Madam Chairman. Four items before us, the first being the committee presentation at Item A which was about the Asphalt and Aggregates

Branch, the highlights for the last financial year. I spoke last week about the asphalting work of that branch, the work extends beyond that of course, beyond road resurfacing. So apart from road resurfacing, the quarries and also asphalt production, so a considerable amount of effort all aimed at producing either the raw materials or delivering the end product for smoother, safer roads.

As I said last week, this is not necessarily pretty work. It could be referred to maybe as the Ron Boswell of Council services, not pretty but pretty effective. It may not make the cover of the tourism magazines as Councillor ABRAHAMS would like but all the work of Asphalt and Aggregates Branch is vitally important to the proper functioning of this city. I thank the officers for their diligent and hard work. They've certainly been working very hard on the introduction of the SAP system to make sure that the efficient delivery of services is continued with SAP.

Chairman:

They've certainly done very well in their reduction in lost time injuries which is very pleasing to see a drop of 58 per cent from nine to four. So these are very good outcomes in terms of their production capacity. They've been increasing their capacity and experimenting with new materials and really hitting their targets as I said last week. This year they overachieved in fact in terms of their road resurfacing goals, so doing extremely well.

The other items were three petitions relating to trees; one in my ward, one in

Bracken Ridge ward, in Councillor COOPER's ward, and the other in

Wynnum Manly, in Councillor CUMMING's ward, sorry about that. So I'll leave the discussion or debate to anybody who would like to comment.

Further debate?



Yes, I rise to speak briefly on Items B, C and D. I'd like just to start with Item D.

I, last week when this matter came to committee thought something was off about this petition. It didn't really make a lot of sense to me why we were doing what was suggested in here, given that there's been surveys, there's been petitions and so forth. I guess it became a lot clearer to me this morning listening to Spenser Howson who interviewed Councillor McLACHLAN and

Councillor CUMMING about the situation.

The situation as we have it is the residents of Andes Street are concerned about nine mature leopard trees and they put in a petition to have the height of the trees reduced by 50 per cent. Not much as been made of the fact that the residents are wanting to reduce the height of the tree by 50 per cent. But I think we understand the intention behind their petition which is to reduce the bulk of the canopy because of its impact on the infrastructure, their homes, their cars and general pedestrian safety. I think it's probably an issue that most Councillors have raised with them quite significantly.

So the first thing I'll say is I understand completely that we can't simply chop off half a tree. The simpleton way in which it has been put to the committee via the

Chairman that this is what the residents want, I think does a disservice to them who are residents genuinely seeking to find a way to manage their street trees.

Now, in reading the information that we were given in Committee, I couldn't


- 58 - work out why we weren't even proposing to just trim the trees because generally

I think the way we should be addressing petitions is to respond as far as possible to trim the trees.

The response put forward by Council really is a do-nothing response. It's basically saying that the 50 per cent height reduction is not supported by

Council; well fair enough. That the Council will maintain and monitor the trees as they continue to mature. Now these trees could have another 30 or 40 year life before they're a problem from an arborist point of view but clearly they're a problem from the residents' point of view. We note that Council no longer plants leopard trees but they'll undertake a replacement program using currently planted species over time based on the arborist's assessment of the health and safety of the trees.

Now that's like playing Russian roulette I reckon. You can be waiting 30 years for an arborist to say that tree is right to go and a replacement go in. So I guess I wanted to see a practical outcome for the residents which was why don't we trim the trees so that there is a reduction in the canopy which is obviously a concern to them in line with Australian standards. As the background to the paper indicated, there was a tree at number 10 Andes Street that was damaging the kerb and channel, pushing up the footpath, interfering with service lines.

To me it made sense to remove that tree because it does meet Council's criteria that trees can be removed even if they're in good health if they are a risk to person and property. Clearly Council's own paperwork today identifies the tree outside number 10 as a risk both to person and property. Now as I understand it based on the letters I see from Council all the time, we've now identified this tree as a problem. If something happens to that resident, to their house, to their property, this Council will be liable for fixing that. I think that it would be prudent to address the one tree that Council has identified as being problematic in the street.

Now that's the advice of the arborist before us today, that the one outside number 10 is one; entangled in the service wires to the resident's property. So that's a Council street tree that has directly affected presumably telephone lines, data lines. I'm not sure what else might be connected but it's directly impacted on the service lines. I'll read it again. The leopard tree in front of

10 Andes Street has entangled the service lines to the resident's property and is beginning to cause damage to the kerb and channel.

To me I don't understand why that one won't be removed so I moved an amendment last week to that effect because as far as possible, we need to be genuinely addressing resident's concerns. To that respect I draw residents' attention to the Hamilton ward and Bracken Ridge wards where the two other petitions largely are being addressed. They might not be getting everything the resident wanted in the petition but the trees are getting trimmed or they're removing pine trees and whatever else. It's amazing isn't it that there's one response in one ward and a completely different response in another.

So I guess from my point of view, I don't understand why we would be saying, for example, in Item B that we are going to trim the trees but not in Item D.

There's an inconsistent approach to the way in which we are responding to residents' concerns around the city. I'm not suggesting why that might be. I'm simply pointing out that there is an inconsistent approach. Now what makes it worse is what I heard on the radio this morning, which is

Councillor CUMMING received the petition response as you do, with Council officers suggesting that he goes out and surveys residents to ask their views about what should happen to the trees.

Overwhelmingly, as I understand it, that survey showed that the residents in the street wanted the trees removed. Council has ignored all of that so they've ignored the petition, then they've ignored the survey. So twice these residents have told Council what they want and twice this Council is basically saying no, sorry, go away, not interested. We're just going to maintain and monitor the trees. So that's a do-nothing response that I don't think even tries to address the concerns of the residents.


Chairman:

Councillor CUMMING:

- 59 -

Now I understand Councillor CUMMING's position. I don't want to see all these street trees removed and I don't want that being represented as my view here today. All I suggested is that given there is one tree outside number 10 that is causing structural problems to Council's assets and causing interference with the service lines connecting to number 10, that we look at removing that tree and two; we do out-of-schedule pruning to help reduce the bulk of the canopy, which hopefully would help address the petitioner's concerns.

I don't think all these trees need to be removed but I think the response that we have here from Council is massively patronising. What I don't understand is if the arborists are recommending that the trees are kept, why they'd then be telling

Councillor CUMMING to go and survey residents when that survey will be ignored by Council. That is treating residents with disrespect in my view and the political game-playing that has gone on here over this petition I think is really outrageous. If we're respecting residents we should listen to them. Yes, we have to deal with the issues from a policy point of view but the policy in this case does give us some scope to address the issue with respect to the removal of at least one of these trees.

So I was bemused when this came through committee last week. It made complete sense that this was just some sort of, I don't know, weird attempt to tell a Councillor to go and survey on an issue when this Council had no intention of doing the right thing by the residents, who in good faith not only petitioned the

Council but then responded to a survey that they were asked to provide. So I just don't understand why Councillor McLACHLAN is not being consistent with the way in which we're providing responses to the committee.

I just think that there should be a more practical response to the concerns that residents are raising. I just think that we can be more proactive in trying to find a middle ground to address residents' concerns rather than playing silly political games like what's appeared to have gone on here, which is not leading to a good outcome for anybody. The residents think Council is hopeless because they've petitioned and surveyed and we're still not doing what they want.

Councillor CUMMING goes out and bags Councillor McLACHLAN and the

LNP for making him do something that they were never going to do in the first place.

Councillor McLACHLAN is in here trying to justify why the officers who might have been a bit overzealous did what they did. I mean this is not good management of an issue. Yes, footpath last week and a tree this week and I don't understand it. All I seek here is a practical and responsive outcome for the residents and I cannot see that it is being delivered.

Further debate?

Councillor CUMMING.

Madam Chair, I refer to Item D and I think Councillor JOHNSTON is a bit harsh on this occasion. I think that a public debate on Council's tree policy between myself and Councillor McLACHLAN is a worthy exercise and something that needs to be aired from time to time. The survey that I did which as it were gave residents the option to decide whether the trees would be removed from their street. My view was it would have been a big change in

Council's policy in this place.

There are nine leopard trees in that street, about five of them are very large, very old and the street's got—the middle part of the street is nicely shaded by leopard trees. It's a nice cool street in summer months et cetera . I think for those trees to be removed albeit replaced by a tree that wouldn't have grown as high, I think would have been unjustified and I think would have been a new policy for the

Council which I think could have had adverse consequences across the city. I guess it's a bit disappointing that the petition response didn't go into a bit more detail and include my survey in it but anyhow, that's one of those things.

I should put on the record the residents did vote in favour of having all the

Leopard trees removed, 17 to five. That was the petition, 17 to five plus the, as I say Golden Pendas were suggested as the tree that would replace them. I think


- 60 -

Chairman: the response to the petition which is in today's papers is I think a reasonable response. It's in accordance with Council's longstanding policy in this place that the Brisbane City Council is a tree loving council. It's a council that looks to plant as many trees as it can and to maintain its trees that are footpath trees.

The response does leave it open to Council if there was evidence available and the arborists looked at the trees and thought that were branches that were likely to fall or the trees were diseased or anything, that action could be taken then, and they could be removed and replaced with other trees. But there's no evidence of that at this stage and therefore I think the response that has been given is a reasonable response and I'm happy to support it.

Further debate?

Councillor McLACHLAN.

Councillor McLACHLAN: Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank Councillor CUMMING for his thoughtful contribution to this discussion on Item D. As was discussed the original petition was for a fairly, well a very severe treatment of these mature trees, asked for them to be cut in half. So you would have been left with big mature tree trunks—would have been all that was left. This isn't a tree trim exercise that was being asked for, it was to cut them in half and that would have signed the death warrant for these trees. Clearly that was untenable.

The response that we have here today is to continue the Council policy of maintenance, monitoring and maintenance. That does mean that if there are branches at risk of falling they will be trimmed according to the tree policy and the trees will be left there and monitored by our arborists. If there is any future decision that is required for removal, that would be subject to an arborist recommendation at the time and would be on an individual tree basis. But I'm pleased to see that the trees of Wynnum are safe and that we have a good outcome in regards to this particular petition. Thank you, Madam Chair.


Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the report of the Field Services Committee was declared carried on the voices.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor David McLachlan (Chairman), Councillor Norm Wyndham (Deputy Chairman), and

Councillors Nicole Johnston, Kim Marx and Ian McKenzie.


Councillor Peter Cumming.

1.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ASPHALT AND AGGREGATES

BRANCH KEY HIGHLIGHTS 2014-15

63/2015-16

Terry Bird, Manager, Asphalt and Aggregates Branch, Field Services Group (FSG), Brisbane

Infrastructure Division attended the meeting to provide an update on Asphalt and Aggregates

Branch Key Highlights 2014-15. He provided the information below.

2. Asphalt and Aggregates Branch has three core streams:

- Asphalt Production:

-

-

Eagle farm

Riverview


3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

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-

-

-

-

Road Surfacing:

- Road Maintenance

Road Resurfacing

Asphalt Transport

-

-

- Line Marking

Quarries:

-

Mt Coot-tha Quarry

Pine Mt Recycling

Bracalba Quarry.

-

-

The key events and overall achievements for the financial year 2014-15 include:

- SAP training in July 2014

SAP Asphalt and Works Management ‘Go-Live’ in October 2014 storm event and dealing with its effects in November 2014

-

-

-

- ex-tropical cyclone Marcia rain event and dealing with its effects in February 2015 installation of Mandalay, the new weighbridge system for ticketing and docketing dealing with the effects of the 1 May rain event in May 2015 triple certification of all FSG in May 2015.

People, Safety, Environment and Quality teams’ achievements include:

-

-

-

-

Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) dropped by 58% (9 to 4)

LTIs’ frequency dropped from 25.00 to 10.56 employee engagement at 68% was the highest in FSG the Branch retained International Standards Organisation (ISO) Triple Certification,

National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) Certification and Department of

Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) Certification.

-

-

-

-

Asphalt Production achievements include:

- produced 388,000 tonnes of Asphalt reused 56,488 tonnes of recycled asphalt trialled the next generation enrobés à module élevé (EME) Asphalt with universities implemented the Mandalay Software for weighbridge and sales functions

Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) mix approvals AC14 and DG 18 EVA achieved.

-

-

Road Surfacing achievements include:

- resurfaced 857,615 square metres of road network - 261 streets resurfaced

- completed filling of 93,063 potholes recycled 170,000 tonne materials from road resurfacing activities implemented SAP Assets and Works Management module and mobile devices

(iPads).

-

-

Quarry achievements include:

- produced over 1,700,000 tonnes of high quality aggregates and construction materials recycled 170,000 tonnes of construction materials from Council Programs supplied Council Projects - Ravens Street Reserve, Wynnum Foreshore and Landfill

-

Operations supported ANZAC Centenary refurbishments.

Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mr Bird for his informative presentation.

RECOMMENDATION:


REPORT.

ADOPTED


- 62 -

B PETITION – PETITION CALLING ON COUNCIL TO HALVE THE

HEIGHT OF THREE PAPERBARK TREES IN NORMAN STREET,

WOOLOOWIN

CA15/390448

64/2015-16

10. A petition from residents calling on Council to halve the height of three paperbark trees in

Norman Street, Wooloowin, was presented to the meeting of Council held on 12 May 2015, by Councillor David McLachlan, and received.

11. The Executive Manager, Field Services Group, Brisbane Infrastructure Division supplied the following information.

12. The petition contains 10 signatures.

13. Mr Graham Bridge, Regional Arboriculture Coordinator, evaluated the trees against all elements of Council’s Tree Removal Policy and industry standards and met with the head petitioners on site on 28 May 2015 to discuss the outcome of his assessment.

14. Mr Bridge found one tree required removal due to poor structure. The remaining two trees were not considered to be detrimental to the safety of residents, therefore it is recommended that they be retained and minor pruning undertaken to reduce overhang into the property.

Reducing the height of the trees by half was not considered an option, as Council is committed to pruning trees to the relevant Australian pruning standards that recommend against ‘lopping’ of trees due to the detrimental effects on tree structure.

Consultation

15. Councillor David McLachlan, Councillor for Hamilton Ward has been consulted and he supports the recommendation.

Preferred option

16. It is the preferred option that Council advise the petitioners that one tree will be removed due to poor structure and the remaining two trees will be pruned and retained. Council does not agree to reduce the trees by half as this would significantly impact the health and structure of these trees.

17. Accordingly, the Executive Manager therefore recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.


IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE PETITIONERS BE ADVISED THAT COUNCIL

HAS ASSESSED THE THREE TREES AGAINST ALL ELEMENTS OF COUNCIL’S

TREE REMOVAL POLICY AND HAS DETERMINED THAT ONE STREET TREE

WILL BE REMOVED BASED ON ITS POOR STRUCTURAL CONDITION. THE

REMAINING TWO TREES ARE NOT CONSIDERED TO BE AN IMMINENT RISK

TO PERSON OR PROPERTY AND WILL BE RETAINED. They cannot be reduced by half as this would significantly impact their health and structure, however Council has agreed to clearance pruning away from the property.

ADOPTED


- 63 -

C PETITION – PETITION BY RESIDENTS CALLING ON COUNCIL TO

REMOVE ONE PINE TREE IN LUCAN AVENUE, ASPLEY

CA15/450192

65/2015-16

19. A petition by residents calling on Council to remove one Pine tree in Lucan Avenue, Aspley, was presented to the meeting of Council held on 16 June 2015, by

Councillor Amanda Cooper, and received.


21. The petition contains five signatures.

22. Mr Gawain Cotterell met on site with the head petitioner on 29 June 2015 to discuss the outcome of his assessment. Mr Cotterell evaluated the tree against all elements of Council’s

Tree Removal Policy and industry standards. He confirmed that since the previous inspection in 2013, a terminal fungal disease common to this Pine species has infected the tree and the tree should be removed. The fungal disease is in the early stages of infection. Mr Cotterell confirmed there was no evidence of termite activity or potential branch failure that would be an immediate hazard.

23. As a result of the infection, the tree will be scheduled for removal.

Consultation

24. Councillor Amanda Cooper, Councillor for Bracken Ridge Ward has been consulted and supports the recommendation.

Preferred Option

25. That Council advise the petitioners that Council will remove the Pine tree as it is infected with a terminal fungal disease.

26. Accordingly, the Executive Manager therefore recommended as follows and the Committee agreed.


IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE PETITIONERS ARE ADVISED THAT

COUNCIL HAS ASSESSED THE PINE TREE AT 89 LUCAN AVENUE, ASPLEY

AGAINST ALL ELEMENTS OF COUNCIL’S TREE REMOVAL POLICY AND HAS

DETERMINED THE TREE HAS A FUNGAL DISEASE. AS A RESULT THE TREE

WILL BE SCHEDULED FOR REMOVAL.

ADOPTED

D PETITION – REQUESTING THAT COUNCIL REDUCE BY 50 PER CENT

THE HEIGHT OF NINE MATURE LEOPARD TREES IN ANDES STREET,

MANLY WEST

CA15/279445

66/2015-16

28. A petition requesting that Council reduce by 50 per cent the height of nine mature Leopard trees in Andes Street, Manly West, was received during the Autumn Recess 2015.



- 64 -

30. A petition with nine signatures was sent to Councillor Cumming on 14 March 2015 requesting that Council reduce the height of nine mature Leopard trees. The petitioners expressed concern about the trees falling onto their houses and public safety due to all the recent storm events and a tragic incident in Melbourne resulting from a falling tree.

31. The nine mature Leopard trees located in Andes Street were inspected by qualified Arborist

Mr Benjamin Inman, Arboriculture Coordinator from Council’s Asset Services East Region on 28 April 2015. Mr Inman conducted a risk assessment on all of the Leopard trees within the street and found that these trees carried a low risk rating of the likelihood of part or complete tree failures occurring within the next 12 months.

32. Reducing the height of these trees by 50 per cent would be detrimental to the health and structure of these trees. After pruning a tree in this manner, poor branch attachments occur, that in turn increase the likelihood of branch failures occurring in strong wind events. This pruning technique also goes against the Australian standards of pruning amenity trees

(AS4373 2007 Pruning of Amenity Trees) to which Council adheres.

33. However, this species of tree does produce a large amount of ongoing tree debris that is regarded as a nuisance to the residents who live with these trees, and this will increase in the future as the trees mature. As these trees mature they will outgrow their growing environment and begin to cause damage to surrounding infrastructures e.g. kerb and channel, roadway, driveways, underground and above ground services. The Leopard tree in front of 10 Andes

Street has entangled the service wires to the resident’s property and is already beginning to cause damage to the kerb and channel.

Funding

34. Estimated expenditure to remove the nine Leopard trees and replace with approved species would be approximately $10,000 to $15,000. This would need to be funded out of the

Contract tree maintenance budget.

Consultation

35. Councillor Peter Cumming, Councillor for Wynnum Manly Ward has been consulted and supports the recommendation.

Customer Impact

36. The requested pruning would severely damage the health and structure of these nine trees and the trees may die as a result. This type of pruning will result in an increase in the density of the tree canopy and an increased safety risk of branch failure occurring in heavy wind events.

Preferred Option

37. That Council advise the petitioners:

- that the requested 50 per cent height reduction is not supported by Council, based on arborist advice that this could severely damage the trees’ health and structure, that the

- trees may die as a result, and that this type of pruning could result in an increased safety risk of branch failure. that Council will continue to maintain and monitor the trees as they continue to mature.

- noting that Council no longer plants Leopard trees as street trees, Council will undertake a replacement program using currently planted species such as

Golden Penda over time, based on arborist assessment of the health and safety of the existing trees.


- 65 -

Amendment motion

38. During consideration of the petition, Councillor Nicole Johnston moved an amendment that the recommendation be amended to indicate that all trees in Andes Street will be trimmed, and to order removal of the tree at 10 Andes Street.

39. After debate, the Chairman put the vote to the Committee and it was declared lost, with

Councillor Nicole Johnston voting in favour.

40. Accordingly, the Executive Manager therefore recommended as follows and the Committee agreed, with Councillor Nicole Johnston dissenting.


IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE PETITIONERS BE ADVISED:

- THAT THE REQUESTED 50 PER CENT HEIGHT REDUCTION IS NOT

SUPPORTED BY COUNCIL, BASED ON ARBORIST ADVICE THAT THIS

COULD SEVERELY DAMAGE THE TREES’ HEALTH AND STRUCTURE,

-

-

THAT THE TREES MAY DIE AS A RESULT, AND THAT THIS TYPE OF

PRUNING COULD RESULT IN AN INCREASED SAFETY RISK OF

BRANCH FAILURE

THAT COUNCIL WILL CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN AND MONITOR THE

TREES AS THEY CONTINUE TO MATURE

NOTING THAT COUNCIL NO LONGER PLANTS LEOPARD TREES AS

STREET TREES, COUNCIL WILL UNDERTAKE A REPLACEMENT

PROGRAM USING CURRENTLY PLANTED SPECIES SUCH AS GOLDEN

PENDA OVER TIME, BASED ON ARBORIST ASSESSMENT OF THE

HEALTH AND SAFETY OF THE EXISTING TREES.

ADOPTED

BRISBANE LIFESTYLE COMMITTEE

Councillor Krista ADAMS, Chairman of the Brisbane Lifestyle Committee, moved, seconded by

Councillor Andrew WINES, that the report of that Committee held on 11 August 2015, be adopted.

At that time, 4.57pm, the Deputy Chairman, Councillor Vicki HOWARD, assumed the Chair.

Deputy Chairman:

Councillor ADAMS:

Councillor ADAMS.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. Last week's presentation in the Lifestyle

Committee was on our digital library so we did focus on newspapers, magazines and music. We had a bit of a practical display for our Councillors to get involved in how to use PressReader and Zinio, and Freegal was also handed out on a worksheet as well. So this is a reflection of the rise that we've seen in our digital technology across all media including our subscription based services and content. So we are making sure that we continue to offer more digital resources as part of our library collection.

The Australian Library and Information Association predicts that by 2020 up to

80 per cent of the content in libraries could be digital. Not what we're seeing so far but that is the prediction that it might be the way of the future. It does reflect, however, that what we're seeing in our Brisbane City Council libraries is online resources definitely growing in demand. They want more information. Our residents want more recreational reading. They want to be able to listen to podcasts, audiobooks and music. So we have tried to support this trend by making sure we provide both physical and digital environments, and options for customers that fit their preferred time, place and purpose.

So some of the digital products that we looked at last week supplied by Council libraries as I said, mentioned, included PressReader, which is newspapers and


Deputy Chairman:

- 66 - some magazines, Zinio which is all magazines, and Freegal which I've spoken about here, which is music. So these products can be streamed by any normal web browser or downloaded using apps for viewing at a time that's convenient to the customer, and can be accessed in a variety of ways, whether it's desktop computer, through your mobile phone, on your iPad or at the library as well.

The PressReader app was released in September 2014 and provides full digital replicas of current edition newspapers. So if you have a Council library membership and you are connected to the Council Wi-fi as we are here right now, you can download full content of 3,000 Australian and international publications from more than 100 countries in more than 60 languages. What we saw there was actually over 35,000 issues that were actually released for

PressReader in 2014-15. Since March this year we have had unlimited simultaneous access to PressReader as well. So that means if you're in

PressReader hotspots or in the Council Wi-fi as mentioned, you can actually connect to the PressReader.

We also offer a Radiant feature so if you download the newspaper on a Friday while you're in here in City Hall, you can download it through the Council library network for free on Saturday and Sunday for another 48 hours if you've done that as well. So very handy for those in this place that seem to be slightly addicted to the newspapers that we need to read every morning as well. They also have remote access through Windows features. They have language translations. You can plug it into your Bluetooth in your car and it will read the paper to you as you drive to work as well. So there are listening options there as well, which of course makes it very all accessible and inclusive for those who have poor vision.

Zinio digital magazine services commenced in November 2013. 282 titles when they started; They've now got 413. We had 58,000 plus checkouts in 2013. We had over 120,000 last financial year so people are starting to realise that you don't need to buy your magazines. You can go on Zinio and download them through your library membership as well. So it's also great that they are still undergoing some of the upgrades on Zinio. They've got to the point now where they can let you know if a new digital release has come out. You can search by genre or title. You can check out as many issues as you like and you get to keep them on your iPad or your phone or whatever you're downloading them to. You can also get back issues.

Of course Freegal I've spoken about so many times, downloadable streaming music collection. You can search by song, by artist. We're actually seeing less people downloading songs on Freegal. We are actually seeing a huge increase in the streaming and you can stream for up to three hours a day on Freegal. I can say something that my teenagers apparently like having it on in the background while they're doing their homework. I don't know how that works with maths but they are streaming rather than actually downloading the songs themselves.

So from January 2013, they started with three million songs; now they've got over eight million songs so there really is something for everyone. What we saw was a huge increase. So we had 197,000 plus when we started in 2013-14; last financial year, over 246,000. So our customers are definitely starting to get on to our digital downloads that you can do through our library. We're not just about buying books. There were worksheets on how to actually access these. If any

Councillors would like those, they can contact me as well.

Councillor GRIFFITHS and former Councillor Newton have a copy.

Of course, you can go to any library and the librarians will help you. There's also free workshops if you want to learn about it as well. But 24 hours a day, latest newspapers and magazines, pretty hard to beat. Thank you,

Madam Deputy Chair.

Is there further debate?

Councillor MARX.


Councillor MARX:

- 67 -

Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. I rise to speak also on the Brisbane Lifestyle

Committee report committee presentation; digital library, newspapers, magazines and music.

Now, while I am not actually in this committee, I did enter the room while the committee was still going to be delighted to see that there was a presentation on this thing called Zinio and Freegal. Being the age I am, I had no idea what they were so I was very interested to hear. Obviously I wasn't allowed to ask any questions but the librarians were more than happy to help me set up my iPad and get PressReader and all that sort of stuff and put in my library card and everything else that I needed to do. So I'm all set to go.

So really the reason—I can't really add anything more to what

Councillor ADAMS has said here today because she, as always, comprehensively covers her committee presentation. I just wanted to add the fact that it is such a delight to know that Brisbane City Council, we're not just about the three Rs; roads, rates and rubbish. We really do provide so many things for our residents and I am always surprised every week by a new thing— not necessarily new. That’s been around for a while that I didn't actually know about—and I just love to go to as many different committee presentations I can because that's how we learn, just some of the things that we do offer here in

Brisbane City Council and I'm delighted to be a part of that. Thank you.

Thank you. Further debate?

Councillor ADAMS?

Deputy Chairman:


Upon being submitted to the Chamber by the Chairman, the motion for the adoption of the report of the

Brisbane Lifestyle Committee was declared carried on the voices.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Krista Adams (Chairman), Councillor Andrew Wines (Deputy Chairman), and Councillors

Steve Griffiths, Steven Huang and Victoria Newton.


Councillor Margaret de Wit.

1.

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – DIGITAL LIBRARY NEWSPAPERS,

MAGAZINES AND MUSIC

67/2015-16

Sharan Harvey, Branch Manager, Library Services, Brisbane Lifestyle Division, attended the meeting to provide an update on Digital Library Newspapers, Magazines and Music. She provided the information below.

2. In recent years there has been a rise in digital technology across all media, including subscription-based services and content. Therefore, libraries have adapted to provide both physical and digital environments. Council looks to provide options that best suit customers and fit their preferred time, place and purpose. The Australian Library and Information

Association predicts that by 2020 up to 80 per cent of the content in libraries will be digital.

3. There are a number of opportunities and challenges involved in incorporating digital content into library operations. Digital content is still an immature market and a number of vendors are concerned that making content available in libraries may affect the sale volume. The fragmented content and platforms available in the market also make it difficult to provide


- 68 - variety for the customers. However, Council continues to build relationships with suppliers and vendors and the available apps continue to improve.

4. The digital products supplied by Council libraries include PressReader (newspapers and some magazine content), Zinio (magazines) and Freegal (music). These products can be accessed in a variety of ways such as desktop computers, mobile devices, in the library or remotely.

These products can be streamed via a normal web browser or downloaded using apps for viewing at a time and place that is convenient to the customer.

5. The PressReader app, released in September 2014, provides full digital replicas of current edition newspapers and magazines. Users can access this service without a Council library membership. PressReader provides the full-content of 3,000 Australian and international publications from more than 100 countries in more than 60 languages. 35,161 issues were read using PressReader in 2014-15. Since mid-March, unlimited users can access a particular issue, up from 20 concurrent users.

6. Current issues of publications are viewable plus content from the previous 90 days.

Customers can download up to five full publications per day. PressReader is accessible via

Council libraries and some Council Wi-Fi locations with no need to log in. This comes with a

48-hour remote access window feature. Language translation and audio listening options are available. Images of the available newspapers were shown as well as screenshots of the

PressReader app.

7. The Zinio digital magazines service commenced in November 2013 with 282 titles of wide-ranging genres and popular content there are now 413 titles. In the year 2013-14, there were 58,310 checkouts logged using Zinio. In the year 2014-15 checkouts increased by

106 per cent to 120,107. Subscriptions are reviewed annually in September, subject to publisher review. Council undertakes ongoing development of the service including improvements to login, browser reading and the Zinio for Libraries app. Images were shown of some of the magazines available in Zinio as well as screenshots of the Zinio app.

8.

-

-

-

-

Zinio has the following features:

- digital issues as are released at the same time as print issues users can search by genre or title users can check out as many issues as they like, with no return dates back issues are available for the life of the subscription users can opt-in for notification of new issues.

9. Freegal is a downloadable and streaming music collection. It was launched in January 2013 with three million songs including the Sony Music Entertainment catalogue. Now it features over eight million songs and 15,000 videos with Australian and international artists from over

28,000 labels. In the year 2013-14, 197,307 items were downloaded or streamed. This increased to 246,455 items downloaded or streamed in 2014-15.

10. Freegal allows users to search by song, artist or album and browse by genre or popularity.

Desktop and app versions are available which allow subscribers to download three songs, or one song and one video per week. The service also allows three hours of streaming per day.

Images were shown of a variety of content available as well as screenshots of the Freegal app.

11. Ms Harvey conducted a tutorial to show committee members how to access Zinio from a mobile device.

12. The Chairman thanked Ms Harvey for her informative presentation.


- 69 -



REPORT.

ADOPTED

FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE

Councillor Julian SIMMONDS, Chairman of the Finance, Economic Development and Administration

Committee, moved, seconded by Councillor Ryan MURPHY, that the report of that Committee held on

11 August 2015, be adopted.

Deputy Chairman:


Councillor SIMMONDS.

Thank you very much. Just a couple of items that I wanted to run through before

I hand debate over the Chamber.

First of all, to thank my committee very much for their indulgence last week for accepting my absence and to thank the Deputy Chairman,

Councillor Ryan MURPHY very much for so ably taking the committee and also moving my report in Chamber last week.

Last week we also opened in the Brunswick Street Mall the newest pod which is an exciting initiative. We already have one pod down there, which is the

Tuckeria. The new pod is a—it's a containment pod, I guess you'd call it, a community pod. It's there to not only provide a stage for activation of the

Brunswick Street Mall but it's also there to—it's got a little bit of a

Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in it which people can visit and a couple of other functions as well.

So it's all part of adding to the daytime of the Brunswick Street Mall forming the

$4 million redevelopment that the Council did earlier in the term. So it's great to see that open. For Councillors who are interested, we've also completed work in the Queen Street Mall. So the old VIC is completely gone and you're now free to walk around because they've redone the paving and everything so that new bit of open space between the old VIC and the old Jimmy's, which are now both removed, looks fantastic in the Queen Street Mall. Everything is happening in

Councillor HOWARD's ward. Well done, Councillor HOWARD.

Deputy Chairman:

There was a question, I noticed—there's a question I took on notice at this morning's committee meeting relating to City of Brisbane Investment

Corporation and to Brisbane Marketing. As I said, I was away last week so I didn't want to check my fax but indeed it was exactly the same question that was asked and answered in the notice paper last week. So I'd refer

Councillor FLESSER and Councillor SUTTON to that answer. In fact, because

I'm feeling particularly generous today, I could also refer them to the annual reports of both those organisations which are freely available to the public if they care to use the eyes and legs that god gave them to do the work.

Finally, Madam Chairman, can I just extend my thanks to everybody involved in

2015 Asia Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) which was such a fantastic event and on which the committee received a report last week. I think that those who attended, and I did notice not only Councillors from this side but also

Councillors from the other side of the Chamber who attended as well, certainly got a lot out of it. My favourite speaker was Randi Zuckerberg for anybody who is interested. I thought she gave a really insightful presentation and gave us a great idea of some global digital trends.

I will yield the floor to further debate. Thank you.

Further debate?

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR.

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR: Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair.


- 70 -

Madam Deputy Chair, I rise to speak in respect of the APCS. Madam Deputy

Chairman, this is a fantastic event for our city. Can I also follow up

Councillor SIMMONDS' comments in extending our thanks to the many people who supported this event, whether they supported it by way of sponsorship, by attendance, by volunteering as many of our volunteers, our ambassadors, our translators and also our sister-city and multicultural round-table representatives who attended and supported and not only just did that, but they also talked it up on a wider scale and encouraged people to come here.

Madam Deputy Chairman, there are so many people who worked behind the scenes, from our International Relations and Multicultural Affairs team and also from our Protocol and Civic Events team. Without their hard work in planning many aspects of the courtesy calls, these courtesy calls would not have gone off in the professional and courteous manner that they needed to be done.

Madam Deputy Chairman, those Council officers—there are quite a number of them and I know that they worked diligently, professionally and so hard behind the scenes and we do owe them a debt of gratitude because they put a significant amount of work in over the time. There's also a lot of other staff throughout

Council who supported the event as well. So to them we do extend our thanks as well.

Madam Deputy Chairman, in respect of the many people that I met through the process of the APCS, there were many, but I did get to spend some time with

Lord Sebastian Coe and many of the things that he conveyed were very insightful. He's got a great perspective on the way that we should engage with community and especially with young people because they are our future. So it was great to have an opportunity to spend some time with him but also to meet many of the visiting delegations.

Certainly, there were a number of delegations here from our sister-cities and it was wonderful to connect with many of the different mayors, and with a number of them I've met them before, and we have an ongoing working relationship. So it was very good to catch up and certainly from that sister-city perspective, it's an enhancement to our relationship.

Madam Deputy Chairman, I would just like to say that the Asia Pacific City

Summit, whilst it has been going for a significant period of time, it is continually refreshed. It is continually offering New World City aspects and I think this is part and parcel of why it has become an ever-increasing success. So to everybody involved, congratulations and a job well done.

Thank you. Further debate?

Councillor SIMMONDS?

Deputy Chairman:


Upon being submitted to the Chamber, the motion for the adoption of the Finance, Economic Development and

Administration Committee was declared carried on the voices.




ATTENDANCE:

Councillor Ryan Murphy (Deputy Chairman); and Councillors Kim Flesser, Fiona King,

Angela Owen-Taylor and Shayne Sutton.


Councillor Julian Simmonds (Chairman)


- 71 -

A COMMITTEE PRESENTATION – ASIA PACIFIC CITIES SUMMIT 2015

68/2015-16

1. Nicole Andronicus, International Relations and Multicultural Affairs Manager, Lord Mayor’s

Administration Office, Office of the Lord Mayor and Chief Executive Officer attended the meeting to present on the Asia Pacific Cities Summit 2015. She provided the information below.

2. The presentation was introduced with a short video showcasing the highlights of the

Asia Pacific Cities Summit 2015 (APCS) which was held on 5-8 July 2015.

3. The theme for APCS was ‘business and leadership in the Asia Pacific’. Since its inception in

1996, the APCS has developed an identity and focus that is increasingly about business. The

APCS provides opportunity to connect with leaders of the Asia Pacific and facilitates cooperative engagement between business and government. In 2015, over 95 mayors and deputy mayors attended the APCS representing from regions all over Australasia, Asia, the

Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

4. Over the four days of the APCS, the event facilitated: 106 business introductions,

312 business leads, 17 intergovernmental meetings and 43 courtesy calls. A new approach to the APCS was undertaken that included the emphasis on the following themes: Global Cities,

Digital Cities, Future Cities and Cities for People. These themes enhanced the program and shaped the way sponsorship and exhibition spaces interacted with attendees at the APCS

Market Square.

5. The ACPS program featured 126 speakers from across the world including key note speakers

Sebastian Coe, SY Lau and Randi Zuckerberg.

6. The Young Professionals’ Forum was fully subscribed with 106 participants; both local and international. The young professionals had an opportunity to pitch their solutions to key challenges facing cities in APCS forums and a chance to interact with the mayors at an exclusive dinner.

7. During the event there were 49 exhibitors at the APCS Market Square including key sponsorship and international partners such as Microsoft, Bloomberg, Singtel Optus,

J.P. Morgan as well as a number of local businesses RedEye Apps, Tritium, Achitectus,

Uberman, Jasstech and Solar Bins Australia.

8.

9.

The presenter discussed the success of the APCS event on social media platforms.

After the presentation, Councillor Owen-Taylor moved, seconded by

Councillor Ryan Murphy (Deputy Chairman) that the Committee extend its appreciation to the Council officers and volunteers that made the APCS 2015 a successful event. The vote was unanimous in support.

10. Following a number of questions from the Committee, the Deputy Chairman thanked

Ms Andronicus for her informative presentation.



REPORT.

PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:

Deputy Chairman: Councillors, are there any petitions?


DEPUTY MAYOR:

- 72 -

DEPUTY MAYOR.

Yes, Madam Chairman, I have a petition from a tai-chi group in Carindale requesting the reinstatement of a soft fall.

Deputy Chairman:

Councillor MATIC:

Councillor MATIC.

Madam Deputy Chairman, I have a petition on behalf of residents requesting a children's playground at Taringa Parade.

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR. Deputy Chairman:

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR: Madam Deputy Chair, I have a petition in respect of a dog off-leash area in

Forest Lake.

Deputy Chairman: Councillor WINES, may I have a motion for receipt of the petitions?

69/2015-16

It was resolved on the motion of Councillor Andrew WINES, seconded by Councillor Shayne SUTTON, that the petitions as presented be received and referred to the Committee concerned for consideration and report.

The petitions were summarised as follows:

File No. Councillor Topic

CA15/650896 Adrian Schrinner

CA15/670154

CA15/652592

Peter Matic

Angela Owen-Taylor

Requesting that the rubber matting floor at Meadowbank Street

Park be reinstated as soon as possible

Requesting a children’s playground at Taringa Parade

Requesting that Council review the decision to close the Phillip

Place off-leash dog and agility park at College Avenue, Forest

Lake

GENERAL BUSINESS:

Deputy Chairman: Councillors, are there any statements required as a result of a Councillor

Conduct Review Panel order?

Councillor MARX:

Deputy Chairman:

Councillor MARX:

There being none, are there any matters of general business?

Councillor MARX.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. Actually, I think you're now

Madam Acting Deputy Chair. I'm not sure now; I'm confused. Okay.

I'm just Deputy Chair, Councillor MARX.

Deputy Chair. Right. Okay.

I want to rise to speak on my attending the ALGWA Conference. So the

ALGWA, which is the Australian Local Government Women's Association, was held in Gayndah on 22 to 24 July and I was there on the Thursday and the

Friday. It was an awesome conference. Unfortunately, it wasn't a lot of people attending because there was another one a couple of weekends later in Warwick which seemed to be where most of the ladies were going to. But it was still a very good conference nevertheless anyway.

So the Thursday was kind of a bit of a casual day where everyone got on buses and went around to local orchards and got lots of free fruit and things like that.

Then they had lunch provided for them and afternoon tea. Then there was a bush dinner held that evening at the Gayndah Show Hall where you were able to meet and greet the 2015 Orange Festival Queen.

So Friday we actually got down to business and there was sort of a networking breakfast and then there was a lot of presentations by various people. One of the presentations, Madam Chair, was Mark Pitt, the CEO of the

North Burnett Regional Council. He talked about the social media and natural


- 73 - disasters and the natural fit that was happening because, as you know, in that area they've had a lot of flooding in the last couple of years and they had decided that the way to sort of recapture their people was through social media and he sort of had a lot of graphs and ideas about how that was working really, really well with his community.

Just before lunch, I was there for the presentation on behalf of Brisbane City

Council because you may not be aware, Madam Chair, but next year Brisbane

City Council are going to be the hosts of the ALGWA convention. So I'm planning to meet with the new president of the ALGWA and we'll have a chat and discussion about what we can do to try and match our country cousins with the hospitality and the amazing way that they looked after us while we were there. I'm not sure about a bush dinner but I'm sure we can do something here in

City Hall. We'll have to have a big think.

Obviously they had big show bags for us all which were absolutely filled to the brim with all sorts of things, including a country cowboy hat which I did think I was going to bring to Chambers but I chose not to in the end.

The final evening was finished off that afternoon which had Bob Abbot, who gave us all some handy tips and hints for campaigning for 2016, which was quite interesting to listen to. Then, of course, the conference then ended with the

AGM, the annual general meeting, and the appointment of the new president and of course then afterwards, if you wanted to stay on, you could have a social gathering and dinner but I sort of headed back to have a night with my family.

So I just want to say thank you on behalf of the Brisbane City Council for allowing me to go to this important conference. It's always wonderful to meet other like-minded Councillors and the difference but yet the same that we all have. I think the biggest difference, of course, that we here at Brisbane City

Council have, as opposed to our other fellow Councillors, is the sheer number of people that we look after and obviously in that respect, the number of hours that we work as well, because this is obviously our primary job.

But it's always good to get lots of different feedback and one of the Councillors I was sitting next to, who comes from Rocky, was delighted to see that I actually took some work with me and I sat there and signed 1,000 letters while I was sitting there listening to the speakers. She was very interested in what sort of letters I was writing out to my residents. So when I got back to the office, I was more than happy to send her a copy of those different letters that she could then use within her own ward and I think that's primarily what these sorts of events are about. So I just want to leave it at that. Thank you.

At that time, 5.14pm, the Chairman, Councillor Angela OWEN-TAYLOR, resumed the Chair.

Chairman: Further general business?


Councillor ABRAHAMS.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I wish to speak on 25 Hope Street,

South Brisbane, a development application that was part of Question Time.

Madam Chair, I wish to present the facts on this situation and that is on

13 August 2013, there was an application that was approved which was a code assessable application. That application was for 76 units in a 10-storey building.

Madam Chair, there was another application on that site on 14 July 2014, again for a code assessable application. This application, in fact, reduced the number of units on the site but maintained the height.

In the planning report done for the developer by a professional planner, they referred to in that application that was approved on 14 July, they referred to an agreement with Council and that agreement was pertinent to our questions earlier today.

Madam Chair, there was as third further application. This one was approved on

11 December and it was seeking to have a change in the infrastructure charges from the changes in the second application. Madam Chair, I have been watching these applications as they come through. But then, Madam Chair, in July of this


- 74 - year, there was a fourth application on site—I haven't actually indicated that all the three previous applications had been approved and all were code assessable.

The fourth application, Madam Chair, again was code assessable and that application is for a volumetric subdivision. So on a building that is a multi-unit development, 10 storeys, finally ended up to be 66 units. That development application was to subdivide off an area to be the café which is shown on the map as part of the planning report as a community facility.

Madam Chair, I wish to read in detail the content of that planning report which came with the application for the volume metric subdivision. It is section 3.2 of that planning report on page 4 which states by way of background, the following is particularly relevant to the proposal. The fourth dot point of the particular relevances was, and I quote, ‘the strategy discussed and agreed with Council was to’, first dot point, ‘remove all reference of café or shop and identify this space as part of the residential premises.’

Next dot point, ‘therefore ensure every level is identified as a residential floor’.

Next dot point, ‘achieve an average height of no greater than three metres per floor to remain code assessable’. Next dot point, ‘convert this space to café and retail use after the approval through a self-assessment process.’ Then finally, this space was referred to as communal facility on the plan, however quite specifically designed for the ultimate use as a shop or café including bi-fold windows to the street frontage.

So deliberately it was going to be a café but it just couldn't in any of those three previous code assessable applications be shown as a café because that meant that there was a commercial use of the ground level which had a higher height than a residential use which meant the whole building was above a code assessable acceptable application and that was what the developer did not wish to do which is to have an impact assessment application.

Clearly those words by the developer's town planner states there was a deliberate strategy to stay code assessable. A deliberate strategy to lock the residents out of this process. Madam Chair, that is why I am speaking because I believe that is not the role that any Council officer should be put in that situation to be part of a strategy that locks residents out of the planning scheme.

Now, Madam Chair, I'm not for one minute blaming those Council officers but I am very concerned about just how many other developers are aware of this process which is, we all want a coffee shop on the ground level but we want to maximise the number of units and the storeys that we can get within our height limit. So that higher level of ground floor, which is problematic to us, we will simply overcome by ignoring the fact at the first instant that we are going to use it for a commercial activity so that we get the higher yield and then just come back and tweak it later on.

Because, Madam Chair, I suggest to you that if one developer has had this strategic approach with Council, and they all go off to their functions—as we have just heard how important it is for us to go out to the Local Government

Women's function and discuss—that others will. So they will talk to other developers and there will be a culture in this place, don't worry about being honest and upfront about what you intend to have at the ground level, call it residential in the first instance and come back under a self-assessment and change it.

Madam Chair, if that culture is alive and well in the Council, I am very concerned. Madam Chair, it doesn’t matter whether I'm concerned. It's the fact that residents are concerned because they know their fears are being locked out of the process are clearly evident in what a planner has put in writing in a planning document which is publicly available on Planning and Development

Online.

So, Madam Chair, this is incredibly important. I believe, unless the

LORD MAYOR seriously does something about this, there will be a culture, and that culture is how tricky can I be as a planner to get what I want with making sure the residents are locked out of the process. I'd like to remember


Chairman:


Chairman:


Chairman:


- 75 - everyone in the Chamber that they already have been locked out through the most recent City Plan 2014. So this is an excessive locking out on another excessive locking out through absolutely withholding, withholding valid information at the development process.

Now, the LORD MAYOR in defence said the City Plan is part of the

State Government Indigenous Protected Area plan and that means Council must accept everything and that means Council, through a performance assessment, doesn't actually have to be locked down too much to the specific details of what the neighbourhood plans or the acceptable solution says because we have the performance criteria.

Well, Madam Chair, if the performance criteria means anything goes, that then, for all the Council officers who are listening to us debate here, means there is a culture that they're hearing every time the LORD MAYOR stands up of saying, don't have to be worried about whether it's 15 storeys, you can apply, you can approve 25 because the LORD MAYOR is getting up and saying that every time he says on performance assessment, we can approve in-excess, significant inexcess, with the City Plan.

If the planner's assessment means whatever is lodged is approved, there is no

City Plan. There is no City Plan because the performance assessment is important. Now, the final point, listening to the defence that came through from

Councillor COOPER, her defence, she wasn't defending her helping the

LORD MAYOR out, giving him letters when he was under attack, but the defence we've just got now was—

Councillor ABRAHAMS, your time has expired.

Further general business?


Yes, thank you, Madam Chairman. Well done to Councillor HOWARD on her first stint in the Chair. There's only been three Deputy Chairs in this place in eight years; me, Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR and now you. So congratulations.

Order!

I was a—the only person I ever threw out was Councillor ABRAHAMS and that was because I was told to. In fact, I did enjoy it.

Order!

Councillor JOHNSTON, what is your matter of general business?

I forgot. Thank you. Congratulating Councillor HOWARD and also speaking about access to the Chamber.

I did just want to say though that it is an important role and I do think that, you know, I wish you well with that and I just hope that you'll have a moderate hand and a fair hand in how you administer the rules. So good luck. I would just like—and the more experience you get the better. So get up into the Chair—I know it's so terrible, isn't it, Councillor KING. I'm the one congratulating her but

I'm just sort of saying get into the Chair as much as you can for some practice.

Now, on access to the Chamber. I was delighted to host a tour for

Corinda State School here at City Hall last week but it has become so problematic, in my view, around the arrangements to access to this Chamber. It was brought into stark contrast for me by comparing how they were treated at

Parliament House, Queensland Parliament House, and how they were treated here at the Council Chamber.

I noted that they'd been up to the State House first and they'd had a tour of the

Legislative Assembly and also the Legislative Council Chambers by

Scott Emerson, who is the State Member for the area where the school is, and there were photos and happy kids all on the floor of the Chamber itself. They were given a talk about what the State Parliament does and so forth.


Chairman:

- 76 -

I saw all these photos on Twitter and I just thought how crazy it is that we can't offer the same experience to school students here in our Chamber—yes, we used to. There never was a big problem with all of this and I would hope that now you are the new Chairman, Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR, that you will reconsider the previous policy because it is, I think, unduly and unnecessarily restricting access to what is a democratic place that we want children to feel confident in and we want them to learn about the system of government with

Council. I think it would be fantastic for them to come on to the floor of this place.

Now, the Queensland State Parliament was built in 1859, it's a heritage listed building, it's a very old building, it's a very old place. If we can have school children in there without causing, you know, any damage to the building, supervised, of course, appropriately, I cannot see why there should be any restrictions on access to this Chamber for those children.

So I would urge this Council and you, Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR, to reconsider the policy around access to this Council Chamber. I felt embarrassed to say to the kids we have to go up here into the gallery when they'd gone into

State Parliament, they'd walked across the floor of the Chamber, they'd sat in the chairs, they could see what their State Members did, feel it, be part of it, and they could not have the same experience here.

So I am calling on the Administration to change their policy with respect to this.

Yes, the whole process is just ridiculous, what's going on. So I'm just calling on the Administration to change its views on this. I think it's a very simple procedure. There has to be supervision, obviously. It would be reasonable to allow these kids in. In past years we have done this and I've had some children who've had the most outstanding experience ever in terms of being able to have a debate and take on roles and understand what a Lord Mayor does, what a

Chairman, what Councillors do, what the journos do. It's been an extraordinarily fantastic experience.

I think that we should be giving children the opportunity to do that here in the

Chamber. It's made even more problematic by how hard it is to get access for disabled people under the existing policy as well. I have a group coming in to tour City Hall next week from Deaf Services Queensland. This is the youth activities group. These are young people who have both hearing loss but also have physical and sometimes mental issues as well or disabilities as well.

I made a request for access to the ground floor because there are six of the group that can't handle stairs. That was denied, that was denied. It took me, I think, shaming Councillor de WIT on the media and with journalists to get her to change her mind. I was just shocked that we did not just have a straight yes, no problems; yes, come to the back of the Chamber, the group can stand wherever and we can have a tour of the Chamber.

It should not be hard. This is supposed to be the people's place but we're restricting access to it unduly and unnecessarily. I urge you,

Councillor OWEN-TAYLOR, to reconsider the policy around access to this

Chamber in an organised and responsible way so that we can maximise the public access to this place so we are the inclusive Council we say we will be.

We are encouraging children to learn and to be involved in civic life.

I think it would be fantastic if, for example, we had a youth council. We've got a youth round table that advise the LORD MAYOR but why not, like they do at

State Parliament and Federal Parliament, have a youth council and allow young people from schools to come in here and debate, to experience what it's like in this Chamber to talk about the issues of concern to our city.

I think we need a rethink on this Council policy and as there is a new Chairman,

I am asking you to reconsider that as part of your responsibilities.

Further debate?

Thank you, Councillors. I declare the meeting closed.


- 77 -

QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:

(Questions of which due notice has been given are printed as supplied and are not edited)

Submitted by Councillor Victoria NEWTON on 13 August 2015

Q1. Please provide the dates of all meetings held in the period between 1 January 2013 and 1 January

2015 held between representatives of Institutional Investments (including its directors as individuals)

•

• with:

•

•

The Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor’s staff

Councillor Amanda Cooper

Councillor Cooper’s Staff

Q2 Please advise Council’s revenue from fees and charges per Ward in the 2014/15 financial year?

WARD

Bracken Ridge

Central

Chandler

Deagon

Doboy

Enoggera

Hamilton

Holland Park

Jamboree

Karawatha

Macgregor

Marchant

McDowall

Moorooka

Morningside

Northgate

Parkinson

Pullenvale

Richlands

Tennyson

The Gabba

The Gap

Toowong

Walter Taylor

Wishart

Wynnum Manly

FEES & CHARGES REVENUE

Q3. Please advise Council’s revenue from fees and charges per Ward expected in the 2015/16 financial year?

WARD

Bracken Ridge

FEES & CHARGES REVENUE

Central

Chandler

Deagon

Doboy

Enoggera


- 78 -

Hamilton

Holland Park

Jamboree

Karawatha

Macgregor

Marchant

McDowall

Moorooka

Northgate

Morningside

Parkinson

Pullenvale

Richlands

Tennyson

The Gabba

The Gap

Toowong

Walter Taylor

Wishart

Wynnum Manly

RISING OF COUNCIL:

PRESENTED:

5.30pm.

Council officers in attendance:

James Withers (Senior Council and Committee Officer)

Robert Southwood (Acting Council and Committee Officer)

Billy Peers (Personal Support Officer to the Lord Mayor and Council Orderly) and CONFIRMED

CHAIRMAN


TABLE OF CONTENTS - Brisbane City Council

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

The 4476 meeting of the Brisbane City Council, held at City Hall, Brisbane on Tuesday 18 August 2015 at 2pm

Prepared by:

Council and Committee Liaison Office

Chief Executive’s Office

Office of the Lord Mayor and the Chief Executive Officer

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS

PRESENT:

OPENING OF MEETING:

MINUTES:

49/2015-16

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

QUESTION TIME:

CONSIDERATION OF COMMITTEE REPORTS:

ESTABLISHMENT AND COORDINATION COMMITTEE

50/2015-16

ADOPTED

51/2015-16

ADOPTED

52/2015-16

ADOPTED

53/2015-16

ADOPTED

INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE

54/2015-16

ADOPTED

55/2015-16

ADOPTED

56/2015-16

ADOPTED

PUBLIC AND ACTIVE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE

57/2015-16

ADOPTED

58/2015-16

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT

COMMITTEE

59/2015-16

ADOPTED

60/2015-16

ADOPTED

ENVIRONMENT, PARKS AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

61/2015-16

ADOPTED

62/2015-16

ADOPTED

FIELD SERVICES COMMITTEE

63/2015-16

ADOPTED

64/2015-16

ADOPTED

65/2015-16

ADOPTED

66/2015-16

ADOPTED

BRISBANE LIFESTYLE COMMITTEE

67/2015-16

ADOPTED

FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE

68/2015-16

PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS:

69/2015-16

GENERAL BUSINESS:

QUESTIONS OF WHICH DUE NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN:

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