Brisbane

Hey, thanks for the write-up, mate.

Much appreciated!

I wanted to thank you op for doing these notes. It’s not something I’d normally be able to watch/listen to.

Cr Johnston asks "why is taking action in response to a koala's death more important than a person's death to you?" in relation to a speed limit being dropped very quickly in response to a koala's death, but not on Venner Road in Annerley where Dr Jeff Copeland died as a pedestrian.

Cr Wines responds explaining that people need to know how the Speed Limit Review process works. There's a 3-page summary that he says is available to any member of the public from the Council website.

"Motor vehicles can, umm, when used incorrectly, lead to loss of life" says Cr Wines, after much waffling.

Green waste bins have been made cheaper, so Cr Marx is talking about how many more people are taking them up.

No mention of FOGO unfortunately, so it's only garden waste that's become more accessible.

Cr Wines talks about the Beams Road project, part of which is to be delivered by Council and part by the State. He mentions that it will provide "be able to build an active transport corridor as part of this project, which does not exist yet". Note: he's referring to painted on-road bike lanes and a slightly wider-than-normal footpath called a "shared path"—nothing that provides serious separation between modes, and certainly nothing that provides safety and priority for active transport through intersections.

Unfortunately, the Federal Government has put a pause on the funding it had already approved to help with this project. Council has already received tenders to do this project, with a deadline for the bid to be valid of 7th August. The Federal Government has said it won't provide its confirmation about the funding until 14th August.

The Victoria Park Master Plan is moving into delivery phase, says Cr Adams. Early projects are "well-progressed". Spring Hill Common and Urban Pump Track will begin construction this year.

Cr Mackay talks about the intersection changes to Kenmore Rd and Fig Tree Pocket Rd. Here's a great video about the many problems with the changes to this intersection. It's some of the dumbest, most car-brained nonsense you've ever heard. There's "no room" for safe infrastructure, but plenty of room to widen the overall footprint of the intersection to add more lanes for cars.

Unfortunately, Cr Mackay mentions none of the issues. He's all positive towards these changes.

On housing supply, Cr Allan accuses Labor of not having any serious plan. He says the State Government has been selling off land rather than building social housing. He then uses the opportunity to spruik the Kurilpa Precinct plan for very high density apartments.

The Victoria Park plan includes a large "administrative" building. 2 storeys "not exceeding 12 metres". It's unclear what this is going to be used for, says Cr Massey, and she thinks it might be better to spend more of that money on rewilding other parts of the park.

The Lord Mayor takes this rather narrow critique of this one aspect of the Victoria Park Master Plan and goes on a massive tirade against Labor and the Greens and the "Labor-Greens Alliance", calling them NIMBYs who would oppose the entire creation of new parkland. Says that if Labor and the Greens are elected next year, Victoria Park will not go ahead.

The Deputy Mayor, Cr Adams, repeatedly says "football" when she means soccer.

She then says that people who watch sport are being "jingoistic", but her tone implies that she thinks "jingoistic" is a positive thing.

A motion brought off the table by the LNP which was first brought by former Councillor Sriranganathan. It was to look at putting bike lanes on Vulture Street and Montague Road, noting that this might require removing on-street parking.

Cr Johnston is absolutely outraged that this motion is being brought off the table by the LNP without Cr Massey, the successor to Cr Sriranganathan and the local Councillor to the relevant area, being given any notice.

Cr Massey is angry that the LNP is voting this motion down, saying that they are using the weak excuse that the State Government is doing a project on Montague Rd (but not anywhere on Vulture St) which might include stuff like this. She points out that this is meant to be a very high-density area, with a population growing enormously thanks to the LNP's proposed upzoning, and that these are busy roads where improved infrastructure is important to a "clean, green, and sustainable Brisbane".

Cr Adams rejects this, and says the project "is now null and void", because they have already budgeted for a study into connectivity in the area. She says that Vulture Street isn't part of the Montague Rd study, and therefore it might be part of some future study, and therefore the original motion is null and void. This claim makes no sense. To simultaneously call a motion about bike lanes on Vulture St and Montague Rd "null and void" because there's money for a study into bike lanes on one of those roads is a pretty blatant mistruth.

Lord Mayor spreading some blatant lies, alongside misleading FUD. Maybe I should take back my previous claim that the LNP wouldn't make a blatant provable lie. In an effort to portray the idea of a Labor/Greens alliance in Council as a terrible idea, he claims that there are Greens in cabinet in the federal Parliament.

He says this as part of making a point that Labor has been supportive of pokies in the past, while the Greens are against. If they were in a coalition, he claims, it would be shambles and the Greens would force the lease to not go ahead. This is, of course, simply not how democracy works. If there were a Labor/Greens coalition council after the next election, any issue where Labor and the LNP are in agreement and the Greens disagree (including, assuming the Lord Mayor's supposition about the Labor stance is correct, on pokies) would still be able to pass.

Cr Adams has to recuse herself from discussing a matter due to a declarable conflict of interest. She has "received hospitality from the Brisbane Racing Club."

Crs Allan and Marx make the same declaration. The LNP retains a quorum.

The LNP allows Cr Johnston to suspend standing orders in order to move a motion to drop the speed limit on Venner Road from 60 km/h to 50 km/h for pedestrian, cyclist, and driver safety.

The LNP immediately moves the debate for this motion to the very end of the day's business. If I had to guess, this is a stalling tactic until they can figure out what they want to do. I would guess they'll end up laying the motion on the table "until further investigation".

OP is the real mvp here

Solid Work there OP, much appreciated!

Cr Jenkinson, the new Councillor for Paddington Ward, is making her maiden speech.

Unfortunately I won't be able to hear it all out, or to hear what happens with those motions that got pushed to the end of the agenda. Gotta head out. If the video's still up (Council is pretty inconsistent about whether or not they take it down) I'll go back to finish it off when I get back. In the meantime, would absolutely love it if someone else is able to watch. I mainly just want to know if my hunch about the LNP's approach (putting it on the table until "further investigation") is correct.