Minutes of proceedings

SECOND DAY – Friday 19 June 2015

The Chairman of Council, Councillor Margaret de WIT (Pullenvale Ward) – LNP

APOLOGIES:

An apology was submitted on behalf of Councillor Nicole JOHNSTON, and she was granted leave of absence from the meeting on the motion of Councillor MURPHY, seconded by Councillor MARX.

THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION’S BUDGET RESPONSE:

Councillor DICK: Thank you, Madam Chair. The purpose of any budget is to set priorities both now and for the future. The budget handed down by the LORD MAYOR this week certainly has priorities; the only problem: this budget's priorities are tired, predictable and lacking the energy required to take Brisbane to the next level.

The Brisbane City Council budget should be more than just numbers on a spreadsheet. This budget should be Brisbane's blueprint to drive economic growth and strengthen local communities, but it is none of these things. After 30 long years in this Chamber, this LORD MAYOR simply lacks the energy and leadership needed to drive our city forward. While they may call themselves an Administration, the truth is over 1 million Brisbane residents send us to this Chamber to do more than just administer. They send us here to lead.

If you need any further proof that it was time for new energy to be injected into City Hall, then look no further than this budget. In contrast, Madam Chair, there is a new kid on the block: Rod Harding, the next Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Today I will outline Labor's response to this tired old budget, while also putting forward the energetic alternative driven by Rod Harding.

This budget is proof-positive that Brisbane needs new energy injected into City Hall. We need basic services restored, a commitment to listen to residents on local developments, and a plan to drive economic development and new jobs for our city. Much to the detriment of our city's residents, this budget rolls out a tired tale of rebadged promises, ill-directed inner-city priorities, and lightweight baubles.

Fortunately, for the residents of Brisbane, next March they will have the opportunity to make a clear choice: a choice between another four years of LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK and the LNP, or the new energy of a Rod Harding Labor Administration. The reason the choice for voters is so crystal clear is that there is a fundamental difference between this LNP Administration and the Rod Harding Labor team. After 30 long years in this Council Chamber, and the past 11 consecutive years in charge of the Council budget, it is interesting to reflect on just how much this LORD MAYOR has been responsible for such a dull and lacklustre budget.

Indeed, when you consider this LORD MAYOR's time in Council, the LNP has been in charge of the Council budget for 18 out of the last 30 years. This LORD MAYOR has been in a very senior role in this place in every single budget; a very senior role, chairing Committees relating to finance, infrastructure, transport as well as the roles of DEPUTY MAYOR and, now LORD MAYOR. When you hear this LORD MAYOR complain about previous Administrations and reminiscing about the past, we all need to be clear: we need to remember he is the one who has had his hands on the city's finances one way or another for the better part of his 30 years in Council.

A Rod Harding Labor Administration will approach the budget with a genuine caring view to cater for all the residents of Brisbane, no matter what part of our great city they call home. From Aspley to Algester, Wynnum to Westlake and all points in between. Those who make their home or operate their business in Brisbane deserve funding based on current need and future planning, not on postcode or proximity to the CBD.

A Rod Harding Administration will not squander millions, pandering to the big end of town, creating an inner-city bottleneck while the suburbs are starved for basic services, services such as grass cutting, tree trimming and pest management, vital infrastructure such as stormwater drains and investment in good parks and public transport services. A Rod Harding Administration will give voice to its residents, listening to their concerns and following through with action, not just paying lip service to the notion of community consultation.

When it comes to rates, as I have already mentioned, this isn’t a budget designed for Brisbane's future with residents' interests at heart. It is a budget designed to get LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK over the line at the next Council election in March. How curious it is that, in 2007, 2011 and again this year, rates increases have been remarkably lower than during the years in between. I often criticise the LORD MAYOR and his LNP Administration for not being transparent and for treating people like mugs. Well, as far as manipulating rate increases around the election cycle is concerned, his political transparency is there for all to see.

It was there in the media on Wednesday morning: a 2.74 per cent increase before the 2008 election, then increases totalling 20.15 per cent over the next three budgets; a 1.79 per cent increase before the 2012 election, then increases totalling 12.14 per cent over the next three budgets. I am sure the LORD MAYOR was hoping nobody would see the future rates revenue increases he has been forced to put in the forward estimates in the budget. You only have to look a little closely on page 8 of the budget to see his rates revenue targets are $1.04 billion in 2016-17 and $1.1 billion in 2017-18, which equals 5.5 per cent a year.

When it comes to rates, LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK and the LNP are up to their old tricks. They try to lull residents into a false sense of security with low pre election rate rises, then stinging them once they are back in office. We are in a period of record low inflation levels, with consumer price index (CPI) only running at 1.4 per cent, something Mayor Tom Tate realised with his budget. It is clear that, with a 1.4 per cent increase, that is all working families and small businesses of this city can afford. Anything greater than that, as the LORD MAYOR has proposed, puts unrealistic expectations on the family and business budgets.

The LORD MAYOR or the finance Chairman needs to explain today how they are going to keep rates low, particularly when they have budgeted for increases at 5.5 per cent each year into the future. While the LORD MAYOR was spruiking his supposed low rate rise, we notice he failed to mention his new rate category buried away on page 232 of the budget. Labor Councillors and Rod Harding understand that many of the new category 20 ratepayers have absolutely no idea that this cash-strapped LORD MAYOR is about to hit them where it hurts, and that is because these property owners have traditionally been exempted from paying rates, because primarily the land has always been used for public, religious, charitable or educational purposes.

In a true sign that nothing is sacred for this money-hungry LORD MAYOR, we understand that over the 12 months he has had his finance Chairperson quietly reviewing all of these properties to work out how the LNP might be able to squeeze more money out of churches, non-for-profit and educational organisations. What's worse is that they haven’t even had the guts to be upfront about it and tell them what they are doing.

So my challenge to Councillor SIMMONDS today is, when you get up and give your standard response to my speech today, use the 30 minutes allocated so that you can detail how many properties are included in the new rates category 20. Tell us and the community how much they are going to be charged, and how much revenue you are expecting to get from this this financial year.

But the tricky accounting doesn’t end with rates. In his budget speech, the LORD MAYOR tried to make a virtue out of his Council reducing debt, but shifting $1.2 billion in debt from one column in Council's books to another column does not ease the burden for ratepayers. It was disturbing to hear the LORD MAYOR herald the City of Brisbane Corporation (CBIC), Council's property development branch, as the saviour and protector of Council's finances. Let's be clear: CBIC is nothing more than a bunch of unelected LNP mates appointed by LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK to manage $236 million worth of cash and assets owned by the people of Brisbane, a job the LORD MAYOR was elected to do.

We know CBIC's grand plan to solve Brisbane's financial problems is to flog off our riverside parkland for high-rise development. I pay tribute to my colleague, Councillor Helen ABRAHAMS and her community for working so hard to stop the madness at Mowbray Park. She stood up to the LNP and said: we won't allow our parkland to be sacrificed and sold just to make a quick buck. The end result? Some $350,000 of Council's money wasted after an embarrassing Christmas Eve backflip.

So, what would a Rod Harding Labor team do differently to properly manage Council's finances and put downward pressure on rates? Well, we know Rod has already announced some of the things his Labor Administration will do to get these rates increases under control. He will scrap the ridiculous fat cat executive bonuses that are costing Brisbane residents $10 million this Council term. Even Campbell Newman was only handing out $650,000 a year to State Government bureaucrats, even though the State Government has 32 times more employees than this Council.

Just as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has scrapped fat cat bonuses in the State Government, Rod Harding will scrap them here in Council, a $10 million saving for ratepayers. Through you, Madam Chair, here is a challenge for the LORD MAYOR: if you are so proud of your executive bonuses scheme, announce today how much it will cost ratepayers in this budget. Announce it today, because, as sure as King George Square is an uninviting barren piece of concrete, we know that your finance Chairperson will refuse to release the figure during his budget information session.

Rod Harding has already promised to retire the Lord Mayor's black limousine and he will make lots more savings in the Lord Mayor's office. He will cut overseas travel, like the recent $22,000 trip by Councillor SIMMONDS. As far as anyone can tell, the only thing Councillor SIMMONDS brought back from that trip was a $90 shirt he bought in China, which he charged to the ratepayers of Brisbane. Who pays $90 for a shirt in China?

As far as infrastructure development is concerned, this budget proves once again that LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK spends big on budget day, doling out the money for glitzy announcements, but spends the next 364 days quietly clawing back the money through budget revenues. A stark example of this for all to see is on page 11 of the budget—a massive $93 million windfall surplus from cuts, delays and carryovers from the 2014-15 year. What did the LORD MAYOR say it would be by year's end during last year's budget speech? $463,000. So, out of $93 million, $92.5 million of projects and services were quietly cut during the year.

His track record shows he is happy to announce projects, but then do nothing to progress them. It has been eight years since the LNP announced they would build the Karawatha Forest Environment Centre, but it is still not built. It has been seven years since the LNP promised their Road Action Plan, but construction work on these cornerstone projects—the Wynnum Road and Kingsford Smith Drive upgrades—still haven’t started. Then we get to the Kangaroo Point bridge, announced and re-announced that he would go it alone, so many times by the LORD MAYOR until it was unceremoniously dumped in Wednesday's budget for no good reason. Quite frankly, it is not good enough.

LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK's decision to dump the Kangaroo Point bridge speaks volumes about the LNP's lack of interest in delivering active and public transport infrastructure in our city. The Kangaroo Point bridge will deliver an important active transport link for those people who would prefer to get out of their car and travel into the city on foot or by bike. But the LORD MAYOR's 1950s car only approach to transport policy will continue to see people stuck in traffic on Brisbane's arterial roads.

Likewise, it has been interesting to see the DEPUTY MAYOR posturing and pontificating about what everyone else should do when it comes to the Eastern Busway or transitway. Yet, as the DEPUTY MAYOR and infrastructure Chairman, he could not manage to get one cent in the budget to fund public transport improvements on this Council-controlled road. As they say, Madam Chair, where there is a will, there is a way, and clearly this LNP Council has no will to deliver critical public transport infrastructure in this city.

I will tell you, Madam Chair, what they can deliver: more and more paid parking. Here in Brisbane, the parking fine capital of Australia, city parking continues to be seen by LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK as just another chance for his Administration to get their hands into residents' hip pockets. The LNP Council are still out of touch with the community when it comes to the parking issues in Brisbane. This budget shows yet again that this Council expects to make almost $40 million from parking—hardly rank amateurs.

Well, the streets of Brisbane are simply paved with gold in the eyes of the LORD MAYOR, but this LNP Council isn’t stopping there. In an effort to make sure they know exactly where your car is, and to ensure you pay right down to the very last cent for every minute you are in one of their spaces, they are introducing an app. We have also seen that, as part of their parking package announced in the lead-up to this budget, the Administration will be moving towards dash-mounted number plate recognition technology.

What I say to Brisbane residents is: watch out. Watch out, because there is absolutely no doubt, based on their past actions, that this LNP Council will have their parking inspectors out 24 hours a day tracking your movements and waiting for you to make one false move so they can pounce. Labor stands by our view that parking in our city should be treated as a transport and planning issue, and certainly not just as an easy money maker.

In the LORD MAYOR's speech on Wednesday, and on most days of the week, this LNP Council actually demands to be thanked for their lacklustre effort when it comes to busting congestion. As with most things under the LNP, under just the smallest amount of scrutiny, their rhetoric does not match their actions. After 30 years in Council and 12 years of writing the budget, year-in, year-out, this Council has now even stopped reading their own reports. From Council's own congestion report released just a few weeks ago, the Key Corridors Performance Report, which shows congestion on Brisbane's major roads has increased by 3.5 per cent, meaning motorists are spending more time stuck in traffic than ever before. As media reports, the daily commute to work is continuing to grind down.

Every day commuter anger is building, and it is bad enough this Council cut $20 million from public transport two years ago. Their own data shows what everyone else knows: congestion in Brisbane is worse under this LNP Council. It has now been 10 long years since the TransApex vision was dreamed up by Campbell Newman and Graham QUIRK.

In the LORD MAYOR's budget speech, he boasted that the bankrupt Clem7 tunnel, the struggling Airport Link, the Go Between Bridge that was promised to deliver a big fat cheque, and instead has ended up costing $328 million, and the still not opened Legacy Way toll tunnel, are all projects the people of Brisbane should be thankful for. Well, the proof is in, and their one and only plan for building tolled infrastructure at a staggering cost of $3 billion, has not worked. As the RACQ said at the time, Brisbane's toll roads are not as effective as motorists hoped. Well, isn’t that an understatement?

Rod Harding knows this; Labor Councillors know this; commuters stuck in the LNP's congestion every day know this; and the RACQ knows this. The only people who don't know this are the LORD MAYOR and his Council team. Those opposite have become congestion deniers. But of all weeks to accuse anyone of supporting a congestion tax, we note that their own party is actively pursuing a pricing system for use on inner-city roads. Earlier this week the LNP Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, a colleague and friend of those opposite, is now advocating a new pricing system to use roads based on satellite position tracking. I quote him, “In today's world, we generally accept that you pay for the service you receive.” But then again, those opposite are the party who think poor people don't actually drive on roads.

Ratepayers are correct to ask if their two latest projects, the upgrades for Wynnum Road and Kingsford Smith Drive, will actually happen. In fact, two days ago, the RACQ said $600 million for upgrading Kingsford Smith Drive would be better spent on other projects.

Yet again we are seeing the focus of this LNP Administration being solely on the CBD, and this time on high-end multi-national retailers, while the suburbs are forgotten. The LORD MAYOR will spend $11.5 million over three years on Edward Street in the CBD while residents and businesses in Alderley and Graceville wait years and years and endure rollover after rollover for their $3.2 million Suburban Centre Improvement Program. It is Brisbane City Council's job to support local business owners in the suburbs, but they just can't seem to see past the CBD.

The LORD MAYOR and his team are good at planning flashy concepts, but don't seem to be able to work out what residents want when it comes to development in the communities across our city. The development and planning of our city has become little more than a cash cow for the QUIRK Administration. Stormwater drainage funding in the city has not kept up with development, and it shows. Recent heavy storms have highlighted how new development impacts on local flooding in the low-lying areas of our city. Developers and Council coffers are doing very well, while local residents are left to shoulder the pain of Council's development application and approval process.

We are seeing more and more residents have taken the time to write a submission on a development application, only to be ignored by this Administration. In the last six months, 70 per cent of public speakers in this very place have been residents objecting to development applications. This reflects the high level of disquiet and opposition to the LORD MAYOR's approach to planning and development in this city.

Bree Gallagher, in her powerful speech to Council earlier this week, stated succinctly how residents feel about their experiences. She said, Council town planners are there to assist developers, but there is no one there to help residents who just simply want to have their say in what happens in their suburb. Residents are shut out of the process, and it is no wonder resident action groups are being formed throughout Brisbane in response to this approach.

Madam Chair, this LNP Council likes to talk tough when it comes to dealing with flooding, but after delivering budgets for 12 long years, residents should be reminded to look at what the LNP does and not at what they say they will do. In the budget in the service item, Gather and Provide Flood Information, we see a big drop in catchment flood risk management plans where there has been a 62 per cent drop in proposed expenditure. The expenses to maintain and enhance flood models has been cut by 52 per cent, while flooding investigations and planning for the FloodSmart Future project was cut by 46.6 per cent. So this latest budget means less and less for drainage and preparation for floods, despite the frequency of extreme weather events and the increase in new housing.

But one place the LNP will never cut the budget, of course, is the CityCycle program. CityCycle continues to be a shining example of another debacle executed by this LNP Council. As I have said before, it is the proverbial albatross around the neck of this Council's finances, and has now cost us almost $17 million since the scheme started. Yet again we see LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK deliver another budget having had to pour in at least another $600,000 to prop up this scheme.

Madam Chairman, you will recall this is the very same scheme that, according to then-Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, and even yourself, this scheme was going to be cost-neutral and a congestion buster. We will never have a cost-neutral CityCycle, and with another 14 years left on the contract, this scheme will continue to cost ratepayers millions under the LNP. This is the last chance that the LORD MAYOR has to deliver on his election promise for improved bicycle infrastructure. So let's look at what the cycling community is saying. The CBD Bicycle Users Group has raised serious concerns about Council's bikeway network, including that approximately 50 per cent of our city bikeways rely on measures that are not designed for safe on-road use by cyclists.

Furthermore, they state, quote, “Where bike lanes have been installed, they are regularly blocked by parked cars or rendered unusable by being located in the door zone.” LORD MAYOR, a true commitment to a high-quality and safe bike network is to take on the hard decisions. Instead, your approach is to rely on signs and lines. A recent media report headed Eight Brisbane roads cyclists should avoid identified eight Brisbane cycle hotspots where cyclists have identified dangerous black spots that need immediate safety improvements. Those hotspots are in suburbs like Milton, Hawthorne, Stone's Corner, Greenslopes, Holland Park, Wooloowin, New Farm, West End and Woolloongabba.

This budget has allocated funding to fix just one of the eight black spots. It is not just cyclists, pedestrians and motorists who are left to fend for themselves; it is the thousands of Brisbane residents who rely on public transport to get around this city. We saw the LORD MAYOR out in the media wanting a pat on the back for committing to 60 new buses in this budget, hoping that everyone will conveniently forget that, during the last Council election, he promised the people of Brisbane 90 buses a year, every year, for four years. Commuters in Brisbane have lost confidence in our public transport network, and it is no wonder why.

In this term as LORD MAYOR, Graham QUIRK stood silently by while his former LNP political masters in the State Government attacked public transport funding in Brisbane. The LORD MAYOR did nothing to try and halt the LNP's privatisation plans for our buses that risked the jobs of hard-working Brisbane Transport staff and threatened to leave commuters stranded. He oversaw the shambolic Brisbane bus review which cut nine routes and reduced the frequency or altered the timetable of 78 others, cutting $20 million from the public transport budget. Anyone who takes a cursory glance at the City Plan will see that Brisbane is about to face a population explosion which spells trouble for our already congested streets.

We have seen Brisbane's bus patronage decline by almost 1 million passengers over the last year, and Council missed their bus patronage target by almost 3 million passengers, and at the same time Council's own report showed that congestion has increased by 3.5 per cent. As a result, the LORD MAYOR has taken the extraordinary step of removing patronage targets from the Brisbane Transport budget, so he cannot be held accountable.

But there is one area the LORD MAYOR needs to be held to account, and that is in the area of fees and charges. Cost of living and affordability doesn’t factor into LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK's budget when it comes to fees and charges paid by small business and residents. Over the last five years, we have seen excessive increases in costs to individual and community groups when it comes to waste management, permits, hall hire and access to community spaces and facilities.

In food licensing over the last five years we have seen small hospitality businesses paying two-and-a-half times more in temporary food licensing fees and other licensing increases by a staggering 150 per cent adding to the total running cost of small businesses.

Affordable access to community spaces and facilities has been of deep concern to residents across Brisbane. Running events, whether they be private or community, is becoming increasingly harder since LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK became LORD MAYOR. The hourly fee for local hall hire has doubled, causing damaging flow-on effects for groups and individuals in planning their events.

Additional fees have been regulated by the Council as a condition of hall hire, and residents are telling me that this is making or breaking their capacity to host these events. We need a Council that is interested in vibrant community participation and busy community halls. Costs to hire a security guard, technical support costing over $300, and additional facility fees are causing small organisations to rethink capacity to host events.

Under this Council's management, we have seen increases of 30 per cent of the cost of individual waste disposal, 43 per cent in dog registration fees, and a whopping 20 per cent in administration fees for dishonoured payments. These increases, when combined with the LORD MAYOR's rate increases, are hurting the family and business budget. Even Council's cemetery and funeral charges are not safe in this budget under the LORD MAYOR. In the last five years, we have seen a 20 per cent increase for the purchase of at-need gravesites; that equates to an extra $500 for families at a time when they are in most need of our support.

Despite all this excess revenue from increased fees and charges, after all these years, LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK still cannot deliver on his promised projects. Your Brisbane is another area where there have been cuts under this LORD MAYOR and the LNP Administration. The axe has been taken to the Your Brisbane program, despite it being designed to focus on providing active and healthy opportunities for families and quality community facilities. It is programs like these that are the bread and butter of local council. They are the programs that improve our city's liveability and contribute to a better lifestyle. But an analysis of the budget shows community sport and recreation has been cut by a third; capital funding is down by one third, and social inclusion has been cut by $2 million.

In this day and age, our Council libraries need to keep up with the modern needs of Brisbane's residents. Public libraries must offer more than a book collection and periodicals. It is worrying to see the LORD MAYOR cut the purchase and management of the library collection budget by 11 per cent in the past two years. Brisbane residents and young people, who are reliant on access to first-rate libraries, deserve much better.

Last year's budget showed the active and healthy parks program has had a cut of 8.5 per cent. This is a program started by Labor to enable residents to get out and be active in our local parks at a low cost. The LNP has abandoned our hard-working volunteer clubs with no future funding in the forward budget for grants to cut organisational costs. Young people need places to go in our community to be active and healthy.

So let's look at this LORD MAYOR's commitment to skate facilities for young people in this city. We are still waiting on upgrades to skate parks in Inala and Paddington, while the much-hyped new facility to Bracken Ridge has not progressed past the planning stage. Young people rely on Council to deliver youth-based infrastructure, but sports field and hard courts funding has been cut by 32 per cent, and continues to drop even further in future years under the LNP.

The LORD MAYOR's only grand new vision for Brisbane announced in his budget speech on Wednesday was some fairy lights and fountains. Light shows might be fun, but safety and security in Council's parks and streetscapes should be the priority. If you want to enhance Brisbane's international reputation, make sure our streets, parks and public spaces are well lit and safe so we don’t continue to see the violent crimes that we have seen in our city in recent times.

A Labor budget delivered by Rod Harding this year would have seen the $1.6 million allocated to the CBD and new world lighting used for essential lighting upgrades in key local parks and Council-controlled streetscapes to make sure they are safe and give residents confidence to use them day and night. Therein lies the difference between us. Labor says safety must come first.

Then we come to the fountains. We heard on Wednesday that the LORD MAYOR is finally going to turn them on. Well, it is about time. One of the most iconic fountains in Brisbane used to be in King George Square. So, if you are going to bring back the city's fountains, then the LORD MAYOR needs to look no further than outside his office window into King George Square. That is why Rod Harding will make sure and release policy to ensure that this square is returned to its former glory, a green heart for our city, leading to the people's place, City Hall.

The LORD MAYOR misled the people of Brisbane and Council when, in his budget speech, he stated that CitySmart has launched two new programs, because all he did was simplify and rename existing programs. The LORD MAYOR wants you to believe that he is expending an additional $1 million on extra grass cutting. But the reality is he is just making up the shortfall after awarding Brisbane's grass cutting contract to companies that didn’t even own lawnmowers. If the LORD MAYOR can't get grass cut across the city, what hope does he have of delivering parklands for the communities that need it most?

The largest amphitheatre in the world, the Colosseum in Rome, took eight years to build. I make this point because, 2,000 years later, and eight years after it was announced, the LNP still hasn’t built the Karawatha Forest Environment Centre. According to the LORD MAYOR's 2008-09 Budget document, “Key initiatives to be delivered in the next four years include a ‘Karawatha Forest Environment Centre’ in the bushland in Brisbane's south.” Let's make it clear: in 2008, the LNP said it would be delivered within four years. Eight years later, and countless rollover and complications later, this year, we finally might see the last $4.6 million used to actually finish this environment centre.

Madam Chair, we all know that the Brisbane City Council is just a cash cow for Brisbane Marketing. Brisbane Marketing and its board of directors and highly paid executives are now eating up to $20 million of Council's finances each year. Despite their hefty pay cheques, they have done nothing to address the fact that Brisbane CBD now has the highest vacancy rate of any capital city in Australia. I am concerned that they think their recent $50,000 glossy brochure was good use of Council's finances. Ask any resident what Brisbane Marketing has done for them, and 99 per cent of the people would say nothing.

I worry the primary purpose of Brisbane Marketing is always to produce glossy brochures with the ever-increasing colour photo of LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK. No wonder he has been suckered into agreeing to increase their funding each and every year. In the 2012-13 Budget, Brisbane Marketing pocketed $13 million from Council; by last year, that figure had climbed to $23 million. This Council spends twice as much on Brisbane Marketing than all the combined expenditure for our mosquito and pest services, public health services and city cleansing.

Madam Chair, The Courier-Mail reported on 10 December last year that Council's coffers were so bare that its finances could not handle the cost of cleaning up from a previous storm event. The LORD MAYOR said, Council's reserves were eaten away, and there were no disaster funds left to pay for clean-ups. He also said that we have to pay for storm events somehow, and that money doesn’t grow on trees.

What makes the situation worse is that the LORD MAYOR's political soul mate, Tony Abbott, is planning to slash the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA), which cuts this Council's ability to access Federal Government funds at times of natural disasters. So, Madam Chair, with the knowledge that the NDRRA funding is set to reduce, and that flooding and storm events will continue to become more frequent, wouldn’t it be common sense to prepare Council's finances for a rainy day?

Every Councillor in this place hopes and prays that the city doesn’t suffer from future storm and flood events, but we all know it could. We need to boost Council's financial reserves as a prudent insurance measure. Accordingly, Madam Chair, I announce today that a future Rod Harding ALP Administration will create a new financial reserve in the Council budget. It will be named the Natural Disasters Reserve. Funds in the new reserve will accumulate up to $30 million over time. It will act as a buffer against unexpected huge Council expenditure for flood and storm clean-ups.

The editorial was spot on when it stated that Council has to balance the need to ease cost of living pressures for Brisbane residents with a requirement to have funds available for storm damage. But to not have enough money on hand to cover damage from contingency of a storm and look immediately to slugging households makes a mockery of this. The LNP cannot manage the city's finances, so they put a greater strain on the living costs of all Brisbane's residents.

Madam Chair, LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK is ignoring these warnings, but Rod Harding and the Labor team are not. That is why the commencement of a Natural Disasters Reserve will feature in the next Council budget delivered in this Chamber by Rod Harding.

As I said at the outset, the Brisbane City Council budget should be the definitive document to guide our city through the coming year and beyond. It should be a document that paints a broad vision, lays out the roadmap and defines the way forward for a vibrant, growing and sustainable Brisbane. It should care for the needs of our residents and prepare for the needs of the future. This year it is nothing more than a lacklustre budget designed to get a tired Administration re-elected.

This is a LORD MAYOR who has simply stopped listening to the people who elected him. But this comes as no surprise. This is exactly what you would expect from someone who has been in Council for 30 years. He has simply been in City Hall for far too long. That is why the people of Brisbane are looking for change. A Lord Mayor who doesn’t come from the usual political background, and that is Rod Harding. A lawyer, someone who has run their own small business and who brings experience as a senior executive in Australia's largest investment bank.

Madam Chair, the residents of Brisbane next year have the opportunity to make a clear choice: a choice between another four years of LORD MAYOR Graham QUIRK and the LNP, or the new energy of a Rod Harding Labor Administration. Unless some new energy is injected into City Hall, residents will continue to be ignored, basic services will continue to deteriorate, money will continue to be wasted, and economic development of our city will continue to slow down.

Our city needs an energetic Lord Mayor, someone with a passion and energy to take Brisbane forward. As Lord Mayor, Rod's first priority will be getting the basics right. The ratepayers of Brisbane are the boss, and they will always come first. Our city deserves a bright future with Rod Harding as Lord Mayor, someone who will deliver a budget Brisbane deserves.

Councillors interjecting.

Chairman: Thank you, Councillor DICK.