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A petition for bike lanes on Dornoch Terrace and Gladstone Rd. Cr Murphy says it will not be done because of "the need for strong community support for these projects".
Bike lanes need strong community support. Road widening does not. 🤷♂️
Cr Massey criticises this response. She calls the consultation from 2019 "botched", and says there was "no meaningful consultation". She also notes that the petition response makes no mention of "safety".
She calls out the fact that active transport projects are always the first to be cut when cuts are being made, including in the recent cuts. Fundamentally, active transport is not a priority of this council administration, she says.
Cr Cassidy says that the approach to consultation is terrible. They seem to be requiring the local councillor to go and do all the consultation and design themselves first and then bring that to the committee, if the ward is held by an opposition or minor party/independent councillor. But if it's an LNP ward, they use Council resources to produce a design and perform consultation, he says.
Cr Murphy basically confirms that what Cr Cassidy said here is completely true. If Labor proposes a solution, he says, they won't provide it resources.
He claims that former councillor Sriranganathan started the consultation process for the bikeway on Dornoch Terrace & Gladstone Rd, but that he turned against it because former state MP Jackie Trad spoke up against it.
I don't know about Ms Trad's involvement, but you can read Mr Sriranganathan's opinion on it on his website. Suffice to say, Cr Murphy's oversimplification does not provide a very accurate representation of his views.
cOaLiTiOn Of ChAoS
Ugh. Might need to turn this into a drinking game to make it through this meeting.
Ugh. Might need to turn this into a drinking game to make it through this meeting.
Please don't... You'll die of liver poisoning...
Oh, and to be fair and balanced.
The Lord Mayor's Cuts and Chaos.
Drink!
Fuck me. Cr Toomey holding up debate to try and stop Labor councillors explaining their motions is actually causing this whole thing to go on many, many times longer than it would have if he'd just let them say their piece and then let the LNP vote it down.
Gods I hate the term "learnings".
Cr Wolff has used it many times in her maiden speech.
Cr Allan promotes the LNP's policy of "inner-city high density, suburban sprawl everywhere else".
He also criticises the Greens' and Labor's policies regarding vacancy levies.
Recent research has shown that 40% of investors from Queensland have sold at least one investment property in the past 12 months. This is the highest rate across the country. 47% of the investors who have sold their property have advised that governments increasing or threatening to increase taxes, duties, or levies is the main reason making it less attractive to retain their investment properties. Other reasons including changing tenancy legislation and rental freezes; a need to reduce total borrowings due to rising interest rates and positive selling market conditions.
But what is more worrying is who they are selling to. 73% of investment properties sold have been to either existing home-owners or first home buyers. In comparison, only 24% were sold to another investor. Meaning many of those investment properties were removed from the rental market. Adding additional costs such as a vacancy tax will only force more investors to sell and reduce the number of properties available for rental. This will have severe consequences for the 34% of households who rent in Brisbane, who will see decreasing vacancy rates and increasing prices.
Obviously, this is hogwash. If a house is sold to a first home buyer, that's a home removed from the rental market, but it's also a renter removed from the rental market. Its effect is neutral. If it's sold to an existing home-owner, their previous home is going to either be converted to an investment property or sold to a first home buyer (or sold to another existing home-owner, whose previous home recursively applies the same logic).
Basically, investment property owners provide housing the way scalpers provide concert tickets.