With the dust barely settled on the Queensland state election, council elections are looming on 28 April. The last time I was involved in a Brisbane election, it was a by-election for the Walter Taylor ward, vacated by a sitting councillor who was elected as a federal member. The Greens candidate Tim Dangerfield made history by beating the once-mighty Labor party into third place.
Can this happen again?
After Labor's massive rout in the state election, I would rate Tim's chances highly for doing at least as well. And why shouldn't he? If the Greens run the sort of thoughtful campaign they ran in his by-election (I'm not on the team this time, but I know the people there), he deserves wider support.
What are the local issues?
Excessive and inappropriate development is a big problem. With the LNP riding high on their massive state win, unless they lose a few votes to candidates with strong local concerns, this trend is likely to continue. Public transport in the area remains a problem, with traffic on Coronation Drive and Moggill Road, and to schools and the University of Queensland, a testament to poor planning. Not only does public transport not serve the area well, but other options like bike paths are inadequate. There are some excellent bikeways around Brisbane, but they only solve the problem for longer-distance travel, and do nothing for the problem of riding safely through areas like St Lucia, where narrow roads with parked cars make cyclists vulnerable.
The area covered by the ward, the suburbs (or parts of them in some cases) Indooroopilly, St Lucia, Chapel Hill, Fig Tree Pocket, Kenmore and Toowong, is extremely diverse in density and local character, and includes some of the best areas of Brisbane in which to live. Messing up any of these by poor planning and favouring developer interests over community interests would be criminal. Even if Tim stands little chance of winning, a strong vote for a committed and informed candidate will give the incumbent, who has shown little interest in community concerns, a wake up call.
I'll be watching Tim's campaign to see how he handles these and other issues. Anyone else who can vote in the area with concerns about planning and community development should do so too.
Showing posts with label Brisbane city election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brisbane city election. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Monday, 23 June 2008
Robbing Units to Pay Whom?
The recent Brisbane City Council budget included double digit rate rises for many ratepayers. Single digit rate rises were promised at the election: did Campbell Newman mean by this a raised middle finger? Because that's what he's delivered. The updated rates calculation includes a multiplier based on the value of the land a unit is situated on, which does not allow for how many units are on that land. So a $20-million block of land with 200 units on it gets the same multiplier as the same land value with 4 units on it, resulting in absurd general rates increases of up to 700% for modestly-priced units – at least according to the Labor opposition in council. Campbell Newman claims that the maximum increase is "only" 150%.
On 19 June, I attended a Labor meeting at City Hall. There, angry inner-city unit owners had picked up the idea that they were being asked to pay for the tunnels wanted by residents of suburbs like Kenmore. This may not be strictly accurate in that the tunnels blow-out, as far as I can tell, is only hitting the budget next year. Nonetheless, I suspect this is news to the people who attended the Greens rally on 12 June, protesting the Kenmore bypass. No one there spoke in favour of tunnels; the most popular alternative to the bypass was better public transport.
What I find a bit rich about Labor's attack on the rates increase is that they voted for the tunnels project, and they also have a long history of talking public transport, while failing to deliver. If Labor doesn't want inner city unit owners to be slugged with an unfair rates increase, who, exactly, are they proposing should pay for their unfunded, fiscally irresponsible welfare for tunnel builders policy, which they share with the Liberals?
On 19 June, I attended a Labor meeting at City Hall. There, angry inner-city unit owners had picked up the idea that they were being asked to pay for the tunnels wanted by residents of suburbs like Kenmore. This may not be strictly accurate in that the tunnels blow-out, as far as I can tell, is only hitting the budget next year. Nonetheless, I suspect this is news to the people who attended the Greens rally on 12 June, protesting the Kenmore bypass. No one there spoke in favour of tunnels; the most popular alternative to the bypass was better public transport.
What I find a bit rich about Labor's attack on the rates increase is that they voted for the tunnels project, and they also have a long history of talking public transport, while failing to deliver. If Labor doesn't want inner city unit owners to be slugged with an unfair rates increase, who, exactly, are they proposing should pay for their unfunded, fiscally irresponsible welfare for tunnel builders policy, which they share with the Liberals?
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Running for Greens in Brisbane March 2008
I've placed my first election ad for my campaign in the MacGregor ward of the Brisbane City Council on YouTube:
So what do I stand for?
In short, a liveable city.
What does that mean? A city that puts people first.
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the main characters is called Ford Prefect. He was a space alien and in an error in his research prior to landing on Earth, he thought cars were the dominant life form. If you look at the priorities in development in Brisbane, you'd be excused for making the same mistake. Billions of dollars are being committed to building a car tunnel that no one will want when it's built, because petrol will be so expensive, we'll all want to use our cars as little as possible. After totally neglecting the issue for 4 years, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has announced $100-million in future spending on bike paths. He and his Labor opposite number are in a bidding war on the number of new buses they will lay on.
All of this is pathetic and inadequate, a reaction to demand for better public transport and alternatives to cars, rather than a coherent plan.
For example: why do Brisbane buses not run anywhere close to on time? Because the system is designed that way. For buses to run to a timetable you need:
What do we actually have? A limited network of busways, in which most of the routes spill out onto regular streets. Many routes do not go on busways at all, and don't make much use of dedicated bus lanes. Ticketing is mostly by buying tickets on the bus. While there are other options, you can't buy tickets at most stops. Ticketing alone is a significant factor in the difficulty in having buses run to time. Add to it that getting off buses at a popular stop can take considerable time, and there is too much variance in stop times to make accurate timetabling possible. Add in the other issues, and you can see that any attempt at maintaining an accurate timetable is a joke.
Brisbane buses, in other words, don't run to time by design.
The Labor and Liberal side of politics (pretty much the same side on this issue) can make all the election promises they like, but both have had ample opportunity to address this issue. The Libs have held the mayoral office for the last term, and Campbell Newman, as a Civil Engineer, ought to be capable of understanding the problem. Instead, he has ignored it in favour of building tunnels. The Labs ran the city before him, and they set things up the way they are today.
That's it for now. Watch this space for thoughts on bike paths and other failures of the existing city government. And how things could be done better, with examples from other parts of the world.
So what do I stand for?
In short, a liveable city.
What does that mean? A city that puts people first.
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the main characters is called Ford Prefect. He was a space alien and in an error in his research prior to landing on Earth, he thought cars were the dominant life form. If you look at the priorities in development in Brisbane, you'd be excused for making the same mistake. Billions of dollars are being committed to building a car tunnel that no one will want when it's built, because petrol will be so expensive, we'll all want to use our cars as little as possible. After totally neglecting the issue for 4 years, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has announced $100-million in future spending on bike paths. He and his Labor opposite number are in a bidding war on the number of new buses they will lay on.
All of this is pathetic and inadequate, a reaction to demand for better public transport and alternatives to cars, rather than a coherent plan.
For example: why do Brisbane buses not run anywhere close to on time? Because the system is designed that way. For buses to run to a timetable you need:
- busways and bus lanes that isolate buses from regular traffic
- minimal or better still no ticket sales on buses
- rapid entry (related to avoiding selling tickets on the bus) and exit
What do we actually have? A limited network of busways, in which most of the routes spill out onto regular streets. Many routes do not go on busways at all, and don't make much use of dedicated bus lanes. Ticketing is mostly by buying tickets on the bus. While there are other options, you can't buy tickets at most stops. Ticketing alone is a significant factor in the difficulty in having buses run to time. Add to it that getting off buses at a popular stop can take considerable time, and there is too much variance in stop times to make accurate timetabling possible. Add in the other issues, and you can see that any attempt at maintaining an accurate timetable is a joke.
Brisbane buses, in other words, don't run to time by design.
The Labor and Liberal side of politics (pretty much the same side on this issue) can make all the election promises they like, but both have had ample opportunity to address this issue. The Libs have held the mayoral office for the last term, and Campbell Newman, as a Civil Engineer, ought to be capable of understanding the problem. Instead, he has ignored it in favour of building tunnels. The Labs ran the city before him, and they set things up the way they are today.
That's it for now. Watch this space for thoughts on bike paths and other failures of the existing city government. And how things could be done better, with examples from other parts of the world.
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