Brisbane City Council, the largest local government in Australia, will be unveiling their 2026-2027 budget this Wednesday. Due to BCC’s size and over 1.2 million residents it holds more power than any other council in Australia, and the seat of lord mayor is the largest election for a single individual in the country. With the Olympics looming it’s more important than ever for council to focus on ensuring the city’s transport network is up to scratch. We’ve picked a few easily-achievable hot topics from our policy platform, but let us know - what transport improvements do you want to see from this year’s budget?
To be fair, council does seem more inclined to work on bicycle infrastructure in recent months. Maybe we’ll see some funding set aside for the Northern Brisbane Bikeway Stage 5…
Given that Brisbane has some of the lowest rates of any council, they could raise them by a fairly small amount and pay for some decent transport improvements. I’m talking things like bus jump lanes, new routes and stops, bus electrification etc
Except that the last time this was the option, the businesses in Kent street convinced the last councillor (who now works for the local State MP) to shit can it.
It’s also a big loop west to go east so that a pool shop and kids swimming school near Junction road can use free street parking.
The reason this is the alternative solution is because said businesses invited to the BCC consultation sessions threw a fit that this option wasn’t being considered and complained to the State MP and Councillor directly outside of said sessions. All they did was complain every single session that they’d lose street parking and how bikes were dangerous.
To be fair, there is less to the east than the west in that part of town. I don’t think the deviation is too bad and it does better connect to Kedron SHS, Wavell SHS, and the suburbs around Kedron than the alternative alignment along Park Avenue.
Of course, longer term, it would be nice to have both routes so that Nundah is also well served.
It’s the alignment that’s the connection to the Gateway bikeway and Moreton Bay Cycleway. There is no north-western bikeways or safe separated bikeways heading north from there through Wavell Heights and it’s incredibly hilly, the alternatives are further west but then they’re also reliant on the Brook paths that do go further south. The NBB is one of the busiest cycleways in Brisbane. People who are cycling from the North-West have the entirety of the Kedron Brook Cycleway, when I cycle home from work I have next to nothing between the NBB and dying on Nudgee Road as my alternative.
It’s a catchment school, kids are cycling along Kedron Brook, not using the NBB as a connection. The proponents of this alignment had zero evidence, user data or survey data to support this, this is why BCC offered the Sydney street alignment. We’ve been down this road before.
The deviation is fine if it gets built, but most commuters are going to continue to ride the lane and cross at Junction road to have a direct route to the existing bikeway. The issue I have is that both won’t get done and BCC had the alignment for a route past Kedron and Wavell previously and dropped it for Jackson and Sydney St. Both occasions the opposition was local small businesses complaining to Tim Nicholls and the local Councillor (including the former Cr McLachlan). Even so, the opponents who proposed the alternative route have been campaigning to rip up the entire section on Dickson street regardless, so you can appreciate why I’m a skeptic.
The issue is that Council is so risk averse that they are only willing to proceed with a project if there is overwhelming support. Council could have built the Kent Rd alignment in 2018 if they wanted to, but a loud minority complained so they backed away.
Council has engaged with the community about this connection over several years.
In 2021, Council released a concept design for the Price Street to Kedron Brook section. It connected to the Kedron Brook via Dickson and Jackson Streets. Through the engagement process, there were some elements of the design the community asked Council to consider further.
In early 2024, Council established a Community Working Group. Its purpose was to review the design and provide input on the Price Street to Kedron Brook alignment. The valuable insights gathered from this group have been reviewed along with technical input and feasibility.
The engagement process in 2021 and the working group both showed majority support for this alignment. Despite this support, the Council backed away from it citing “broader community concerns”.
Both the Council and the local Councillor have refused to say what the “broader community concerns” are. The local advocacy group even met with her and she refused to tell them.
So, Council asks residents to give their time and feedback over multiple years to get this project designed well, but then go ahead and make a call that ignores what the majority wanted, with no clear explanation why.
If the Council had any interest in building this connection, on any alignment, it would have been done already.
Knowing folks were involved in the 2024 sessions with Council, two of the invitees who own local businesses didn’t positively engage at all, proposed the Kent Street alignment which was out of scope of the sessions. When they didn’t get their way with the BCC Team they just went and complained to Cr Julia Dixon and MP Tim Nicholls thus killing the project entirely. These people also wanted the NBB Stage 4 removed and joined the local real estate agent who put up all the anti-bikeway signage that’s still hanging around in the area. If you read the local newsletters from around 2018 onwards, its the same few whingers in the area who want on-street parking to remain perpetually and they won’t put parking on their commercial premises or find a location that has enough parking for their clientele.
Do you have enough milquetoast ideas to keep the punters keen and just re-promise the big ticket ones every 4 years? Can you make routine asset management sound sexy? Can you create enough large business centres and Libraries for your Team so you can plaster their faces so largely from the street that the public can’t tell if there is a Library in the Councillors office or not (and then remove the programs in said Libraries). Can you run a bridge into the ground and then blame not listening to your own engineering reports on the Federal Budget and woke?
As well as city owned housing, the Gold Glider, a metro busway to Carindale, Jindalee via Mt Cootha and Bracken Ridge via Chermside & Carseldine.
I would also redevelop Queen Street Mall because it is desperate for an upgrade in my opinion. And I will try to introduce congestion pricing and tolls for all traffic entering the Brisbane CBD Traffic Area (exemptions may be granted to locals in the area and also work vehicles).
I would also find funding to restore the Storey Bridge and I would be open to working with Private Equity to do this.
I will also mandate rent freeze for all investment properties in Brisbane city limits for my entire term.
And I will build a protective dome over the city (ok I’m joking for this one)
I think I may also think of some other policies along the way.
