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Cr Massey moves a motion on notice to say "that BCC does not support the Queensland Government's proposal to demolish and rebuild the Gabba stadium at a cost of at least $2.7 billion".
Cr Johnston "hear, hear! Yes, support that strongly. Seconded."
She notes the East Brisbane State School's planned relocation outside its own catchment. She says "there is no doubt in my mind...that the Gabba rebuild will cost more than the $2.7 billion that it's budgeted", at a time when housing, health, and schools are desperately in need of funding.
She says the existing Gabba could be upgraded for much, much less money, including "a new lick of paint" and unisex change rooms. "The Gabba would be able to deliver an incredible opening and closing ceremony, and still be an Olympic venue. Maybe just not for athletics. Because there are other options" including Rugby 7s and soccer.
She also points out that the athletics could go somewhere that they'd have a lasting legacy, instead of being a temporary facility for the Olympics which gets removed when the Gabba goes back to being a football and cricket ground. In Nathan, perhaps, where there's already a track.
The Federal Government has already backed out of helping fund this, having stated that it's not necessary for the Olympics, and the rebuild is really primarily for football and cricket, according to Cr Massey.
Cr Johnston criticises the LNP for failing to speak up on this. In her speech she emphasises how residents will have to travel many kilometres further for school. It puts pressure to drive kids to school and disconnects them from their community.
There are a lot of new councillors here and some of them may be forgiven for thinking "well this is just part of the Olympics bid". No. It. Is. Not. It was never part of our formal bid to the IOC. It is not part of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics pitch. And the IOC themselves have said that the new model for the Olympics...this is about reusing infrastructure and this is about being smarter. It's the new bid model. And stupid me, I'm the stupid one here, I believed them.
She says this is one of the worst mistakes the Palaszczuk Government has made.
She also says it will overstimulate the construction market and put pressure onto smaller construction projects.
Cr Johnston also reiterates that the federal government and the AOC do not believe this is necessary. But she says the cricket and AFL people are also angry because they'll be 7 years without their venue.
The Deputy Mayor uses it as an opportunity to point out that the Greens and Labor are not in agreement and therefore a coalition Council between them after the next election would be chaotic.
Weird how both the ways in which they are supposedly in lockstep and the ways in which they have disagreements are supposedly reasons to be opposed to the Greens and Labor, according to the LNP.
Cr Massey points out that the LNP said they don't support the notion purely because "it's a state government initiative". The LNP refused to make any statement about whether they support the redevelopment itself.
She also points out that there is no coalition. "There's only one Coalition here, and it's the Liberal National Party."
Need more pixels again, but did Cr Cunningham subtly give Cr Johnston the bird when she said she was disappointed with her silence on the issue?
I was trying to see what was going on there. Definitely want to try and take a closer look if the video's still up when I get home.