Kangaroo Point residents are angry about Brisbane City Council plans they say will destroy character housing in the area. More than 100 residents attended a meeting with Councillor Helen Abrahams last week to discuss the Brisbane City Council’s Kangaroo Point South Renewal Strategy. Preserve Kangaroo Point spokesman Trevor Gordon said the area’s character housing was […]

The City Council’s Two Million Trees for Brisbane program would fail unless they provided ongoing care for young trees planted under the program, a environmental expert said yesterday. Queensland University Planning and Environmental management expert Dr Clive McAlpine said the council needed to ensure ongoing care to prevent a repeat of the failed one billion […]

A section of the Bruce Highway is so dangerous the local council has told its staff not to use it, a Sunshine Coast MP said this week. Opposition member Jarrod Bleijie (pictured) said Sunshine Coast Regional Council had instructed their staff members not to use the section of the highway or the entry and exit […]

Proposed laws to exempt Brisbane City Council’s civic cabinet from the Right to Information Act will treat the community as the enemy, a local government expert has warned. Dr Doug Tucker says democratic principles are threatened by the move. The City of Brisbane Bill 2010, to be debated in Parliament in a fortnight, will amend […]

After more than a year’s planning and despite opposition from the local councillor and some residents, the community garden in Faulkner Park Graceville will officially open today. The site (pictured) was chosen from several possibilities in the area because of its location and accessibility to the Benarrawa Community Development Association. Graceville community garden committee co-ordinator […]

A Toowoomba author and life coach is campaigning for computerised voting registers to stop people rorting the electoral system. Nancy Sommerfield (pictured left) wants polling booths to be equipped with computers so that Queenslanders are flagged state-wide when they vote. “Voting is really important, sometimes there are only six votes difference in elections,” she said. […]

Politicians will face fines of up to $10,000 for breaking election promises under legislation proposed by Queensland Opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek. The Private Member’s Bill, introduced into parliament last week, would make it an offence to make false or misleading claims in electoral advertising and would affect print, broadcast and online media. Mr Langbroek (pictured) […]

After two straight hours sledging his opponents in the bear pit of Queensland Parliament and copping warnings from the Speaker, you’d think Minister for Public Works Robert Schwarten would be panting in the corner, getting a massage and towel-down from his support team. But no, head-kicker “Schwarto”, as he’s known, was in the parliamentary rose […]

Pooper-scoopers became the subject of debate in a slanging match at yesterday’s Brisbane City Council meeting. It all began over who should take the blame for a simple Brisbane residential mapping error. Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, Opposition leader Shayne Sutton, and two other councillors spent 10 minutes pointing the finger over three Hamilton Road properties […]

Kangaroo Point residents will meet on Thursday to discuss rezoning plans that would see high-density apartment blocks in the Raymond Park area. Local councillor Helen Abrahams said today the meeting will be held to provide details on the council’s plans, which could see old tin and timber houses in the area replaced by eight and […]

Half a million dollars will be allocated in the upcoming budget to improve pedestrian safety on West End’s busy Montague Road, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman promised today. The decision comes after local parent Linda Hogendoorn urged councillors to install a pedestrian crossing so residents and students of West End State School could safely cross the […]

Queensland’s unemployment rate rose above the national average this month and not enough is being done about it, according to Opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek. Australian Bureau of Statistics show Queensland unemployment rose to 5.6 percent compared to a national average of 5.4 percent. Mr Langbroek said Ms Bligh’s election promise to create an extra 100,000 […]

Parliament House opened its doors to the public on Saturday to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Parliament in Queensland, but a peek into the history books reveals the more things change, the more they stay the same. When the then colony’s first Parliament opened on 22 May, 1860 it had two houses, no parties and […]

Windsor residents want the Brisbane City Council to limit construction trucks to four-tonne and place chicanes in the street to ease traffic noise during the construction of the Airport Link. Victoria Street resident Stephen Pahl said locals also demanded the release of the Airport Link traffic management plan. At a rally last Sunday residents said […]

The Federal Government is facing calls to increase its foreign aid budget, despite having downgraded its aid target for the next financial year. Speaking at a forum in the Brisbane electorate of Bonner last week, Greens candidate Darryl Rosin and Make Poverty History national co-chair Andrew Hewett called on the Government to increase their aid […]