The Brisbane City Council has shirked its responsibility to seniors, the Opposition said today. Opposition leader Shayne Sutton criticised the council’s plan to deliver a seniors-friendly city, and called their draft Seniors Strategy for 2011 to 2016 a disgrace. “It’s noble and idealistic,” she told today’s council meeting. “We need more detail… More concrete policies […]

More than 100 Corinda residents have opposed a move by Brisbane Boys’ College to build a huge sporting complex in the suburb. After buying Corinda Golf Course the Toowong-based private school has made a second attempt to get council approval for a sporting complex on the 36-hectare site at Cliveden Ave and Oxley Rd. Long-term […]

It seemed like a relatively straightforward task for Newbytes trainee journalist Abanob Saad, but it resulted in extraordinary behaviour from some of Brisbane City Council’s “media advisors”. Saad’s job was to research and write a news story about the BCC’s recent installation of speakers and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in Fortitude Valley and the Brisbane […]

The Ethnic Communities Council Queensland has said it would closely monitor a new Bligh government policy that recognises the state’s growing multiculturalism. Ms Bligh’s policy, A multicultural future for us all, applies to the whole of government and includes legislation to support interpreter, employment and transport services for migrants. But Ethnic Communities Council Queensland’s executive […]

Closed circuit television cameras with speakers installed in Fortitude Valley and the CBD will have no real effect on crime, according to a leading criminologist, while civil libertarians are concerned about invasions of privacy. Bond University criminology professor Paul Wilson said research showed CCTV cameras did not prevent crime. “It may be good at detecting […]

A parliamentary estimates hearing scrutinised state Health Minister Geoff Wilson yesterday by about the missing $62 million in staff overpayments. The independent member for Gladstone Liz Cunningham questioned Mr Wilson on how staff could prove they were paid correctly, when the new payslips lacked the necessary detail. “It appears to me… they’re being required to […]

Hundreds of protesters marched in Melbourne on Saturday to protest against on-the-spot fines for offensive language in public. About 500 mainly young protesters chanted slogans demanding free speech not fines in the CBD. Yelling offensive words they marched from Flinders Street station and down Bourke St demanding the government scrap the legislation to fine people. […]

A new law to fine people on the spot for swearing will not be effective and may lead to a High Court case, according to legal academics. The Victorian Government has introduced legislation that will give police permanent power to give on-the-spot fines of up to $240 for those who use offensive language. Monash University […]

Brisbane councillors are at loggerheads over the future of bollards in the Brisbane suburb of Richlands. A church wants bollards to slow down traffic, while motorists are driving around bollards on a nearby street. Labor deputy opposition leader Milton Dick copped a tongue-lashing from Infrastructure chairman Margaret de Wit at a recent council meeting. Cr […]

Plans to house almost 500 asylum seekers in an Ipswich jail should be revealed to the local community, Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale said today. He was responding to reports that Ipswich’s Borallon prison could house 492 asylum seekers by the end of the year. Mr Pisasale said no-one had talked to him about the plan. […]

Staunch supporter of the CityCycle scheme, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, admitted in this week’s council meeting he was not himself a cyclist. “I am not a big cyclist,” Cr Quirk said. “It’s not a pretty sight.” Cr Quirk was replying to a question from Labor councillor Helen Abrahams. The mayor said he had tried CityCycle […]

A petition to create the world’s largest marine Park in Australia’s Coral Sea has stirred controversy with claims the park would damage the nation’s fishing industry. The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has organised a petition calling for protection of marine life in the Coral Sea. But the proposal has left many in the fishing […]

It would be cheaper to buy bikes for everyone in Brisbane than continue to hire them out through the under-utilised CityCycle scheme, Opposition Leader Shayne Sutton said at yesterday’s Brisbane City Council meeting. The Opposition called for the council to review the transport program, which began under former Lord Mayor Campbell Newman in 2010. “Barely […]

Four new facilities including a cafe and a village green will be developed at the Queensland University of Technology end of the Goodwill Bridge. The plans were outlined at Tuesday’s Brisbane City Council meeting. Chairman of Neighbourhood Planning Amanda Cooper said the development would be conducted in partnership with QUT. “I’d have to commend QUT […]

Rates increases to be announced in the forthcoming budget would be below the 3.6 percent Brisbane CPI for the average householder, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said at this week’s council meeting. Asked by Opposition leader Cr Shayne Sutton if he would either commit to a 3.6 percent rates cap for all properties in his budget […]