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Cr Johnston talks about her motion from last week, calling on a decrease to the speed limit on Venner Rd, Annerley. Apparently after a pedestrian died there a few years ago, Council did nothing other than put some yellow paint down, despite sight lines not being part of the cause of the problem.
Cr Wines responds and says that “the motorist was found criminally at fault…at some point, if a person uses a motor vehicle to the level that is criminally dangerous, it is very difficult to engineer away that behaviour. Right? I’ll say that again, if a person is in control of a motor vehicle to a criminally dangerous level, it is very difficult to engineer, through road markings, signs, and concrete build outs; you cannot engineer that away.”
Yikes.
Cr Wines is now moving an amendment to Cr Johnston’s motion to remove the part about “reducing the speed limit from 60 km/h to 50 km/h to protect pedestrians and cyclists”, and instead to merely note the actions that Council has already taken, and to undertake another speed limit review.
Cr Johnston asks that this amendment be ruled out of order for substantially changing the intent of the motion. After what seems to be some whispered advice from a clerk, the Chair says that it does not out of order because it does retain the fundamental intent of the motion. Dissent is moved and is voted down.
In speaking to the amendment, Cr Wines says that because of Cr Johnston’s concerns, his amendment is going to call for another speed limit review after just 2 years instead of their normal minimum of 5 years, and that this is him taking the concerns very seriously.
Personally, I actually agree with him on this. There are clearly problems with how the speed limit review process works, but I believe council is required by law to follow it, and their willingness to at least try it again now is not a bad thing.edit: see below. This is not true, and it’s really weak from the LNP.
Cr Johnston says that actually no, engineers do not have to be consulted to sign off on speed limit reductions, as seen in Boundary Rd, Camp Hill.
While the speed limit review committee will need to consider the new rules and make an official decision, today we have reduced Boundary Rd to 60 km/h.
She quotes from Cr Adams, speaking on a speed limit reduction made for the safety of koalas.
Every year the LNP vote down motions I move to make people safer.
Says a clearly emotional Cr Johnston.
There is one rule for the LNP in this place and one rule for everybody else.
Cr Wines was clearly not saying the truth when he said “I value human life the highest”. Suggests Cr Johnston.
Unfortunately the potentially beneficial nature of their amendment is vastly overshadowed by some appalling bullying from Crs Wines, Murphy, and even the Chair of Council Cr Toomey, towards Cr Johnston.
“The automatic collection and analysis of social media data” is what Council is paying $1 million to a US-based software company Sprinklr Inc. for. They describe it as being for the purpose of “managing their social media platforms”.
Cr Johnston accuses them of not being honest in their intention. This is not really about serving the public best, but about having a tool to enable scraping people’s data to more effectively market to them, she claims.
Cr Massey points out the current Council administration’s failure to deliver on their election commitment regarding green bridges. We were promised 5 green bridges, and so far one has been cancelled entirely, two have been postponed indefinitely, and just two are actually under construction.
Thanks again for this service.
Much appreciated! 👍
No problem! I’m just always glad to see people get value out of it.
Cr Johnston makes some mention of actions the federal Albanese Government is taking to block the appointment of minor parties and independents to important committees, with both the ALP and LNP apparently claiming that this is necessary because independent and minor party MPs are simply “not up to it”. I would love to know more about this because it is incredibly disappointing if true, but I can’t find anything about it in my quick Google search.
She brings this up to compare with what the LNP is doing in Council with regards to her appointment to committees, as part of a big committee shake-up the LNP has brought today without any consultation with the independent, Greens, or Labor councillors.
CBIC (City of Brisbane Investment Corporation), established in 2008, was given $123 million at its establishment as well as $12 million in shares of the Brisbane Airport.
It has paid $181 million in dividends in that time, and its equity is $340 million today.
According to the Lord Mayor, were Labor to get into Government they would spend all of that and then “come for your rates”.
Some interjections from Labor. Not entirely clear what they were saying, but it was something about rent. CBIC being paid rent by Council, perhaps?
It sounds like last Wednesday the relevant Minister gave BCC confirmation that the funding for Beams Rd would be approved.
