Redlands and the ShapingSEQ regional plan

The problem for the new SEQ RP is that real issues are complex and things dont operate in boxes. With Jackie Trad out of her depth and the planning “industry” dominated by developer and property interest the plan is really about a development sausage machine….that will see a small sector make money and leave behind an environmental, social and economic desert.

Sadly there has been no critical analysis of their plan by independent authorities. One response was no one wants to criticise the hand that feeds them.

So communities are left to fend forthemseles and the authors of the plan are answerable to…themselves.

Planning 101 it aint…planning for 1960 it might be.

The new Plan seems to have gutted many of the initiatives of the previous iterations….maybe the task of doing it right was too hard. So in lieu we have “Trad offs”.

The claims supporting the South-East plan, and Redlands future in particular, have no relativity to international megatrends (e.g. Aging populations, technology, climate change), basic economic sustainability or mobility considerations. This undermines the entire integrity of the proposal.

1. Based on international sustainability indicies, a population of 1200 – 1500 households can be self-sustaining, with provision for old-age redundancy, and employment across 64 vocations – not just one. In relegating Redlands to be a Dormitory zone only, feeding jobs to CBD centres like Brisbane, this plan positions Redlands to be entirely reliant on external economies for jobs and provisioning, with no potential for industry investment if that strategy doesn’t work. In the event of a recession, natural disaster, fuel crisis, or supply shortage, Redlands would come to a screaming halt, entrenched as a welfare zone, experiencing real hardships, with no potential to service its own people in being denied local resources, and literally surrendering Queensland’s salad Bowl area to a sea of depreciating housing falling into disrepair. Road could resemble car-parks. Lot sizes are totally inadequate for a household to service its own consumption needs, and we have no community food production. It’s a grim reality. I don’t think many Australians realise how many service stations, aka our fuel lines, are now foreign owned, surrendered by Councils and State authorities. Do you know who owns your local fuel supply? Don’t look to Coles and Woolworths – they’re selling this asset out, and our governments are letting them go to foreign interests. How resilient is that, from a national security perspective? It’s worth asking, and a real reality check if you get an honest answer, which you probably won’t.
Consider this – In a natural disaster, after delegating fuel to emergency services, we would have a predicted 2 day fuel supply (Not 2 weeks), and no communications after 8 hours. How long do you think it would take before you and your family started hurting, and the local community started going to hell? How long would your food supply last? Would money be worth much?

2. The only Redland industry targeted for investment is the Health Precinct, in response to Aged care. What a short-sighted strategy this is, with Redland composed of predominantly aged residents and less than 14% youth. How strong will our local economy be after our baby-boomers expire, due to our inability to retain youth and families here? Why is there no investment or planning to increase and improve amenities as appropriate? What impact will this have on retirements funds and cost-of-living increases and inflation? The Queensland Treasury Office of Statistics recently predicted that Redland’s population would fall to half its 2011 population rate by 2031, when Baby Boomers pass away in accord with natural attrition rates. This will leave us with an excessive amount of aged care workers that are no longer required and have no other industry employment opportunity to go to.

3. Our Baby Boomers are retiring over the next 5 years. 50% of the area’s tax revenues will retire with them. According to CEDA Reports 10-15% of jobs will be lost to technology improvements within the next 10-15 years. With China and India closing their economies in 2020 and 2021, we lose another 20% of related local employment, due to lost Chinese opportunities alone. That means that the taxation revenues supporting our quality-of-life, in a few short years, will rely on 15% or less, of our current tax revenue base only, with no innovation or alternative industry investment at all, and none accommodated in the planning pipeline. Note that in 2015 China also declared investment in residential housing, cinemas, hotels and fuel stations as “frivolous investments”. In August 2017, China announced its reduction of Australian investment by 50%. I am not sure what our Mayor hoped to achieve for Redlands with her Chinese delegation, with our biggest employment area (residential construction) no longer eligible for investment, 50% of construction commitments being withdrawn, and no industry investment allocated to Redland to leverage legitimate Chinese investment here. China’s investment strategy ensures they will later be able to pick up Australian realty for a “song”, and enable extensive land-banking – which they can afford to sit on for decades, controlling supply, or doing nothing. Essential utilities are rendered vulnerable to asset sales, to finance increasingly unsustainable council revenues, with the potential to secure and ransom essential services (e.g. water, and energy), and supply chains. Case-in-point: There’s not many Australian owned and staffed Abattoirs anymore, and where is the best primary produce going?

(Watch property values and rental rates begin to fall, as construction company defaults begin to tally. Primary produce and utility prices have also begun to escalate alarmingly. Are we in danger of becoming enslaved)?

Our second biggest employment area: Social Services and welfare, is about to get bigger again in consequence.

Right now, Southern Moreton Bay Islands finance 20% of Redland council revenues despite having youth unemployment at 43%. Look to that economy, and the levies being paid, and its social and welfare issues, as an indicator of what life across Redland City could become – a community fraught with council re-possessions and defaults, and unfair levy arrangements without equivalent servicing and amenities. How does this reality compare with the unsubstantiated fantasies supporting this South-East Qld Plan?

How is Tourism alone, to support the Stradbroke Revitalisation Plan, with proposed PDA developments that undermine the natural attractions most valued as likely to attract tourists to the region, with hospitality investments also reduced?

4. The proposed plan does not address increased state roads, rail extensions, or increased public parking requirements to link with promised, but unsubstantiated, public transport provisions. (Witness the Weinam Creek debacle – Already inadequate for the SMBI population, but the source of considerable penalty revenues in loaded parking fines).

Authorities are still promising high-frequency bus lines, and justifying outrageous 8-figure bus and ferry terminal builds to service less than 20 bus routes per day. Shouldn’t that money be better prioritised in increasing services than in shelters offered at rates equating to prime CBD multiple storey sites with extensive commercial licensing? (The Qld Irish Club with multiple commercial licences, function centre facilities, and potential to build up to 10 stories with parking, behind the Brisbane Hilton, sold for less than the cost to build the terminals at both Weinham Creek, and Capalaba Park & Ride).

The reality is that these services, that would need to operate 24/7 to access jobs and local resourcing requirements, which don’t exist, are proposed to operate only from 7am – 7pm. The dedicated road lanes supporting them have been cancelled, meaning that increased bus servicing without dedicated transit lanes, will actually increase the gridlock by competing with normal road traffic expected to increase with an additional 50,000+ vehicles and PDA & new construction delays. Add another $2 million just to do the engineering studies to assess traffic hazards as a result of development permitted adjacent to Cleveland Station.

Most new construction work is being offered to workers who live outside the area. Why?

Latch-key kids are already waving their Parents goodbye to enable them to get to work at 5:30am, and don’t see them again until after 7pm due to traffic.

Consider also, that our local radio station, the source of huge controversy regarding alleged political interference and conflicts-of-interest at BayFM’s last election, is now also breaching its broadcast limits, that allegedly contribute to road hazards again. Despite attracting ACMA complaints from Police and emergency authorities and international broadcasters who allege their signals are being interfered with, nothing is apparently being done. The emitting Broadcasting towers are now all centralised at the end of Mount View Road, Mount Cotton, with a reach extending across all of South-East Queensland, from the Glass House Mountains to Mount Warning. Broadcast frequency interference was targeted by local authority emergency services for contributing to a life-threatening gridlock on the M1 a few weeks ago, that took 5 hours to clear, when a truck inexplicably burst into flame (Trucks are monitored 24/7. No irregularities go undetected, so this incident was truly bizarre). A test run, or a precursor of what to expect in the future?

There is a lot of basic housekeeping yet to be done. But in kitchen vernacular, this recipe won’t pass the pub-test, or the test kitchen. Its missing some essential elements, and is unlikely to produce anything worth tabling, until it is revised thoroughly, and audience tested for stakeholder acceptance. I’d go even further to suggest that it is hazardous to health, in terms of sustainability, liberty, basic economics, environment, community resilience, safety, security and values, industry, employment, obesity and life-style disease, and over-all quality-of-life. Where is the balance?