Andrew Laming candidate for Mayor – by Andrew Laming

Andrew Laming election flyer

Andrew Laming, candidate for Mayor, has contributed this piece.

All candidates for the 16 March 2024 Redland City Council elections are invited to submit an opinion piece for publication by Redlands2030.

My earliest Redland recollections are pain and mud; running cross-country in Mount Cotton. I was a skinny 12-yo Churchie boarder and the peaks seemed towering back then.   

I didn’t realize then my great-aunt Emily Blanck and her family had lived in Victoria Point since the early 1950s; her niece was my Mum Estelle, who, according to sources, was a bit of a mudlark during school hours. Emily passed two days before her hundredth birthday at Salford Waters; the royal letters I routinely arranged for centenarians were delivered into her hands the day before.  

Olesja and I have lived in Princess Street group housing, two apartments without backyards, a 1970s brick in Tarina Street, and our two-hectare Kinross farm. In 2019, we shifted to John Cameron’s 1884 Ormiston masterpiece Doobawah. Grandad Vasilijs has planted almonds, currants, bananas, peaches, olives and pink ladies in our backyard. On days of plenty, the produce is there for those passing by in a wheelbarrow stall on the footpath.

More than a travel log, this tale contains strands familiar to us all; post-war aspiration, the invisibility of Redlands for city folk, the importance of small-lot housing for young families, urban encroachment, displacement and ultimately, that we all have an obligation to protect our heritage in a fast-paced world.

By national standards, a large Council, Redlands is Queensland’s tenth largest city, just behind Cairns. A minnow in the south-east, we need a substantial Mayor with experience under pressure to reverse the sidelining and bypassing out City has fallen victim to. 

The intensity of SEQ growth needs a strong Mayor. The polarisation of Queensland coastal politics needs someone capable of navigating a sensible centre; touching the brakes on rampant development but not impeding world-class and scheme-compliant applications simply because we don’t like the colour or shape.

My decision to run for this Election was only made in January. I became suspicious when I was summarily blocked from Jos Mitchell’s campaign page in early 2023, just after she publicized a meeting with Labor MPs who do the same. Blocking has a pernicious effect on democracy because underperformers insulate themselves from reality and criticism. 

As a three-decade party member until this month, I am utterly transparent, and you know me inside out. Everyone has had their say about me over 18 undefeated years in office. Every slimy piece of 2021 scuttlebutt was vacuumed up and broadcast by Nine Entertainment to an estimated two billion audience. Ultimately all 22 of their lurid affidavits from my political opponents (including from members of Jos Mitchell’s Integrity ticket) were withdrawn as being neither ‘truth’ nor ‘honest opinion.’ 

The benefit of six consecutive election wins and taking the bayside from a 17-year Labor seat under Con Sciacca to consecutively the safest LNP seat in greater Brisbane is – experience under pressure.  

My approach is both loved, loathed and envied. In 2018, a wide-eyed Coalition Health Minister grabbed my elbow. “After me,” he said, “there is no one (then Labor Health Minister) Steven Miles hates more in the world than you Andrew.” I know the place of diplomacy, but that only works where mutual interest exists. My strength is when progress seems impossible; the art of war intense and my unwavering political pressure grinds towards a solution until it is found. These rules apply regardless of side of politics or level of government. My opponents call it ‘mud.’

Andrew Laming policy reforms

My four largest policy reforms are the result of this approach. The National Schools Chaplaincy Program in 2006 has survived High Court challenge. Generic drug price reforms in 2007 saved the nation a billion dollars annually. Safer Community CCTV was proposed by me in 2012.  The 5% deposit assistance home lending in 2019 won the Election for Scott Morrison and moved 60,000 renters into their own home. All my policies were embraced by Labor. 

Not embraced so willingly was my dismantling of Don Brown’s homeless Tent City in Capalaba. The Redland Community Centre backed me and got every soul a roof over their head and many a job. Brown has never forgiven the Centre; freezing them out and defunding their programs. 

My real specialty is not medicine. It is finding workarounds for complex multi-stakeholder challenges that seem insurmountable. It includes publicly calling out unmotivated actors until they come to the table (Clinical upgrades and parking at Redland Hospital are just two examples). Few realise that every completed road duplication serving Redlanders over the last decade has been Laming-initiated. None of these were federal roads. Sometimes, the most effective government solution comes from another level. 

Andrew Laming election commitments

While my word is my record, my commitments as a future Mayor are now on everyone’s lips. That is because I challenge the conventional notion of government levels. They are the five ‘C’s of Council: local Crime, Cost of living, Congestion, land Claims and hospital Chaos. All are complex issues currently at a standstill. The Greek (πόρος) aporia refers to these political impasses where nothing budges until a change agent disrupts the cozy status quo and locates the one seam of promise in an otherwise immovable wall. This is where I do my best work. 

You may not always like how I say things, but you all know my motivation: Putting Redlands first and getting a fair go. You all know how to reach me #24/7, what I stand for and that I will fight for any compelling argument. I can’t promise the world but I can promise a decent hearing, a more open Council, and the clarity to leave something on the table for everyone who has the City’s long-term interests at heart. 

Andrew Laming

Authorised by Andrew Laming, 26 Empire Vista Ormiston 4160

Andrew Laming Facebook page

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Published by Redlands2030 – 1 March 2024