Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, a bit of a life balance problem. I was playing with a guy called Lee Crocker. Unfortunately, we were beaten by his brother, Dene Crocker. Playing golf there you come right down to Fairfield Road. Standing at that part of the golf course you can look on one side and see a billboard and on the other side you can see a rather nondescript building. I noticed this the other day when I drove down Fairfield Road. The billboard was completely offensive. Initially, because it was on the way to the dump, I thought it was something to do with making sure all the equipment was stowed away, but it was not—it was a very offensive billboard. If you look 100 metres down the road, right beside the golf course, you can see a brothel. You would not know it was a brothel because it has one street number on it and that is all.

I point this out—Mr Speaker, you are looking a bit bemused—because I want to talk about ownership of public space not only in my electorate but throughout Queensland and Australia. Here we have a brothel—obviously people would imagine what goes on there—which is very nondescript, non-offensive and would not upset anyone taking their kids to school. It is very busy, with nearly 80,000 car movements a day on that road. I have a five-year-old kid, so I am very aware of this. He is starting to spell out words and here is this very offensive billboard.

I want to put out there the idea that we need to reclaim our public spaces. We have lots of weeks here—we have Liver Week, Mental Health Week. I think we need to have a ‘Back to middle-class values week’ where we reclaim public spaces—

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