Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today in the national parliament I want to go in and bat for the residents of Indooroopilly, particularly the residents of Meiers Road, in the Ryan electorate—the beautiful part of the western suburbs that I have the great honour of representing here in the Australian parliament. I want to go in and bat for them because it has come to my attention—and to their attention—that the Rudd Labor government has put on the market some 7.2 hectares of prime riverside real estate. This is 7.2 hectares of land that currently has the CSIRO on it.

The CSIRO, of course, is one of our premier institutions. It has enormous regard and respect, and its reputation is second to none. It is indeed a world pioneer in all that it does. It has come to my attention that the CSIRO is going to be relocated, and in its place, I suspect, is going to be a residential development of significant impact on the residents of Meiers Road and the residents of the greater Indooroopilly area. If this 7.2 hectares of prime riverside land goes on the market and a developer purchases it for a significant sum of money, the local area will be significantly impacted by heavy traffic. How will that occur? It will occur because the developer will clearly want to make a profit, and we all suspect that his—$60 million, $70 million, $80 million—purchase price for this prime, beautiful riverside land will have to sustain high-density residential construction. That will mean there will be a lot of people coming to live in this area.

I am certainly not one to put my hand up as being antidevelopment; indeed, I am one who believes in infrastructure, investment, development and creating opportunities for families to live in affordable homes. But, consistent with the Rudd Labor government’s policies on affordable homes, it seems that the government is going to require any developer, as part of the development process, to meet the policy of catering for affordable homes. Quite frankly, this is ill thought through and ill considered. This is policy on the run, because 7.2 hectares of riverside land should not equate to having thousands of new residents in Indooroopilly. This is a beautiful part of the western suburbs. The residential homes around it are not consistent with having, all of a sudden, on the opposite side of Meiers Road, hundreds of new homes and apartments—if not thousands of homes—in the form of high-density, sardine-can living. I know that the people of Meiers Road and the people of Indooroopilly will be fighting this tooth and nail and fighting it to the end.

The state member, who has been critical of me, really should get out of bed a bit earlier. He should brief himself on what the local issues are. I think he is a bit miffed that it was not he who alerted the local community about this. Given that he is a state MP, he really should have. Mr Lee, who was a member of the Beattie-Bligh Labor government, has done the wrong thing by them and turned himself into a Green. I think his credentials are absolutely shattered at the moment in the local community.

To all the residents of Meiers Road: let me say that I will be standing shoulder to shoulder with you and I will represent your deep concerns. The number of emails and phone calls I have received already is warning enough to the Rudd Labor government that the people of Meiers Road, the people of Indooroopilly, will not take this lying down. Meiers Road and Indooroopilly Road will become a second Moggill Road or a second Coronation Drive—and anybody who knows Brisbane knows that Moggill Road and Coronation Drive at the moment are one giant car park. They can no longer take thousands of additional vehicles. This is suburban Brisbane; it is not a place for sardine-can living, which would be the consequence of this 7.2 hectares becoming high-density living. (Time expired)