Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For more than three years the Greens and the local community in East Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and Woolloongabba have been standing up and fighting back against Labor and the LNP's plan to demolish and rebuild the Gabba stadium, and destroy an over 100-year-old public school, East Brisbane State School, and a beloved public park, Raymond Park. For years, we have been told that this was a done deal. When I asked the Prime Minister in parliament he got up and mocked the community, and suggested that Greens MPs would end up attending the Olympics at that stadium, rather than addressing the issue of demolishing the school and a public park. The former premier and now the new Premier both, on repeated occasions, said it was 'a done deal'. They said it was the best value for money—using billions of dollars of public money to demolish a school and a public park, all for an extra few thousand seats a few weeks of a sporting event in 10 years time.

What has happened since then? We have seen countless rallies, enormous pressure. We saw the federal government quietly decline to fund the Gabba component of the stadium, isolating the state government. Then we saw the LNP council all of a sudden change their minds and declare, 'No, we're not so sure about this project,' and now the state government are not so sure either; although, rather than coming out and scrapping the project they have announced a review that will not report back for two to three days after the council election, which seems oddly convenient.

What we know is the only reason we got to this point is because of the Greens and local community pressure. If it were not for us collectively standing up and fighting back we would have definitely lost a beloved public school and public park. Instead, what we have seen is pressure working, forcing the federal government to back down from funding it, forcing the LNP council to pretend they never supported the project in the first place when they did, and now forcing the state government to announce this review, which, again, will only report back two to three days after the council election.

The bottom line is, when it comes to this council election, what they are trying to do is avoid scrutiny. But what we know is that the message this community needs to send to the Labor and Liberal parties is 'never again'. On council election night they need to see massive swings against them—they need to lose seats—knowing full well that this is the consequence of trying to bulldoze a local community. Those same strategists in the Labor and Liberal parties need to know that next time they think about using public money to destroy our schools and public parks they remember nights like that council election night.

If you are opposed to the Gabba stadium demolition, if you do want to make sure that the state government scraps it and instead spends billions of dollars building public housing and public schools then vote Greens on council election night this March.