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

For nearly three years we were told that the Gabba stadium demolition was a done deal, that there was no point fighting it; it's over. When this stadium demolition was announced, it was with the support of Labor and Liberal governments at every level. All signed on to destroy a public school and park for the sake of their Olympics vanity project. The destruction of a public school and hectares of public parkland—both precious and essential for a growing inner-city area like the one around the Gabba—are simply too high a price to pay for the Olympics, and it has never been acceptable to our community.

When local Greens representatives stood up for our communities and pushed back against this demolition plan, Labor politicians, including the Premier and Prime Minister, mocked us for it. But, like our community, we never gave up. Now, finally, Labor has admitted what we have been saying from the very beginning: the Gabba demolition and rebuild was never going to work, and was a disastrous and destructive waste of public money. The cancellation of this plan means we have saved Raymond Park, a beautiful parkland which brings thousands of people in Kangaroo Point together every day.

I want to congratulate and thank our amazing community leaders in this campaign: people like Austin Gibbs, Melissa Occhipinti yeah, Dan Angus, Haline Ly, Nicky Middleton, Paul Gollan, Cass Gaisford and many more brave people who stood up and turned into organisers and activists overnight. This is an historic victory, and you have all done an incredible job. And congratulations to my incredible Greens colleagues and councillors, like Trina Massey, Jonathan Sriranganathan, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Kath Angus and Amy MacMahon, who have not only given an electoral voice to this fight but who have demonstrated so much leadership on the ground in backing this community. In particular, the people of South Brisbane could not have asked for a better local member than Amy MacMahon. This would absolutely not have been possible without her. The lesson here is that when our community is united and prepared to fight, and has a strong local representative in their corner, we can win. Raymond Park has never belonged to the Labor Party or to the IOC; it belongs to the people, to the community and to all of us.

Today we celebrate having saved Raymond Park, but the fight won't end until we also save East Brisbane State School. Parents at East Brisbane State School are being dragged along further while Labor refuses to confirm if the school will be impacted by the new planned upgrades for the Gabba. Queensland Labor must now end the heartache it put this community through and commit to saving the school. If they're not prepared to ensure that this community can have a school, then the federal government should use its powers as a 50 per cent funder of these Olympics to finally put this mad plan to bed. We won't stop until we get there, and I hope it won't take another three years of campaigning for Labor to understand that they can't take this community for granted ever again.