For over twenty years, Brisbane Labor Cr. Steve Griffiths of Moorooka Ward has been a thorn in the side for LNP Lord Mayors and Councillors who have ruled Brisbane for the same amount of time.
On top of the day-to-day business as a local councillor, he’s been agitating for Council to use their budget on what matters right across the city.
We sat down with Cr. Griffiths at Toohey Forest Park to hear about the latest happenings around Brisbane’s Southside.
We begin with bushland. Ratepayers will notice a charge on their bills labelled “Bushland Acquisition Levy”. About $21 million is collected from ratepayers each year for this fund. However, Cr. Griffiths found during last year’s budget that a significant sum of this money was being allocated for building and renovating playgrounds, rather than buying bushland critical for Brisbane’s local ecosystems.
One of the last bushland buybacks was in Griffiths’ ward in October 2023.
“We fought for and won one of the last acquisitions Council did with the Bushland Acquisition Levy at Rachael Street on the beautiful Toohey Forest.”
“Since then, the Lord Mayor hasn’t been using that money to buy bushland. Residents pay $21 million per year to buy bushland but unfortunately, the Lord Mayor isn’t using it for that reason.”
Griffiths has been speaking with residents across Kenmore, Bridgeman Downs, and Everton Park, where large-scale developments are progressing on top of land zoned for koala habitat. Calls from Griffiths, residents and MPs from other levels of government have fallen on deaf ears.
“One of those sites has 300 mature trees on it, which should be preserved. They’re a part of important corridors but the Lord Mayor is not saving that land.”
Cr. Griffiths is petitioning Council to restart bushland acquisition once again.
Earlier this month, Griffiths asked the Lord Mayor why Council quoted $10,000 for the installation of two possum boxes in trees near the Annerley Library. Possums were seeking refuge in the library roof, and so locals suggested installing two possum boxes cable-tied to adjoining trees.
The wooden boxes cost $25 each and made by the Sunnybank Men’s Shed. Griffiths clipped his question and shared it, with the Lord Mayor’s answer, to his Instagram page. The clip has been viewed 185,000 times and picked up by local media.
This prompted a stunning mea culpa from an LNP administration councillor, who said they took a bipartisan position with Griffiths on this issue and will be revising the processes on how simple projects are quoted through councillor’s discretionary funds. However, that raises a broader question about how much money has gone to waste over the past twenty years of LNP rule in Brisbane.
Griffiths is not short of examples. He’s currently working on two footpath accessibility projects, one of which had a design cost of ~$35,000 and ~$350,000 for construction. He’s had to wait 2 years for Council just to deliver these quotes.
Griffiths will also be waiting two years for electric barbecues at Toohey Forest Park to be repaired after copper theft. However, he is pushing for a faster turnaround. In one of the most popular picnic spots on the Southside, Griffiths says its “crazy” and “obscene” that Council can’t repair this sooner, especially after aluminium rewiring projects have been prioritised in marginal, LNP-held wards such as Marchant and Enoggera.
The wait has forced a gas barbecue to be sourced for an upcoming event celebrating the opening of a koala underpass under Toohey Road.
“The Lord Mayor is on his eighth trip overseas, and yet we can’t fix our barbecues.”
