2024-10-04
By Elizabeth Watson-Brown
Member for Ryan
Hello wonderful Greens family. It’s been another huge year in parliament and in Ryan (where my heart really resides!). I could not be more proud of my remarkable Ryan team who are brilliant, who work so hard and work together so well, and who deliver for the community.
Probably my proudest achievement this year has been setting up our regular free community meals. In May we instigated two weekly meals we hold in local parks at The Gap and Kenmore. These have provided far more than just a free meal, they are also a space to build community and I am delighted to report that the project has surpassed my expectations.
Attendance at each event in The Gap and Kenmore ranges from a few dozen to up to a hundred people. I’ve just recently also partnered with Greens MP for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, to introduce a third weekly meal in Auchenflower.
In addition to these regular meals, I have been hosting pop-up BBQs in popular community spaces such as dog parks and public transport hubs. These are a great way to connect with constituents for meaningful conversations over a shared meal.
Meeting with members of my electorate, sharing conversations and laughter, fuels my passion to be their strongest advocate. I am deeply committed to ensuring their voices are heard loud and clear in Canberra. The consistently positive feedback from the electorate reinforces this commitment; they tell us that these meals are not only important but they see that they are the enactment of core Greens’ values.
In addition to the meals, we’ve also been continuing to stock our free community pantry outside the office - available 24/7 for those in need. We’ve seen a big uptick in use this year thanks to the ever increasing cost of living crisis. The pantry has also been kept topped up by donations from generous Ryan residents, and we also ran a donations drive with local schools which was a great way to get local kids and parents involved in the community.
My team and I have also been continuing our work on local issues in the Ryan electorate.
Ryan is a large electorate with a wide variety of living and natural environments from dense inner city residential and commercial zones, to inner and outer suburban areas, semi-rural properties and large areas of protected bushland. Despite this diversity, one thing that is a pretty universal experience is poor internet and phone services. Last year, we advocated to the Minister with the community and secured expedited Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) rollouts for suburbs like Kenmore Hills. This year I also conducted an electorate-wide internet and phone survey to get more detailed information, especially from residents on older connections like Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC).
One other big issue across Ryan is transport - traffic is congested because most people don’t feel they have options other than driving. As a knock on effect, buses don’t have dedicated lanes so get stuck in the same traffic as cars.
I’ve been petitioning both Brisbane City Council and the Qld state government for some simple, common sense improvements that would make a massive difference to public transport on the west side. These include improvements to the 390 along Samford Rd in the north, improvements to the 380, 381 and 385 in The Gap and the 443 and 444 along Moggill Rd.
In terms of Parliamentary and portfolio work, we had a big win late last year securing more transparency for a revamped Infrastructure Australia. The successful amendments will force the review of the government’s own infrastructure commitments with Commonwealth contributions of more than $250M. This came after Labor’s 90 day Infrastructure Investment Pipeline review, completed last year, deliberately excluded Labor election commitments including Brisbane Olympics infrastructure and the Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop from review.
While we’re in a cost of living crisis, people are rightly sceptical about big flashy infrastructure announcements when that money may be better spent elsewhere. So we think it’s only fair that the government’s own announcements are reviewed by Infrastructure Australia to make sure they stand up to scrutiny.
Under the Transport portfolio, I’ve also been working hard with Stephen, Max and the Brisbane community to win material improvements on aircraft noise. We had our first big breakthrough last year with a commitment from the Minister to implement Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations (SODPROPs) as the preferred operating mode at Brisbane Airport. I’ll spare you the technical details, but in practice this means that the best runway operation mode for reducing noise over Brisbane residents will be used more often.
We also secured a Senate inquiry into aircraft noise in February which is still currently holding hearings and due to report back at the end of October. We’ve already had lots of information come out of the inquiry, including exposing Brisbane Airport’s misleading attacks on a potential curfew, and the revelation that the Qld state government is subsidising - with taxpayer money - around 50 flights each week between 10pm and 6am. In other words, the state government is subsidising some of the worst offending flights that disturb people’s sleep.
The SODPROPs commitment and Senate inquiry are significant wins, but they’re not silver bullets and we are continuing the fight for a curfew, cap on flights and Long Term Operation Plan at Brisbane Airport - which is what’s in place currently at Sydney Airport.
It’s exciting times for the Greens. We are cutting through, we are growing. With the upcoming elections we have huge opportunities to win seats to dislodge the old sclerotic parties and their downright dangerous agendas. To further make the transformative change we so urgently need takes all of us so I look forward to seeing you all on the campaign trail!
Love, hope and solidarity,
- Libby