Suncorp Stadium - anything goes
Monday, 10 October 2011 15:30
All of us residents of the western suburbs are only too familiar with the traffic chaos and heavy parking restrictions that accompany a big match at Suncorp. Local residents have to live with noise and anti-social behaviour as well.
Over the years, the Bligh government has given commitments to limit the impact by controlling the number of events.
This was yet another promise that clearly they never intended to honour.
Parliament now has three times lifted the permissible limit for concerts, sports fixtures and noise levels.
We all love Suncorp Stadium and the events such as State of Origin, the rugby and the soccer.
Clearly the local member Andrew Fraser knew that the parliament was not going to vote to keep the stadium empty when the Broncos are due to play a finals match.
The issue here is that the government used guarantees to local residents of Brisbane’s west in order to secure approval for this site when they knew full well they had no intention of honouring those commitments.
This is a pattern that has become all too common and is clearly part of the reason why Australians are so sceptical about their leaders. Andrew Fraser told his constituents and residents of Brisbane’s west in 2006:
As the original development approval predated my term, let me state for the record today that I support the limit attached to events at the stadium and, for a range of reasons, do not support that limit being changed. Lest there be confusion on this point, there is no suggestion whatsoever that this limit be revised; I am simply taking the opportunity of this debate to state my own position for the benefit of my community.
Yesterday he voted the complete opposite. If you can’t plan for and run a stadium, you have little hope of planning for and running a state. To read my speech to parliament on this issue, click here.