In an apparent attempt to wedge the Labor Deputy Premier and local member for South Brisbane, the Hon Jackie Trad, yesterday’s Sunday Mail features a banner headline ”Brisbane $800m West Village to be approved” a full four days before the decision is due to be announced.
Based largely on speculation and specious association, the article links its precarious forecast to a trio of supposed pro-development decisions also including the Queens Wharf Casino and the Townsville Stadium, to which it is entirely unrelated.
The audacious item predicts what the article seeks to promote as accomplished facts, including speculative forecasts of increases in building heights to compensate for proper open space provision. It is no coincidence that this is what the developer originally applied for, more than a year ago.
It is the Sunday Mail, not the Minister, who is in the developer’s corner. A lucrative press should not be able to subvert due process and democratic decision-making.
Phil Heywood
Phil Heywood is an urban planning expert and the Planning Spokesperson for the Kurilpa Futures Group. Kurilpa Futures Group has lobbied tirelessly for better planning outcomes in West End and the Kuripla peninsula.
